This year at Maranatha Adventist School we engaged community members to kick off our career week. Throughout the week, parents from various professions shared firsthand insights into their jobs. One parent, a nurse, made her session interactive by having the children dress up in different roles and simulating emergency scenarios. Another parent, who works in construction, involved the students in assembling picnic tables and exploring his tools. Each presentation was captivating and left a lasting impression on the students.
However, the highlight of our Career Week was when the children experienced canvassing for the first time. Literature evangelists Darrell Conway and Ronisha Belgrove provided training and supervised as the children practiced distributing Glow tracts door-to-door. The children approached this task eagerly, even celebrating when they reached milestones in their efforts.
Their enthusiasm continued beyond school hours, with some asking to continue canvassing in their neighborhoods. One fourth grader was already eager for the next opportunity, exclaiming, “Next year!… That’s so far away!” Their dedication and positive energy throughout the experience were inspiring for all of us involved.
To gauge their experiences, I asked several students how they felt the day after. Their responses were overwhelmingly positive. Here are a few of their reflections:
Silas Mosier (4th grade)
“My greatest experience was getting to meet a pastor who bought Simply Fresh. The pastor was cleaning his garage and said, “You guys are from the SDA school over there. Are you canvassing? Can I take a look?” “Yep!” I said. Then he took a look at Simply Fresh. “How much do these cost?” He asked. “$20-30,” I said. “Hey, I’m a pastor in Medford. Well, here is $30.” He said. “Wow! Thank you!” I said. “Have a nice day!”
I learned that getting rejected was how I got more faith to keep going! Canvassing is selling books that will turn people to Jesus. I kept going because of what I was doing.”
Isai Guzman (3rd grade)
“When people get a book, they thank you. Sometimes people reject you, but it’s okay. People might go to church and be a Christian.”
Emily Faudi (3rd grade)
“When I helped with the Glow tracts, I learned that everybody can help. Everybody can do something to help Jesus’s work. When we do something to help Jesus’s coming, we feel happy and that may be canvassing. I loved the feeling of everybody running to do everything on time.”
Annabelle Thiemann (4th grade)
“There was a kind elderly lady that met Shiloh and me. The house we were at looked a little run down. We greeted her. She looked like she didn’t know what to say…. She said that she read her Bible every day. She said, “I hope I don’t regret this, but I’ll buy a book.” She bought Simply Fresh. A good lesson I learned out of all this [her experience] is sometimes people will not buy books from you when you canvass, but maybe you just won a heart for Jesus. In the books people read, they may see something about it….”
Anna Mosier (3rd grade)
“Have you ever put Glow tracts together? You use more than one Glow, and it is sometimes hard. It was so fun to get the Glow tracts ready. Even though it was a lot of work to get them ready, it was worth it! It was nice to pray over the Glows and it was fun to see how many we got done. I learned that even if it was hard work, it was amazing to know that it was for God.”
