It was September 1992 when I started helping in the 4-year-olds' Sunday school class in my home church. I was 11 years old. My mom was the teacher, and her long-time helper had just moved away. She needed a replacement. Until May 2002 (with the exception of the six months I spent in Romania), I helped or taught preschool and kindergarten children every Sunday and frequently helped with first and second grade on Wednesday nights.

Before starting college, I never received any formal training for working with children. Instead, I learned from working alongside experienced teachers. I could also draw on my experience of growing up in the church and rely on the ideas and helpful hints in the Sunday school curriculum materials.


Children's Sunday school in the Sighișoara church in Romania.

Imagine, on the other hand, what it is like for a children’s worker who doesn’t have access to curriculum materials. She has to create a new lesson from scratch every week. This children’s worker became a Christian as an adult and has no experience of what it is like to be a child in the church. The only learning experiences this person has is in the strict school system, where teachers care more about covering content and testing than on building relationships with students. This children’s worker has no one to serve as a teaching mentor because almost everyone else in the church is a new Christian as well. And, of course, this children’s worker has received no formal (and next to no informal) training to work with children.

Many of our children’s workers in the Church of the Nazarene in Romania are in this situation. It is abundantly clear to me that God has used my 10+ years of experience working with children to prepare me for training children’s workers in Romania. Little by little, step by step, over the next several months (and years) I will be working to help these dedicated people learn more about the Bible, learn more about children, and learn how to best help each child grow in his or her relationship with God.


Romanian Studies Program students with children in Zagăr.

During May, I taught a series of introductory training workshops for children’s workers. We will restart these workshops in the fall, hopefully on a monthly basis.

Each of our children’s ministries in Romania is vastly different from the others.

  • The Bucharest church has a small children’s ministry, spanning many ages. All of the children’s parents attend the church.
  • The Sighișoara church has a large children’s ministry, grouped into three age-divided classes. Most of these children’s parents do not attend the church.
  • Veritas has several age-divided weekday programs for children and teenagers. Some attend churches in Sighișoara, while others do not.
  • In Țigmandru, there is a large children’s ministry divided into two groups. Some of the children’s parents attend church.
  • There is no Church of the Nazarene in Zagăr, but a children’s program began in the fall with students in the Romanian Studies Program leading it.
  • In Viscri (also where there is no Church of the Nazarene), a Nazarene family is leading a children’s ministry in their home.
  • In Mugeni, a village where most of the people speak Hungarian, a Nazarene family is using WordAction Sunday school materials which have been translated into Hungarian.


Please partner with us in Romania by praying for these children’s ministries, for the children’s workers, for me and others who provide necessary teacher training, and most importantly, for the children as they grow in knowledge of the saving way of life God offers each of them.

-- Jonathan Phillips is a Mission Corps missionary serving in Romania, training and equipping lay leaders in the Romania District on the Eurasia Region. This story is reprinted from his ministry blog with permission.