May 25, 2005 <br> <br>Kids Meeting Jesus (Part 3) <br> <br>Welcome to Haven Today. I’m Charles Morris asking you to stay with us for Part 3 of a series called, “Kids Meeting Jesus”. Before we get started though, with our opening song, I’d like to just thank everybody that’s been contacting us here at the ministry the last few days. I don’t think we’ve ever had so many emails and so many comments from people about the programs that we’ve been airing. Children’s music, children’s programming, but also layered programming so that it has a message to grown-up children as well. So my advice for you: you’re not too old to listen to the next few minutes of Haven Today. We’ll be joined in studio by Ernie Rettino who goes by “Psalty the Singing Songbook”. We’ll also have my granddaughter Charlotte who’s 4 years old and maybe in the background you’ll be able to hear 2 year old Grace who also enjoys Kids Praise. So stay with us as we’re joined by Psalty and Kids Praise and we’re going to drop in on a camping adventure. <br> <br>Song: We’re Going Camping Now <br>Performed by: Kids Praise <br> <br>This is Haven Today and another in our program series, Kids Need Jesus Too. I’m Charles Morris and that of course was Kids Praise from the “We’re Going Camping Now” and with us in the studio today is not Ernie Rettino, but my friend Psalty. Hi Psalty. <br>PS: Well, hi Charles and hi everybody. It is me, Psalty the Singing Songbook. It’s so fun to be here! <br>CM: It’s so nice to go on a camping trip. I feel like I’ve been camping with you many, many times over and over again in my life. <br>PS: I’m sure you do. And you know, camping is a lot of fun. It presents a lot of problems though. And that’s what that particular song was all about – confronting the problems that we have, but doing it with the Lord, because he’s the one who helps you to overcome all kinds of things. It’s so cool! <br>CM: Going right up the mountain. We’ve got another friend with us here. <br>PS: You do? <br>CM: Yes we do, and this is my granddaughter – my oldest grandchild – <br>PS: Whoa! Charles, you don’t look that old! <br>CM: I know, I’m not. But Charlotte though is old, she’s almost 5. Charlotte, welcome to Haven Today. This is Papa speaking. <br>CHAR: Hi Papa. <br>CM: Hey Charlotte, would you like to say “Hi” to Psalty? <br>CHAR: Hi <br>PS: Hi Charlotte, it’s me, Psalty. Do you like to listen to my music? <br>CHAR: mmhmm <br>PS: You do? I’ll bet you sing. <br>CHAR: Yes <br>PS: Do you have a song that you like to sing, one of my songs? <br> <br>CHAR: mmhmm <br>PS: Do you know the song called, “The Body Song”? <br> <br>CHAR: mmhmm <br>PS: You do? You know, my daughter Melody likes that song too. She sings it all the time, but Melody sometimes get scared at night so when she does, she sings that song. Sometimes she sings, “Touch your finger to your – “ when she gets scared and then she’s not afraid anymore. Does that ever happen to you? <br> <br>CHAR: Sometimes I’m scared when I ‘m left alone in my bed. <br>PS: I know. That can happen to anybody. But when we’re scared, what’s one of the things that you do when you get scared? Do you sing? <br>CHAR: mmhmm <br>PS: I do. I sing. And so does Melody and Harmony too. And when I do sing, I sing the songs from my heart. Do you sing the songs from your heart? <br> <br>CHAR: mmhmm <br>PS: And who do you sing the songs to? <br>CHAR: Jesus <br>PS: You sing the songs to Jesus? <br>CHAR: mmhmm <br>PS: That’s terrific. What’s one of your favorite songs to sing? <br> <br>CHAR: “Touch your finger to your nose” <br>PS: Now really? I wrote that song! This is a good song for you to sing: “One Step at a Time”. Or maybe even the “Cares Chorus”. That’s a good song too. And when you do, oh, just know that Jesus is going to be right there with you and then there’s nothing to be afraid of. Is Jesus living in your heart? <br> <br>CHAR: mmhmm <br>PS: Well, Charlotte it was really nice to talk with you. You are very smart. I’ve got to go now, because there’s lots of other kids I’ve got to talk to. But thanks for talking with me, OK? Bye! I love you. <br>CHAR: Bye-bye. I love you Papa. <br> <br>Song: One Step at a Time <br>Performed by: Kids Praise <br> <br>You’re with us here on Haven Today and a series called, “Kids Need Jesus Too” and that’s from Kids Praise 