Tommy's Story - A Cyber Testimony!

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We are excited about the students in our first TCE Level 1 course at CMI Online! God blessed us with eight students to be our historic first class. Included in this class is a missionary to the Ukraine and one to the Philippines. Our online instructors report that the students are doing well and progressing toward completion of the course on March 13 and eventually, their certificates.

As part of the online version of the TCE course, students are required to evaluate their teaching experience through a journal. In one of their assignments, students had to journal about their experience in sharing the Wordless Book. One student wrote the following testimony and gave us permission to share it with you. The child’s name has been changed for privacy purposes.

A nine year old boy sat in front of me. He was happy, restless, looking all around the room. His mother sat next to him, helping me with the Wordless Book chart, as I had asked her to track me so I wouldn't forget the Bible verses or links.

I presented the gold page and Tommy talked about treasures. He likes the color of the page and when I mention that in Heaven, where Jesus lives, the streets are paved with gold - well, he wants to go there. I circle back to how much God loved the world - and we are in the world, yes? He nods and I tell him how much God loves him and wants him to be in Heaven forever with Him. I tell him that Heaven is a beautiful, precious place - but one thing that can't be in Heaven is sin.

He mentions sin is something that hurts God. I agree and we talk through the dark page. He says that when you hide something that doesn't belong to you, it is wrong. His mother pipes up with stealing someone's toy and not telling them you were the one who took it. Tommy gets it. We discuss the "want to" sin nature that Tommy can understand. He is looking around the room but when I tell him that God wants you, Tommy, to go to Heaven - and that He has a wonderful plan so Tommy can enter Heaven and live with Him forever, he looks straight at me and says, "I want to go to Heaven."

I show him the red page and tell him that God sent His only, perfect Son to come down to earth; that He shed His blood and died on a cross (Bible verse); that after three days he rose from the dead and after awhile, He went back to Heaven. All because God loves us - you and me - so much. I ask him if he would like to become a child of God. (Bible verse that leads to the clean page) And he does.

At this moment, I am compelled to turn away for a second because I am overwhelmed that God would use this leaky vessel to witness to this little guy. I also need to ask him some questions and also share with him that it is a decision between Tommy and God. When he answers all the questions and says yes, he would like to be a child of God (he says, "and not a child of the devil!") we pray together and God escorts Tommy into the kingdom.

Now both his mother and I are in tears. I learn that Tommy has had a difficult life; no father; an angry spirit; in many different schools. And still, God calls Tommy His own. What a privilege to share in this moment.

What an amazing learning experience for this TCE student – to see how God can use even our “practice” presentations to bring a child to Himself! This was a life-changing moment for the student, for Tommy’s mom and, most especially, for Tommy! Do you suppose one day he will look back on his childhood and testify that he came to know Jesus as his Savior in a TCE class?

Never forget that, as an instructor, you are doing so much more than just teaching classes or satisfying your IOT requirements. When you teach a TCE course, you are adding to the great and ever-growing army of child evangelists who are reaching children and expanding God’s kingdom around the globe! Could you be doing anything more exciting?!

Please pray for our CMI Online courses. We have encountered extraordinary levels of spiritual opposition in nearly every step of this program’s development, but our God is great! Along with praying for the courses, remember to direct people to them if their circumstances will not allow them to attend your local course.

We have added a new feature to our sidebar called CMI Online News! We will keep this feature updated regularly so you will know what’s currently being offered and what’s coming up in our online training. Please be sure to check out this feature – and use it as a prayer guide.

Whether you are a local instructor, an LTI or an online instructor, we are all in this together! We are a family! Let’s support one another with our prayers and encouragement as we seek to train others to reach the children!