January 14, 2002
Lubbock couple takes church to troubled children
___By Russ Dilday
___Buckner News Service
___LUBBOCK--When Joel Edgmon got the call for his next assignment as a Mission Service Corps missionary, it wasn't by phone--which was a good thing, because he couldn't have answered it anyway. He was in the shower.
___But God needs no phones, and Edgmon clearly heard God calling him and his wife, Judy, to teach and lead worship at Buckner Children's Home in Lubbock.
___No one was more surprised than Edgmon himself.
___During the past summer, he said, "it came upon my mind a couple of times that God was calling me to teach kids. In the shower one day, it knocked me over."
___A veteran adult discipleship and Bible teacher, Edgmon admits he tried arguing with God: "Now Lord, not kids. You've got to be kidding me."
JOEL EDGMON makes a point while instructing children about spiritual matters at Buckner Children's Home in Lubbock.
___And he reminded God of his service to adults: "Three years in a prison ministry; three years in a halfway house ministry; a multi-housing ministry for five years." ___His fear was more of teaching kids than of the kids themselves.
___He and his wife have been Mission Service Corps "tentmakers" since their commissioning by the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board in 1993. Tentmakers are volunteers who give full-time service, providing their own support in an assigned ministry in evangelism or church–starting efforts.
___The Edgmons' financial support comes from their furniture sales positions at La-Z-Boy of Lubbock, where he works full time. She splits her time between La-Z-Boy and the Lubbock Baptist Association, where both serve as volunteerism directors and Mission Service Corps consultants.
___It was in her capacity as volunteerism director for the association that Mrs. Edgmomn also got the call--from her husband--asking her to place him in a children's ministry. She immediately turned to Buckner administrator Melissa Opheim for suggestions.
___"When he had this revelation, he said, 'I think you need to call Buckner and see if there's anything we can do out there,'" Mrs. Edgmon recalled. "Why Buckner? We don't know. He was doing discipleship training courses in churches with adults.
___"I called Melissa and said: 'I need to place a volunteer. It's Joel.'"
___Mrs. Edgmon realized that by seeking a place for her husband, she also was committing her own time to a new ministry area. "It's not that we don't love kids. We do, but somehow God's always had us with adults."
___Opheim was quick with a response. She needed someone to provide spiritual guidance and teaching in the home's residential treatment center. The center provides residential care for emotionally disturbed children and youth needing a higher degree of structure and supervision than can be provided by residential group care.
___Unlike other children at the home, those living in the residential treatment center do not leave campus as often, including opportunities for worship and Bible study at local churches. Opheim recognized the need for the children's spiritual growth and asked the Edgmons to provide Sunday morning worship.
___"The spiritual component, for a lot of our kids, is the place where they start to heal, where they learn they are special, unique and of value," Opheim said. "Most of the kids in residential treatment have experienced numerous losses--placement disruptions, failed adoptions, family crises where things could not be resolved.
___"The crises continue to get worse where they either take it to be a problem with themselves and start acting out behaviorally or began having problems with self-harm," she said. "So the residential treatment center gives them a safe, secure environment where they can act out those ugly feelings, express those and gives them fresh people every eight hours who work with their emotions."
___But, Opheim wondered, would the Edgmons accept this troubled group for teaching and worship?
___Not only did they answer yes, they also took a Tuesday evening Bible teaching position for the rest of the campus. They've been teaching since August.
___Adopting a team-teaching approach, the Edgmons also fell back on a familiar if unconventional teaching method.
JUDY EDGMON greets a client in Buckner's residential treatment center in Lubbock with open arms and an open heart. She and her husband have found their place as Mission Service Corps volunteers at the facility, where they teach the Bible to children who can't leave the premises to go to church.
___"We don't have the crayons, scissors and crafts," Mrs. Edgmon explained. "We've never taught children before, but we feel we're where God wants us."
___"We're teaching adult Bible study," Edgmon said, adding that the format also includes music and prayer among participants. "We're into the armor of God right now, and God is teaching us how to use (adult material) and take it to their level. It's not regular Sunday School. God is doing all this. The format is what blows us away."
___ The adult format is not what they had in mind when they began, but during the first Sunday, Edgmon had to abandon it because the children had so many questions.
___"It was then that I felt the connection with them," he said. They knew a lot about the Bible, but they needed help getting that information from their heads to their hearts, he explained.
___So now he's teaching them how to apply what they learn. "For example, we were talking about answers to prayer and I could see they only knew one answer to prayer. I said there are three answers to prayer--yes, no and maybe. I told them he might say no for a reason.
___"One young man said, 'Does that mean I'm not going to get a bicycle like I've been praying for?'" Edgmon recalled. "I said, 'It could mean that.'"
___From then on, the connection was made and their minds are soaking it up, Edgmon explained. "They're not always liking it, but they're accepting it."
___Recently, four of the children made professions of faith in Christ and were baptized at First Baptist Church in Lubbock.
___"We want to make it clear, real sure, they know it's believer's baptism," Mrs. Edgmon said. "We use an Eternal Life tract they can understand. After Joel interviewed each one of these boys, he felt sure we weren't going off and baptizing someone who wasn't saved."
___Danny, 10, was one of those children. He said the Edgmons have taught him "that God's in your heart and he loves you very, very much. I know Jesus is in my heart and he's never leaving me."
___Becoming a Christian, Danny said, "made me feel happy and proud of myself. You know that God will always forgive you when you ask."
___"Joel and Judy bring a new voice to the kids, telling them about a heavenly Father who loves them," Opheim said. "They're a voice the kids listen to because it's someone who is here because they want to be. They automatically connect with the love and concern for the kids. Out of that, several of the kids have received the gift of eternal life."
___
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