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Sunday school makes a difference in young lives.
Eight-year-old Debbie Haynes lived in a broken home where drug and alcohol abuse and the dysfunction that goes with it were the norm. To look at her, the term “at risk” would be an understatement, and she would have been well on her way to becoming yet another discouraging statistic—but something happened to change all of that.
A family in her community took it upon themselves to invite her to Sunday school. Her own family never would have gotten her there, but this family also faithfully arrived at her doorstep every Sunday morning to take her to church. When she moved to another city, her church contacted a church in her new area who arranged for another family to pick her up for Sunday school. It was there Debbie put her faith in Christ and that faith held through her difficult teenage years. Eventually she came to The Salvation Army through some high school friends’ invitation to youth group and Sunday school.
That young girl today is Captain Debbie Horwood, currently serving as Discipleship and Lay Leadership director at territorial headquarters.
“To me, Sunday school was the key that opened the spiritual doors to my life.” Horwood explains. “Without it I would have never found the love of Jesus or the spiritual life that eventually hooked me into the other ministries of the church. But really, it wasn’t just Sunday school—it was also faithful people who were willing to come pick up a little girl week after week and make sure she got there. That made all the difference.”
January begins our territorial Sunday school outreach campaign “Six in ‘06.” We are calling all Salvationists to focus in on six friends who don’t go to church and need the love of Jesus in their lives. Try these three simple things: (1) Pray for them, (2) Tell them you go to The Salvation Army and (3) Invite them to come with you to Sunday school. There just may be a “Debbie” out there who needs YOU!