Tracy Dubois, Support Staff, with Terry and Colleen Hawk, Regional Directors
The Call, January-March 2017
The Call, January-March 2017
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6 RSV)
When you plant pumpkin seeds in your garden, you expect to harvest pumpkins. If you plant sweet corn seeds, you expect to eat sweet corn soon. However, when it comes to sowing the seeds of God’s love in the hearts of children, the harvest is not always immediate or what you expect.
According to www.churchleadership.org, the average age of when people become Christians has steadily dropped over the years. Roughly 80 to 85 percent of people who become Christians do so by:
- the age of 18 (1978)
- the age of 16 (1988)
- the age of 15 (1998)
- the age of 14 (2008)
Didier is living proof of this promise and these statistics. He was born in Honduras and lived with his grandparents. The family was very poor, forcing Didier to dig through garbage to find food. His grandma died when he was 8, and Didier started getting into trouble. Three years later, Didier was sent to Escuela El Sembrador by his grandfather, who was unable to care for him. Didier studied at El Sembrador from 1993 to 1997, when he completed sixth grade.
Didier accepted Christ during a church service at El Sembrador when he was 13. Jorge Pacheco, a former El Sembrador student who was serving as a counselor at the school, helped lead Didier to the Lord. Terry and Colleen Hawk directed the school at the time.
Didier later walked away from his faith and moved to the U.S. But, by God’s grand design, Didier returned to the truths he learned at El Sembrador. He and his wife, Lourdes, began attending church and decided to renew their commitments to God and raise their two young sons in His light.
In May 2016, at age 35, Didier was baptized by Jorge—the same man who helped lead him to the Lord in 1997—in a Hispanic church in New Orleans. The Hawks were present for this grand celebration.
“It was a special God moment when Jorge baptized Didier,” Terry and Colleen recalled. “May this be a call for people to invest in the lives of young children, because you never know what the seed you plant will bring to harvest. It is truly worth it!”
Jorge added: “Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58b NIV).”
“I feel very blessed walking with the Lord,” shared Didier. “I have established a Christian home and have my own construction company. Lourdes teaches a Sunday School class, and I am waiting for the Lord to show me what He wants me to do in the church.”
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