5, “We’re Going Camping Now” and the song’s “One Step at a Time”. And we had my granddaughter, Charlotte, on a minute ago. I have 3 grandchildren. Little Ricky is too young to be on with us and Grace – just couldn’t quite coax her, at 2 to be on the program, but Charlotte and Grace put on their backpacks and play camping and sing all those songs from Kids Praise 5, like, “I’m Climbing my Mountain, One Step at a Time” and what we opened the program with, “We’re Camping Now” and “God is Great”. Well, Psalty is gone somewhere, but Ernie Rettino is back with me in the studio, Ernie thank you. <br>ER: I’m Back! Yes, I’m here, I’m here. <br>CM: Must be a little hard to go back and forth so often. <br>ER: No, you know, I’m a little schizophrenic, it helps. It works, it works. But you know, I can’t help but notice Charles that you actually were getting ministered to as you were listening to that song. <br>CM: I was, yes. <br>ER: That it was touching you. And I have to give you a trade secret here, that Debbie and I, as we were writing these things, God ministered to us that we needed layer the album, the stories and things, so that they reached out to not just children, but to their parents as well, that the ministry needed to reach out to those parents because a lot of them weren’t going to be going to church. On a previous program we talked about the mother who was a Unitarian and the father who was an Atheist. And, you know – <br>CM: But still bought the Kids Praise. <br>ER: Still bought the Kids Praise tapes. But they had to sit and listen to those as well. It’s important to me that we reach out to the adults as well, because we’re living in a time now where there are pressures that are coming at us from every angle. I mean, people have pressures in their job, they have pressures in their family, there’s pressures even at church. Maybe you’re on the pastoral staff. There’s pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure. And Jesus said, come unto me. All ye who have ‘pressure’ everybody who labors and heavily laden, you know? “And I’ll give you rest”. You need to rest. You know, that’s what that song, “One Step at a Time” was all about. We live in a world where it becomes so easy to get overwhelmed with all the inputs. <br>CM: And trying to live life on our own, out of our own strength. <br>ER: Absolutely. <br>CM: Out of our own wisdom and we end up realizing in the end it’s out of our weakness that we’re trying to live and we’re not doing a very good job of it. <br>ER: And, we need Jesus. <br>CM: We do. We do. <br>ER: It’s that simple. It’s so simple that a child can understand it, it’s so simple that I can understand it, and adults can understand it. There’s another song on this Kids Praise 5 CD that ministers to people. We get so many letters about that last song, “One Step at a Time” and this other song as well, it’s called “Cares Chorus” and actually it was written by a friend of mine, Kelly Willard. And a lot of people will know this song as well. The words are, “I cast all my cares upon you.” <br>CM: Sure, yes. <br>ER: “I lay all my burdens down at your feet. And any time I don’t know what to do, I will cast all my cares upon you.” I don’t know about you, Charles, but I can get to that place real quickly. <br>CM: Everyday. <br>ER: Everyday. And I stop. I make myself stop and I say, “Jesus I can’t do it. I can’t do it. But I know you can. And I need you now to be with me, to just be with me.” And, I don’t know where your listeners are even at this moment, but maybe they’re having a moment like that. It’s just time to stop and just invite Jesus to be there and do his thing, because he does it real good. <br> <br>Song: Cares Chorus <br>Performed By: Kids Praise <br> <br>Ernie Rettino and his wife Debbie and the Kids Praise kids and that’s “Cares Chorus”. And Ernie, I can certainly see why that song has ministered to grown-ups as well as children through the years. Just, thank you for sharing from your heart. Thank you for sharing your music, but also a bit behind where you’re coming from and it’s all about Jesus, isn’t it? <br> <br>ER: It absolutely is, and I have to say, it’s been a pleasure being on your show and being able to share with all your listeners more of Jesus. The kids really do get it. And they really do need the