When I first heard of the idea, I must say I wasn’t sure about it.  My son Drew, 11 years old at the time, came home the week before Halloween and excitedly told me his plans for the night of trick or treat.  He told me that in his weekly Kids for Christ Bible study at his elementary school, he was taught how to evangelize the Gospel of Christ to strangers in a simple, effective manner.  He was taught the scriptural principles of salvation through Christ Jesus, and was also taught a simple prayer to lead a person to Christ.  If he would have stopped there, I would have had no hesitations.  However, Drew proceeded to tell me that he was encouraged to implement this plan at EVERY DOOR he knocked on as he went trick or treating!  As I hid my reluctance of the idea, I reached deep for an enthusiastic “hey, that sounds great; I can’t wait to see how it goes!”  In the back of mind, I was wrongly concerned for a couple of different reasons.

Through the years we have had people ask us if we really think the ticket to heaven prayer is effective. " After all they are just children" is often the comment.  Well This week I had an email from an ecstatic mom that I what to share with you.  Please note this is we exact words, except the name of the child, her mom and the school have been removed for their protection.  Please read this exciting story:

Back in March we were contacted by Peter and Liliya Walsh of Sacramento, California.  Liliya read the article about Bob Heath in Charisma Magazine in March of this year.  Then she, Peter and three other friends drove 10 hours from Sacramento to the Rancho Cucamonga to hear Bob at Abundant Living Family Church when he did a conference there. 

Last year in October we tried something “new.”  Unlike "Operation Big Bird," which was an attempt to get every one of the kids we minister to, to lead their families in the Ticket to Heaven Prayer at the thanksgiving table, this was easy! Last year we did it in three of the schools. Bob Heath encouraged the kids to do what he called "Operation Treat-or-Treat."  Bob realized that contrary to what many Christians and Christian leaders would like to see happen, kids are going to go Trick or Treating.  He spent a few minutes each week in October role-playing with the kids preparing them to be bold for the cause of the gospel.  The plan was to get kids to hand out tickets to heaven to the adults who answered the doors on Halloween night.