How do we impart cross-cultural thinking to our Canadian children today? This was one question that kept running through my mind as I transitioned from International Worker to Children?s Pastor at Paramount Drive Alliance Church. Looking at various children?s curriculums, I noticed many were fairly good at introducing 'community thinking', which helps children to look outside their world, but they didn't consistently help them look beyond our Canadian borders.

Process

So one of our church members and I got together, brainstormed ideas and developed an action plan for 2008-2009. We felt that if we were going to teach our children to think beyond the Canadian borders, we needed to be intentional.

The activities in our action plan included missionary visits to our classes and a soccer ball project we ran during our summer Vacation Bible School program. It resulted in our sending 110 soccer balls to Peru. We also put together a short-term team to help organize and run a Missions Festival in October 2008.

The purpose of these activities was to cause our children to a look outside their world into the cultures and religions of children around the globe. We wanted them to understand the world?s need to know Christ and what they can do to help make that happen.

The team goal for our Missions Festival was to help the children begin to understand some of the cultures and religions of the world and learn that Jesus is the way, truth and life. We wanted them to come to know that Jesus loves the nations of the world and wants every nation to be with him in heaven.

We invited six International Workers to come and share their experiences. We set up six different learning stations and children walked through each one during the course of the evening. Each International Worker was encouraged to share a short story about their country and its religion.

The children completed a scrapbook page at each station for that religion. These were then collated and bound into a book each child took home. Their scrapbook pages included T.H.U.M.B. Prayer Cards from NavPress, as well as information already prepared and glued on the pages giving further insights of the different religions and how to pray. We prayed that this book would be used in their homes as atool for teachingthe children about other cultures and praying for the nations of the world.

The last stop was a large map on the floor. The children sat around the map and heard the message of Jesus. We then prayed that children around the world would hear Jesus' message too.

Our children's excitement for what they had learned throughout the evening was such a blessing

The missionaries' responses were encouraging. They enjoyed the time teaching the children about their culture and its religion and felt a similar night would be good for adults. Those adults who came for a time of coffee and fellowship enjoyed walking through the stations and interacting with our missionaries.

My continued prayer is that we will always be intentional in teaching our children about the nations of the world that Jesus loves so much. We're now gearing up for our next project - the persecuted church.

Denise Cameron is Director of Children?s Ministries, Paramount Drive Alliance Church, Stoney Creek, ON

For information on T.H.U.M.B. Prayer Cards visit http://www.navpress.com/store/product.aspx?id=9781600061196