Tim Ackerman, pastor of the Imari Word of Life Christian Church, Imari, Saga, has been an independent missionary in Japan since 1989. Formerly in the U.S. Marine Corps, he has studied electrical engineering and is a graduate of Biola University (BS, Computer Science) and Montana Wilderness Bible College.

I started working with children about ten years ago when I first came to Japan. In the church I came to work with I noticed they had thousands of tracts of various kinds for children. The idea came to me to go to every elementary school in the city to pass these tracts out to the children. At the end of two years I completed this goal. I had handed out almost all of the tracts. Not only did I go to each school but I went several times with the different tracts. There are 17 elementary schools, 10 junior high schools and four high schools in the city, with about 5000 elementary school children and 5000 junior and senior high students.

After completing this task I started to wonder what to do next. While handing out the tracts I had developed some good relationships with some children. I realized that many were interested in getting to know me and I liked and cared about them. Some of the tracts had response cards. On these cards some children were expressing faith in Christ and a desire to learn more. I thought follow-up was the thing I needed to do, but how? There were so many schools and so many children. How could I do follow up? The idea came to me to start a club using the post to send some monthly Christian publication to all the children who wanted it. There are currently 700 children in this club. When I can I still go to schools, meet children in the parks, and even attend some school functions.

When I speak of children I'm referring to Elementary school age children.

The most important thing to remember when working with children is: If they know you and like you, you're in. The door is open to their hearts and minds.

The most influential people in children's lives are their parents. But that influence can be positive, negative or virtually non-existent. In Japan the mother has the strongest influence in the home because many fathers are not home. Or, when the father is home the kids are asleep, or he is either too tired or just doesn't want to play with his kids. There are also homes with no fathers for some reason, or homes where the father is abusive. Many children are starving for the attention of a loving father, a man who will listen to them, be kind to them and sometimes play with them.

In general, children's hearts are open to the influence of kindness, the word of God and the Holy Spirit. They are especially open to people who they have met before and are genuinely friendly: a smile, a greeting and a willingness to talk and play with them. Children are much more willing to talk with you, and receive literature from you if they have met you before, and they perceive you as being gentle and friendly. They tend to learn better from teachers they like. This is true in public school as well as Sunday School.

In churches there seems to be an emphasis on trying to get kids to come to Sunday School. This is fine. But it needs to be understood that many cannot. It might be too far from home (many schools have rules about how far children can wander from where they live on their own), or they're too busy or their parents are opposed. Being busy on Sunday morning is especially true for junior and senior high students. Another problem is relations between the children. Sometimes, different groups from the same school will be in conflict with each other. So if possible it would be good to have C.S. (Church School) on other days at other times and in other places. But there will still be those who cannot or do not want to attend such a structured meeting and yet they are interested in Jesus Christ and the Bible. So some other way of getting the truths of the word of God into their hearts and minds should be developed. One such way is to give or send them a monthly Christian publication. This is what I do in what I call my kid's club follow-up program. Currently, about 700 children are enrolled.

It is a rare case indeed for a person to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, Lord and God, having never heard the word of God before. To have a harvest in season some seed must have been sown beforehand. Statistics have shown that on average, it takes a Japanese adult who had never heard the gospel before about six years of Bible study to become a Christian, if they become a Christian at all. But it takes only about two years if they had learned the gospel as a child. And many of the people becoming Christians today had heard the gospel as a child. It's easy to sow seed in good soil, and in time receive a good harvest. It's really hard to sow seed in rock. The hearts of most children is good soil. By the time most people become adults their hearts are solid rock or packed hard or full of thorns unless the work of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit were applied when they were a children.

What are the things that influence a child's thinking, feelings and beliefs? The usual. Parental input or the lack of it; teachers; friends; enemies or bullies; music; TV; literature of various kinds; customs and religion. There is not much I can do about these other influences other than to try to understand how they are an influence. But what I can do is add my name and the church name to the list and perhaps use some of these forms of influence to direct a child toward God.

What do children want? They want to have fun. They want to do interesting things and hear interesting stories. They want to be liked and they want attention and to be cared for.

Many children in Japan tend to get the things they really want even if the parents are opposed. My ministry of influence capitalizes on this fact.

In children's ministry I am not so concerned with the formation of the child's worldview as I am with trying to be a part of the formation, although understanding that worldview and its formation may be valuable information when trying to reach adults.

One other point I would like to make is that it is important for the children to hear from the adults teaching them the Bible that the adult believes the Bible stories and teachings are true. That he believes in them and in God. Unless it is expressed, the children, and perhaps Japanese adults as well, tend to think the Bible stories are just stories and have nothing to do with them. I learned this from another missionary, Lonnie Dufty. In one English class of First through Fourth graders we read a few pages from a children's Bible each week. We have been doing this for months. After hearing about the need to express that the Bible is true and what I believe from Mr. Dufty I then expressed my belief to the class. Almost the entire class of 12 students expressed disbelief. I was surprised to learn that they were assuming the stories were not true and I was assuming they would believe them to be true. So I made a clear statement of my beliefs and why. Now when asked, the children respond that they believe the stories are true and they believe in God.