March for Missions

Missions is a subject very near and dear to my heart, and I am trying to do my best to make it a priority in the lives of my children as well. We are very blessed to attend a church that places a strong emphasis on reaching the lost through missions, both locally and across the world.

Every March is Missions Emphasis Month at church, and we use this as an opportunity to develop a deeper interest in missions for our children.

This year, our family chose two countries: Colombia and Brazil. The girls made some recipes for their countries, contacted a missionary and got some firsthand pictures and information, and made a display to represent their country.

Colombia:

We included a prayer letter from the missionary that our church supports, as well as some current pictures and information that they sent. We found a vine at our local craft store that had plastic fruit that surprisingly resembled coffee beans, so we also included that.

Of course, we included real Colombian coffee beans:

And for a special treat, we included chocolate and chocolate covered coffee beans to represent Colombia's two main crops.

The other country we studied about was Brazil, specifically the orphans in Brazil. There are about 7 million orphans or homeless children living on the streets in Brazil. Many are not traditional orphans, but have been forced out of their homes because the parents cannot afford to care for them. The third leading cause of death of children in Brazil is the intentional killing of these street children, supposedly done as a way to prevent the crimes they commit. It is heartbreaking to read about, and motivates us to help the missionaries build orphanages in Brazil to reach these children for Christ and give them a chance at a good life.

For Brazil, we cooked Brigadeiros which are traditional chocolate truffles served at celebrations in Brazil. They were absolutely delicious and tasted like little hot fudge bites.

Several ways to enhance an in-depth study of a country is by doing an art project from that country, or by cooking and tasting foods native to that country. 

We made several dishes from countries around the world, and the girls enjoyed trying them. If you follow me on Pinterest, than you might have seen some of the dishes we made. If not, you can visit my recipes from around the world page.

I also did a review last year for a book called Global Art, which has been a really neat book to find projects to complete when learning of other cultures.

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I have invited some other homeschoolers to join up and link some of their favorite posts with lesson ideas to learn about other cultures and develop a love for missions in our children. Stop by to visit some of their pages for some more ideas!