I LOVE creating curricula that will be used on mission trips. It’s my new passion. It just may be that I’ve found my niche!
Our church in on fire for missions. We’ve sent teams into Guatemala, Alaska, Africa, India, Romania, Brazil, and the list keeps growing!
Our church did something really neat this summer. We went on mission trips all around our own town! We used to call them”Backyard Bible Clubs,” but what we did was more of a Pool Party with Purpose. We are often quick to hop on a plane to witness to strangers, but less apt to minister to those right under our noses. It was a neat experience to get to serve in this way.
I created this Jesus is my BFF missions curricula mostly for folks right here in the states, although you could use it anywhere. You can also use it for homeschooling, Sunday School, etc. It doesn’t have to be used in a missions setting.
When writing it, I just thought about what kids in our country go through.
I tried to shift from crafts to activities to engage our over stimulated, video game loving, fast paced society.
Also, I wanted to be sure that the wording didn’t use the dated “church jargon” that we’ve gotten accustomed to, but which literal thinking children may not understand. For example, letting Jesus “come into your heart” can be quite scary if you are a child who thinks concretely!
Finally, so often we hear God described as a Father. While that can be a great comparison for many people, if you don’t have a father-figure in your life or maybe have one who has proven untrustworthy or one who is scary and intimidating, you could get a wrong impression of God’s true character. This resource compares Him to a friend – someone who loves you, someone you can talk to anytime and about anything, someone you can trust, someone who wants to get to know you better and will never leave you.
Here are the topics:
Day 1 – I Am His Masterpiece
Day 2 – He Loved Me First
Day 3 – I Can Message Him Anytime
Day 4 – I Can Trust Him
Day 5 – #J.C. is my BFF (getting to know Him better)
This resource contains lessons for a week – five days. The components of each lesson include: Memory Verse, Setting the Stage, Bible Study, Game, Craft. It includes my popular Ten Commandments poster using kid-friendly language, which somehow is the most popular thing on this blog – getting about 100 views a day all on it’s own! (Go figure!) It also includes an original gospel tract to pass out. I’m super excited about this! I looked at what was already out there and what kids needed to hear. I tried to take the best and leave out the worst. We know it’s the Holy Spirit that has to do the drawing – not scare tactics! I also was sensitive to the fact that I didn’t want kids to get a “false sense of security.” No pressure here!
Another component I really like are the Memory Verse Dog Tags. I’ve included them free as a Preview of this resource on TpT. Be sure to download them.
For His glory,
Kathy:)
I’ve also written ABC Missions Curricula (Volume I and working on Volume II), Give Me a High Five Missions Curricula, and Armor of God missions curricula. Keep checking TpT and I will work on uploading those too.