Church Spotlight 1

Liberty Baptist Church in Hampton, Virginia

Beth Leffel is the Children's Ministry Director at Liberty Baptist Church in Hampton, VA. They minister to 550 children every week through Sunday school and midweek Children's Choir.

DiscipleLand (DL): Tell us a little about yourself.

Beth: I grew up at Liberty [Baptist Church]. In college, I was a children's ministry intern alongside a wonderful lady. I loved working in the children's ministry so much that when my internship came to a close, I prayed that God would allow me to serve in children's ministry one day. After teaching school for five years, the children's ministry director's position became available. God opened many doors that allowed me to serve in this capacity. I feel blessed everyday that I get to help children and their families to know God and serve Him with their lives.

DL: Why did your church choose DiscipleLand?

Beth: It was a process really. Every two years we evaluate curriculum and when we went through the evaluation process, we came across the DiscipleLand website. We gathered samples of various curricula and assessed them. We narrowed our choices to three publishers and had some of our amazing teachers review them. After our teachers looked over what DiscipleLand had to offer, they wanted it to be our new curriculum.  Dick Crider [DiscipleLand's Field Representative] came and spoke to us. His passion was so evident. We have since had another evaluation of our curriculum and we chose to stay with DiscipleLand.

DL: How are your students responding to your ministry?

Beth: A third grade teacher said, "We've enjoyed the missionary biographies. Some children have been bringing friends. Some seem eager to share the gospel. Some have even expressed a desire to go into missions."

 

DL: How have your teachers been affected by DiscipleLand?

Beth: A fifth grade teacher said, "We like DiscipleLand curriculum. It covers Bible stories and characters that you don't always talk about. We liked that they included Revelation."

DL: What else can you tell us?

Beth: I love that the [DiscipleLand] Preschool snacks coordinate with the lessons. I also like that the activities reinforce the principles and are not just activities thrown in there to fill time.

DL: How has God been blessing your ministry?

Beth: God is blessing Liberty. Our church continues to grow and even though the economy looks gloomy--we are heading full-force into building a youth building and a new sanctuary. We just got finished with VBS and we had over 1,000 kids and over 50 kids accepted Jesus as their Savior!