As I mentioned in my last post, Global Missions has really been on my mind and heart recently, so I’ve joined forces with two amazing bloggers to do a series of posts on developing a missions mindset within the home.
This week our focus is on ways to teach or emphasize missions in our own homes.
When I began researching for materials on missions to use with our four children (ages 4 through 13) in the home, I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of options available! I’ve compiled a list of favorite finds to share with you all.
8 Resources for Teaching Missions to Kids
*This post makes use of affiliate links. For more information, please visit Being Confident of This’s About page. Thank you for supporting the ministry of this site!
1. Growing Up Wild DVD series
The Wild brothers even have their own blog! So far, we have only watched the video clips available on the website, but we plan to purchase or borrow a DVD or two from this series. This method of teaching missions works well for antsy learners. 🙂
2. Caravan Friends website – is about the peoples of Asia – a country in the most unreached sector of the world. I love this website for teaching missions, and so did my four children (ages four to thirteen)! It is colorful and aesthetically pleasing. The characters they have created help teach children about different areas of Asia, and my children really connected with them.
The videos were interesting to watch and after watching one only twice, my seven-year old was spouting off facts about the people groups there. The stories are easy to read and not too long. In fact, I had our seven-year old read several to his younger siblings and he was able.
The website also includes resources for parents and teachers who are teaching missions, such as printables, coloring pages, and other suggested activities (seriously, check out the activities tab for some amazing ideas), etc. This would be the perfect site for someone wanting to lead a class on Missions for children, for a free homeschool curriculum resource, or for Children’s Church, Sunday School, AWANA, Vacation Bible School, etc.
3. Trailblazer Books by Dave and Neta Jackson
Right now we are nearly finished with the Samuel Morris story, and we have requests to read more of it nearly every day. It’s one book that I have actually been tempted to read more of on my own, even! Our four-year-old twins will usually only sit for one chapter at a time, but older children could easily read several chapters. I was happy to find that amazon carries used copies of volumes that contain 5 stories each! We bought several volumes for less than $20. The volume pictured below features Harriet Tubman, but it also has 4 other biographies in it. 🙂
4. Kids on Mission website – this website is put out by the International Missions Board of the Southern Baptist denomination. Kids on Mission offers a subscription that will provide you with a quarterly release on DVD. However, according to the website, if you are willing to download the files from the internet directly, you can access them for free! Under the prayer tab, there are even prayer requests from missionary kids themselves. What a unique resource for teaching missions. 🙂
5. New Tribes Mission – is the organization that my parents worked through as missionaries to Papua New Guinea (PNG). On their website you will find individual missionary pages and newsletters, as well as general information. While this website is designed for adults rather than children, I included it because they often upload new videos from various tribes around the world. I know my children enjoy seeing what it’s really like on the mission field or hearing about missions from tribal people themselves.
*One note of caution: not all stories are appropriate for all ages. Be sure to preview the videos before showing them to your children. Also, NTM publishes a magazine full of brief missionary stories that we often read to our children. This resource, NTM@Work, is completely free. All that is required of you is to go to the website to sign up for it! 🙂
6. Torchlighter DVD series – is very similar to the Trailblazer books in that it focuses on missionaries and other heroes of the Faith, but in a dvd format rather than a book format. This series features people like Corrie Ten Boom, Augustine, and others who help spread the Good News.
Our kids’ favorites so far are the Amy Carmichael story and the Jim Elliot story. Each animated feature is about 30 minutes in length. What better way to learn about missions than to hear the biographies of those who suffered for the faith, but impacted the world because of it! 🙂
7. Windows on the World – is a curriculum that focuses on specific people groups, and their culture and beliefs. Some of the information is factual in nature, but there are also stories about the people who live there and ways for children to pray for that particular group. This is an amazing resources for teaching missions with a global perspective.
8. Missionary Stories With the Millers
As I shared previously, I sometimes struggle with the question of “Am I doing enough?”
But I know that this is a good start, to teach my children of the great need. (It doesn’t hurt for me to learn more about the various people groups in need, either!)
Who knows?
We could be raising the next generation of missionaries right within our own homes!
The next post in the bloghop can be found over at Love Notes . Sarah shared more about engaging our children’s hearts in missions in Missional M&Ms!
If you have a tried and true resource for teaching Missions at home, would you please share with us in the comments? Thanks!
Jen 🙂
Also sharing this post with: Hive Resources, Grace and Truth
*This post makes use of affiliate links. For more information, please visit Being Confident of This’s About page. Thank you for supporting this blog!
I love how God links our hearts together in His perfect timing!
Can’t wait to share this with my networks, thanks!
