Mission-Minded Children

We are blessed by our four young adult daughters who are all thoroughly mission-minded individuals.  Recently, I asked them, “If you were to encourage other parents, what were some of the things mom and I did that impacted you most in this area?”

Our Oldest Begins

“The first thing that comes to mind is reading the missionary biographies after dinner, I remember that we would SO look forward to those!  At times I would have rather read one of those then have dessert.  And I remember that we all wanted to be missionaries to different parts of the world based on these.  This is how I gained most of the knowledge about historical missionaries, because if we didn't read them I would know nothing about Mary Slessor (my favorite), George Mueller, Gladys Aylward, Amy Carmichael, or any others.”

In their excitement, our children would occasionally ask their friends about their own favorite missionary; but often others had no idea what a missionary even was.  I guess it is tough being a pastor’s kid at times.  

Experience Counts

All types of experiences prove valuable, from going, to sending, to supporting and to praying.  There are so many opportunities before us! Here are some more responses from the girls.

• Encouraging us to go on an evangelistic mission trip ourselves. “After the mission trip I was more mission-minded than before.”

• Hosting different missionaries in our home and hearing from them was cool too! We loved hearing stories and meeting people that do missions in different countries. 

• “Just reminding us to pray for the church when they were on mission trips, helped me think about missions a lot.” Especially, taking us to the World Christian Prayer Meetings at church, and telling us we had to pick one thing to pray for out loud.

• Supporting people financially and in other ways that go on trips was helpful. And it encouraged us to support our own endeavors, whether volunteer experiences, spiritual growth areas, or whatever.

Dad & Mom Both Push Mission

We pushed mission from the very beginning as part our our vision for our family.  As soon as we started receiving missionary newsletters as young parents we would put them in binders and use them in our times of family devotions during our prayer times. We even included mission readings as part of school, and they loved it.

Dad and mom need to go.  One daughter mentioned that we modeled for her how it all fits together--the strategy, fundraising, team dynamics, prayer, etc.  She remembered vividly that we shared stories with them and in front of the whole church with others who had gone.  These were stories about “PERSONAL experience,” and included pictures of those we met and who accepted Christ.

She went on to point out our “trusting and bold attitude towards missions.”  She went on to observe, “It's interesting because some people I have met at college get scared when I talk about going to India or a mission trip and because both you and mom are not afraid to let us go, then in turn I'm not afraid to step out into the world--God says to evangelize to the world and not just in our comfort zones!!”  Amen, to that!

More to Do and Learn

Children are a blessing; we received more information than expected.  It is always interesting what children remember and count as significant.  Certainly, there is a whole lot more we as parents can do to impart passion for the Mission of God in Christ to our children. 

You may have found many other creative and powerful ideas.  I would love to read your comments!  We still have two teenage boys at home and are considering what more to do to capture their hearts with the heart of God!

May God bless all you parenting efforts!