It’s a New Year, and You Have New Curriculum
I hope you are as excited as our team in Birmingham is about Missions Journey: Kids! I can tell you from working beside this crazy talented and amazing team that you and your kiddos were at the forefront of our discussions and the focus of many of our prayers as we worked together to create Missions Journey: Kids!
In case you are just catching on that a few changes are happening in September, let me catch you up:
Missions Journey: Kids is the new curriculum for Girls in Action, Royal Ambassadors, and Children in Action. And we couldn’t be more excited about the new lesson structure and having one great set of curriculum for all elementary-age groups while still allowing you to maintain your own group’s identity.
Let me break it down for you.
Lesson Structure
Over the course of a month, you will lead 4 lessons:
Week 1—Introduction—Find out about the culture where the missionary works as you dive into understanding more about the people and their needs in this part of the world.
Week 2—Discipleship—Scripture and missions go hand in hand! Your kids will soon learn that missions and the Bible are intertwined, and kids will make connections that will strengthen that understanding.
Week 3—Missions—Find out what kind of work our featured missionary does and how the missionary shares God’s love with the community he or she serves.
Week 4—Application—Choose from several great activities to create a meeting time that will help your kids apply what they’ve learned this month to their own lives.
Group Identity
Each week, lead your group with the pledge and recite the group Scripture verse. Continue to use the GA Digital Package 2021-22, RA Digital Package 2021-22, or CA Digital Package 2021-22 to create T-shirts and identity items for your group, and hang your GA Flag or RA Flag in your meeting space.
Check out all the details about each group at wmu.com/children, and make sure to read through all the tabs for your group. You’ll be amazed at what you find there!
One Line of Curriculum
In looking to the future of children’s missions discipleship curriculum, our team quickly realized that one set of curriculum was going to be best for most of our churches.
We also knew how simple yet flexible the curriculum would need to be to meet the different needs our groups may have. That’s why the team added pages for GA, RA, and CA ideas at the end of each unit, and the Week 4 lessons give you several activities to choose from.
While GA and RA leaders are used to the structure of the curriculum (GA/RA Leader, GA/RA World, and GA/RA Leader Kit) and will readily recognize how to use each piece of the new curriculum (Missions Journey: Kids Leader, Missions Journey: Kids Adventure, and Missions Journey: Kids Leader Kit), our CA leaders will love the way the curriculum is set up with 3 different pieces to work from. We’ve been asked about a children’s magazine for CA many times over the years, and we know this will be a great addition for CA leaders and kids alike!
My Favorites
My favorite things about our new curriculum would have to include the Making Connections activities in the first 3 lessons of each month. These activities are designed to help you show kids that missions and Scripture go hand in hand. When your main lesson is about culture or missions, your Making Connections activity is about Scripture. And when you are learning about Scripture, your Making Connections activity will be about outreach, culture, or the missionary.
Another favorite of mine is the Week 4 lesson. Each month, the Week 4 lesson gives you 6-7 activities from which to choose. I don’t think you could accomplish all 6 or 7 activities in 1 meeting session (and you shouldn’t try!). By choosing 3 of these activities, you’ll have enough fun and review that your kids will walk away with a deeper understanding and even some application to their own lives. The flexibility of having so many different types of activities means that your Week 4 doesn’t have to be the same things each month. Keep it fresh!
Contact Us!
We know you’ll have questions, and we’re hopeful you’ll want to share your success stories with us. Feel free to reach out to your state WMU office or our team anytime. And you can find me in the Community for Girls in Action Leaders or Community for Children in Action Leaders on Facebook. Make sure to join one of those to stay in touch with other leaders from around the country. We’d love to hear from you!
Heather Keller is the GA/CA consultant at national WMU. By nature, she is a connector, problem solver, and list checker. She enjoys making sure our GA and CA leaders have everything they need to be successful each week! Email her at hkeller@wmu.org.
