Through the Eyes of a Child

At School to the Nations, each one of our staff members wears many different hats in terms of what we do on a day-to-day basis. One of the cool things we get to do is educate both kids and adults about unreached people groups, which are defined as those that have little or no access to the Gospel. These times of education on our campus are called Cultural Tours.

We try to make the tours as interactive as possible, bringing the realities of cross-cultural mission work to life. We have African and jungle village homes on our campus that are built similarly to what you would see in both of those parts of the world. We talk about how it can be difficult to travel to some of these places. We share how different the cultures, customs, lifestyles, and beliefs are from what we are used to. We discuss the lack of access to clean drinking water, and how that can affect life in so many ways. We also talk about the work that God has called us to do at School to the Nations, and how they can pray for us, the people we work with, and for more missionaries (Matthew 9:35-38).

My favorite part of the tours is the questions that the kids ask and the statements that they make. Their inquiries are so pure and often full of unwavering faith. As adults, we tend to complicate things so much. We add in our sinful fear, pride, and own thoughts to things that can just simply be solved if we pray, read, and follow the Bible, and let the Holy Spirit lead. I say this as someone who is guilty of this very thing. 

A few weeks ago, I was talking to my family about one of The HOPE films that was made for a people group in West Africa that is 99% Muslim. I was sharing that I was worried about a scene in the film that was a little blurry and out of focus. My daughter said almost immediately that what matters is that they are going to hear about Jesus. 

As we move forward as a church, let’s focus on the simplicity of childlike faith (Matthew 18:3). Pray, read, and follow the Word of God, and let the Holy Spirit lead.