MISSIONS and a "missionary dog"

 Teach Children About Missions:

1.      INFORMATION:  Pray about the right missionaries you are going to support.  Tell the children about them and their families.  Where they stay, how they live, what they do, what they eat. Talk about the culture and customs of the country where the missionaries are working.

If possible invite missionaries to your Sunday school or Good News club so that the children can get first hand knowledge of the missionaries and their work. Ask missionaries to write you letters or send prayer cards or newsletters so that you can read them to the children.  They can also send some photographs or pictures so that children can make photo-albums or books about their missionaries

2.      PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT: Get children personally involved by praying for missionaries that you support.  Let children write to missionaries or make books or cards for missionaries and let them correspond with the missionaries. Encourage children to support missionaries by giving money for certain projects e.g. a vehicle for the missionary or money for the bricks of a building.  Make a visual to encourage children to bring money towards a project, e.g. for a building you can draw a wall with different bricks and when children bring money, write their names on the bricks, etc.

3.      MISSIONARY MEALS:  Arrange missionary meals a few times per year where the missionaries are invited to the meals and where they can share about their ministry:  They can share “Praise items, Prayer items and Problem items”.

4.      MISSIONS  AFTERNOON FOR CHILDREN:  We invited different missionaries to a missions afternoon for children.  We came together as a group in the church  – about 150 children.  We started to praise and worship God.  Then each child got a “passport” with the different countries where the missionaries were working – like Mauritius, Hereroland in Namibia and Promosa.  All the children were devided into 3 groups and as they moved to the different “mission stations” where they met the 3 missionaries we invited, they got a stamp in their passports.  Each missionary had 15 minutes to share about their mission field to the group of children with them.  We rang a bell and then the children moved to the next mission station and got their second stamp in their passports.  After the third mission station, everybody came to the church again where we had a quizz in the form of a treasure hunt about all the information they got at the different “mission stations” from our missionaries.  Then they all went out to the playground and got refreshments before they left.

5.      MISSIONARY STORIES:  Tell Missionary stories to children so that you can inspire them to become missionaries.  Stories like Tom the Cripple, Amy Carmichael, Ringu and Hudson Taylor help children to identify with the main characters and motivate them to become missionaries.   

A Missionary Dog:  Mr. Sam Doherty tells the true story of a missionary dog in his book Bible talks for children nr. 2.

“Chinese soldiers lived in a large military barracks just opposite a mission church.  The missionaries tried to evangelize the soldiers and tell them about the Gospel, but everytime they were driven out.

They decided to pray about the matter and ask God to help them to find the right way to bring the Gospel message to these soldiers.

One day one of the missionaries was cleaning out a cupboard when he found some sheets of paper.  He thought they were of no use to anyone and threw them out.  He never noticed that among the loose sheets of paper were some pages from an old Chinese Bible.

A little dog was romping in the street outside and when he saw the loose pages being blown away, he seized some of them and when some Chinese children chased the little dog, he ran straight into the barracks with the loose pages of the Chinese Bible still in his mouth.

No more was thought about the little dog until, at the close of the Sunday Gospel service, a Chinese Officer accompanied by two other soldiers in uniform came into the church.  He said to the missionary in charge: “I have some torn pages here which a little dog brought into the barracks the other day.  We have read them and they seem to be a very interesting story about a military campaign.  We would like to read the rest of the story.  We think it might have come from a book in your mission.  If it has, we would like a copy so that we can read the whole story.”

The missionary looked at the loose pages and saw to his surprise that they came from the book of Joshua, one of the books in the Bible.  What a pleasure it was for him to give the officer and two soldiers a copy of the whole Bible in Chinese. 

The soldiers were so grateful that they and the missionaries became great friends.  Many of the soldiers heard about the Lord Jesus Christ and became Christians.

Some years later one of these missionaries was visiting Manchuria, a part of China.  As he got off the train a tall Chinese man greeted him and asked, “Do you remember me?”

“No, I’m afraid I don’t, replied the missionary.

“I am one of the soldiers who became a Christian when I was living in the barracks opposite your church.  I have now given up the army and am preaching the good news about the Lord Jesus Christ.””  

God used a little dog to take  pages from the Bible into a barracks and Chinese soldiers became Christians and even became missionaries who preached the Gospel.  

Challenge:  God used the missionaries to pray for the Chinese soldiers.  He used a little dog to take the Bible pages to the barracks of the soldiers.  God touched the hearts of the soldiers and some of them became Christians.  The Lord can use you to pray for people who do not know Him.  He can use you to talk to people about the Lord Jesus.  God can use tracts that you distribute to people who do not know Him to come to Him!