Very good. Well, our brother has done a tremendous work over the years among children. And in recent months, right from March time, you might well have tuned in on YouTube, where he has a colossal following. And a lot of children are tuned in day by day. And I know his wife is hard at work supporting the ministry and getting our brother on the road every day from his own living room right into many another living room and even schools as well. So I'll let him outline for you what he's doing. put before your pointers for prayer as well. And then later on in the meeting, we'll get down to prayer for him and for the other children's workers that are going manfully onward and soldiering forward at this time. Thank you, brother. Evening, everyone. I normally say, good morning, boys and girls. But I haven't said that for almost a year. It's nice to see human beings again. We normally just look at a screen. We haven't seen people really in a long time. But I want to just introduce, my name is Colin Tinsley, and just what our plans this time last year on how it's all changed for the good. We have a ministry called Hope for Youth Ministries because there is hope for youth. If you reach the children with the gospel, then there's hope for the rising generation. If you have your Bibles, I want to read Psalm 78, just a few verses. There are many verses in Scripture. And while you're turning up, I want to thank Dr. Brown and Session for the kind invitation to come and share a little of the work of which we're doing. It's very busy, and we cover the prayers of God's people more than you'll realize. because if you're active in God's work in the front line, then you're going to get shot more times than enough. So we thank you for that. I grew up in Lisburn Church, and your minister was always in the background. He was, of course, a lot older than I am, still is. I remember going to Lady Dixon's Park, and one time in particular, there was these other children, and they were chasing us, and we thought they were going to beat us up. And your minister said, where are they? And he followed them with a stick, and I'm not going to tell the rest of the story, but we're here tonight. And those other children never come back, so he used his height for his advantage. Psalm 78, we'll break in at verse 3, verse 4 rather, while we will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength, and His wonderful works that He hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born. who should arise and declare them to their children, that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments, and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not steadfast with God, The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turn back in the day of battle. We pray the Lord will bless the reading of His Word. We don't want to be like verse 9. Today we're armed with our weapons, with the Word of God. We're in the battle. It's a real battle, and we don't want to turn back. We want to advance the work of God. And the best way we can do that is in the place of prayer, to pray as the work goes forward. I just want to show you some slides, some pictures. This is my wife Joanna. Joanna's a Pole. As many of you might know, might have read her book, The Tangled Lamb. I often say to children, she's a pole, but she's not a telegraph pole, she's a purebred pole from Poland. I went to her at the age of 21. The last thing on my mind was a wife. I thought at home you just click your fingers, you get married, and it just happens naturally. But it doesn't, and this girl came upon my life, and I thought, this girl's a Roman Catholic. And I never witnessed her the three days that we met. And I go back home, and I wrote her a letter telling her how much the Lord Jesus means to me. I got saved at the age of 17, 25th of June. This was the 10th of September, four years later. I wrote her a letter, and I thought I'd never hear back from her. She wrote back about two months later and saying, Dear Colin, it's nice to know that Jesus means so much to you. All my life, I've been searching for God. And five months before we met, I became a Christian at university. And every day since that day, I've been praying that God will send into my life a man. And I shouted, praise the Lord, I'm your man. And that's it in a nutshell. You often wonder why, but whenever you look back, sometimes you look forward, you can't see it, but whenever you look back, you can easily trace the hand of God like Jacob, I being in the way, the Lord led me like Abraham's servant. This is a map of the world. It's quite a small place, but together with Joanna, we've taken teams on almost 100 mission trips, 60 of them being to Poland, going back with team after team after team, doing evangelism with seven churches, pastors, evangelists we worked with. They get the children, all Roman Catholic children, and they just say, bring your Bibles and come and preach to the children. And we're able to do that year after year. Poland is a very important part of our ministry. It's a small part, but a very important