- Volunteer with local ministries. Grow in compassion for those under-resourced in your area. Match your personal passion with a need. There may some ministries that offer child-friendly opportunities. If you are not sure what is out there, begin by looking at a large church’s webpages for many vetted local ministries. World Relief may be in your city. Teaching English as a Second Language is one way that is so very important in caring for immigrants and refugees. [If you find yourself lacking in empathy for those with needs, challenge yourself to understand that empathy comes with close proximity. You won’t comprehend this until you are closer to those who need your care and love.]
- Invite people of different ethnicities to your home. Welcome a new international family into your neighborhood or school with something freshly baked. Invite an international family to teach you to cook some of their favorite ethnic foods. Reach out to immigrant school-aged children with an invitation to a church event or a game or a playdate [which can create confidence and compassion in a child.] Learn about the people group that they are a part of.
- Learn more about different countries in the world that you know little about. Have helpful things around you like decorating with a globe or purchasing table placemats with a world map to use at dinner, especially with children. Purchase a cloth map (on Pinterest) for easy put up and take down or find an important place to display a world map in your home. Play games with these tools. Talk about some country in the news and find the location on a map (maybe an earthquake or a conflict). Some people pray for the country on your clothing label. Make a country your weekly or monthly focus for prayer. Explore short-term mission trips for you or your child.
- Sponsor a child overseas. Child sponsorship is a wonderful introduction to caring about the world. You may find a young child that is the age of your own child or grandchild and support them all the way through their school years as most of these funds pay for school fees. You can write to them. National organizations like Compassion International or World Vision are both reliable and honest Christian organizations through which to sponsor a child.
- Become an email/pen pal with a missionary. Read a blog of a missionary family together after dinner. Write to them and ask questions about their life. Give regular financial support to a missionary. Don’t forget to talk about giving with your children/grandchildren. They can understand supporting a missionary at a young age and experience the relationship you have with this family.
- Revisit some challenging scriptures that God will use to motivate you and also teach your children what God says about the world. In a very ethnocentric time in the life of our country, it will be important to remind ourselves of our command to love and our commission to reach out and share the gospel with those who have never heard.
Key words from Scripture about God’s view of the world.:
1 Chronicles 16:24 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
Matthew 22:36-40 The Greatest Commandments Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
Matthew 28:18-20 The Great Commission Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
John 20:21 Jesus said, As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Romans 10:13 -15 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call on the one they have not believed in?… And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
II Corinthians 5:17-20 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God.
Ever Devoted 