Lord. <br>CM: They do get it. And your music, under the subterfuge, of “to kids” has been ministering to, I know, every adult listening to Haven Today the last few days, <br>ER: That’s terrific. <br>CM: So Ernie, just blessings to you and Debbie. May I pray for you guys? <br>ER: I’d love it. <br>CM: OK. Pray with us now, wherever you are. Father in heaven, I just want to thank you for gifting Ernie and Debbie many years ago with just a desire to take Jesus to kids, but in the process they brought a lot of us adults along too. And I know sometimes it took the third or fourth run through one of their Kids Praise albums for me to start getting it, but Lord, thank you for ministering to me and blessing me and my wife Janet. And now not just our kids, but also our grandkids, like our granddaughter Charlotte. Lord, be with Ernie and Debbie. Give them many more opportunities to just keep sharing Jesus. And Lord, I pray for all of us, that all of us can do all things only through Christ, and that we can lay every single one of the burdens that we try and carry on our own, that we can just learn – many times the hard way – but we can learn to just lay them at the foot of the cross and find that Jesus is there and always there. So I pray this prayer in the name and power of Jesus Christ, Amen. Ernie, ala Psalty, thank you. God Bless you for being with us here on these programs. <br>ER: Thank you very much. God bless everybody out there. <br>CM: This is Haven Today. And part 3 of Kids Meeting Jesus. And if you didn’t catch the beginning of the program, I mentioned that I don’t think we’ve ever had so much email traffic and comments coming in from people in the history of my 5 years of being the speaker here on Haven Today. We prayed a long time over the past year of whether we should do a few days of more children’s programming, but programming that could also reach to adults. And I think we’ve seen the Lord answer that prayer. Let me just share – I‘ve got a whole stack in front of me. But here’s one from a woman named Janice in Kansas, “I’ve been searching for these CD’s and couldn’t find them anywhere. My old tapes are just that – old. I used them for many years with my children and in VBS, Children’s Church, Bible Clubs, now a cancer survivor, I’m starting another Bible Club.” And she’s ordered a whole set, the Vacation pack of Kids Praise from us here at Haven Today. Then we got a little cryptic note from a woman named Carol in LaGrange, Illinois. The note said, “I hope Sammy loves these as much as his mom.” So I just had to get on the telephone and talk to her and find out what this was all about. Well, she had to go to the grocery store to pick up something and she was listening to us in the evening on WMBI in Chicago and she heard Psalty and it brought it all back because Kids Praise was part of raising her daughter. And so she ordered the vacation pack and it’s going to show up in a couple of days at her daughter’s home for her grandson Sammy. And she said, “When my daughter opens that package, she’s going to break down and cry.” Because this will minister to her son, just as it did to her. Well, these are just two of the many messages that we’ve been getting from people. We’re just happy to make these resources available to you. We’re happy that we can talk about how Jesus Christ loves children. And they need the Good News too, as Psalty, Ernie Rettino’s been telling us. So let me tell you about these resources we have for you. First, let me tell you where you go. You can just go to our home page, haventoday.org and there you’ll see the Kids Praise Collection on our home page, haventoday.org, under the specials on the right side. Or you can call us in a few moments. Toll free in North America at 1-800-65-HAVEN that’s 1-800-654-2836. We have on CD, Kids Praise 1 and 2. We also have the Vacation pack for you which is Kids Praise 1,2,3,4 and 5. We also have, on either DVD or VHS, Psalty’s Funtastic Praise Party, number 1 and 2 and they’re available for you as well. So, go to haventoday.org, or call us at 1-800-65-HAVEN. We’re going to be back again tomorrow. We’re not just going to minister to children. We’re going to minister to everybody. So be with us tomorrow as Jesus Christ is praised by kids of all ages, here on Haven Today. <br> <br>