Thanks, Mitzi! I’m sharing yours as well.
Jen 🙂
These looks like wonderful resources. Will get my daughter to look at them with me. Thanks for sharing and visiting my post.
I’m so glad you visited, and I’m even more glad to hear that you plan to use them with your daughter. That’s like music to my ears!
Jen 🙂
Some great ideas here. During our homeschooling years we enjoyed some of the Trail Blazer books, but one of our favorite books ever was Missionary Stories with the Millers. We still remember some of these stories although we read the book many years ago.
My daughter and her husband are moving to Peru tomorrow in a business as missions venture they are starting.
How exciting for them! 🙂 I pray the move goes smoothly. Even though I’m not a homeschooler, we have really enjoyed using these resources with our children. We usually read from the Trailblazer book before bed most days of the week. It has prompted some very interesting conversations in our home, that’s for sure. Thanks for visiting!
Jen 🙂
Thanks for the great resources -I grew up reading missionary stories, and look forward to sharing stories of Saints & Missionaries with my little one. And thanks for dropping by my blog & leaving a sweet comment. I’m subscribing, so hoping for more virtual visits in the future : )
I’m so glad to hear you were blessed with a godly heritage and that you plan to pass that on to your little one. We need more of that in this world! Thanks for visiting.
Jen 🙂
Hi, Jen,
Thank you so much for visiting me at Deep Roots! What a beautiful, inspiring post and blog! I would like to invite you to consider linking up (if you haven’t already) on the link-up party that happens Wednesdays weekly. The encouragement you bring would be a blessings to the community at Deep Roots! Blessings to you 🙂
Hi, Jacqueline. 🙂 It’s nice to “meet” you. I’ve been enjoying linking up at your blog for a month or more now. I appreciate you extending an invitation, though. It’s confirmation for me that your blog is a good place for me to link to. I greatly appreciate your kind words as I really admire your blog and community.
Jen 🙂
Thanks for stopping by my site today. It sounds like you are doing a wonderful job of teaching your children about helping others spread the gospel and about serving/loving their neighbor. I will have to check out your similar post. Kim
Thanks for visiting, Kim!
Jen 🙂
Thanks for compiling this list. I was familiar with about half of them, so I’m excited to find some new ones! Hopped over from Mom’s Library.
Tina
I’m glad you found some new ones, Tina! 🙂 If you’re interested in looking for more, click on the link at the bottom of the post to head over and check out my sister’s ideas for emphasizing missions in the home. She has some very creative ones posted!
Jen 🙂
This is a fabulous list of great resources – such a useful thing to share.
I linked here from 1-minute Bible Love Notes and thought you might want to link this post at the linkup I host called Essential Fridays.
http://essentialthingdevotions.com/2013/07/19/family-life-quality-time-part-2/
I’m sure my readers would love to see this!
Blessings.
I’m so sorry, Melanie, but your comment got lost in my spam folder for some reason. 🙂 Now that I have found it, I’ll definitely look up Essential Fridays. Thank you for the invite!
Jen 🙂
It’s not about “missions” in the sense we normally think, but Compassion International can be a great resource, too. When you sponsor a child, your own children can write to the sponsored child. Compassion also puts out a magazine for sponsors maybe three times per year. You can opt in to receive a children’s insert in that magazine. It’s geared toward younger children, but it’s very well done. The insert contains information about children in other cultures, hands-on activities to do, stories about children doing something to help others, etc.
Compassion was one on my mind as well, Rachelle. However, I didn’t know about the insert for children – how neat! 🙂 Thanks for sharing that tip with us!
Jen 🙂
What a great list of resources. I can’t wait to delve into these as my kids grow older! I love Dave and Neta Jackson’s books – I am sure I’d find the trailblazer series fascinating to read with my kids. Thank you very much for a wonderful and informative post!
Thanks, Rosilind! I know there are many resources out there, but these ones were the most interesting for my family. We just finished the Samuel Morris story and it prompted a really good discussion about missions and about following God wherever He leads!
Jen 🙂
Love this list, Jen! Our guys LOVE the Torchlighter series – PureFlix has all the episodes on their stream service. I really want to get the Trailblaizers series – were they written by the same people, I wonder?
Thanks for the great list, and for linking up with Grace & Truth this week. 🙂
Glad you liked it, Jenn! 🙂 I really need to look into PureFlix. I’ve been hearing a lot about it recently. We’ve been interested in either that or getting a ClearPlay dvd player.
Jen 🙂
I love Window on the World. It is a great book that tells of different religions, cultures and demographics around the world. I’ve used it for years!
Most important thing? Children have to know to look beyond their own two eyes!