19. Growing up in Kid’s Church

By: Jocelyn Chung and April Chia

Kid’s Church is a big part of St. Tim’s and a big part of growing up. What does it mean for us to have grown up in this church? Read to the end to see Jocelyn and April’s personal reflections.

Stories of Faith

Growing Up at St. Timothy: Kid’s Church

Affirmation of God’s Love

Having been born into the St. Timothy community, I was a part of every group suitable to my age, Kids Church included. While it was a long time ago, and much of my memories of it are fuzzy, something about it really sticks out to me. It was a safe place for us to learn a big message; that God loves us. And of course, as kids, we take everything at is, no questioning, and in such a pure and innocent way, we all truly believed that. We knew that God loved us, and it gave us the ability to love each other and spend time with each other, knowing there was nothing that divided us. I truly believe that this fundamental knowledge that God loves us has transcended years, and most of my best friends to this day were the kids that I played with in Kids Church. Amazingly, the love has remained as pure as it was when we first met all those years ago. More importantly though, Kids Church is in a lot of ways the foundation of this community. Obviously at that age, genuine belief in God and reflection is not something that’s at the forefront of our minds, it’s more so fun, and building friendships and relationships that will last. It’s also about our parents, and our friend’s parents, and how they are connected to all of us in a way that can best be described as one big family. Our parents have genuine relationships with each other, and because that love is always there, they inevitably love each other’s kids like they love their own. They care for each other’s kids, and in this way, they all play a huge part in raising the Kids Church. This kind of genuine love is what I think propels our community, because somehow, we know that it’s God’s love.

Firm Foundations

Another huge thing that impacted me personally was joining the praise team in Kids Church. I joined with my friends, and I was able to develop my leadership so that by the time I joined hi-c, I was already part of its praise team, which became a fundamental part of my own faith. It’s something that’s kept me grounded in my faith, through all the trials and tribulations I have gone through as I grew up. Through Kids Church, myself and many others have been so amazingly blessed by God, in the sense that we were given so many opportunities, including the opportunity to create relationships that truly mean something, and that they were able to last for this long, extending out to others around us. In this way, I think this is what it would mean for our St. Timothy community to say, “Bless the Lord”. The Kids Church on its own is a blessing given by God’s grace. It’s a group that livens up the community and is the foundation of such a strong community feeling.

How does this affect your faith?

I think that the way that Kids Church has impacted my own faith is in the sense that it gave me such a firm foundation to stand on with people that I love and care about who would be with me throughout my faith journey, and I with them. I was shown God’s love for me through the people that I was surrounded by, and because of that, I was able to grow comfortably in my faith within a community of people that I can trust.

– Jocelyn

Although I didn’t attend Kids Church at St. Timothy, I am a teacher for the KSM service. It has been really rewarding being a teacher for the kids. I love answering all the questions the children have about the Bible and God. Although sometimes I can’t answer them, I try my best to help them understand. Watching the children grow up has been really rewarding. I get to watch the kids grow up physically and spiritually. So many kids have gone up to Hi-C or have even left the church, but all of the kids hold a special place in my heart. Being a teacher has taught me many things, but most importantly, to love one another. I genuinely love being a teacher and everything that comes with it. 

– April

Stories of Faith