Saturday, October 29, 2011

The Mission-Minded Family: A Review

We have been reading a very special book.  My husband is reading it as our devotions but I have already finished it.  I just could not wait!  I feel like I have spent a long time looking for a book like Ann Dunagan's The Mission-Minded Family book.  I fairly recently began my journey with Jesus through his salvation about 8 years ago when my youngest was born and my oldest was 3 years old.  I was initially so excited about my new relationship with Jesus that I began writing and speaking for the cause of Christ.

Something (or more likely several things) started to happen to cool me off.  People started hinting that perhaps I was too newly saved to be doing all that I was doing.  Some just came out and said that Moms should only build the Kingdom of God through motherhood and need not take the Great Commission beyond the walls of her home.

All this time though, my husband and I were wondering what we could do for Jesus' cause here on earth.  For my husband, he believed that I could especially make a contribution since most of his time and energy would need to go towards providing for our family.  But we did feel hesitant based on what others were saying to us.  So, I did slow down on my writing and speaking, focused on our home and helped my husband grow his business.

In the midst of this though, I developed an intense desire to learn about missionaries.  The desire was almost like a desire that the more I fed it, the more I wanted.  I spent hours researching missionaries and then went to the local libraries and book sales to bring home as many missionary biographies as I could.  My children's bedtime stories were all missionary stories and we all loved them.  It was hard to stop and they would want to continue reading into the night or wake up the next day and continue the stories.

I started asking God if my fascination with missionary stories was some sort of a sign of direction for our family from him.  My husband kept saying, "Get rid of all this stuff we have around here in case God does want us to be missionaries so we can just pick up and go!"  My son started to talk about possibly becoming a missionary and my daughter offered to go and assist him.  God still has not given us any specific direction for cross-cultural missions but we have developed a passion to serve where we are.

Stay tuned for more posts about our family's continuing journey with Jesus. I will be posting on adoption and foster care, orphan care, hospitality, nursing home ministries, missionary biography books and websites and more.

Book Review
Meanwhile, I came across the book Mission Minded Families.  This excellent book, written by a homeschooling mom, was so inspiring to me that I was practically in tears.  To read of another homeschooling mom who is as passionate about Jesus and all whom he loves as she is about her own family.  It has not been easy to find like-minded moms who have already made a head start down the road as a mission minded family.  The book is full of inspiring real-life stories, hymns, skits  and practical ideas that make it a joy to read and easy to put into action.  I highly recommend all parents who want, more than any other parenting goal,  to raise their children to glorify God, read and apply this book.

I pray that this post and coming posts will attract other moms to this site who have similar interests so that we can share and grow together.

The link to a full description of the Mission Minded Families book on CBD.com is below.
068434: The Mission-Minded Family: Releasing Your Family to God"s Destiny The Mission-Minded Family: Releasing Your Family to God's Destiny


 Also, check out Ann and her husband's excellent site, Harvest Ministry, for lots of free resources and wonderful ideas for you and your family to reach out to a lost and hurting world today.

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