Dedication

This site is dedicated to my grandmother (“Nannie”), Louise W. Sias.

Nannie was saved on March 17, 1938.

She grew in the Lord, was filled with the Holy Spirit and became more involved in the church. She remembers sitting on the platform of the church one night in the 1940s when the Holy Spirit spoke to her and asked, “What are you doing for the children?”

“Nothing,” she answered.

“Get up and do something,” he replied.

So for over 50 years she got up and did something. She taught Sunday School, trained leaders and pioneered a children’s ministry in her church. Believe me, she pioneered it. There were no resources, no books, manuals, training seminars or anything to draw from in the 1940s. My mother recalls vacations as a child when they would stop in big cities to buy the few resources they could find. There may have been a story here and there, or a teaching manual somewhere else. Over the years, Nannie continued to build the ministry until it grew to a thriving outreach to children all over town. Many people came to her for training and help while they were developing their own works.

Excellence was always the standard. “Anything worth doing is worth doing right,” I heard again and again.

Nannie had an amazing ability to stay current. I remember one conversation we were having in the mid-90s, at which time she was about 80 years old. She said, “You know, those kids love that rap music. We have to find more of that for children’s church. And they get so excited when we turn on the disco ball and flashing colored lights.” Although she started long before the era of flannel graph stories, she never got stuck in any era or method of ministry.

There was no such thing as burn out to Nannie. She said if you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you won’t burn out. And she never did. Although she was forced into “retirement” from full-time children’s ministries at the age of 86, she never stopped working for the Lord.

“Get up and do something.” You have heard the same call from the Holy Spirit. I challenge you, whatever corner of the world you may be in, to continue to “do something” for the children. The ministries are as varied as those He calls to lead them, but the challenge is the same.