part, and we've been many, many times. People say, do you go to Poland all the time to see your mother? No. I said, no, I tell you, don't. And we go to reach the children. Poland's a big country. It's almost 40 million people. It's a huge, huge piece of space. D.L. Moody, a famous evangelist, said, if I could relive my life, I would devote my entire ministry to reaching children for God. And growing up, it was the last thing in my mind. I wanted to be a farmer, and then whenever I felt the call of God, I went to a senior minister and said to him, I want to be a minister. And he says, if I said I wanted to go to Bible college to be a minister, what would you say? He said, I wouldn't let you. I goes, why is that? And he goes, because you don't have it in you. And I go, don't have one on me. I couldn't really understand it, but the Lord knows these things. And looking back, I remember I used to be in the Young Farmers. I wanted to be a public speaker, and I went to the first class, and the girl said, don't come back again. I goes, why? She says, because you're not going to be a public speaker. And I thought all these were my plans, but the Lord says, it's not your way. It's my way, saith the Lord. This is me in school. I remember in school I wanted to go to P7, and the teacher said, I've got a twin brother. He'd done P5 three times, and I'd done P6 two times. I don't know what P7 looks like. I don't have any exams to my name. But the Lord says, you have nothing of yourself. Nobody's able to use you, but if you're willing, I will use you. And now, last May, the year before last, we were able, this is a public school. And we generally don't do assemblies. We do Bible clubs, which is a children's mission and a public school for a week-long Monday to Friday. The command of the gospel is to go into all the world and preach the gospel. So I went to my local school. We went to Whitfield for two years, and we were sent to Jamaica for a year, and we came back home, and they sent us to Australia. I thought they can't really send us any further away for three, two years. And we stayed the next year. We bought a camper van. And I remember in Australia, it was almost 20 years ago, I phoned 100 public schools all around Australia, and we went around them. And the Lord began to put in my heart the importance of reaching children for God. So this is back home. And over the years now, we've done 1,000 children's missions all over, mainly in Northern Ireland, reaching children with the gospel. Typical children, typical school, all over this. Then when school stopped in June, we'd go to the caravan parks. This was the plan for the last number of years. This year it never happened. This was the year before. All these blue hoodies are a team. They're just individuals. The only command we only request we have when people want to join a team is they must be converted, they must be saved, and be willing to serve. And this is us doing caravan parks in Newcastle, Cransfield, Port Stewart, Port Rouse, and these are young people from all over the country. We just literally put the little loudspeaker on top of the van, drive around the caravan park, and before I got back to the playground, it's all the children in the park at the playground. These are families, children, young people, teenagers. They're full of energy. They love the Lord. They want to serve the Lord. They're just craving opportunity to do something for the Lord. So we give them opportunity. Over the years, there's been at least twelve young people have gone on to Bible college or children's ministry, or they're preachers or ministers in churches today. And the secret we have on a team, whether it's Poland or serving here, we start the day with the Lord and we end the day with the Lord. Bible before breakfast and Bible before bed. And it's a good principle to have at home, is to start and continue the day with the Lord. A typical Bible club at nighttime, this is Balaamina, all the volunteers get the kids, bring the kids on buses. So if you're involved in children's ministry, We pray the Lord will really bless you and encourage you. And D.L. Moody, I have to agree, it's the greatest work anyone can be involved in. These are just little adults, little you, only many years before. And one day in years to come, these will be adults sitting in the church and saved and serving. But if they're not reached and they're not saved and not be serving, they'll be out in the world running with the devil. The greatest joy you ever have, don't say, he's not wearing a mask. This is over a year ago when the masks probably weren't invented. The greatest joy is when you finish and a child says, Colin, our volunteer, I want to be a Christian. Can you please show me how? And we've got great joy in opening up the Word of God and leading a child to the Lord. When I was a little boy, I used to go camping in Tullymore Forest. This is Tullymore Forest. And for 15 years, we've been running camps for children. We run four camps, a family camp, a youth camp, and two weeks of children's camp, reaching over 500 