This is an article from the March-April 2002 issue: Putting Church on the Back of a Camel

Kids Korner

Kids Korner

Not Just an Option

Nancy Tichy

Teaching missions to children is not just a creative option added to basic curricula. It could well be the principal means God will use to raise up a powerful, godly generation of adults.

Around the world today’s ten­year-olds are being influenced for good and for evil. Millions in Africa are AIDS orphans, and thousands in Muslim nations are being indoctri­nated to commit acts of terror. Girls are trapped in the sex industry of Asia, while boys are trained to be Buddhist monks or boy soldiers. By contrast, we have the immense privilege and obligation to disciple our children to be biblically literate, experienced in powerful intercession and wholly com­mitted to God’s great global kingdom. No other “cause” is as worthy. Signifi­cant victories may be won in 20 years by the adults who learned to attempt great things for God and expect great things from God as children – today!

The following “Bill of Rights for Kingdom Kids” can help guide us as we seek to follow God’s leading in ministry to children.

We hold the following as inalienable rights for Christian children today:

  1. The right to develop a Biblical world view, learning to put God at the center of their personal universe.
  2. The right to know their rich Christian heritage, especially about people who have kept alive God’s thread of prom­ise, from the apostle Paul’s day to the present.
  3. The right to age-appropriate and exciting presentations that vividly portray how mis­sionaries live and serve God.
  4. The right to enter into some missionaries’ lives, discover­ing how to encourage and love them, and how to pray for them specifically, regularly, and fervently.
  5. The right to an ever-maturing awareness of local and world­wide needs and how God may want them to meet these challenges starting now.
  6. The right to learn to appreci­ate different cultures and real­ize that God loves all peoples of the world.
  7. The right to thoroughly understand major world reli­gious systems in order to pray more intelligently and witness more effectively to children from these religions whom they may well meet every day.
  8. The right to understand God’s mission strategy of “making disciples” and all this implies for planting reproducing churches among unreached peoples, based on the convic­tion that the only way to a right relationship with God is through Jesus Christ alone.
  9. The right to participate in meaningful, regular prayer for those peoples without a church and/or those living where the church is small, struggling, and often under persecution.
  10. The right to move with grow­ing maturity into an “obedi­ence of faith” (Romans 1: 5) and respond to the truth that missions is not, first of all, about people (whether givers or receivers) but missions is about God, who deserves the praise of all peoples as so beautifully depicted in Revelation 7:9-10.

Nancy Tichy and her husband Frank serve as Inland Empire (California) re­gional representatives of the U.S. Center for World Mission. They can be contacted at [email protected].

Update on Resources

Gerry Dueck

  • The “Kids Around the World” video series has two new titles: the “Bhil Kids” and the “Han Chinese,” each with curriculum guide. Order from Caleb Project, 10 W. Dry Creek Circle, Littleton, CO 80120 USA. Or you may call (303) 730-4182, E-mail [email protected], or visit http://www.calebproject.org/reso.htm
  • .
  • Hero Tales IV, by Dave and Neta Jackson, has the same format as the previous three volumes: stories of 15 heroes of the faith, discussion questions and Scripture verses high­lighting essential Christian character qualities. For ages 6-12. Order from: Bethany House Publishers, 11300 Hampshire Ave. South, Minneapolis MN 55438. Or call (612) 829-2500, E-mail [email protected], or visit http://www.bethanyhouse.com
  • .
  • Window on the World, with 98 stories from all around the world, is the most exciting new resource to be published in recent months. Find out how God is changing the lives of families everywhere through prayer. Order from Gabriel Resources by calling 1-8MOREBOOKS, sending E-mail to [email protected], or going to http://www.WCLBooks.com
  • .
  • Two new CD-ROMs to catch your eye are “Great Commission Toolbox” and “Adventure on Mutchneed Island”, both available from Wycliffe. The first has tons of mission education mate­rial on one delightful little CD, for preschoolers to adults. The second takes children ages 6-9 on a simulated mission trip with a missionary family. Available from Wycliffe’s northwest office at 1-800-269-2007. See both at http://www.wycliffe.ca/store
  • .

Gerry Dueck directs the Children’s Mission Resource Center at the U.S. Center for World Mission. For the CMRC newsletter or brochures, contact:

Children’s Mission Resource Center,
1605 Elizabeth Street, Pasadena CA
91104 USA
phone 626-398-2233
email: [email protected]

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