How to Teach About Missions!
By Doreen Palcolm
Teach children about missions! They can understand what Jesus meant when He said, “Go teach all nations.”
First, help your children to know Jesus wants all children and all grown-ups everywhere to know that He loves them. Then help the children understand how people in different parts of the world learn about God.
1. Show pictures of people in other countries. (Old copies of National Geographic magazines are good sources of such pictures.) Help them understand that God loves these people. Sing— “Jesus Loves the Little Children.”
2. Help the children get acquainted with a missionary of your church. Show a picture of the missionary. Help the youngsters learn to say the missionary’s name. Explain that a missionary is a person who tells people about God and His Son, the Lord Jesus. Read a missionary story, preferably from the country where your missionary works.
3. Explain to the five-year-old that God wants him to have a part in “teaching all nations.” The child’s part is to pray that God will help the missionaries and to give money so the missionary can have Bibles, Bible story-books, pictures, food and medicines. Plan a missionary project that provides an opportunity for the child to give.
4. Use a Bible storybook printed in a foreign language to help the children understand one way people in other lands learn about God. (Obtain a child’s Bible storybook in a foreign language by writing to GLINT, Gospel Literature in Native Tongues, 725 E. Colorado, Glendale, Calif. 91205. Ask for a free copy of a child’s Bible story book in another language.)
Use the foreign language book with the following conversation: “If we sent our own Bible storybooks to a child in a far away country, he would like to look at the pictures, but his father and mother could not read the Bible story because they do not read our language.
“Boys and girls in other lands need Bible storybooks in their own language so they can learn about God. Let’s bow our heads and pray that the missionaries will be able to print many of these storybooks so boys and girls from other countries can hear Bible stories in their own languages.”
Use missionary stories from Missionary Stories for Preschoolers, Gospel Light Publications. Available from your Sunday school supplier.
5. Use Costumes. Give children a realistic idea of the youngsters in other lands as they sing “Jesus Loves the Little Children, All the Children of the World.” Have four children, each one wearing an article of clothing that is typical of dress in another country, stand with you in front of the group. Articles of clothing could include: a sombrero (Mexico), a lei (South Sea Islands), a feathered head band (American Indians), a kimono (the Orient).
Explain that although a child may have a different color skin, or dress in clothes that look unusual to us, God loves him. God loves everyone!
Excerpted from “175 Tips On Getting And Keeping Preschoolers’ And Their Parents’! Attention by Doreen Palcolm
This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes, “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”
