Households can often be reached for Christ through the children. If we build a good foundation in the hearts of the little ones, when they grow up, they will continue following the instructions they were taught.

When I was first invited to serve as an instructor at a children’s camp, I was a bit amazed and, at the same time, scared. I felt that I would have to be held responsible for every word I said, realizing that my influence could have lasting results, either for good or for bad. At the same time I wondered whether the children would like the camp—and pondered how I could make the presentations more attractive to their young minds. While I was thinking about how to plan everything, my mind flew back to the time when I myself was a child and the times my parents had sent me to a children’s camp. I remembered the first time I had gotten such an opportunity. I was 10. That children’s camp was the first one ever organized in Romania and was being held at our headquarters in Fagaras. Here were gathered more than 30 children and teenagers. Everybody was excited; we were living a new experience. When I glanced at the schedule, however, I remember thinking that that meeting would be boring. There were a lot of classes and not much time for play—and even if we had wanted to play, the camp was located in the middle of the town so we wouldn’t have enough space to romp and play to our hearts’ content.

But in time, I started to like the camp. I was building new friendships—and found all of the classes to be quite interesting, after all. When the time came to leave, I cried because I knew we were not going to see each other for a long time. Upon returning home, I told my parents just how much I liked it there at the camp. I told them all about the different activities I had participated in and, of course, they were happy to know that I had indeed enjoyed my time.

For the next camp and those that followed, I also brought my younger brother and 2 cousins with me. Now, together with my new companions, I had my own team. We influenced one another and soon this led to some mischief. Consequently, we received some punishments—but because these were generally rather light punishments, we continued playing our games. But one time, we were faced with a decision. There were two options to the punishment, and we had to choose which one we preferred: Not to eat the whole day and just wash the dishes, or miss the mountain trip on the following day.

We really got scared and began thinking for a long time about which punishment we should pick: no food or no trip. Finally, we decided to fast and do the dishes. We didn’t eat all day. The next day, we didn’t have strength to climb the mountain!

After that experience we promised ourselves that we were not going to make these mistakes any more and determined not to cause any more trouble for the instructors. From then on, we took everything about the camp seriously and tried our best to be faithful in all the classes.

Looking back, I can definitely say that I sure enjoyed all the camps I attended and was always looking forward to the next one.

As time passed and we grew up, the brethren began to trust us and started to ask for our help. Soon, I became a guide and whenever my help was needed, I was ready and willing to lead the mountain trips. Step by step, I was given more responsibility. Now, I had been asked to be an instructor. I understood what it meant, for I knew what an impact the camps had made on my own life

The camps I attended as a child made a lasting imprint on my personality that still follows me. Even those things that did not seem so enjoyable or useful at the time have served their purpose in my life. Afterwards, I learned to appreciate all the experiences I received at these events. In fact, I still like doing many of these same things I did there. It was there that I learned how to be friendly, and why it’s so important to be friendly. I also learned a wide variety of skills such as: how to preach, how to work with wood, how to take pictures, how to write articles, how to be a more responsible person, how to cook, how to tie knots, and many other things.

Everything the children learn at these camps they will use for the rest of their lives. The influences received in the youth are very important. The Bible says, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). It is at a young age that the foundation is built. If you use a wrong material, you cannot expect good results.

Now that I was a leader I had to be praying to God all the time, that He would bless us with sufficient wisdom to carry out the task before us, to be careful with our words and example, and to know what type of material to use and how best to use it.

Once during our camp, in the middle of the night somebody came to knock on my door, asking me to go to the boys’ room. Here I found a little boy crying. I tried to calm him and asked what had happened. He explained that he was missing his mom. I tried to tell him that there would be only a few days left before he would be going home, but still he continued to cry. Since his roommates weren’t able to sleep because of him, I brought him to my room and continued talking with him. I tried bringing up a lot of subjects, and he would only answer a bit and then continue to cry. After a few minutes, he asked, “Tell me a story.” Then I started telling him about the coming events, that Jesus would be coming to take us home. After we got to talking about what we would do in heaven, the little boy was so amazed about how beautiful it will be there, that he told me that when he would get to heaven he would want to have a lion as his pet. Soon after, he fell asleep. In the morning he told everyone else about what a beautiful story he had heard the night before, and, of course, now all of them wanted to hear the same story. So, in the evening, all of them gathered around me and I started to tell them about heaven. I talked for more than an hour and started to get sleepy, but still they wanted to hear more.

