Kay and Steve Morgan-Gurr, Children Worldwide General Directors

Kay and Steve Morgan-Gurr

Children Worldwide believes in excellence - but what does that mean, especially to some one who works with children? Who are the mega stars of children's work?

Let me introduce you to some:
 
Chris has been working tirelessly with kids in her local church. She has been making long bus journeys to church each week to meet with the precious kids in her care. For reasons too complicated to go into, she's recently been faced with the difficult decision to leave that church and the children she has built relationship with over the years. But the work she has put into those young lives week by week has not gone unnoticed in heaven
 
Then there is Ruth - a wife and mother of four lovely kids. She and her husband work full time in Christian work. They have been hit by many struggles over the last year. Ruth serves faithfully in the areas God has placed her, but one stands out. Ruth helps with an after school club in a very deprived area of the town she lives in. The children there are crying out for love and care, and week by week, along with another hero called Wendy they love and nurture those children.
 
There's also the lovely lady we know as TJ. A firebrand when It comes to working with children who have special needs. She fights ferociously for those children she feels are marginalised because of the extra care they need, and is often misunderstood in the fight. She does far more than I am able to write here - but you would not believe some of the stories I have heard about the children she has worked with.
 
Chris, Ruth, Wendy and TJ, and the thousands of others like them are the real mega stars in the world of children's work - you won't have heard of them, they work often with little recognition or support, and they won't be able to reel off the names of thousands of children they have led to the Lord. But - God can look at them and see what they have done 'for the very least'. In the world's eyes they are ordinary people - but in God's eyes…...wow! They are not members of Children Worldwide - but I think they should be, not for what they can do for us, but so they can be blessed and built up, encouraged in the work. An amazing welcome awaits them in heaven - but I'd like to say a huge thankyou before they get there!
 
Having said that - we also have many unsung heros in Children Worldwide - folk who faithfully serve week by week in the place God has put them. There's Paula, who does amazing work in and around Surrey, as well as working with 'Through the Roof' and Scripture union in the area of children and young people who have special needs. She has an amazing gift of encouragement - I'm blessed to know her! And then there's Sue, who with her team of gifted puppeteers goes into lots of schools in the Horsham area, and Phil - trying to find his place in the area of itinerant evangelism with kids, but having to take on a full time job to fund his calling. And then the lovely Sarah, without whom many of our camps wouldn't happen - struggling with funding but too busy in the work to have the time to take on a paid secular job. All faithful, all an encouragement - all unknown in the wider world, but famous in the Kingdom of God. Of course there are many more - but this letter cannot contain all the stories of our members and others we know.
 
There is the myth out there that only the famous Children's workers matter - when churches put on events, they have to have the 'famous name'. When offering to help a church some time ago I was met with the response “but you're not famous”! I wish I was one of those quick thinkers who can think up a fast response. If I was, I think I would have said “May be not to you - but in heaven they think I'm amazing!” The truth is - Children's work relies on those who week by week faithfully teach our children, whether on a Sunday, mid-week, in church or in schools. Yes - we have some well known names as part of Children Worldwide, and I have friends who are well known in the world of children's work, and I'm not putting them down - many of these guys are humble, talented, normal, God led folk - but our week by week children's volunteers across the country are just as heroic and deserve just as much praise.
 
If you are one of those un-sung heros of children's work - unnoticed and unthanked, could I just say - thankyou, keep it up, you are amazing!