My Testimony ~ God's Story of Grace!

Once upon a time, on a cold winter snowy night in Michigan, I heard Elijah’s call to turn my heart back to my children. I did not hear this call through the preaching of a sermon from the pulpit or from a chapter in a book. I heard Elijah’s call through the cries of my children.

I was gathering my papers and briefcase so I could run out the door to an important meeting to plan the building of a larger church. I was in a rush. My children, Jason and Julie, were 6 and 3 years old. They heard me getting ready to leave. They ran up to me, asking, “Where are you going, Daddy?”

“I am going to a meeting,” I replied factually.

“Daddy, stay home tonight!” they pleaded. “You are always gone! Daddy, you never play with us anymore!”

I leaned over to give my son and daughter quick hugs and kisses. Their little arms wrapped around me tightly. When I tried to stand up, they would not let me go! They clung to me with intense desperation. They were trying to keep their over-committed daddy home.

I had to gently pry their arms off my neck so I could go. They started crying. “Daddy, just tonight! Please stay home!”

I backed out of the house and closed the door. As I walked out into the snow, the picture of my children crying and reaching out to me lingered heavily on my heart. As I trudged through the snow to my “very important” church meeting, God spoke to my heart. He called me by name. I stopped in my tracks. On that night, as the snow silently fell around me, God called me, Don MacLafferty, back to my children. He called me to turn my heart toward home.

That was a very difficult call for me. I was often out seven nights a week, helping others while neglecting my own family. I loved my wife and children deeply. But the reality was, both my wife and children often got only the “leftovers” of my time. It was a painful wake-up call but a call of mercy that led to healing in my home.

From that day forward, I began to say “No” to many requests from those outside my home so I could say yes to God and to my family. It was not easy, but God helped me to begin safeguarding time with those that mattered most--Himself and my family.

At first, my children’s hearts were not open to me. I had said no to their requests to play too many times. Often, I felt like a failure. But the call of Elijah comes with the healing power of the Lord. The Lord helped my children to forgive me. He literally turned my heart to them and their little hearts back to me. Praise God!

The Apostle John, with the same Holy Spirit power of the Prophet Elijah, prepared the people for the coming of the Messiah. Like Elijah, John called for revival. He preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2). John, also like Elijah, called the hearts of the fathers back to their children. In Luke 1:17 we read, "He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, 'to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,' and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

Today, we are commissioned to do likewise. Just as John prepared the people of the first century to receive Jesus as the Messiah, today, we are called to prepare people to receive Jesus as the King of kings who will come in the clouds, and this starts with helping fathers and mothers turn their hearts back to their children.

The wake-up call I received on that cold winter night was a turning point in my life and forever shaped the direction of our lives and ministry. 

In 2001 my wife gave birth to our third child! That same year April and I began asking God to guide us to a solution for the many children and youth that were leaving their churches and Jesus Christ as their Savior. 

After months of praying, God spoke to my heart one day while hiking down a trail. He said two things: "You are not discipling the children. Secondly, you are divorcing the children from their parents."

I was shocked! Why would God say I was not discipling His children when I was supportive of so many different church-run programs built on growing a child's faith? Why would God say that my style of working with youth was divorcing the child from their parents? I prayed and wrestled with God's confrontation.

God gave me direction that very day to begin a ministry to call busy parents back to discipling their own children to Jesus Christ. It would be a ministry to intentionally grow children as disciples of Christ with parents as the primary disciple-makers.

I had no clue where to begin with starting such a ministry, but I knew that God's Word would provide the values, priorities and methods. 

In 2002 my wife, April, and I launched Kids in Discipleship with the following Bible passages forming the inspiration:

"And it shall be in the last days," God says, "That I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." Acts 2:17

"Behold, I am going to send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse." Malachi 4:5,6

"Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." Deuteronomy 6:4-9

In 2002 the Collegedale Church (in partnership with the Georgia-Cumberland Conference, Southern Union and the North American Division) gave me the opportunity to pioneer Kids In Discipleship for children and their families. For the next ten years God opened the way to create discipling curriculum for small groups and to learn from families and children participating in almost every continent of the world. (Unfortunately, we still haven’t been to Antarctica!)

In 2012 God called April and me to Clovis, California, where we continued to pioneer In Discipleship in an urban setting as I pastored. For nearly five years we saw what God could do to engage children, youth and adults with the written Word of God during intergenerational worship. We had the joy of seeing what God could do to give young and old a voice with their gifts and talents. We saw what God could do with elders in the church who would volunteer to grow as disciples and disciple-makers. We also saw what God could do to mobilize and empower children and teens, in a high school in Fresno, to serve their community with the love of God.

Over the years God continually expanded the vision. Educators from around the world increasingly asked if they could be a part of Kids In Discipleship. Soon we had Schools in Discipleship as well. In 2013, In Discipleship was launched and registered in the USA as a non-profit 501(c)3.

On November 22, 2016, God called me and my wife April to step away from pastoral ministry, after being employed for 25 years in the denomination. God was asking us to become full-time faith volunteers to serve wherever HE called. 

In 2017 God sent us as volunteer missionaries to Alberta, Canada to partner with His people there in calling for revival and discipling the new generations for Christ. We saw the Holy Spirit poured out on children, youth and adults during revivals across the prairies. We were deeply moved to our core to see the Holy Spirit raise up young and old to champion the calling of the generations to a revival with Jesus and to lead them to live as disciples and disciple-makers now for the Lord.

To this day, we continue to work as full-time faith volunteers, going wherever God calls. We do not have any employees, and we do not take a stipend from the donations that come into the In Discipleship ministry. However, for almost 9 years now God has shown His faithfulness to supply whatever is needed to do what He has called the MacLafferty family to do. He also continues to send volunteers to assist us in ministry all across the globe, and with His blessing, our focus continues to be on championing intergenerational revival and discipling the new generations through a partnership of the home, school, and church. 

In 2020 God brought us back to the Chattanooga, Tennessee area where we continue to serve as full time volunteer missionaries. We pray that God will raise up many champions in this area to call all ages to come to Jesus Christ NOW before He returns. We are also praying for more champions to disciple the new generations to trust, follow and share Jesus with His urgency for these last days.

The healing of the family is a pivotal part of revival, and it is a pivotal part of the Elijah message. Revival must be the daily goal in our hearts. Worship at the altar as a family must be the heartbeat of our homes. As our families experience a daily revival with Jesus through worship, unrushed time in His written Word, and in prayer, the Spirit of God will be unleashed and poured out as never before. We are almost out of time. The Holy Spirit is preparing us to meet Jesus soon! Now is the time to live the message of Elijah for these last days! Now is the time to turn our hearts toward home. Now is the time to focus our eyes on Jesus!