Children catch Lottie Moon's vision

RAs from Inglewood Baptist Church in Grand Prairie begin a "lap-a-thon" to raise money to give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. Youngsters from Inglewood and from Eylau Hills Baptist Church in Texarkana were among those who gave sacrificially for the missions offering, inspiring adult members of their churches in the process.

TEXARKANA, Texas?Jars and jugs of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters earned or found by the children at Eylau Hills Baptist in Texarkana made for a surprising outcome of the church's Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. The children out-gave the adults and came within cents of reaching the church's entire goal all by themselves.

Bill Wilson, pastor of the 40-member congregation, said the children challenged themselves, which challenged the adults. Donna Fowler, the church's children's leader and a grandmother raising grandchildren, showed her students the Lottie Moon story on video. She was amazed at how they began giving their allowances, earning money by doing extra chores, and picking up every spare coin they'd spot on the ground to give through the Lottie Moon offering.

Wilson said, "We'd set a church goal of $250. It was amazing to us when the final tally came in. When our adults' offering totaled $244.69, I thought 'We'll make it.' Then they counted the children's separately, and they had $249. We were real proud of them."

Wilson's wife Mary said, "I think the adults were kind of shocked at what the kids had done. The enthusiasm of the children kind of fired up the older people. They were just so used to 'every Christmas, Lottie Moon.' It kind of got boring to them."

One member found the recipe for Lottie Moon cookies and made them for a church luncheon. Mary Wilson believes the video and the cookies helped make Lottie Moon more real for the children and helped them better understand who she was and what she did.

Matthew, a second-grader, was on his way to church with his container full of change the Sunday of the final offering, but never made it to church because they were involved in a collision. Bill Wilson recounted, "Everyone was fine, there were no injuries, just some bruises. But Matthew was so upset. He came in the next week and said he was so sorry he couldn't get his money in on time."

Mary Wilson added, "It was so cute when we announced the results and how proud we were of them. One little boy?a kindergartener named Logan?was busy when Pastor Bill started talking about the offering. Then he sat right up and listened. Bill said, 'We are so proud of you.' And Logan said out loud, 'Thank you, Brother Bill!'"

Similarly, children at Inglewood Baptist Church in Grand Prairie caught the Lottie Moon vision and helped their church in reaching the highest amount ever collected for a missions offering. Girls in Action spent a Sunday in December distributing moon pies to remind members to give to Lottie Moon.

Royal Ambassadors (RAs) enthusiastically met an unusual challenge, and collected over $700 for the Christmas offering. Kameron Barnard, Nathan Brown, Christian Foster, Sunny Gutierrez, and Aiden Pelkie, under the encouragement and supervision of their leaders Dawn Foster and Gordon Ensley, collected pledges for laps walked or jogged around a middle school running track.

Foster, who considers herself to be young in her own spiritual growth, was brand new to the RA program in the fall of 2009. Having served over 20 years in the Boy Scout program, she was no stranger to teaching boys about service, and jumped into the program wholeheartedly.

"I just started this year and have tried to come up with som