The Challenge: DAY 25 – Guard the Gates! #5
Guard your TONGUE!
Welcome to DAY 25 of the 40-Day Mission-Minded FAMILY CHALLENGE!
The TONGUE is powerful – As families, our tongue can be used to BLESS, encourage, and worship the Lord. Our tongue can be a mighty force to proclaim the Gospel, PRAY, and speak out for needs. But the tongue can also be used for evil. As mission-minded families, let’s use our tongues to GLORIFY GOD!
C’mon . . . Take the Challenge!
- Recommended Mission Resources:
Bible Promise Book- Today’s Mission Quote: “Lost people matter to God, so they must matter to us.” – Keith Wright
- Geography Quiz at lizardpoint.com: CENTRAL AMERICA – CARIBBEAN,
- Memory Verses: Luke 6:45, Psalm 39:1, and portions of Proverbs 31:8-9, 26
- Today’s 5-minute online video
The Challenge: DAY 24 – Guard the Gates! #4
Guard against EVIL!
Welcome to DAY 24 of the 40-Day Mission-Minded FAMILY CHALLENGE!
Today’s focus is GUARDING against evil influences in your home. As mission-minded families, we want to be train our children to be lights in dark places, but we need to equip our children to discern good from evil.
C’mon . . . Take the Challenge!
- Recommended Mission Resources:
Window on the World (or any cultural magazine such as National Geographic)- Today’s Mission Quote: “Some wish to live within the sound of church and chapel bell. I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.” – C.T. Studd
- Geography Quiz at lizardpoint.com: CENTRAL AMERICA – CARIBBEAN,
- Memory Verse: Ephesians 6:11-12, Duet. 18:9-12
- Today’s 5-minute online video
The Challenge: DAY 23 – Guard the Gates! #3
Guard the EAR Gate!
Welcome to DAY 23 of the 40-Day Mission-Minded FAMILY CHALLENGE!
Today’s focus is GUARDING the EAR GATE of your home, especially regarding the music and words that you allow into your home.
C’mon . . . Take the Challenge!
- Recommended Mission Resources:
Inn of the Sixth Happiness and Chariots of Fire- Today’s Mission Quote: “No reserves. No retreats. No regrets.” – William Borden
- Geography Quiz at lizardpoint.com: CENTRAL AMERICA – CARIBBEAN,
- Memory Verse: Ecclesiastes 7:5
- Today’s 5-minute online video
The Challenge: DAY 22 – Guard the Gates! #2
Guarding the EYE Gate
Welcome to DAY 22 of the 40-Day Mission-Minded FAMILY CHALLENGE!
Today’s focus is GUARDING the EYE GATE of your home, especially regarding media and movies. Godly integrity and personal moral character is necessary at all times, even during “off” times of relaxation. A mission-minded family surrenders everything to the Lord, and lives for His glory.
C’mon . . . Take the Challenge!
- Recommended Mission Resources:
The Jesus Film – By Campus Crusade for Christ- Today’s Mission Quote by Dave Davidson
- Geography Quiz at lizardpoint.com: CENTRAL AMERICA,
- Memory Verse: “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes.” – Psalm 101:3
- Today’s 5-minute online video
The Challenge: DAY 21 – Guard the Gates! #1
Stop it at the DOOR!
Welcome to DAY 21 of the 40-Day Mission-Minded FAMILY CHALLENGE!
Our focus is the necessity of “Guarding the Gates” of our homes – to guard what comes in through various entry points, such as the EYE gate, EAR gate, MOUTH gate (thoughts and words), and other influences. Looking at Numbers 30, today focuses on stopping evil influences “on the day” they enter our home.
C’mon . . . Take the Challenge!
- Recommended Mission Resources:
The Mission-Minded Family – p. 31- Today’s mission quote: “The mark of a great church is not its seating capacity but its sending capacity.” – Pastor Mark Stachura
- Geography Quiz at lizardpoint.com: CENTRAL AMERICA,
- Memory Verse: Numbers 30:5
- Today’s 5-minute online video
Recommended Family Mission Books
Family Missions Training
Operation World
Probably the best mission resource to help you pray for every country in the world.
It includes current information and statistics from a Christian viewpoint.Window on the World
Also check out the new children’s version of Operation World. It’s an incredible full-color book with photographs and information on over 100 people groups and countries around the world!!!Money, Possessions and Eternity
By Randy Alcorn: “Who wants to settle for fleeting treasures on earth . . . when God offers everlasting treasures in heaven?”Evangelism by Fire
Ignite your fire for world evangelism with this dynamic book by Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke.Bruchko
Exciting true missionary story about a young man’s perseverance to reach and impact a primitive tribe in South America for Jesus. This is a great book to challenge a young person who is beginning to sense the Lord’s call to missions.Christian Heroes Then & Now – My favorite family missionary biography series, by YWAM Publishers.
