Eight years ago, we worked at a Japanese church started by Baptist Mid-Missions missionaries. One of our primary responsibilities was English ministries, where we taught English conversation classes and helped start a children’s Bible and English club.
One of the students from conversation classes found our lifestyle to be counter to the typical American culture of materialism and wanted to know why. The sowing of gospel seeds in his life began a three-year journey of many other Christians pouring time and energy into both sharing about the Bible and showing him God’s work in their daily lives. He is now a growing Christian, faithfully serving at that church.
Whether or not a village can or should raise a child, I appreciate God’s gift to us, the church. A loving, God-following local church can and should raise Christians to maturity, both through ministries and through daily life with others. To God be the glory, because it is His work, not ours.