In God's timing, ministry finds God's favor

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 - 4:00 PM CST

Two years ago, AG Children's Ministries Agency Leadership Development Coordinator Brandon Diehl visited Costa Rica. He soon found God opening doors with a police official for presenting the CMA program, Character Connex, to local schools. Character Connex was given access to public schools in Quepos, Costa Rica, as well as surrounding communities. The door was opened wide for continued and expanded ministry in Costa Rica.

Or so it seemed.

Character Connex, a program developed by the AG Children's Ministries Agency, promotes strong moral and character traits in a presentation geared for grade school children. In addition to presenting and demonstrating these important biblical traits, the kids in attendance are also invited back for an evening event, typically held at a local church or gymnasium. There, along with entertainment, kids get to hear about Christ.

However, when the Costa Rican police open the door to a ministry, it would seem the wise thing to do would be to run - not walk - through that door.

"Sometimes I think it's easy to run, when we should actually be crawling," Diehl says. "Since that first meeting, I have tried multiple times to take teams [into Costa Rica], but every time I tried, a door closed."

Character Connex being presented to grade school children in Costa Rica.

But then "God's timing" arrived. Diehl explains that once this last trip was established [October 4-12, 2008], obstacles kept coming up, one after the other. Only this time, it wasn't God closing a door, but God revealing His power. "This trip was ordered by God," Diehl states. "No matter what challenge arose, God gave us the ability to overcome it."

And the results of the trip were far beyond any expectations. Diehl took a group of 12 children's pastors and leaders with him to Costa Rica. Along with training nearly four dozen people to be Character Connex presenters in Costa Rica (as well as through Latin America Child Care), the team once again visited the schools in Quepos - presenting 11 assemblies in all, with nightly evangelistic kids services. They were also able to showcase Highpoint materials in Spanish during their trip.

"But the most receptive people were the police," Diehl says. "One of the police officials from the capital [San Jose] spent the day with us. He was so impressed that, as a result, the doors are wide open [to Character Connex] to many of the schools - if not all - in the country of Costa Rica!"

Evidently, it's just all in the timing - God's timing.

For more information about Character Connex, see its Web site.