Most people think that children cannot understand that much, but I can tell that they understand more than we think. Sometimes, when we had a free hour, I would ask them what they wanted to learn. They would write their preferences on a piece of paper, and then we’d take a vote. One this occasion, everyone voted for the most difficult title there was: “Why are there so many churches?” So, because they wanted it, I started presenting to them why there are so many churches. Everyone started asking questions. Although this is a hard subject for many of us, involving a lot of history—it wasn’t so for them. They actually were quite interested and didn’t find it hard to understand. When we gave them the final test, all of the students knew that God’s church at the end of the time is only a remnant.

The moral of this story is that if the children in your life ask you something, give them the time they need and answer their question right then and there or find the answer for them. If you fail to be there for them when they need it, they will look elsewhere.

We invite the children to bring their friends along to these biannual camps and try to provide diverse material so that nobody gets bored.

In the morning, there is exercise time, morning worship, and breakfast. At the beginning of the day, we have strong Bible-based messages for them. Then, in the afternoon, they get classes in music, English, Spanish, and health. For the Sabbath worship, as well as morning and evening worship, we ask the children to prepare certain subjects and preach. When they saw we trusted them, they really gave their best interest to preparing and presenting the messages.

The goal of these children camps is to keep them united, to give them a vision for life, to guide them spiritually, to help them to trust in God more, and decide what they want to be in the future.

When I work with these children and observe their eagerness to learn, I get attached to them. Each time I see them grow more and more, not only in stature but also in character. I miss them very much between camps.

The last children’s camp I attended was one week before the GC meetings in the U.S.A. in 2015. Most of the children were from outside the church. When they came for the first time, they were shy—ashamed because they felt that they had nothing in common with us. They felt that they were different. But, during the camp, they find themselves welcomed and by the time they leave, they tell us they can’t wait for the next camp.

I remember one boy who came to me at the beginning, and said, “Gabriel, please do not ask me to pray; I don’t know how to pray.” The next day I asked him to pray. I told him to say whatever he felt he needed to say. He was quiet for a moment, but then he prayed. After that first prayer, he always wanted to pray.

I asked another young boy to prepare a subject for the worship service. He told me he did not know what to talk about for that long. I told him, “You can speak just 15 minutes. You can do it; I trust you.” He was happy that I said I trusted him, so he prepared his message and preached for more than 35 minutes. After the sermon he came to me and told me that he already had two more subjects to talk about. So, he preached all afternoon.

During the week, the children prepared the Sabbath afternoon program. They learned poems, songs, and Bible verses. Despite their differing backgrounds, everyone had a contribution to make, and all of them were happy to have their minute in the program.

When we told the children that if we do missionary work our crowns will be full of stars, they were eager to go out and do missionary work. So, we all took some books and went to a nearby park to share the gospel. That evening, I wanted to listen to their testimonies. All of them were so happy for their experiences that day, and the resounding question was, “When are we going again?”

One boy told us that he had eaten cookies. When we asked him where he had gotten them, he explained that he was eager to have a lot of stars in his crown and wanted more, so he went inside a hotel and started knocking on the doors. Somebody there gave him cookies. I immediately thought of the times when I myself was scared to do missionary work. If somebody would ask me to go inside a hotel and disturb the people there with my tracts, I don’t know that I would agree to do that. Maybe I would wait for people at the entrance, but to go inside? No way. Who knows if they might take me to court. But this young boy went fearlessly inside, not thinking whether they might be disturbed or would call the police.

The campground we rent is in a tourist area. One evening, while we were practicing a song for the Sabbath, a young girl from the neighborhood came and joined us. She learned the song very fast and asked me to go with her to surprise her mom. I was a bit embarrassed to go, but she insisted. I thought it only would be her mom and her but, upon arriving, I found quite a group of people inside. The girl explained to her mom that this was a surprise—and when we started singing the church song, her mother started to cry. I told her mom that she had a very bright girl who had learned both the tune and the words to the song in merely a few minutes. I asked her to leave the child with us at the camp. Although, the camp was almost over, the mother agreed to send the girl, and she stayed with us till the end.

Missionary work is very important; every branch of God’s work is important—but to work with children may very well be the most important work. If we want them to help us in sharing the gospel to all the world, we have to invest our resources in them—time, money, everything. They are the future of God’s church. By working with children, I saw that when you do not appreciate them, they feel it and you may lose them forever. Conversely, when you nurture them with the spirit of Christ, they will be influenced for good and the results will bear fruit for eternity. Every moment is very important. If you miss just one moment, you have missed everything. May we all cherish and improve each and every moment as a God-given opportunity!