Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them. Jesus said “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.”
Matthew 19:13-14
Q. You have a ministry of working with children one Sunday a month. How did you get involved in that?
A. Well I don’t think you can say what I do is really a ministry. At least that’s not how I see it. For me it is just a really fun thing to do and I wouldn’t call it work either. But to answer your question it started when Deb Daquila who was working in the toddler room suggested that I give it a try.
Q. Why do you think she did that?
A. I don’t know but probably because one of my jobs as an usher is to count everybody in attendance at the service and that includes the children and adults that take care of them in their classrooms. I would usually have something to say to the kids like “How is everybody? Are you having fun?” etc. before I left with my count.
Q. What did Deb do?
A. She suggested that I might be good with the kids and I should volunteer in the toddler room. For some reason I said yes. That was several years ago. Now I am with the pre-k kids.
Q. What background do you have that might have led you to want to be in children’s ministry?
A. I’ve always liked little kids. I like being with them and seeing how they operate, how their minds work, stuff like that. Dawn and I were never blessed to have children. Maybe being with little children one Sunday a month helps make up for this. Maybe being a school teacher was a way of compensating for this. But those were high school kids, a totally different animal. (Dawn taught high school math for 35 years. I came to teaching as a second career and taught high school social studies for 22 years.)
Q. What else would you like to say about your ministry?
A. As I said before I don’t really consider being with little kids a ministry. That implies work, and to me it is not work. It is really a fulfilling time for me, so much so I often prefer to be in the pre-k room than in the adult service. I really truly have fun with the kids. I draw and color right along with them. There are pictures I colored with them on my refrigerator. Also, Marissa their teacher (remember I am just a helper), does a great job with the kids. For me it is a great blessing to be recognized as Mr. Alan and to see these little ones grow and develop. Often I must say I am somewhat envious of the parents of the children in our church. I am blessed, truly blessed, to be able to help the parents have a few moments to enjoy their church experience. Wait, maybe that’s the whole point of ministry: that it is NOT work, that it can be fun and it is certainly a blessing. The blessing is in the giving.
Alan Cox
Alan is retired, but spends most of his days working on repairing his home that was damaged during Hurricane Irma last year. He and Dawn have been blessed by the many people at Servants who helped with clean up and have prayed for them through this time. Alan is an usher and recently stepped up to help with the sound ministry.