They are aged between 9 and 13. They regularly go on outreaches in their city. And God works through them with signs, miracles and wonders.
They are East London’s Powerclub kids – a group of about 15 children who gather together every Tuesday with God Adventure Church Children’s Pastor Esme Schmitt, to learn how to hear God’s voice, to find their identity in Christ and to move in signs, power and miracles. In June more children join them when they hold a 3-day Powerclub in the holidays.
“I simply love it when children experience their first miracle and when they catch the fire of God’s love and passion for people,” says Schmitt, who started the Powerclub three years ago.
“ The more the children are involved in Powerclub (doing various outreaches in their city), the more they start to love the people in their neighborhood and city.”
There are so many testimonies from the children’s outreaches, she says.
“Once we did treasure hunting [following up ministry clues provided by God] at the mall. God told one girl to look for a woman in black, who works at a shop close to Dis-Chem.God also told the girl that this woman has family problems and that she needs to pray for the lady regarding this. Well, off we went looking.We found this lady in a shoe shop, two shops from Diskem. When we approached the woman she immediately took us to a private room. The girl immediately asked her about possible family problems. The lady proceeded to tell us about the fight she had with her daughter that morning and how upset she was about it. The girl then prayed for the lady, asking God to heal her relationship with her daughter. The woman was really blessed by this!
“At another time a girl had a picture of a lady wearing yellow, shopping in Checkers and who has a knee problem. We walked straight to Checkers and there we saw a woman wearing a yellow top limping along the aisle. The girl approached her and asked if she could pray for the lady. The girl laid her hand on the lady’s leg and, according to the lady, the pain left her knee the moment the girl started to pray. The lady was so excited that she called a friend who had pain in her back. The kids then laid hands on this lady as well and the pain immediately left her body when they started to pray for her!
“Another good story is about praying for our roads. A while back the children and I walked the road our church is in and declared that the potholes in the area will be filled. Well, the next day the Department of Road Works came (without being called) and filled up a big hole in front of the house of one of our Powerhouse kids. The hole has been there for many years. Also, a mom heard about our prayers and she declared the same over the road in front of her child’s school. Similarly the holes in that street were also filled that next week. Lastly, a while back our whole street (in front of our church) was tarred afresh! We have a brand new street, without any potholes!”
Schmitt says she is passionate about training children of all ages to become revivalists, to passionately love their God, to live a naturally supernatural lifestyle and be eager to be used by God to transform all aspects of society.
“I am also a firm believer that children do not carry a junior Holy Spirit and are used by God in many powerful ways,” she says.
For the past three years she has been conducting “training children in the supernatural” conferences at various churches in South Africa. The aim of the conference is to teach children’s pastors, teachers, leaders and parents how to raise children in the supernatural. The conference provides practical ideas regarding how to facilitate God encounters with children, how to teach children to hear God’s voice, to prophesy and heal the sick, how to incorporate the supernatural into children’s church on Sunday mornings and how to do outreaches with children.
Sharing a story from her last conference, at Powerhouse in Durbanville, last weekend, she says: ”This conference was for adults, but one mom brought her son. Suddenly the Spirit of Prophesy fell over the boy and he boldly started to prophesy over every adult sitting with him in the room. His mom was quite upset and did not know what to do, since she had never seen her son do anything like this before. We had to assure her that her son was hearing from God as many adults told us that his words were absolutely accurate. This mom simply had to give her trust to God and look at her son through different lenses!”
Schmitt says that people from more than 20 children’s churches (from different denominations) attended the conference last weekend, some coming from afar.
“I sense a great hunger and need in children’s churches to incorporate the supernatural into children’s lives. Children’s church pastors and leaders, though, feel they need more training in how to do this – since most of them, themselves, are only now getting introduced to the supernatural. I have written a very practical manual that provides step by step information regarding how to train children in the supernatural. This manual can be ordered from me.”
She says the date and venue for her next conference has not been confirmed but she can be contacted at esme@godadventure.org and more information is available at www.godadventure.org.
In April, Schmitt is going to France to conduct her conference in churches in Paris, Nantes and Toulouse.
“Children’s churches there [France] are also hungry for the supernatural,” she says.
You are amazing, Esme ! Go Girl !
So proud of u Esme..
Es you are the best!