How to teach your kids to be a dinner table missionary

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Welcome to Ministry Monday at Hive Resources! This series is for everyday women who minister through the everyday mission fields of life. Posts feature resources and ideas for discipleship, outreach events, women’s ministries, Bible study, hospitality, and more. Subscribe today so you don’t miss any of it!

Today’s Ministry Monday is brought to you by one of my closest real-life friends, Nive Burris of Handful of Joy – a site exploring healthy global cuisine. A foodie at heart, Nive has dedicated her culinary efforts to helping her children fulfill the Great Commission right from the dinner table. Check out her site for great dinner-time inspiration, step-by-step recipes, and ideas for helping your children develop a love for the nations.

I have a palate for global cuisine.

I love to cook for family and friends. I love geography and the culture of food and the story it weaves as you take every bite. But you know what I also love? The Story of Jesus.

So at our dinner table, I am trying to develop in my two kids a palate for a variety of tastes and love for Jesus. And I thought I can do it through the food!

Here’s a few tips for teaching your kids about the Great Commission from my kitchen to yours:

PICK A FOOD

I research and pick up a food from any part of the world, just randomly at times. I try to make it sound fun – like “Let’s eat something African today or Latin American or Russian today!”

FIND THE COUNTRY

As I cook the meal, I show my kids in a globe where that country is located and we have a little geography lesson. Then we thank God and pray for the people who gave us the sumptuous meal we are enjoying!

PRAY THE PEOPLE FIND JESUS

Then I thought, what if we also specifically pray for them to hear about Jesus? We need to intercede on behalf of all people – not simply those we know by name. I think the fact that humanity exists in the part of the world we are eating a meal from, is enough to warrant prayer for the people! So we pray that people of the given country and region will get to hear the gospel of Christ.

PRAY FOR MISSIONARIES

We pray that God will provide for the missionaries who are being the hands and feet for Jesus and are willing to leave the comfort of their home to share Him with those who don’t know Him.

So we prayed for Jose who is serving the Lord in a small village of Nicaragua as we chowed down on Gallo Pinto.

We prayed for harvest in Peru and for the seeds planted by family friends who served as missionaries there as we ate Aji de Galliana. We prayed for the Austin’s, missionaries who continue to serve in Peru.

Recently, a friend of ours had a difficult time during her African missionary journey, so as we slurped red-red stew from Ghana with kelewele we prayed for her.

We also prayed for those we don’t have names for. We prayed for those who are spreading the gospel in Paraguay as we had sopa paraguya.

We prayed for people of Columbia as we enjoyed Arepas.

MAKE VISUALS FOR THE DINNER TABLE

To help our family with visualization, we made continent/country place mats. During dinner, we look up the country to see the origin of the food on their plate. We have Scripture cards printed out specifically for nations of the world in mind, which we include in our weekly Scripture memorization and talk about it.

We pray that God will send someone to be the messenger of the Story of Jesus in the given part of the world, if there have not been any.

We believe that we all can be a missionary where we are and at least pray for humanity to know Christ, if we can’t be physically there, right from our dinner table – one plate, one region, one country at a time.

What’s your favorite way to teach your kids about the Great Commission?

Find out more about Nive and her cooking ministry at Handful of Joy. Connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.