Enjoying World Missions . . . in JANUARY

Throughout the year, international holidays and cultural celebrations can be focus-points for prayer and used to give our families an insight into our world’s need for Jesus. These vibrant festivities are filled with colorful expression, yet often these traditions are rooted in false religion and fear.

Enjoying Missions throughout the Year

A great way to involve your family in world missions – Excerpted from The Mission-Minded Family by Ann Dunagan, InterVarsity Press

Make a MISSION-MINDED CALENDAR:

As your family looks at current traditions around the world each month, you can utilize these specific days to target different people groups for prayer and to increase your family’s mission-minded vision. You may even want to commemorate some of these days. However, I am not encouraging your family to celebrate evil or pagan holidays. This international holiday list is simply to help your family learn about world cultures and to regularly remind you about the need for specific mission-minded prayer.

Get out your family calendar, and take a moment to write down the names of these holidays on their respective dates. Throughout the year, you can then come back to this section of The Mission-Minded Family to read about each holiday and pray accordingly.

January

1 – New Year’s Day, International – Around much of the world, this day is celebrated as a time of new beginnings. Many people make New Year’s “resolutions,” or promises, for the coming year.)

As mission-minded believers, pray for and seek God’s directions for the new year and take time to evaluate and realign your priorities.

6 – Epiphany, International – In many countries throughout the world, this day is celebrated to remember the wise men who came to bring gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the Christ child, Jesus. In Spain, children receive gifts on this day instead of Christmas. Children put hay in their shoes and find the hay replaced with treats the next morning.

Pray for the people of Spain to recognize Jesus Christ as Savior and Messiah, just as the wise men did.

14 – Pongal, India – In southern India, this day marks the beginning of a four-day harvest festival. The people gather to watch a pot of newly harvested rice boil. If it boils quickly, the people believe it is a sign of a prosperous new year.

Pray for a mighty spiritual harvest in India.

18 (2010 date) – Martin Luther King Day, United States – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, was a Christian minister and a civil rights leader. King was active in seeing segregation laws in the South abolished, and in 1964 he received the Nobel Peace Prize. He was assassinated in 1968. The third Monday of January is set aside as a national holiday to remember King’s leadership and the importance of civil rights.

Pray for harmony and love between different races and nationalities and for God to give you love and compassion for other people groups.

Check back each month, for more MISSION-MINDED HOLIDAY ideas for your family!