In some places of the world, missionaries are not welcome and being a follower of Jesus can be dangerous. People living in these places may not believe in Jesus. They may put their faith in other people and things. They may follow other religions. It can be hard for people living in these places to change the way they’ve thought and believed to follow Jesus. Sometimes the governments and leaders of these places want to control what people believe. They don’t want their people to hear about Jesus and change the way they live and what they believe. But God loves the people living in these unnamed places and He wants us to be a part of His work there.
Today we are going to take a look at one of those places. The name of the place won't be shared to protected the missionaries. We are going to watch a video about Avery Claman, whose parents are Christian workers in an unnamed place. Since we can’t show Avery, his friend, Adam, will tell us the Clamans’ story.
Click here to watch the video.
Discussion-
1. Have you child sit for a minute in the quiet. Have them imagine there is an angry mob outside their door.
- How would you feel?
- What would you do?
3. Read the following verse-
Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.’”
- What Jesus means when He says to take up our cross and follow Him?
- (Jesus’ cross was the physical cross. He was obedient to God by dying on the cross to save those who believe in Him. Jesus asks believers to be like Him. We need to be obedient to do whatever God asks us to do.)
Jesus. In the video, Adam asks what we can do to be obedient to Jesus. Ask kids to share some of
their ideas.
- Whether you are giving our time, our prayers, our money or our lives, God asks us to be obedient to follow Him, too. We can be a part of what God is doing now. Our task is no different from that of believers living and working in these unnamed places.
Prayer time-
Take time to pray for missionaries who are working in areas that are not safe for Christians. Pray for their safety. Also pray that God would soften the people's hearts who they are working with so that they can hear the Good News. Also be praying that God would show your family how you can be involved in missions- maybe locally, supporting missionaries or praying for missionaries.
