A Burden For The Children
By Susan Thomas
“Anytime anyone gets the Holy Ghost, my heart overflows with joy. To know that God is working with me to do what I cannot do; that is ‘success’ to me,” states Sis. Hannah Hurley. She attends Solid Rock Worship Center in Oak Hill, West Virginia. Her pastor, who is also her uncle, is Greg Hurley.
“An exciting story that vividly comes to mind was one night at our Vacation Bible School. The Holy Ghost came powerfully on a child from rural West Virginia. Tears streamed down her face. She prayed so long that we had already loaded the rest of the kids up to send them home. I put my arm around her and walked her out to the van with tears still soaking her face. As I was about to tell her goodbye, she burst out between sobs saying, ‘I used to think I knew what the Holy Ghost was, but I didn’t really know. But, now I know!’ That meant more to me than words can say,” Sis. Hurley shared.
So, why did Sis. Hurley become a children’s evangelist? Her powerful testimony follows. “I had never taught a Sunday school class in my life. A minister at our church came to me and wanted me to help him in his efforts to start a children’s church. Shortly after that, he and his family moved and I was left in charge. If I may be honest, at the beginning I hated it, mostly because I felt I had no idea what I was doing. Once, I had decided to quit, and the Lord spoke to me that I needed to keep doing what I was doing, so I did.
“One day, I went to the church to pray. As I prayed for the children’s ministry, I felt a burden. I may not have been called at that moment to go on the mission field, pastor a church, or have any position that was considered to be ‘great’ by some. But God had allotted me a place in His kingdom, and I needed to do my very best.” Sis. Hurley adds, “I had an unshakable burden. I wept and interceded for the children of my city. God put it in my heart that day to start community children’s services on Friday night. My pastor saw my burden and how the Lord was using me to reach the children in our city. He approached me one evening and stated he wanted me to sign up with the Association of Children’s Evangelists (ACE). He told me he felt it was the will of God for my life.”
Sis. Hurley was accepted into ACE the fall of 2019. Everything scheduled for this summer was canceled due to COVID-19. “I do community kids’ services in my church, and I go with others from my church to areas in our community, to let them know about our upcoming event and get a list of kids that want to come. That Friday, we bus them all into the church and feed them. We bring them into our sanctuary for the Ultimate Competition between the boys and the girls. At the conclusion of the competition, we usually bring out a crazy character and perform a skit, informs Sis. Hannah Hurley.
You can contact Sis. Hurley through her email: hurley.k.hannah@gmail.com.