children. Most of them we don't know. We give out invitations in the public school. They take it home, and we get an application through in the post saying, my little Johnny wants to go to your camp. And every year, with the joy in the tents, or the field, or wherever, of little children putting their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. There's a typical inside the big tent, chairs, tables, food. Food's important. These are the children. It's just a children's camp. We have a meeting in the morning and night, and lots of activities for the boys and girls. If the weather's good, we'll go outside into the forest, and we sing. We bring the Word of God, most importantly, every day. Week one, week two, just lots of children, but 100 each time. We encourage the children to healthy eat, so the children get to eat the top half, and the adults eat the bottom half. And then when they're old enough, 18, they can indulge and enjoy all of these desserts. These are the tents. We now own 20 of these army tents. And the greatest joy is whenever the leaders are doing devotions in the tent, and they come back and they say, guess what? Three of them prayed, or five of them prayed, just to encourage devotion amongst the children. But when a child calls upon the name of the Lord and gets saved in a tent, it causes a wonderful sense of God's presence, to be at the camp in the open air, sitting around the campfire. And whenever you leave the tent, the camp, exhausted physically, but in your spirit you are rejoicing because many children have met with the Lord, young people have met with the Lord, and they've got fired up again to serve God. And we just love those camps in Tullymoor. Here's Poland. We've been to Poland. We should have been there for the 60th time. We're going to go now four times in January. That's the plan. We're always planning. But if it's put off, we'll just keep planning ahead. But this one here, I think it was 60 people on the team. The eldest was in their 80s. That was my mom and my dad. And then the rest were right down to teenagers. Every generation was represented on these teams. And it's just wonderful joy of fellowship. and a kindled spirit of just serving the Lord together. And these come from all six counties right across the country. Weddings. We love weddings, and I think we've been to about 15 weddings. These are young people we met on a team. We say, there's only one rule. Don't get involved in a relationship if you're not already in one. And I remember one time we were at Banbridge in the church at a team meeting, and I said, William, do you know Hannah? No. You ever seen him before? No. Hannah, do you know William? No. Have you ever seen him before? No. Keep it like that. Two years later they get married, and they're still married. That does happen. We don't plan that, and we certainly don't organize that, but it's a lovely thing when two people meet on a team and these things happen. Poland's a country with all the different four seasons, freezing cold weather, lovely warm weather. We swim in the lake in the summertime, and you can skate on the same water in the wintertime. Four seasons all happen. Your pastor has mentioned some of the literature we write. We've now published fifty books, mainly for children. devotional books. Most of them are coloring books, actually. But we do puzzle books, and then we give these out to the children as prizes. I wrote my own autobiography. I couldn't get anyone to write it, so I wrote it myself. And this is Joanna's, but we give these to children. It inspires children to serve, to give their hearts to the Lord, and to serve the Lord, how the Lord can use ordinary people to do extraordinary things for the Lord. This Stepping Stones book has been translated into Polish. Whenever a child gets saved, the first book we give them is a book to help children grow in their Christian faith. It's a book packed with Scripture, and of course we give them a Bible if they don't have one, but Stepping Stones is the most popular book we have to teach and instruct children. We bring creation in wherever we possibly can, and we write all sorts of books to give children literature. Home with them, we could give out a hundred this week. We're giving out about 500 books a week into public schools because we're reaching lots of children through this ministry. devotional book. These are all of the books, coloring books, big coloring books, small coloring books, and all sorts of literature we give to the children. We've printed literally thousands of books, and the Lord has honored that, and we're pleased to give them to the children. This is a daily, typical yearly schedule. You probably can't read that, but most of these are public schools. We've been doing four Bible clubs a week, nine o'clock, then eleven o'clock, then one o'clock, then two o'clock. And then at nighttime, April, May, June, we'll be doing nighttime ones as well, so maybe five a week. The Lord gives us strength, gives us energy. When I was young, He gave me a strong work ethic, and we apply that to our