What Can Happen in 15 Days?

A glimpse inside 15 days with Walk Thru the Bible’s Global Children’s Team

Two weeks can disappear pretty quickly. Meetings. Emails. School schedules. Errands. The everyday things that fill our calendars.

But recently, we took a look back through the first 15 days of September to see what Walk Thru the Bible’s Global Children’s Team had been doing around the world.

Not the whole year. Not even the whole month. Just 15 days.

During a recent chapel gathering, Terry Broberg (Global Children’s Team Director) shared a ministry update with our staff, and honestly, it was incredible to see.

Nigeria. Bangladesh. Ukraine. India. Bolivia. The Philippines. England. Colombia.

Village schools. Public schools. Boarding schools. Summer camps. A patio. A tree. And indigenous leaders preparing to carry biblical teaching toward the Amazon.

Here’s what 15 days looked like.

September 1: Those Paper Crowns

The updates began on September 1 in Nigeria.

A group of children was learning God’s Word in a village school, and the first thing Terry noticed in the pictures was all the paper crowns.

“I had to smile,” Terry shared with the team. “About four years ago, when I was in Nigeria for training, I gave the teachers paper crowns to use with the children. One of the local leaders apparently decided he liked the idea, because picture after picture since then, there are those crowns again.”

It’s a small thing. But we love seeing something that began in a training years ago still being used to help children engage with God’s Word today.

The Message Starts Moving

As the calendar moved forward, so did the reports from our team—and this team literally spans the globe.

On September 3, Thomas Sarkar was teaching boys in a hostel in Bangladesh. In that part of the world, a hostel functions more like a boarding school, and Thomas was right there using OT Live with the students.

Around the same time in Ukraine, teachers were being trained in NT Live using materials translated into Ukrainian. Even in the middle of war, our partners continue traveling, forming new partnerships, and finding opportunities to teach God’s Word.

Then, on September 6, we were back in Bangladesh. Only this time, Thomas wasn’t doing the teaching. His “Joshua” was.

Our leaders in South Asia are encouraged to develop a Joshua—someone they are intentionally training to come behind them, just as Joshua came behind Moses. And there he was, out on a patio in the middle of town, teaching children himself.

The next day, on September 7, another picture came in from Bolivia. Pablo had recently been trained in our materials by one of our trainers, Tim Bleyker. And what did Pablo do? He went home, gathered a group of children under a tree, and started teaching them OT Live.

That’s what we hope happens. The training doesn’t stop with the person who receives it. They take it home. They teach someone else. And God’s Word keeps moving.

4,200 Children Reached Today

On September 5, Terry didn’t have a new picture to show the team. He joked that nobody had sent him anything from the field.

But that certainly didn’t mean nothing happened. So he put up a slide:

4,200 children reached today.

That’s about how many children our children’s ministry reached on an average day over the past ministry year.

Then September 9 came.

Another 4,200.

September 12?

Another 4,200.

Pretty fantastic when you stop and think about it.

They Do What They Have to Do

One thing we love about our global team is how creative people become with whatever they have in front of them.

On September 4, during a teacher training in India, Amrutha created her own crown of thorns out of toothpicks for an illustration.

A few days later, another photo came in from an Indian village. One of the teachers had made her own colorful chart to help teach the children. Some of the villages our teams are serving have had little or no formal children’s ministry curriculum available. So local teachers adapt. They create. They use what they have.

As Terry told our team, “They just have to do what they have to do.” And they do.

On September 11, we received an update from the Philippines. A Vacation Bible School was using the Timothy children’s Biblical Character Series material, translated completely into Tagalog. “It’s so fun to see the things, the products that we make, actually get grabbed and then just translated and go to work in different places around the world,” Terry said.

On September 14, another set of photos arrived from Ukraine. These children were participating in Walk Thru the Bible teaching right inside their public school. What struck our team was how familiar they looked. They looked like any other children in a Sunday school class, even though their daily world has been turned upside down by war.

That same day, we received an extremely rare picture from a public school in England. And yes, they gave one of the children a prop sword.

“I would never do that when I teach,” Terry joked, “because I never would want to turn my back on him.”

Different classrooms. Different resources. Different circumstances. The same mission.

Some Updates Hit Differently

On September 8, Terry paused the joyous updates to ask our team to pray for Juvy, a beloved children’s ministry leader in the Philippines.

“Half the clothes in my wardrobe that came from the Philippines are gifts from her,” Terry shared during chapel, highlighting her incredible generosity and energy. She has been walking through cancer for several years, and we recently learned that it has metastasized to her lungs.

That day, the update wasn’t a number or a new training. It was a sister we love. It reminded everyone in the room that our global ministry network isn’t just an abstract map with pins in it. These are real people carrying heavy personal suffering alongside their faithful ministry work.

And we prayed.

Ukraine: 29 Camps and a New Generation Stepping Forward

On September 15, the summer camp reports came in from Ukraine.

The team had trained and prepared for 43 camps. But as the war intensified, an entire area of the country was closed to camps. They still held 29.

That last number is especially powerful. Four hundred seventy-three young people are already saying, “I want to come back and help.” They were campers, and now some of them are preparing to help lead what comes next.

Into the Amazon

Also on September 15, an update came from Colombia.

These indigenous leaders live beyond the Andes Mountains toward the headwaters of the Amazon, and they are preparing to carry biblical teaching into communities throughout that region.

Behind them hung a translated poster:

“Today, we are sending out a group of missionaries with a message capable of transforming the entire world.”

Looking at the screen, Terry paused. “Really, really special.”

And That Was 15 Days

That’s what happened in just the first 15 days of September. Then Terry zoomed out for our team and showed the bigger picture from the 2025–26 ministry year.

• 1,540,525 children reached
• An average of 4,200+ children reached each day
• 19,950 teachers trained
• Children’s ministry active in 40 countries

But after seeing the stories first, those statistics look a little different. Now those numbers have paper crowns in them.

They have toothpicks, handmade charts, translated lessons, public-school classrooms, summer camps, shade trees, faithful teachers, local leaders, and young “Joshuas” preparing to come behind them. That is what those numbers look like up close.

Go. Make Disciples. Teach.

After walking through those 15 days, Terry brought our team back to Matthew 28:18–20. Four words stood out to him.

When you look back at those 15 days—in a village school in Nigeria, under a tree in Bolivia, inside a classroom in Ukraine, or with indigenous leaders preparing to serve communities near the Amazon—the Great Commission starts looking very tangible.

Going. Making disciples. Teaching. Training others to carry the work forward. And trusting that Christ is with His people wherever He sends them.

The Same Mission

Fifteen days can tell us a lot. But they are still only 15 days.

We are deeply grateful for the local teachers, ministry leaders, trainers, churches, volunteers, prayer partners, and supporters whose faithfulness is woven into these stories. God continues to work through ordinary people who faithfully carry His Word into the places He has given them.

Different countries.
Different circumstances.
Different classrooms.

The same mission: helping people everywhere live God’s Word.