Stunningly Powerful Video!

DREAM

NBFamilies partners with parents to support them in their role as the primary disciple makers and faith influencers of their children.

Faith Mission can become one of the most powerful ways a parent can influence a child’s faith. The mission of God is the battle field where disciples are made.

Parents should pray to have a Faith Mission experience with their kids – in their neighborhood, on their ball team, in their school clubs, anywhere the Gospel could spread like Good News does.

In Faith Mission - NBFamilies choose to intentionally elevate the Gospel of Jesus Christ above every other important thing – sports, fun, school, things, including their own family above the church’s mission in spreading. Failure to intentionally elevate the Gospel of Jesus Christ above every other important thing is to flirt with idolatry and faith confusion.

• What would change for your family if you began to experience the joy of watch the Gospel spread through your family?
• What could God do through you and your family to reach your neighbors, your ball teams, your school classes or clubs, or your extended family for Jesus?
• How would your family look different and mature if you planned intentionally to do something for God’s mission?
  • What if you went on a family mission trip instead of a family vacation?
  • What if your family prayed for the kids (and parents lurking in the streets and shadows) who were coming to your house to “Trick or Treat?”
  • What if you discussed and prayed for which of your kids friends you invited and gave a ride to church the next week?
  • What if you planned, purchased, prayed over, and sent a shoe box full of toys for a child the same age to the other side of the globe?
  • What would Operation Christmas Child teach you and your kids?
  • Could this become another treasured Christmas tradition for your family?

WATCH

If your kids are old enough, you can include this video in a coming Faith Talk. This story is an example of everything that is incredible about the Gospel.

You can explain to your kids about evil and how it hurts people. You can teach them that evil is why you protect them and try to guide them away from evil. There are few modern day examples of evil as wicked as the genocide in Rwanda.

Listen in this video especially for:

• The story of evil overcome through forgiveness and redemption.
• The tragic and epidemic reality of orphans around the world.
• The powerful impact on the mother who adopted the orphan.
• The the prayer that is offered by the orphan to the man who killed his mother.
• The sounds of joy in the voices of the children who are receiving a shoe box made by a family just like yours.

PRAY

Before, during, and after you begin to purchase and wrap gifts for your Christmas Child you should pray as a family. God can do amazing things through His redemption and your obedience.

DO

Make plans to give God an opportunity to change you, your kids, your family and the world. Here is a brief testimony offered by someone who participates in Operation Christmas Child every year.

My son gets one for a boy his age. He is responsible for buying and picking out stuff to put in the box. I get one for the older kids. We set a day to go and shop for the gifts. We intentionally limit the numbers of gifts we purchase for one another so we can save our money go on a family trip together We would rather create lasting memories than create more piles of stuff. Sometimes it's not even a far away trip, but the importance is set on being together.

My son will talk about the box on Christmas day & wonder who got it & if they liked the stuff in it & he wonders where they live & what they look like. I love it!

As I have said before, since I have become a father (30 years as of yesterday) I have taught or preached over 6000 times, led dozens of mission trips, and directed too many VBS’es to remember. I have had countless Faith Talks and Faith Walks in our home. Yet it our involment in the Faith that has contributed more significantly to our children’s spiritual formation than all of these actions combined.

Involving my kids in God's mission is one of the best things I ever did to influence my kid's faith