Press Against Jesus and Don’t Give Up Are you one of the many DC4K leaders who gets caught offguard when a child with challenging behaviors suddenly bursts through the doors at your church? This article takes you right to the Bible and teaches you what to do when this happens to you. by Linda Ranson Jacobs www.dc4k.org/leaderzone iss Billie, a Safe Keeper in a DC4K group, had her evening all planned. Since her group had three sessions under their belt, everyone was beginning to calm down about running DC4K. They were starting to enjoy the program and the children. The other Safe Keepers had the room set up and ready to go. As the children who had been attending the past three weeks began to arrive, a new family came to register. With the new family, in walked a very angry and disruptive ten-year-old boy. After a moment of“Yikes! What am I going to do with this kid?” passed, Miss Billie went straight to the Lord and began to pray. Wise woman! After talking with this leader, I remembered a passage of scripture I had read recently. I believe the Holy Spirit pricked my heart to go back and read it again. As I went back to Mark 5:23–43 and began to read, I thought about all of our DC4K leaders. This is the passage where Jesus was in a crowd and the people pressed around him. You may remember a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years. When she heard about Jesus coming to her area, she thought, “If I just touch His clothes, I will be healed.” Now friends, that is real faith. This woman must have known who Jesus was. She knew there was power in being close to Jesus. She succeeded in pressing against Jesus, and she was healed. Jesus realized the power had gone out of Him, and he asked who touched his clothes. Just imagine the disciples when Jesus asked that question. Here all these people were “pressed around him,” as it says in the Bible, and Jesus is asking who touched His clothes? I can see the disciples rolling their eyes and looking at each other, as one of them said, “You see the people crowding against you … and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’” (v. 31). But Jesus wouldn’t be deterred. He kept looking around to see who it was. Finally the woman, “trembling in fear,” came forward. She confessed she had been healed. Here’s the point I want to make: PRESS UP AGAINST JESUS! When these angry, disruptive kids show up in your groups, press up against Jesus. That’s where the power is. Have faith He will hear your prayers and feel you pressing against Him. Jesus will provide. It may be through the videos, the workbook, the discussion time, through the other children and even by speaking directly to the child’s heart. You don’t have to carry the burden of doing it yourself. You are there to facilitate the healing through Jesus, not provide the healing yourself. Allow the power to go out of Jesus directly into the kids. PRESS UP AGAINST JESUS! Then have faith like the woman who had been bleeding for 12 l-o-n-g years. I’m sure it must have seemed impossible to the other people in her life that she could be healed, just as it may seem impossible to M
