One day a very cute young woman came to my church. She worked with Child Evangelism Fellowship as an inner-city missionary in Akron. She presented her work, and did a very good job at it.

I went home and asked the Lord to show me what his will was. Did he want me to start working with inner-city kids? I wouldn't mind, and, like I said, the girl was really cute.

I don't believe in the flop-n-drop method of discerning the Lord's will (Flop-n-drop is where you ask a question, flop open your Bible, and then drop your finger on a verse). It's very close to divination. And it's quite silly, too.

However, I do believe that the Lord speaks through his word. So, I opened my Bible to 1 Samuel chapter 2. Seeing that I had read chapter 1 the day before, I figured that I would just keep on with my regular reading schedule.

When I read verse 18, "But Samuel ministered before the LORD, being a child, girded with a linen ephod," something happened to me that is very hard to describe.

Have you ever had an old balloon that has never been blown up before? The insides kind of stick together, and when you blow the balloon open, it peels apart in a kind of funny-sounding way. Take that feeling and couple it with the scene from the Grinch movie where the Grinch's heart grows several sizes.

That's what happened to me.

When I read that verse, the Lord seemed to expand my heart and in an instant fill it will his love for little kids. Tears ran down my face. I was totally taken aback at the depth of feeling that came with three little words, "being a child." God showed me in a heartbeat that children can not only be saved but can minister unto him, and I was to have a part in that ministry.

I believe that God anointed me that day in a very special way.

I did start working with CEF. And since then, I have led hundreds of boys and girls to a saving knowledge of Christ.

p.s. No, I didn't get the girl. She later married an accountant, and they still minister to inner-city families in Akron.