WE ARE more than halfway through the Testimony Countdown program in the Macksville and Kempsey churches in New South Wales, Australia, and the blessings are growing each week. A large percentage of our members have attended regularly and have brought their ideas to the discussion periods provided each evening of the program.
New convictions have taken shape in the hearts of our members as a result of the study that has been going on in the homes, and many have been reading more than is required for each week's quiz sheet in order to quench the new thirst that has been awakened. Of course, there are some instructions in the Testimonies that run against the grain of our desires, but we experience real joy when we change our daily living habits to follow the counsels of the Spirit of Prophecy.
Children's Special
Let me share with you a special program we have prepared for the children of the church in connection with the senior Countdown program. Quite some time before Countdown was launched, our minister, Pastor Ian Johnston, saw this as a golden opportunity to give the children material to build up their confidence in the writings of Ellen G. White. A special prayer meeting was already being held for the children each week while the adults had theirs, so we planned to carry this through. Pastor Johnston, my husband, and I started on the project and have had an enjoyable time working together as a team. A great deal of planning went into the children's meetings SO that plenty of variety could be provided. And we have not been disappointed, for the majority of the children from the church come. First there is a ten-minute song service with lively choruses and ending with our theme song, "I Love My Lord." Then after prayer, a thirty-minute period is used for the sermonette which is related to prophecy, tests of prophets, place of prophets, actual predictions, et cetera, all well seasoned by illustrations. One feature of this part of the program is that the children who can read bring their Bibles and are helped in looking up the texts.
Stories of Ellen White
After a song we use a story from the "Silhouette Stories of Ellen G. White and the Message" which are wonderful flannel-graph stories in sets procurable from the Book and Bible House. The children love these living experiences from the life of the Lords servant. Prayer bands follow, and after the children file back to their seats it is time for the Activity Sheets. These are geared to two levels. A quiz of some kind is duplicated on the topic of the night for the older children and juniors; the younger group color a picture depicting one part of the night's flannel-graph story. In this way the children have the lesson doubly impressed on their minds and it is fun! Finally it is time to collect the pencils from unwilling hands, sing the theme song again, and bow our heads for the benediction.
The children keenly anticipate their meetings. Each week they ask, "Is there going to be another story about Mrs. White tonight?" "Oh, goodie!" "I can hardly wait till next week!" "Only four programs left? I wish they would go on and on."
wish they would go on and on." A few weeks ago an adult visitor from another district stepped in on our children's program just to see what it was all about, and at the conclusion said that she had been captivated by the program.
Can the work of Ellen G. White fascinate children, challenge them and give them a special purpose m life? We have no doubt about it. Why not try a similar program in your church?
