As you know, if you’ve been reading, for quite some time, I’ve occasionally been running little installments called “Mama’s K.I.S.S.” I know that lots of readers could give many more and far more creative ideas than I can offer, but these installments are just a few tried and true and mostly old-fashioned ideas for putting service hearts in our kids. This is number 60 of a list of one hundred ways we train our kids to serve. K.I.S.S. is an acronym for “Kids In Service Suggestions”.
Now I know, that taking your teen on a mission trip in a third world country seems to be a bigger deal than just a practical suggestion to help your children develop their “servant potential.” But if you have teens who are living in affluent middle-class America, a third-world mission trip can be the game-changer that keeps them from trying to be in love with “things” and God at the same time. We cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24).
I remember well, coming home from a very poverty ridden part of a Carribbean country with my fifteen-year-old and that first time she fell down on her bed in our home and said “Why me? Why has God given me all of this and there are eight people living in a space the size of this room, where I was two days ago? How can this be? I never knew. I just never knew.” And her heart was given to mission work from that moment on.
The trip was a big investment of time and of the money of other Christians who supported her. But she walked side by side on dusty roads and uphill trails beside some amazing missionaries who made sure she was learning to do one-on-one Bible studies and learning to teach children while their parents were studying.
And God made sure she watched the first person she had personally taught on that field be immersed into Christ before we came home. Her name was Princess and she became one that day, She was one of those living at the top of a “rabbit trail” with those eight people in a tiny space. Princess’ grandmother was out in the yard grinding spices to sell for their meager existence. We will never forget.
I’m so thankful I got to do that trip with my teenager. And the investment was nothing when you consider the return.


And God made sure she watched the first person she had personally taught on that field be immersed into Christ before we came home. Her name was Princess and she became one that day, She was one of those living at the top of a “rabbit trail” with those eight people in a tiny space. Princess’ grandmother was out in the yard grinding spices to sell for their meager existence. We will never forget.



When Hannah went to that board meeting with her new GIFTS program to seek approval, she was a nervous 16-year-old. But her friend, Dr. Zorn, was there. He was the ultimate Barnabas for her. Caleb and Hannah had a little part in developing the Keepers and Providers programs and both attended Freed Hardeman University applying scholarship money awarded through the program. Lads just became very central to their spiritual development. The impact the program had on both Caleb and Hannah was and is yet, profound. Through the years their appreciation of Brother Zorn deepened as experience and maturity taught them the value of those early, nervous years in Lads to Leaders.
It’s clear that Lads cannot mold kids; it takes homes to do that. But it can facilitate that process in tangible ways.
But the envelope that Hannah got in the mail last week was just about the sweetest piece of mail of her life. Rhonda and Halo Fernadez, the caretakers of the Zorns during their final years, have been patiently settling the estate and paying the bills from brother Zorn’s checking account. (I might add that this account was not always bulging through the early lads years. I think brother Zorn ended up mortgaging his home on more than one occasion to make the convention happen.) At the end of the laborious, but sentimental bill-paying and settling, the remainder in the account was $213.65. This last check in the account of Dr. Zorn was made out to Hannah Giselbach, in the amount of $213.65. Not too many of us will have “last gifts” from any of our greatest heroes in this temporary world; especially from heroes who have already gone on into the permanent pavilion of bliss and rest. But I’m telling you this: There was no greater, more needed, more hugely encouraging gesture in this whole world than what that girl found in her mailbox that day. She’s so touched that she doesn’t know whether to frame it or cash it! (She’s hoping the bank might let her do both!) This was a complete surprise from friends (Rhonda and Halo Fernadez) with whom Hannah had no conversation about any trial, whatsoever. She did not even know that Rhonda knew she was struggling in any way. But she wept and then she wept some more. (And Rhonda later told her she could buy shoes with the money. Notice the pic!)

