He walked into the foyer of the meeting place the same as he did every Sunday morning. He greeted a few of his brothers and sisters in Christ, introduced himself to a new face and welcomed them to Rome. That is when he saw someone, standing alone, taking in the map on the wall. “Curious,” he thought, “here is a young man, no a boy not more than 11 years old intrigued by our Mission Map.” Walking across the foyer, he stopped in front of the map and next to this boy and asked, “What does this map tell you?”

“Are these the places where you help people learn about Jesus?” the boy asked.

“Yes, we send support to all those places.” He answered and then asked the boy, “I don’t think I have met you before, who are you here with? Did you come with a friend from school?”

“No, my family is here. We are visiting my grandparents. We live in Florida,” was the boy’s answer.

About that time the boy’s mother walked up, “I think it is time for classes to begin.” Turning to the man, “I hope he was not talking too much.”

“No we were having a good conversation. That young man will either be a preacher or a politician when he grows up.”

“I would rather him be a preacher.” She said.

Forty years have passed. That young man is a preacher – not a politician. That conversation, that moment is the first time I ever thought about preaching. Someone I did not know; Someone whose name I still do not know; A kind man in a rural church in Proctorville, Ohio engaged a boy in a conversation and planted a thought. Thank you.

You and I may never know what a small conversation will do. You and I may never know how our lives will impact those around us. You and I may never know how much we can influence a child.

You may never know.

Take time to find the children. Take time to talk with them. Take time to encourage them to be all they can be for the Lord. Jesus said, “Let the children come to me and do not stop them, because the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14)

-Scott