Passport to the World – an A to Z language adventure – with full-color pages, an included passport, and “visa” stickers. Highly recommended for mission-minded families.
Is That Really You, God?
The inspirational story of Loren Cunningham, founder of YWAM. An excellent book, sharing not only the testimony of how YWAM got started, but also how to recognize the Lord’s direction in your life.Daring to Live on the Edge
An encouraging book about the adventure of faith and finances. This is a great book for those just “stepping out” into full-time ministry, or for those the Lord is challenging to “step out” into a new level of giving to the Lord’s work.Friend Raising
A very practical book about building a missionary support team that lasts.Hero Tales
These are our favorite missionary biographies to read aloud to children. The stories are well written, and a perfect length for a family devotion time. (They’re also classy hard cover books that would look beautiful on your coffee table!)Also recommended:
Evangelism by Fire
Ignite your fire for world evangelism with this dynamic book by Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke.Jesus Freaks
This book is incredible. It shares story after story of Christians (both long ago, and in recent history) who were willing to surrender everything (even their lives) to follow Jesus. Inspirational and challenging for any age level, but especially appropriate for teens and young adults.And (of course), Ann’s books: The Mission-Minded Child: Raising a New Generation to Fulfill God’s Purpose, and The Mission-Minded Family: Releasing Your Family to God’s Destiny.
GUMA NA YESU Children “Keep with Jesus!”
The need and the vision . . .
In Southern Uganda – our dear longtime friends, Naboth and Alice, have been helping over 700 needy orphan children. This African couple haven’t had much to work with, but they’ve been doing everything possible to extend the love of Jesus. Because of this need, and our long-time ministry relationship with Naboth and Alice, Harvest Ministry has decided to focus orphan efforts towards these precious kids at GUMA NA YESU Children’s Center.
A few Guma Na Yesu children:
DID YOU KNOW?
1 Startling Orphan Statistic:
Every 2.2 seconds, another orphan ages out of an international orphan facility, with no family and no home. Older orphans are vulnerable . . . to abuse, suicide, prostitution, slavery, becoming child soldiers, and immorality (and as a result, they become most vulnerable to AIDS and disease). Yet, as orphans are rescued, saved by Jesus Christ, and brought into God’s Kingdom, the enemy’s plans are thwarted: instead, these older orphans can live happy, productive, lives and help to advance God’s cause and mission purposes.1 Special Highlight @ GUMA NA YESU Children’s Center:
At Guma, each of the children and teenagers are connected with a caring Christian family and a local church (who they live with during holidays). The children are educated in academics, and they are trained in the Word of God, with daily worship, fervent prayer, and opportunities for ministry (including dance performance, special music, preaching, and prayer for others). Over the years, we have had opportunities to spend time with Jennifer, and she growing into a beautiful young woman with such a heart of service to the Lord. Please do keep her and all the children at Guma in your prayers.
To remember this African word (from the Runyankole language), just think of the word “GUM” . . . and imagine chewing a sweet, delicious, sticky wad of GUM . . . and to keep chewing it for a long, long time. The name of this new orphanage project is Guma Na Yesu (pronounced “Goom-uh nuh Yay-soo”) – which means “Keep with Jesus!”
The long-term vision is to care for hundreds of orphan children through the support network of a strong Christian church and caring Ugandan families.
The vision is to build a Guma Na Yesu Children’s Center – with a free orphan school, basic provisions (of food, clothing, and educational supplies), and a family support base – to enable hundreds of orphans to be adopted into Christian families. Our prayer is for each of these orphan children to “keep” with Jesus for their entire lives! The heart of this orphan project is to train children to be mighty in God’s Word and to experience a life of knowing God personally – so they can fulfill God’s purpose. These children experience the presence of God daily – through prayer, child-led preaching, and through fervent worship and dancing. These children love Jesus, and their heavenly Father loves them.
Who we are . . .
N.E.T.S. Ministers, Naboth & Alice
Directors of Guma Na Yesu Children’s CenterThe Lord is just begining to give a new vision for Guma Na Yesu and through His wisdom and direction, He’s showing us how the needs of these children can be met. This orphan ministry is founded and directed by African ministers, Naboth and Alice of Southern Uganda, and now supported and overseen by Jon & Ann Dunagan of Harvest Ministry. The vision for Guma Na Yesu is for it to be nationally-led by Ugandan ministers, teachers, and church families — under the blessing and direction of JESUS and the authority of God’s Word.
Where we’re located . . .