Christian life, and the Lord is able to help us to do all of these meetings. This was our plan. We've been to Brazil at the beginning of the year, and to Argentina, and then the plan was to go to Poland three, four, or five times, to Nepal and India. We've taken teams to all these countries, but of course they've all stopped because of what's going on. So we're always planning, and we'll plan for next year as well in the will of the Lord. These little beads, we made 10,000 of them. It's a wordless bead with the five colors of the gospel, and we give them to hundreds and thousands of boys and girls under the condition they tell three people what the colors mean. Black for sin, red for the blood of Christ, white for a cleanse, clean heart, green for growing, and of course the golden yellow for heaven. for where the Christian will go one day. This is Joanna. Behind the scenes, she's a bit camera shy, but there's no point in me standing there unless there's someone to operate the camera. And we make lots of videos. We're out and about all over the country. Where we live, our living room, it's turned into a studio. I'll show you a picture of it. This is it here. In January, I think it was March the 20th, we were in schools all that week. Lockdown was coming. So we quickly switched from lockdown on Friday until Sunday school on Sunday. And we started Sunday school, and then we started assemblies, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and a Friday night Bible club. And we had no idea, with no guarantee if any children listening or any schools were going to tap into it, because the schools were all off very quickly. But amazingly, they started to record. The first Sunday done, the first one, I tried to do it live. I had really no idea. I'm not very tack-minded. But this guy, he must have had realized I was struggling, and he messaged me and said, Colin, do you need help? I goes, what with? And he goes, you're trying to do things online. And I goes, I can help you. And he goes, how can you help me? He says, come and see me. So I went down to his house in Drumore, four miles away, and he said, do you need lights? I goes, what for? And he goes, you can't use natural light. You need special lights to bring out the color. And I said, are you going to come and help me? He goes, no, I've got COVID. He's shouting from a bedroom window, and that was way back in March. I goes, how do I know how to work these? He said, phone my friend Ken. I goes, who's Ken? And he lives four miles the other way. And this guy Ken's retired. I can't really say what he used to do, but he's retired. But he's brilliant. And I never have to go into YouTube or anything like that. The moment we make a video, I give it to this guy, Ken, who loves the Lord, and he prays over every video, and he puts it up on YouTube, and all they have to do is keep producing videos, keep preaching the Word of God, and my energy and frustration has not been sucked out of me because of technology that breaks down. So the Lord knows we don't have an army of people. We have a few people who make it work, and that's what happens to advance the cause of Christ, getting the gospel out. So, this is us telling Bible stories for children. We're not an adult ministry. We keep it simple for the children, because I'm simple. I can't make it complicated. But it's simple for children, because most children do not know so little about the Word of God. And people say to me, how can you just go somewhere and tell a Bible story? How can you bring the Word of God out of a stone or a technology? And do you know what it is? When I was a little boy, I was brought up in Sunday school, your minister's Sunday school, and I was trained as a child to memorize the Word of God. Then you did not appreciate it, but see now, it comes back to me. It comes back to me. All the verses you memorized in your Wednesday night meeting in Sunday school, it comes back to me. So if you're a teacher of children, don't look at the children and be despondent. You're saying they don't want to be there. They probably don't. But faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And don't give up on them. If anyone had looked at my family, they would have given up on them a long time ago. But they never give up. And a lot of them are in glory today. They kept persevering. A little wooden hut maybe was cold, but they kept teaching the Word of God again and again and again and again. And I honestly, sometimes we go out, we tell ten Bible stories, one after another, because it's in my head, and it's in my heart more importantly. I can't remember very much, but it's in my heart. And then it comes out. It comes out. It's maybe called a gift that God gives you, but it came right back all those years ago when I was taught as a little child that Scripture is the Word of God, just like the psalmist is talking about. You've got to learn the Scriptures. You can't teach the Word of God if you don't know the Word of God, and you can't love the Savior and stop loving Him without sharing Him with other people. Just to finish