Encourage Your Missionaries!
I lead the MidWeek Ministry at my church and this week’s lesson is about Paul encouraging the church through his letters and continually pointing them back to Jesus.
Paul was a great missionary who helped found the early church. God called him to spread the Gospel as far as he could go and to everyone who would hear him. After that call from God, he spent the rest of his life as a missionary. It wasn’t an easy journey, he found himself mocked, ridiculed, run out of cities and thrown in jail – but he always looked to the Lord, gave thanks, and continued the great mission!
For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
Colossians 2:1-7
It’s so important to remember that the financial support Paul received from the church, the body of Christ, allowed him to keep travelling and spreading the Gospel. Just like God used Paul for His glory – He also used the Christians that supported him for His glory too. We are all called to spread the Gospel – whether locally with the people already in our lives or by travelling afar and telling others about Jesus who have never heard him before.
We just started using “The Gospel Project” curriculum at our church and we have been really enjoying it. It does a great job going through the Bible and always pointing the kids back to Jesus.
One of the activity suggestions for our current unit is to send a letter of encouragement to the missionaries that your church supports. I loved that idea so much. I think the intention was to write on letter paper but I wanted to take it a step further so I designed a template that has prompts to help the children write their letters.
You can find out more about The Gospel Project on their website below:
I usually put my resources that I create for sale on my Etsy store but I want to give this away for free because I think it’s so important and could be such a fun task for anyone. You could do it at home with your child(ren), at Sunday School, with your friend group – whatever you like!
There are 4 variations of the same letter – the only differences is that they each have a different Bible verse on them. You can find the link at the bottom of this post to download the PDF documents.
Please consider sharing in the comments section of this post about your stories or experiences in using this template – what did your kids use the block area for in the middle of the document – did you draw a picture or write a little note of encouragement? I would love to hear all about it!
Blessings!
Rachel
Rejoice and Repeat 