Saddleback Kids Empowers Young Girl to Share Her Faith

Throughout the course of the COVID-19 crisis, Saddleback members in all stages of life have been growing in their faith — including kids. One young member of Saddleback Kids named Abby has spent the pandemic learning how to love others more like Jesus and how to be more like him.

Abby, who is currently in fifth grade, grew up attending Saddleback and joined a Kids Small Group a few years ago. During the pandemic, her mom volunteered to lead the group, which opened up the doors for both of them to grow in faith together.

“It helped me a lot more because she went over the lesson with me,” Abby said. “We’ve been learning to seek the Bible verses and understand what they really mean.”

As she continued to learn more about God and make her faith her own, Abby decided to get baptized. She said one of her Saddleback Kids leaders described baptism as an outward way to express an internal relationship with Jesus. Once Abby learned what baptism was all about, she was all in. On the day of her baptism, a smile spread across her face as her parents and pastor stood side by side with her, and she made that public declaration of faith.

The recent spiritual growth in Abby’s life has lit a fire in her heart to share the gospel with as many people as possible.

“I’ve learned that we all have our spiritual gifts, and we can use them to bring other people to God,” she said.

Pastor Rick often says, “People don’t care about what you know unless they know that you care,” and Abby also believes that the most impactful way for her to reach others for God is to start by befriending them.

“When I want to tell someone about Jesus, I start by building a good relationship with them,” she said. “I’ll tell them how good God is and how you’ll never be alone when you’re with him.”

Recently, one of Abby’s friends started to express an interest in becoming a Christian, so Abby shared a Bible story with her, taught her how to pray, and invited her to come to Saddleback Kids on the weekend. Abby was thrilled when her friend agreed and joined her for a service.

“My goal is to help as many people as I can and bring them to God,” she said. “It makes me feel happy that I’m doing that for him.”