off, this is what we do. It's all online, Sunday school at 10.30, school assembly every morning at 9 o'clock, and a Friday night Bible club. And this week we're giving out prizes, we say to the children, or to the teacher. Children can't watch unless the teacher's with them. If you're watching, let us know what school you come from, and what the teacher's called, and your class. And this week we have 110 public schools in Northern Ireland watching the assemblies. And you have a school with an average of 100 children. Multiply that by 100, it's 10,000 children, souls. And almost on a daily basis a teacher will write to us and say, Colin, you've no idea. None of these children, none of them, school after school after school, none of them, They go to church. They're not influenced at home. You are the only one who influences them with the Bible. These are demons who are lost, and they're going to be lost unless they're reached with the gospel. And the Lord's opened up this means right into the classroom. They're singing the songs I sang. They're hearing the stories that I learned. And the one thing I keep repeating is God's Word never changes. The Lord says, I am the Lord. I change not. Everything's changing so fast. God's Word never changes. And it's the greatest honor and privilege, even if it means standing in my own living room with my wife and a phone. preaching the Word of God, and it's right into the hearts of hundreds and thousands of children who know not God. And I don't want to be like the children of Ephraim. Turn back. This is a battle, the front line of the battle, and we've got to take the Word of God into the hearts. And you might say, I can't go to school or I can't preach or do this, but please, if there's anything I ask you to do tonight, it's pray. Pray that God will keep this door open if He's closed the world down, so that His Word can advance. It's a great thing that's happening. So many children are getting to hear the Word of God. I say to the schools, I'm transparent, go into the website, it's updated daily. There's my email, the messenger, WhatsApp, text message, any questions, write to me. So you're public, you're not hiding yourself before the people, your whole life's public. Even with schools finished, we say to the boys and girls on Friday, guess what? Things might not get better, but it's going to get brighter because it's the 21st of December. The nights are going to get lighter. But next week's the week the kids are off school, but they're at home and they can't go and visit their grandparents or do nothing like that. So we're going to do a Bible club and pray that the children will come in and they'll sing. and they'll hear the Word of God again. Why did Jesus come into the world? The Bible says in simple, childlike language, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. What's His name? Jesus, thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. It's just a simple little design of the stable. And me, And it's a Bible club for the children every morning at nine o'clock. They might not be up, but the good thing about YouTube, once it's up, it stays up. And this week, I've almost cried. Teachers are saying, Colin, this finishes on Friday, but please come back in the new year. Come back. Don't leave the children. Come back. Is there not a cause? I was just talking to my wife today. We spent the whole day driving around the country delivering books to children in schools, and tomorrow we'll do the same. She says, why did you take a break? I says, why? God's given me energy, and I just love doing this. Even though I just look at my wife. Do you know what I've done for the assembly on Friday? I recorded it tonight. Had a snowball fight. I've always read snowballs. I don't want to bring them. Kirstie Ministers said, don't go throwing snowballs. But they're for the children, and it gets them listening and watching. Because then they listen to the Word, and I said, boys and girls, here's a wee snowball, and you throw it at them. Then you sing a song. Then you preach the Word of God. And you can't have supper, but you know what I had for the children? A wee snowball. I said, boys and girls, do you want a bite? And I took a big bite of it. It's one of those nice ones. We want to pray just a thing to finish with, prayer points, that the schools remain open for the gospel. The last thing we want is a letter from the head of the education said, don't watch this man. I've had it all my life. Shut him down. Shut him down. But pray this door will stay open. for the glory of God, for the advancement of Christ's kingdom amongst the children, and for health and strength to keep busy for the Lord. Someone once said, I've got, Colin, you've got two things. If you lose either one, you're finished. One's your tongue, and the other's your wife. Look after them both, because the wife looks after me, and with my tongue, I'm able to keep preaching God's Word, and that we may never lose the joy of serving the Lord. There's nothing I would rather do than just teach children the Word of God. I love it. We