This African orphan ministry is being built in Mbarara, Uganda. It’s a needy area, with many orphans. Guma Na Yesu Children’s Center is currently under construction – on a hilltop property near one of Naboth’s new church facilities – directly above a Ugandan military base.
Prayer Focus: Please pray with us for God’s abundant provision for the orphan children of Guma Na Yesu Children’s Center. And if you want to help, do let us know. Also, we would really appreciate your prayers for God’s wisdom concerning the future of this orphan project, and what Harvest Ministry’s long-term involvement should be.
Chapter 1 – The Mission-Minded Family
Releasing Your Family to God’s Destiny
(Here’s a sample chapter for you to enjoy from Ann’s book, The Mission-Minded Family)
This verse recently “hit” me in a new way as I was attending a graduation party. During the evening, a group of church leaders, led by the graduate’s father, gathered to pray for this young man. He had been raised to have a fervent heart for God and for world missions, and we prayed for God’s purposes to be fulfilled. As I laid my hands on the graduate’s mom (my dear friend Karen), I could sympathize with her mixed feelings: happiness and pride combined with a sad realization that this season in their family’s life was coming to an end. As we prayed, I “saw” (in my mind’s eye) her eighteen-year-old son as a straight arrow in a bow. Afterward, I leaned over and whispered in my friend’s ear, “You know, Karen, it’s not enough just to aim our arrows; to hit the target we’ve got to release the string!”
As our children grow, there will be repeated times of releasing each one to God: letting go of a little hand as a baby takes that first wobbly step . . . letting go of total educational control as a child steps onto that school bus or enrolls in that first college course. Or what about that moment when we let go of the car keys and an eager teenager plops into the driver’s seat of our car and takes control of the steering wheel?
Sometimes it’s very scary.
As I write this chapter, my husband and I have a nearly twenty-year old son climbing a dangerous mountain and then the following week heading to Oxford, England for a summer-long study-abroad program. Our eighteen-year-old son just graduated from high school and will soon be moving to a university two thousand miles from home. Our nearly sixteen-year-old daughter is just about to get her driver’s license.
No matter how many times I have released my children, I continually need to rely on God’s fresh grace for today’s particular moment. Whether it’s dropping off a little one into the arms of a church nursery worker or dropping off a young adult at an international airport, I need to trust God.
Just like Hannah released her little Samuel, I have surrendered each child to the Lord; yet I still have times when God convicts me that I need to rely on Him even more. At a deeper level, I need to continue to trust Him. With faith, I need to trust that God will direct each of my kids to fulfill His purposes (without me pushing them to do what I want). I need to trust that God will bring just the right spouse for each of my sons and daughters (without me trying to make something happen). And I need to trust God that He will protect my children as they begin to step out to fulfill His destiny (without me worrying or trying to figure it out).
As I have thought about this need to totally release each of my children to God’s purposes, I have tried to imagine—in my own finite way—what our heavenly Father must have experienced when He released His Child. God never struggles, but I believe He can relate to my feelings (and yours). He too had to release His Son—His only Son—in order to fulfill His plans for this earth.
Imagine with me:
What if someday God called one of my children . . . let’s just say, for an example, to go on a summer mission trip to Calcutta, India?
Would I be able to send him or her with confidence and joy?
If my husband and I prayed about the particular outreach and God gave us His peace about it, I know I would. My husband and I would uphold our child in prayer, and we would trust God’s direction. And as a mom, I would rely on Him for grace.
But the sacrifice God made was far greater . . .
What if someday a child of ours decided to move to Calcutta, India, for perhaps ten months . . . or ten years . . . or even longer? Could I handle that?
That would be much harder.
Although it would be difficult to live so far apart, I would do my best to support him or her through regular prayer and communication (and I would definitely hope for e-mail access!). If my grown child had a family, I would really miss getting to know my child’s spouse and his or her family; and I can hardly imagine how much I would yearn for time with those future grandchildren. Yet, if God was calling my child, I would let my child go . . . and rely on Him for extra grace.
But God’s sacrifice was still far greater . . .
So, to take the analogy one step further, what if my husband and I, back in time about twenty years ago, were expecting our first child, and God told us that He wanted us to surrender this precious newborn—right from birth? What if God said He had chosen a poor couple in Calcutta, India, to raise our baby? What if He said our little one would grow up in some obscure squatter village . . . would live among filth and poverty . . . would spend his life helping people . . . and, in the end, would be rejected, hated, and brutally killed by the very people he was sent to help?
Would I send my son to do that? How could I?
But (perhaps) that is a glimpse of what God did for us.
