Ideas for family activities
Tell us how your church teaches and promotes missions through family activities.Lottie at Work - Set a Lottie Moon giving goal based on a missionary family need featured in one of the stories at Lottie Moon at Work.
• Variation - Encourage each member or family to support a missionary for an increment of time to support a missionary on the field. Here is the average cost for a single missionary:
• $40,931.64 a year
• $3,410.97 a month
• $3,410.97 a month
• $787.15 a week
• $112.14 a day
• $112.14 a day
• $4.67 an hour
• $.08 a minute
• $.08 a minute
(Reported June 2009. Support includes housing, food, children’s education, medical expenses, retirement and more.)
Lottie’s tea cakes - Each year, children and church members enjoy making Lottie’s tea cakes. Lottie used these cookies in her ministry to the children in the villages where she lived. Bring tea cakes to neighbors, grandparents or homebound members in your church. Explain to your children how Lottie used her cookies to share the love of Jesus.
Pray around the globe - Keep a globe or world map close to your dinner table. Let children take turns pointing to a country. Pray that the people in that country will know Jesus. Pray for missionaries serving in those areas.
Sock it to missions - Have children decorate white tube socks. Ask them to fill them with change during the month of December.
Eat out - Try some international restaurants together this season. Ask your children what they like and don’t like. Pray for people groups represented by the food you ate. Pray for missionaries who may eat that type of food every day.
Eat in - Pledge as a family to eat in for a month. Put the money you would have spent eating out into a jar where everyone can see the money add up. Bring the money to church during the Lottie Moon offering collection and let your children see how that small sacrifice made a big difference.
Chores for Lottie - Come up with a chore list that your kids can choose from to make extra money for Lottie. Also encourage them to give a portion of their allowance, lost-tooth money or gift money to missions.
In the Christmas spirit - Northside Baptist Church in Rock Hill, SC, is challenging couples in the congregation not to exchange presents with each other this year and instead add that amount to what they would normally give to the Lottie Moon offering. David Petro, Minister of Education and Students, says “We are not a big church, but we serve a BIG God and know that if other churches will do the same we can get missionaries on the field so they can proclaim the name of Christ.”
People group exploration - Explore people groups in Google Earth or peoplegroups.org. Take time this season to learn about new people groups as a family.
Puzzles, puzzles - In keeping with this year’s theme, work puzzles together as a family. Emphasize that just as every piece is important to the puzzle, every person is important to God. Other ideas for puzzles:
- Ask children to paint or draw pictures of people around the world. Cut the pictures into puzzle pieces.
- Leave out one or two pieces from each puzzle, reminding children that the task is incomplete without their part.
- Display puzzles that the children complete around the church.
- Use craft puzzle glue to turn the puzzles into artwork. Give them as Christmas gifts.
Daily devotional - Give away copies of the devotional of missionary testimonies, Voices of the Faithful and Voices of the Faithful Book 2, to every family as an early Christmas present from the church on the first Sunday in December or last Sunday in November, depending on when Week of Prayer begins. Encourage families to read the daily devotions aloud during breakfast or dinner for the entire month. This is a great way to prepare hearts to pray for and give to missions during Lottie Moon season.
International students banquet - Many international students who attend colleges, universities or seminaries in the United States have no place to go during holiday vacations. Enlist members to invite international students to their homes, and host a banquet honoring the students. Ask Christian students to share their testimonies, plus information about their culture, prayer requests, etc. Feature American holiday foods such as turkey and dressing, cranberries and pumpkin pie so students can get a taste of our culture, too. In addition to helping your church members learn about other cultures and international missions needs, this will enable Christian students to make a connection and nonbelieving students to hear the gospel.
Family scavenger hunt for spare change - Plan a scavenger hunt in your house to find loose change to give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Parents set the boundaries (including off-limit areas). Parents also have a chance to talk with their children about why their family gives to international missions. Then, have a fun, free-for-all search for change in the sofa cushions, in clothes pockets, near the laundry machines, in the family "penny jar" and wherever else money can be found. Afterward, come together as a family, have fun telling where you found the loose change and discuss how a missionary might use the money.
The money jar - Have a family "Lottie" money jar that gets fed all year. Into this jar goes any money that is found in the washing machine after clothes are washed, under sofa cushions or rugs as the house is cleaned, in the car, or in odd places such as sidewalks, the backs of drawers, etc. The family gift is given during the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering emphasis.
The money jar - Have a family "Lottie" money jar that gets fed all year. Into this jar goes any money that is found in the washing machine after clothes are washed, under sofa cushions or rugs as the house is cleaned, in the car, or in odd places such as sidewalks, the backs of drawers, etc. The family gift is given during the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering emphasis.
Missions savings club - The missions savings club is based on 1 Corinthians 16:2 (NIV): "On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income ... ." The words "Missions Savings Club" with a box for checking it could be printed on church offering envelopes, or a special envelope could be supplied. People electing to give to the club would mark the corresponding box or use the special envelope. Encourage people to give a small offering above their tithe. Inform the people regularly what has been given toward the church's Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal.
