This past weekend I had the opportunity to speak at my aunts church in Minnesota about Botswana. While speaking at churches is a regular occurance for a missionary during furlough, its usually done speaking to adults in the main service. Now, from a missionary perspective, this is practical in many ways.
1. Its the adults who support you financially and spiritually.
2. The adults can grasp the “big picture” of what your ministry is trying to accomplish.
3. Its just what you do.
….but sometimes we need to put practical aside and reach out beyond “practical”.
Sooooo, being that my aunt is the children’s pastor for her church, she also asked me to come back and give a presentation to the kids. I have to say, I was more excited about the prospect of speaking with children than adults (thats probably my teaching background coming out). I put together a slide show, I brought fun show-n-tell items for them to see, and we put together a “what they eat” segment where I actually cooked fried cabbage in front of them and they could taste it. (Most of them weren’t too thrilled about the fried cabbage, but they LOVED the fat cakes we made.) I also shared the differences between being a kid in the US verses being a kid in Botswana.
Overall, it was awesome! They loved the pictures, the food, the stories, and all the animals they saw. As I was leaving I realized how important it is to bring awareness to children about other cultures and areas of the world and how we can help them. If we are going to try to make an impact on our world, we need to start not only reaching out to those who can help us now, but also to those who will be out there doing the work in the next generation. Adults are important to reach, but lets not forget the children! As Whitney says, “I believe the children are our future.” hehehe
