Two Lancaster Bible College students took their learning beyond the classroom in a significant way when they traveled with a professor to Ethiopia for the Global Children’s Forum (GCF).
Dr. Esther Zimmerman traveled with students Julia Bitler (’24) and Abigail Baker (’25) to Ethiopia for the networking event that seeks to bring people together from around the globe who share the goal of reaching children with the gospel. The theme of the event was “Families on Mission.”
Dr. Esther Zimmerman, far left, spends time with other attendees to the Global Children’s Forum in Ethiopia.
“Even though the forum was held in Ethiopia, it wasn’t about Ethiopia, it was about global children’s ministry,” explained Zimmerman, the Associate Chair of the Church & Ministry Leadership Department, as well as the Children & Family Ministry Program Director at Lancaster Bible College | Capital Seminary & Graduate School.
“The forum was a weeklong event where children’s ministry leaders from around the world gathered together and talked about ways to reach children specifically within their cultural contexts,” said Bitler.
Added Baker, “Each day we had some time together hearing devotions and discussing how families as a whole live on mission with God. We talked about how many different families are found even in the Bible and how family doesn’t have to be perfect to be used by God.”
Baker and Bitler, both Children & Family Ministry majors at LBC, asked Zimmerman if they could accompany her on the trip after learning more about the organization’s work.
“Since the 2023 Missions Conference, I have been praying about having an opportunity to go to another country and engage in God’s work there,” Baker said. “As [Dr. Zimmerman] was talking about the upcoming conference with GCF, I decided to learn more and see if God would continue to draw me to it. I decided this was Him answering my prayer for a cross-cultural opportunity and saw it as an invaluable learning and application opportunity.”
The forum was hosted in Addis, Ethiopia, where 110 people from 25 countries came together to discuss global children’s ministry.
From left, Julia Bitler (’24), Dr. Esther Zimmerman and Abigail Baker (’25) traveled to Addis, Ethiopia, to interact with more than 100 others who are involved in children’s ministry in 25 countries.
“There were maybe five or six of us total that even came from the continent of North America,” said Bitler. “It was powerful to be among like-minded people, with one goal, even though we didn’t speak the same language. We were all striving to see the same things around the world: passion for children to come to know the Lord and love Him and serve Him.”
Zimmerman explained that the Global Children’s Forum asks the question, “What can we do together that we cannot do individually?”
“You have AWANA, you’ve got Scripture Union, you’ve got Bible Centered Ministries (BCM), you’ve got various denominations, you’ve got Compassion International, you’ve got all these groups working with children,” said Zimmerman. “We’re all doing good work, but we’re all kind of doing it in silos. So in GCF we are asking, is there anything that is too big for one of us to do, but by combining our energy and voice we might be able to get movement in?”
Zimmerman was previously involved with the GCF through her position as International Children’s Ministry Director for BCM. She then served on the GCF leadership team before joining LBC | Capital. She continues to be involved with various GCF projects.
Through GCF, Zimmerman helped start and now oversees the leadership development program called “Leadership Experience.”
“Leadership Experience is a yearlong, online program for those interested in children’s ministry,” she said. “The program centers around the topic of children’s ministry. There are four to five weeks where everyone is together talking about what that looks like.”
At the Ethiopia forum, Zimmerman was encouraged by the work the Lord is doing through the Leadership Experience program.
“Seeing so many Leadership Experience alumni together and participating as leaders within the forum groups was really neat,” she said. “I’ve spent 10 years as a part of a small group working on the Leadership Experience, and it was really rewarding to sit back and watch key leaders I’ve invested in.”
Throughout the week, several forum groups discussed topics such as Sport and Play, Parenting, Child Safety, Academia and Generous Generations, or Gen-G. Both Baker and Bitler were able to participate in these group discussions and were impacted by the unity in Christ among such a diverse group of people as well as the importance of living on mission.
“Something that really hit me as an individual was that each person has to be living on mission individually for us to be collectively living on mission,” said Bitler. “What are the choices that I am making today to help me to live on mission? How am I orienting my life to be on mission, because it doesn’t just start when you go to another country.”
Baker had similar takeaways, stating, “I loved fellowshipping and working together with so many brothers and sisters in Christ. It felt like a very small taste of heaven that left me wanting it even more. It truly was so encouraging to see them all captivated by God and so strongly committed to knowing, loving and obeying Him—and helping children do the same.”