Powerpoint Pictures: Bedroom; Bunk Beds; Bed; Toys

What is your bedroom like?  Is it your own bedroom or do you share it with your brother or sister?

What is your bed like?  Is it comfy?  Is it a good bed to bounce up and down on?  Does your mum or dad tell you off if you do?

What else do you have in your bedroom?  Do you have lots of toys to play with?  Do you enjoy spending time in your room, chilling out, reading a book, playing games?

Well, 150 years ago, in London, at the time when Queen Victoria was on the throne, there were lots of children who didn’t have a bedroom.

Not a bedroom of their own.  Not even a bedroom to share with someone else.  They didn’t have any toys or fun stuff to play with.  Nor did they have bed to sleep on.  Not even an uncomfortable bed to sleep on.

They did not live in a house but on the street.

Now there was a man called Thomas Barnardo who wanted to be a missionary to China, to tell people there about Jesus.  But when he saw all the children living on the street in London, he decided that it would be better for him to help them than go to China.

He knew that God loves children.  Psalm 68 verses 5 and 6 tells us that “God in his holy dwelling is a father of the fatherless and a champion of widows.  God provides homes for those who are deserted.”

And because Jesus loves children, he should too, and that he should help them.  The way he did that was by opening homes for the children to live in and schools for them to learn at called Ragged Schools.  He found places for children who had no home and no bedroom to stay.

He wanted to help and care for children who were poor and sick and sad and alone.  He had a famous motto: “No Destitute Child Ever Refused Admission.”

And in these homes and schools that Thomas Barnardo set up, he made sure they children as well as being cared for, were taught about the one who cares for them the most.  As they were taught to read and write they learned about Jesus the great Saviour who loves His people and died on the cross to save them from their sins.

Thomas Barnardo reminds us that God loves children, that He cares for them especially those who have no-one to look after them, and that He wants them to hear about Jesus, and so should we.

This talk was adapted from Everyone a Child Should Know by Clare Heath-Whyte.