If we are going to raise a generation of world changers, it is likely that we will need to surrender our children into areas that may make us uncomfortable. He could call our child to pioneer a megachurch in a crowded inner city or to raise a large, God-fearing family in a quiet rural town. He may want our child to impact a corrupt political system or to redirect a greed-motivated business. He could call our precious son to enlist in the military or our pure daughter to have an effect on the media. He could call our child to Cairo, Egypt . . . or to New York City . . . or maybe even to Calcutta, India.
As mission-minded parents, will we “let go” of those arrows and encourage each child to fulfill the Lord’s plans? Or will we be God’s greatest hindrance?
It’s a heart issue, and it’s big.
Just as God released His Son for us, we need to totally release each of our children—again and again, every day—for His eternal purposes.
Pursuing God’s Purposes
An excerpt from The Missions Addiction, by David Shibley.
We whine, “I just want to know my purpose; I’ve got to reach my destiny.” We race all over the country to attend “destiny conferences,” and we devour tapes and books on “reaching your full potential.” It would be amusing if it were not so appalling. Even cloaking our self-centeredness in Christian garb and jargon cannot cover the nakedness of this cult of self that has infested much of the church. How can we ever hope to discover our purpose in the earth with little or no interest in His purpose? How will we ever know our destiny when we have so little identification with God’s destiny for the nations? It certainly is good to pray, “Lord, what is Your will for my life?” But even this can be a self-absorbed prayer. It is far better to pray, “Lord, what is Your will for my generation? How do You want my life to fit into Your plan for my times?”
Pursuing God’s purposes, not our own, is the path to personal fulfillment.
We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations
A missions hymn, by H. Ernest Nichol (1862–1928)
We’ve a story to tell to the nations,
That shall turn their hearts to the right,
A story of truth and mercy,
A story of peace and light
A story of peace and light.
Chorus:
For the darkness shall turn to dawning,
And the dawning to noonday bright,
And Christ’s great kingdom shall come on earth,
The kingdom of love and light.
We’ve a song to be sung to the nations,
That shall lift their hearts to the Lord,
A song that shall conquer evil,
And shatter the spear and sword,
And shatter the spear and sword.
We’ve a message to give to the nations,
That the Lord who reigneth above
Hath sent us His Son to save us,
And show us that God is love,
And show us that God is love.
We’ve a Savior to show to the nations,
Who the path of sorrow hath trod,
That all of the world’s great peoples
May come to the truth of God,
May come to the truth of God!
Chorus:
For the darkness shall turn to dawning,
And the dawning to noonday bright,
And Christ’s great kingdom shall come on earth,
The kingdom of love and light.
“I have seen the Vision and for self I cannot live;
Life is less than worthless till my all I give.”
Oswald J. Smith
If you enjoyed the chapter (or if you’ve read the book), let me know what you think. And how can we encourage others to be more mission-minded?
Blessings to you and your family!
Ann
The Challenge: DAY 20 – Beatitudes #5
The PERSECUTED
Welcome to DAY 20 of the 40-Day Mission-Minded FAMILY CHALLENGE!
Today, we are finishing-up our memorizing of the BEATITUDES from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, continuing with Matthew 5, verses 9-10. Today, our mission-minded emphasis is being a PEACEMAKER (we bring the “Gospel of Peace”) and being willing to be PERSECUTED for righteousness.
C’mon . . . Take the Challenge!
- Recommended Mission Resources:
Teaching With God’s Heart for the World, and Voice of the Martyrs – be sure to sign up for their FREE newsletter, and check out their FREE book, Tortured for Christ.- “I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light” – Missionary Quote by John Keith Falconer. Among missionaries, Falconer’s life is often overlooked; yet he greatly impacted the development of early twentieth-century Christian mission to Islam – (1856-87).
- Geography Quiz at lizardpoint.com: REVIEW
OCEANS & CONTINENTS, ASIA,MIDDLE EAST,AFRICA,- Memory Verse: Matthew 5:9-10
- Today’s 5-minute online video
The Challenge: DAY 19 – Beatitudes #4
The MERCIFUL
Welcome to DAY 19 of the 40-Day Mission-Minded FAMILY CHALLENGE!
As we are continuing with our memorizing of the BEATITUDES – with a mission-minded focus – from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, continuing with Matthew 5, verses 7-8. Today, our mission emphasis is being MERCIFUL and PURE in HEART.
C’mon . . . Take the Challenge!
- Recommended Mission Resources:
The Mission-Minded Child, The Mission-Minded Family- Missionary Quote by Ralph Winter – U.S. Center for World Missions
- Geography Quiz at lizardpoint.com: AFRICA
- Memory Verse: Matthew 5:7-8
- Today’s 5-minute online video
