Pastor Sven Östring was gearing up to run an adult Secrets of Prophecy MasterClass after the online Australian Union Conference Hope Awakens evangelistic series. Instead, what he and his wife Marilyn discovered was that their two children really enjoyed listening to the Hope Awakens evangelistic series.
Sven and Marilyn were both surprised and delighted that their children, at their own initiative, jumped at the possibility to respond to evangelistic appeals made by Pastor John Bradshaw. This inspired Sven and Marilyn to contact his twin sister Genevieve in Auckland to see if her two sons would like to join a kids’ prophecy MasterClass. What began as a small family evangelistic initiative has snowballed into a much larger kids’ evangelistic series called God’s Detectives that has attracted children aged 6-12 from Auckland, Townsville, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Sydney, Nowra, Melbourne and Jakarta, Indonesia.
The God’s Detectives team are currently halfway through their detective work of finding prophetic clues throughout the Bible. The interactive online program unveils the big picture behind the scenes of how God has been working towards salvation for people down through history. It commences with the battle between Lucifer and Jesus in heaven and then heads towards the centre point of the Bible: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Finally, the God’s Detectives team will be exploring God’s prophecies about the future in Revelation, such as the three angels’ messages and Jesus’ second coming, and ultimately culminating in the creation of the new heavens and the new earth, where there will be no more pain or suffering or death.
The underlying mission of the God’s Detectives journey is to make disciples. This includes training up young evangelists. Xander and Austin Schmitz from Warners Bay (NSW) church were interested in the opportunity to be part of the evangelism team. Xander and Austin have been leading different parts of the evangelistic program, such as the Imagination Station, Digging Deeper into the Bible and Prophetic Encouragement. Younger God’s Detectives kids have been invited to make decisions to follow Jesus. Thirteen children have decided to follow Jesus and be baptised and there has also been strong interest in exploring Christian apologetics. Word about God’s Detectives has spread, and a second God’s Detectives team will be starting up soon in Sydney.
Sven and Marilyn look forward to making this kids’ evangelistic program available to young evangelists and disciple-makers who would like to lead their friends and schoolmates to Jesus.