don't need money, we don't need anything, we just need the prayers of God's people, God's good, and for others to catch the vision of serving the Lord. I got a letter from a teenager, and this mother said about her teenage daughter, calling, you're inspiring my daughter. When she grows up, she wants to be a missionary to teach others about Jesus. There could be countless children, and you could easily sway them either way or inspire them to be a footballer or a boxer or a wrestler or a businessman. Why not inspire them to give their hearts to the Lord, to follow Christ, to serve Him? I couldn't think of anything better to do. If I was to live my life all over, I would not change nothing. I'm in my element, living the dream. It's wonderful to have such joy of reaching so many children with the gospel, and also for converted children to grow strong in their faith. This is tomorrow's church. Even we miss a generation for Christ. We've had it. The rising generation must be reached again and again, just like those faithful teachers taught me and taught their minister. Most of them are retired or they're in glory. This is your opportunity, your generation. If you can't reach, pray for those who do reach them, and go on the buses and bring them in. It's worth it. It's worth it just for one. But the Lord's given us a multitude of boys and girls in this country reached with the gospel. And just to finish off, one teacher texted me and said, Colin, there's a wee boy in my class, and every time we have assembly, he doesn't go to it. His mother and father do not let him go to assembly, anything religious. And she said, Colin, I was going to show a video of you about applying. And this wee boy, the same wee boy said, must have already seen it. Where did you see it? He said, I watched it last night on my tablet in the bed, but don't tell. The wee boy says, don't tell my dad. In his wee room, he's sitting watching the gospel, listening to the Word of God, his very parents not letting him do that. This is what we're against. But we've got to be like the wee donkey and keep plodding on. The Lord could have chosen a big horse, a big, white, black stallion, or an elephant or a tiger, but He chose a wee donkey, a wee donkey to carry the King. And I say to boys and girls, I'd rather be a donkey for God than a big, black horse for the world. The wee, insignificant animal was the one the Lord Jesus was pleased to travel on. Never think God can use you or hear you Never give up on God, because He never gives up on you. My time's up. Battery's flat. But thank you very much for your time. God bless you. Thank you. I'd like to thank our brother for that extremely good presentation, and very passionate as well. And you saw the passion very clearly there. And do pray for our brother, the work that he's doing. And pray, of course, for our own workers, because there's a lot of material going on at the moment. I was thinking when he mentioned about the technical wizards that were coming to his rescue and assistance, that there's a few guys around here tonight and in the back room as well, and they're taxed to the limit, given the fact we are upping the ante here and trying to get a lot of material out. We're trying to get the message into nursing homes, and there's quite a few of those lined up for deliveries for tomorrow and or Friday. And then other children and their parents, they're being contacted too, and there's probably anything up to around about a hundred homes, including nursing homes, that will be met with over the next couple of days. So pray for all the background work that's being done. DVDs just don't grow on the ground. They have to be physically copied. And even as we are here tonight, some of those will be churned out so that they can be distributed. So, there's a work for Jesus that none but you can do. And the emphasis has tonight been on prayer. And there's all of us who are given a mouth and wisdom and intelligence from God that we can pray up and pray down the blessing as we pray up His Word back to Him and His wonderful promises. So, do pray for our brother and that work that he's doing. And it's very interesting that he's going out in the morning, the week that we're going out at night. So, he'll be out at 9 o'clock in the morning. We'll be coming in at 7 o'clock at night. And we trust that together that will be a quite wonderful week. And the Lord will come down in great blessing. He will have His own way in many hearts, young and old, and He'll claim many trophies of grace, and many of these children and young people and others at the other end of the spectrum who have still been persisting in their rebellion against God, that they will find their hearts softened, the Spirit of God working powerfully upon them. And may the Lord, we'll pray to this end, may the Lord have His way and great sway in many souls. I'm going to ask Joel, our Sunday School Superintendent here, to lead us off. So, Joel, if you can lead us off tonight, that'll be very much appreciated. And then Ian, we'll have Ian pray after Joel, please. Thank you.