Your Child and Missions

One of the things I'm really excited about doing as an overseas missionary is finding ways to help our supporters and prayer partners expose their children to missions.   Here's what I mean.  I deeply believe that the best way to help a child understand what Christian life can and should look like, is to show him and practice it with them.  Through this, forming a personal relationship with God will come more naturally to him.  Similarly, I think that through having a regular and authentic exposure to worldwide missions, children can more naturally see how God would have them personally participate in the great commission.  

When I was a child, my mother made a point of showing us pictures of missionaries who were serving God around the world and praying with us for them.  I can still see in my mind's eye some of the pictures she showed us, and I'm so thankful for this early exposure to missions.  But today, with the technology we have readily accessible, there are so many more ways that children can get to know what God is doing through His people around the world.

I'm still thinking through different ways to do this, but here are a few of my ideas.

·      Videos of family life.  Through sharing occasional videos of the things that we do as a missionary family, and that Finn does as a missionary kid, our friends' kids back in the states can become familiar with what missionary life can be like.

·      Skype calls.  With families who would like to do this, I would love to utilize skype occasionally to stay in touch and share prayer requests.

·      Pictures - I think most of our supporters have a copy of our prayer card with our picture, so that they can show their children who we are and pray for us, but I also plan to have photos of all of our supporter's family's as well, so that Finn can get to know them as well and pray for them.  Maybe we'll make a supporter wall!

·      As Finn gets older and makes Peruvian friends who need to know Jesus, I hope that we can find ways for him to share this prayer request with our supporter's children.  Perhaps this will prompt children in the states to pray for and reach out to their own friends with the gospel.

·      Visits - of course I would absolutely love for some of our friends to come visit us as a family and see our lives and ministry first hand!

·      Pen pals (e-mail pals?) - I'm not going to say that I'll force this on my children, but if any of them have a leaning toward this, I'd love for Finn and any future children to correspond in writing with children in the states!  I think this could help children here understand more about missionary kids, and conversely, it could help my children better understand children growing up in the states!

·      I'd love any other suggestions or ideas you all might have too!  Maybe some of you have already found ways to expose your children to what other friends are doing on the mission field. 

All of this is a ministry of itself that I would really, really love to have, and I pray that God will enable me (and our friends and supporters) to follow through on it!  Let me know if you're interested!

- Laura Dougherty