Sondra Saunders doesn’t know the
name of every boy and girl in the
Children’s Ministry. After all, more than
5,000 attend on any given week. But
there is, and always has been, a special
place in her heart for them; they’re all
part of the Prestonwood family, and she
loves and prays for them all.
In her 28 years as Senior Children’s Minister at Prestonwood,
Sondra guesses that more than 26,000 children have been
through the Children’s Ministry. Some of them, like Leslie Luce
and Amanda Rogers, remain members and now have children
of their own attending here. There are lawyers, like Christine
Rankin who is an assistant district attorney in San Antonio;
commercial real estate agents like Aaron Murff and Jason
Cherry; educators like Ashley Smith, a professor at Criswell
College; ministers like Jennifer Kuba, a preschool minister in
Oklahoma, and Trey
Graham, a senior
pastor in North Texas.
And just as they have
touched her life,
those who grew up
in Prestonwood say it
helped to shape who
they are now.
Trey Graham
attended
Prestonwood as a
child in the early
1980s. Today he is
the senior pastor of
First Baptist Church
– Melissa. His wife, Bretta, also grew up at Prestonwood.
“The Children’s Ministry taught me the basics of the Christian
faith,” he said. “I received Christ as Savior of my life at age 13,
and I was called into pastoral ministry a short time later.”
Now, at the church he leads, the children’s ministry is a major
focus, Trey said.
“God is allowing us to reach so many young families who have
not previously been involved in a local church,” he said.
The great number of unchurched families in North Texas
is precisely the reason expansion is so critical for the
overcrowded Children’s Ministry Building at Prestonwood.
Through Beyond All Limits and the future Saunders Children’s
Building, the ministry will be able to reach more families. The
work of volunteers and staff serves as the foundation for lifealtering
decisions years down the road.
“It’s so nice to see these kids sharing their faith when they’re
with their friends and taking a stand for Jesus,” Sondra said.
Minister of Children Diana Pendley said the foundation is one
that lasts a lifetime.
“You may not see immediate changes,” Diana said. “But you’re
helping children understand: ‘Why do I believe that?’ ‘Where
is that in the Bible?’ Our focus is laying a strong foundation
for children to know that God loves them and has a plan for
them.”
For Sondra, the foundation of a good
children’s ministry was especially
important to her as a child because she
was not raised in a Christian home.
The influence of her church and
loving Christian adults helped
her develop the passion for
children’s ministry that she
has today.
“If it weren’t for that children’s ministry, I wouldn’t be saved
and I wouldn’t be in the ministry. The persistence and
consistency of every leader was so important to me.”
Today, Sondra and the
rest of the Children’s
Ministry staff and
volunteers extend
that same passion,
persistence and
consistency to children
who enter the church
building every day.
Amanda Rogers,
a volunteer in the
Children’s Ministry,
joined Prestonwood
when she was 9. At age
10, she became very sick with Crohn’s
disease and was not expected to live
to be 18.
“Sondra and her team were faithful to
support my family,” she said. “They were
always praying for us.”
Amanda and her husband attend
Prestonwood, and their two
children are active in the
Children’s Ministry. Amanda
volunteers in the Special
Needs Ministry. Through
Beyond All Limits, some
classrooms will be
dedicated to Special
Needs, a ministry that
has tripled in size over
the last two years.
“When three out of four
of my best friends had
special needs children, I knew God was calling me to serve in
this ministry,” Amanda said.
Prestonwood also changed Leslie Luce’s life at the young
age of 9.
“The Prestonwood church
family was my refuge,” she
recalled. “My parents did
not attend church, so it was
a source of incredible hope
and truth in my life. And
now as an adult, I realize
just how much those seeds
that were planted later
influenced me.”
Leslie attended
Prestonwood until she was
a freshman in high school.
She now attends with her
husband and children.
“I remember Saturday
nights in Dallas when the
church was at Hillcrest
and Arapaho, seeing
children running up and
down the aisles, and
making a decision to raise
my kids in a church where
they would learn about
the freedom we have in
Christ,” she said.
Trey thanks God for the difference the Children’s Ministry made
in his life and continues to make in countless lives.
“I pray that many future ministry leaders will be raised up from
the current generation of children at Prestonwood,” he said.
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