About Me
Hi, My name is Ginger Mokher and I’m glad you have landed on my site. I’ve had one great passion for all of my adult life (don’t tell my husband) and it is a passion for working with children and their families.
If you would have asked ANY of my high school or college friends what they thought I would ‘grow up to be,’ I’d stake my life on it that NONE of them would have said, “a Children’s Minister.” Yet, God has a sense of humor because that’s what I grew up to be. First, they would not have imagined I would look for a job in a church and that a church would hire me! And equally as surprising, me working with children! I didn’t even think I wanted my own children so why would I choose to work with someone else’s?
Truthfully, I do not think I chose-I think God chose for me, and guided me towards an open door where He would change the trajectory of my life. I worked for a large church in Miami, Christ Journey, for 23 years. I left church work for a time to help my adult children who were having babies and after five years, returned to ministry in a much smaller church, Crossbridge, and helped them start a Children’s Ministry on two of their campuses.
When I was growing up, our family ( I’m sure not all six of us at the same time) attended church once in a blue moon. But, my parents did place me in Westminster Christian School so I was around christian families for most of childhood and I certainly learned a lot about God and the Bible. But, I also learned that there is all the difference in the world in knowing about God and knowing God.
When I was about eight years old I knew enough about God to cry out to Him for help when my family was suffering from very painful situations in life. But, when seemingly God did not answer my prayers, I presumed that God would only reward the good families for living the way you’re supposed to live, rather than helping the bad families who were not living by His “rules.” How wrong I was! Eventually I would see God heal my family demonstrating the beauty of His desire to redeem and restore broken lives.
To quickly summarize fifty years in a couple paragraphs, God was listening to my prayers and was working behind the scenes, ensuring that not only would I come to know God and His Son, Jesus, but God would use those painful experiences in my family to relate to and comfort many children growing up in the next generation who would experience similar pain. God worked through my life to be a refuge and a resource during their time of need.
During childhood I developed a false theology about God and it wasn’t until much later, after some years of my own rebellion against Him, that loving adults began to step into my life and correct some of my false beliefs. I began to attend what I can now define as a church whose people embodied amazing grace.
When my three children were quite young, God gifted me with a marvelous mentor, a retired pediatrician who volunteered in the children’s program at my church. She knew that the church was going to be hiring someone to oversee some of the Preschool Divisions and she recommended me for the position. I was so proud of myself that someone of her caliber would choose me! But before I could start patting myself on the back, I learned that she chose me because I was the least qualified. I knew nothing about children that she would have to help me un-learn. I was a blank slate so to speak, and for the next fifteen years she trained me. She gave me book after book to read and report back to her about. She made me teach to others what she had me learning. She brought me into her classroom which would serve as a laboratory for me to practice what she was teaching me. Can you believe that she was still leading a preschool classroom at 100 years of age! She was a remarkable, larger than life character who gave her all on behalf of young children and their families.
Once on staff, I began to promote, taking on more responsibility for broader ages of children and being able to hire and develop additional staff to oversee the divisions we established as our church grew. In 2004, as a part of our professional development, we chose to attend a conference hosted by a highly successful Children’s Ministry. In fact, their Children’s Ministry was larger than our entire mega-church! The director of this ministry had just released her new book and I knew I would want to read it. Her books were, in tall book displays all over the campus. Her book was entitled Making Your Children’s Ministry the Best Hour of Every Kid’s Week. This title hit a nerve in me. I knew the emotion I was feeling had nothing to do with the book itself. God used what I was feeling to help me crystalize the vision and values He was guiding us to develop for a transition in the Children’s Ministry I was leading. I do want you to know that I went on to read her book and the content was great - full of wisdom from a seasoned leader -but I’ll bet her publisher chose that title.
For me, most likely because of my own childhood experiences, I wanted the best hour of a kid’s week to happen with their family, not in the Children’s Ministry of a church. From that year on we began to transition our Children’s Ministry to a Family Ministry model. We recognized that our parents needed leaders, who demonstrated through their programming, a strong sense of belief in their potential and who were willing to become actively involved in coming alongside them, helping them understand God’s plan for their family. A parent’s role is to impress upon their children the love and character of God. That was the goal of our Family Ministry then, and it is still a guiding principal for my ministry to children. Welcome to this next chapter in ministry to families. I’m excited to help you with the most important responsibility in your life - introducing your children to Jesus and helping. Them. To grow hearts like His.
