Missions Involvement with Kids

We had a speaker at our Night MOPS group this spring who gave us practical ways to get our young families involved in missions. Shannon Clinton is a mom of 4 young girls and she and her husband try to incorporate missions into their lives on a regular basis. I loved hearing her and I wanted to share her list:

Twenty Ways to Shape Your Summer for God's Kingdom

1. Pray for God to open your eyes to ministry opportunities in your daily life.
2. Find ways to "serve" family members! This is often the toughest mission field you will ever have!
3. Make a missionary care package with your kids. Mail to a missionary you have prayed for or learned about!
4. “Adopt” a local ministry for the summer. Learn about the ministry and find out how you can get involved.
5. Make cards/notes for a missionary. Include scripture in your note and share the scripture with your child.
6. Get “linked in” with a missionary via email, facebook or their blog.
7. Sign up for local summer ministry opportunities through church.
8. Reach out to a neighbor. Bake cookies with your child and share them with a neighbor. Let your child "write" an encouraging note to them. We recently picked strawberries and delivered them to our elderly neighbors!
9. Use summer birthdays as a teaching tool. Give them money as one of their birthday gifts. Use this money to purchase specific items on the “needs” list of a local ministry. Take your child with you to select, purchase and deliver the purchased items. As your child gets older, allow them to choose the ministry they want to be involved with.
10. Clean out the playroom, bedroom or closet with your child. Sort through and deliver used clothing, books and toys to a local ministry that needs these items. Take them with you to deliver the items. (Neighborhood Christian Center will take your child through a tour of the “store” where items are given away to needy families.)
11. Take your children to hear missionaries speak at your church. Starting at a young age, let them see you actively seeking out opportunities to listen to missionaries.
12. Let your children do extra “jobs” at home to earn money for missions.
13. Take dinner to a mom who needs a break. Let your child help you!
14. Write thank you notes to the missionaries in your own child’s life- teachers, friends, Sunday School teachers. Read your note to your child and ask them to draw a picture or write a note also.
15. Find a globe and look at different countries. Try to find Memphis on the globe! Use this as a teaching opportunity to show them how “small” Memphis is when you look at the entire world.
16. Find a mom that needs a break and invite her child/children to your home for a playdate!
17. Make and keep a “Blessings Bucket”. As your child shares their blessings, use small strips of paper and write out specific ways God has blessed you. Pray that God will show you and your child how to use those blessings for His glory!
18. Get to know your neighbors! Get out the water guns and water balloons and have some fun! Use this opportunity to invite your neighbors to VBS!
19. Call Service over Self (SOS) and volunteer to deliver popsicles one afternoon to their summer construction volunteers.
20. PRAY, PRAY, PRAY that God will open your children’s eyes and hearts to the hurting world around them that needs to know Jesus!