Peeking out from behind this month’s issue of Adventist Frontiers is a special treat—an AF magazine just for kids! We printed it upside-down so the kids could have their own cover, reading the magazine from back to front.
Missionary kids don’t often get a lot of coverage in AF (probably because they aren’t writing articles), but behind all the stories of adult interaction you read about each month, there is a vibrant universe of missionary-kid ministry that powerfully enables the church-planting work of their parents.
You see, children can do many things adults can’t. For example, they have amazing power to topple adult barriers of suspicion and prejudice. As missionaries work to integrate with their communities, they find local adults naturally wary, but their children are naturally trusting. While missionary parents often struggle to form friendships, their children make them effortlessly.
In many ways, children are the vanguard of their families. As local parents see their children connecting with missionary kids, their hearts open to the missionary parents. Also, people judge the value of a missionary’s Gospel message by observing their children to see how it plays out in their lives.
In AFM’s model of heart-to-heart evangelism where everything hinges on relationships, children can be the key to reaching entire clans. You’re never too young to be a missionary!
