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Eight Things You and the Kids Can Do to Stay Sane and Love the World<\/h2>\nEight Things You and the Kids Can Do to Stay Sane and Love the World<\/h2>\nBy Shane Bennett<\/p>\n
Maybe you\u2019ve got some kids of your own. Maybe you just see kids skulking around the neighborhood or gazing forlornly from their living room windows. Maybe your kids know kids whose parents are nice enough to let them watch TV because we\u2019re in a pandemic after all; kids who live in houses to which the UPS guy just delivered a PlayStation 4 Pro, again, because we\u2019re in a pandemic after all.<\/p>\n
You know there\u2019s a sweet spot somewhere in the midst of the TV option, mandatory four-hour naps, 12 hours a day of online school, and \u201cJust go outside before you burn the house down!\u201d<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s say you also have a passion for the nations. You want God\u2019s kingdom to come in the midst of and in spite of the coronavirus. You also want those heart-melting kiddos to grow up to be powerful ambassadors of the kingdom. Good on you!<\/p>\n
Here are eight things you and the munchkins can do to redeem some \u201clockdown\u201d time for the Lord\u2019s purposes.<\/p>\n
As I type, it\u2019s just after 10am and one of the kids drifted through asking, \u201cWhat\u2019s for lunch?!\u201d Have you heard that lately? Happily, we have food for lunch.<\/p>\n
You can combine this seemingly insatiable desire for food with a little nudge to the nations. How about treating your kids to some ethnic yumminess? For the truly intrepid, invite them into the cooking process!<\/p>\n
Scout around KidWorldCitizen.org<\/a> for recipes you can make for or with your kids. Here\u2019s a drool-inducing page featuring Moroccan snacks<\/a>. As you say grace, pray for the country and peoples your food represents.<\/p>\n To spark generosity and encourage empathy (but hopefully not shame), check out What Kids Around the World Eat<\/a>.<\/p>\n Scripture memorization? I see that eye roll! In fact, I\u2019m having trouble not rolling my own eyes as I write this. I have some little kids and it\u2019s a bit unsettling to think about trying this with them. But Christians used to do this. Muslims still do<\/a>. (I know! Christians do, too!) Here\u2019s a list of ten nations-oriented verses<\/a>. How about one per day, week, or month until we\u2019re through this?<\/p>\n You have a globe, right? Spin it and pin your finger on a country. Have someone Google how that country\u2019s doing with COVID-19. Take a minute to pray for them. Don\u2019t have a globe? Ask Siri or Alexa what countries start with the first letter of your kid\u2019s name. Pick one from the list.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s an idea to inspire prayer if you find yourself socially distanced from the people you long to reach out to. Phil Moore, a pastor in London writes about an experiment undertaken by hall-of-fame missionary James Fraser:<\/p>\n \u201dFraser worked out that it would take him three to five days to conduct church services in the highland villages of Lisuland\u2014one or two days of travel up into the mountains, a day of gathering together, and then one or two days of travel back down again. He therefore decided to find out:\u00a0What would happen if I decided to spend the time that I would have spent gathering with these Lisu people praying for them instead?\u201d<\/p>\n Read the interesting article<\/a> to confirm your guess as to the results!<\/p>\n Now is also the time to grab this year\u2019s \u201c30 Days Muslim World Prayer Guide.\u201d This guide corresponds to the month of Ramadan which starts on or around April 24th. I\u2019d love to see most of us grab the kid\u2019s PDF version<\/a> and use it with our kids or gift it to some kiddos we love.<\/p>\n My new favorite film is \u201cThe Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.\u201d I expect I\u2019ll be long haunted by the scene of the family of five standing scared around a paltry pile of corn; their entire food supply for the coming months. I actually paused the video to give the kids time to contemplate that. It\u2019s really hard to imagine.<\/p>\n Another pick is \u201cThe Pianist.\u201d It\u2019s definitely not for kids, but it\u2019s worth your time even if, like me, you get no deeper than the surface lessons, \u201cThings could be worse than they are,\u201d and \u201cIf other people can act that way, could I?\u201d<\/p>\n Check out the news series of videos my friend Jeannie is doing on how to personally grow and impact the nations from home. They\u2019re called the Global Stay-at-Home Guide<\/a>. Watch the first and subscribe for the rest.<\/p>\n You might also like Off-Road Encounters<\/a>, a seven-part series chronicling one family\u2019s travels to four Muslim countries. Jeannie has written some great questions for you to discuss with kids and things for them to do after each video.<\/p>\n My friend Aaron recently shared how he helped his kids connect with pen pals in Muslims countries. Read about the simple process<\/a>. I tried with my ten-year-old and now she\u2019s corresponding with a fellow Harry Potter lover in Istanbul!<\/p>\n I just downloaded one about Mary Slessor and am contemplating diving in with the kiddos. I\u2019ve always loved the Christian Heroes Then & Now<\/a> books.\u00a0GoServeLove.net<\/a> also gives a look at some missionary biographies<\/a> you can currently stream on Amazon Prime.<\/p>\n Now is a perfect time to encourage your kids to learn some phrases in a foreign language. Go to omniglot.com<\/a> to find go-to phrases in a gazillion languages. You can also get audio clips so you have some hope of saying them accurately!<\/p>\n This might also be fun: Put sticky notes on five household items per day. Here\u2019s a list of Chinese<\/a> words and one for Spanish<\/a>. In a week, you and the kids could learn 35 words. By the end of lockdown, they\u2019ll be running businesses in Guangzhou and Guadalajara!<\/p>\n I\u2019d love to hear your take on these and other ideas you have for staying sane and connecting to the world in these days. You\u2019ve got a minute, right? Please comment on Facebook, Twitter, our website, or respond to the email.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Eight Things You and the Kids Can Do to Stay Sane and Love the World By Shane Bennett Maybe you\u2019ve got some kids of your own. Maybe you just see kids skulking around the neighborhood or gazing forlornly from their living room windows. Maybe your kids know kids whose parents are nice enough to let … Continue reading Staying Sane, Kid Corona-Mob & Canceled Mission Trips<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-practical-mobilization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9231"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9236,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9231\/revisions\/9236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}2. Hide the Word in your heart.<\/h3>\n
3. Power through with prayer.<\/h3>\n
4. Watch a great movie together.<\/h3>\n
5. Go around the world and across the street, but from home.<\/h3>\n
6. Discover the pen is mightier than the virus.<\/h3>\n
7. Read a missionary biography to your kids.<\/h3>\n
8. Learn to talk like a missionary.<\/h3>\n