Category: Resource Reviews

Source: Wycliffe Bible Translators

It’s never too early to teach kids about the beauty and diversity of God’s creation. We see this diversity through different cultures, languages, and people. But no matter how different we may appear, there’s one thing that’s true for all people: God loves each of us, no matter where we live or what language we speak.

In “Sunday School With Kate & Mack,” you can take elementary-age kids on an adventure around the world through various activities and crafts that help them learn about the importance of having God’s Word in the language and format we understand best. Curriculum includes six different activities you can mix and match to fit your lesson plan. Each activity takes approximately 10-15 minutes.

Learn more or download materials. They’re free but registration is required. Wycliffe has lots of material for kids.

See a new book that came out in 2020, Raising Kids with a Heart for Mission or listen to author Danny Akin talk about teaching kids to love the nations (The Gospel Coalition).

Source: Global Frontier Missions

God’s heart for the foreigner is very clear throughout Scripture, and welcoming the nations plays a huge role in the fulfillment of the Great Commission to see every tribe, tongue, people, and nation delighting in and worshiping the Lord.

God’s Heart for the Foreigner includes a video, links to more than 80 scripture passages, and half a dozen discussion questions. That should be plenty of material to equip you to facilitate a group study or teach a class on this topic, and it’s great to have it all in one place.

This lesson is part of GFM’s online Missionary Training School. They are putting together an August 2021 Cohort for those who would like to dive into it with a group online rather than study on their own.

And speaking of immigrants, did you see the latest “missiographic” in the North America Diaspora series from Missio Nexus? This one looks at the 520,000+ unreached people in Greater Los Angeles.

Source: Catalyst Services

How can a church effectively communicate about their mission efforts through their website? Catalyst Services selected four church websites which do a great job presenting their missions involvement. Next they recruited some internet-savvy people to critique all four sites, highlighting the strengths of each as well as suggesting some enhancements.

Don’t miss ten guidelines at the end of the article to help you develop strong and effective missions-related content for your church website.

Read the article. Then browse the Postings archive for more like it.

Source: WestBow Press

Love Thy Neighbor: The True, Encouraging & Hilarious Tales of an American English Teacher in Southeast Asia (revised edition), by Alice Crocker. WestBow Press, 2020. 188 pages.

For anyone who needs a laugh in these crazy times, these stories may help—especially if you have spent time in Southeast Asia! Alice lived and taught English in Sumatra, Indonesia for more than two decades. Her lighthearted stories are winsome and well told.

Expat travelogues have a way of poking fun at local culture, but Alice chooses to laugh at herself instead and express only love and respect for her friends, neighbors, and local hosts. This book was first published in 2010 but was revised and re-released in 2020, along with a sequel composed of more stories like these.

Learn more or purchase the e-book edition for $3.99 from Amazon or WestBow Press. Also available in paperback.

Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar

(See also our list of May events.)

June 2, Apostolic Imagination: Recovering a Biblical Vision for the Church’s Mission Today (online). Virtual gathering for church mission leaders. Provided by Missio Nexus.

June 2-3, Mission Agency Consultation (Dallas/Fort Worth, TX, USA). Provided by Sixteen:Fifteen.

June 4-5, Christian Community Health Conference (online). Rescheduled from previous March dates. Provided by the Christian Community Health Foundation.

June 5-6, World Weekend of Prayer for Children at Risk (international). Coordinated by the Viva Network.

June 7, The Mobilized Church: Keys to Unlock Missions Potential (online). Eight-week virtual experience on Monday. This will also be offered as a two-day workshop in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX, November 9-10. Provided by Sixteen:Fifteen.

June 7, Missionary Care Best Practices (online). Virtual gathering for church mission leaders. Provided by Missio Nexus.

June 7 to October 10, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (online). New online classes begin regularly. A more intensive version will be offered June 7 to August 15.

June 9-12, Field Security Seminar (Lake George, CO, USA). Prepare to live, work, and travel in high-risk environments. Offered by Crisis Consulting International.

June 16-18, Support Raising Bootcamp (online). Similar events held throughout the year in various locations, or virtually as needed. Provided by Support Raising Solutions.

June 20, World Refugee Day (international). Many churches observe this with prayer on the Sunday before or after.

June 22-26, Field Security Management Seminar (Waxhaw, NC, USA). Offered by Crisis Consulting International.

June 23, Becoming Bilingual (online). CEO leader briefing from Missio Nexus. Note: The title is metaphorical; topic is how to effectively communicate the value of what your organization does.

June 24-26, NAAMC Virtual Experience (online). Provided by the National African American Missions Council; open to all.

View the complete calendar. Corrections and submissions are welcome.

Source: Radical

Could you use a tool that pulls data from diverse Christian and secular sources, analyzes physical and spiritual needs country by country, and identifies where the needs are the greatest? Stratus is a brand-new resource designed to help the Church recognize imbalances and reallocate resources more strategically.

Take a look. It does seem rather complex. I’d be interested in your input on its uses, strengths, and limitations.

Source: International Students, Inc.

What are the first things you need to know to get started with outreach to international students in your community? ISI harnessed their years of experience to create a short training course anyone can use to get themselves (or other volunteers) up to speed.

Ten short videos (five to ten minutes each) cover why international student ministry is significant, how to get started, ideas for outreach, tips for home groups, evangelism, storytelling, and more. Each one also includes links to helpful tools, articles, and other resources you can download. And it’s all free. Registration required.

Learn more or take the course.

Source: Abide Publishers

Missionary God, Missionary Bible, by Dick Brogden. Abide Publishers, 2020. 420 pages.

Missionary God, Missionary Bible is a one-year, missions-centered devotional based on a chronological reading of the Bible. Throughout the book, author Dick Brogden makes the case that neither God nor His Bible lets us under-emphasize how central all nations are to His overall plan. Each day includes a Scripture reading, a devotional connecting the reading to God’s plan to reach the nations (though you may find some of them a stretch), and an unreached group to pray for.

The author is an Assemblies of God missionary in the Middle East.

Learn more or purchase the Kindle edition from Amazon for Kindle $4.99 or get the paperback for US$14.99. Note that the Amazon preview is quite generous, including the introduction and all the entries for January.

See also Live Dead Joy: 365 Days of Living and Dying with Jesus.

Source: Janel Breitenstein, Go.Serve.Love

Family friends headed overseas racked up well over 20 medical appointments before they left: Immunizations. Examinations. Checking out weird little problems they didn’t want to rear their ugly heads in a nation with less-developed medical care.

We need the same mindset with our hearts, minds, and marital relationships before heading into the pressure cooker of a missionary marriage.

What could use a tune-up? And if you don’t know… will you make the effort to find out?

Read the article and explore links. Go.Serve.Love has a lot of content to help you take your next step toward global service or assist others. Take a look, for example, at Does Christianity Destroy Culture?