If you would have asked ANY of my high school or college friends what they thought I would ‘grow up to be,’ I’d stake my life on it that NONE of them would have said, “a Children’s Minister.” Yet, God has a sense of humor because that’s what I grew up to be. First, they would not have imagined I would look for a job in a church and that a church would hire me! And equally as surprising, me working with children! I didn’t even think I wanted my own children so why would I choose to work with someone else’s?
Truthfully, I do not think I chose-I think God chose for me, and guided me towards an open door where He would change the trajectory of my life. I worked for a large church in Miami, Christ Journey, for 23 years. I left church work for a time to help my adult children who were having babies and after five years, returned to ministry in a much smaller church, Crossbridge, and helped them start a Children’s Ministry on two of their campuses.
When I was growing up, our family ( I’m sure not all six of us at the same time) attended church once in a blue moon. But, my parents did place me in Westminster Christian School so I was around christian families for most of childhood and I certainly learned a lot about God and the Bible. But, I also learned that there is all the difference in the world in knowing about God and knowing God.
When I was about eight years old I knew enough about God to cry out to Him for help when my family was suffering from very painful situations in life. But, when seemingly God did not answer my prayers, I presumed that God would only reward the good families for living the way you’re supposed to live, rather than helping the bad families who were not living by His “rules.” How wrong I was! Eventually I would see God heal my family demonstrating the beauty of His desire to redeem and restore broken lives.
To quickly summarize fifty years in a couple paragraphs, God was listening to my prayers and was working behind the scenes, ensuring that not only would I come to know God and His Son, Jesus, but God would use those painful experiences in my family to relate to and comfort many children growing up in the next generation who would experience similar pain. God worked through my life to be a refuge and a resource during their time of need.
During childhood I developed a false theology about God and it wasn’t until much later, after some years of my own rebellion against Him, that loving adults began to step into my life and correct some of my false beliefs. I began to attend what I can now define as a church whose people embodied amazing grace.
When my three children were quite young, God gifted me with a marvelous mentor, a retired pediatrician who volunteered in the children’s program at my church. She knew that the church was going to be hiring someone to oversee some of the Preschool Divisions and she recommended me for the position. I was so proud of myself that someone of her caliber would choose me! But before I could start patting myself on the back, I learned that she chose me because I was the least qualified. I knew nothing about children that she would have to help me un-learn. I was a blank slate so to speak, and for the next fifteen years she trained me. She gave me book after book to read and report back to her about. She made me teach to others what she had me learning. She brought me into her classroom which would serve as a laboratory for me to practice what she was teaching me. Can you believe that she was still leading a preschool classroom at 100 years of age! She was a remarkable, larger than life character who gave her all on behalf of young children and their families.
Once on staff, I began to promote, taking on more responsibility for broader ages of children and being able to hire and develop additional staff to oversee the divisions we established as our church grew. In 2004, as a part of our professional development, we chose to attend a conference hosted by a highly successful Children’s Ministry. In fact, their Children’s Ministry was larger than our entire mega-church! The director of this ministry had just released her new book and I knew I would want to read it. Her books were, in tall book displays all over the campus. Her book was entitled Making Your Children’s Ministry the Best Hour of Every Kid’s Week. This title hit a nerve in me. I knew the emotion I was feeling had nothing to do with the book itself. God used what I was feeling to help me crystalize the vision and values He was guiding us to develop for a transition in the Children’s Ministry I was leading. I do want you to know that I went on to read her book and the content was great - full of wisdom from a seasoned leader -but I’ll bet her publisher chose that title.
For me, most likely because of my own childhood experiences, I wanted the best hour of a kid’s week to happen with their family, not in the Children’s Ministry of a church. From that year on we began to transition our Children’s Ministry to a Family Ministry model. We recognized that our parents needed leaders, who demonstrated through their programming, a strong sense of belief in their potential and who were willing to become actively involved in coming alongside them, helping them understand God’s plan for their family. A parent’s role is to impress upon their children the love and character of God. That was the goal of our Family Ministry then, and it is still a guiding principal for my ministry to children. Welcome to this next chapter in ministry to families. I’m excited to help you with the most important responsibility in your life - introducing your children to Jesus and helping. Them. To grow hearts like His.