We live in exciting days. Today we are more connected with the rest of the world than we have ever been in history. With affordable air travel, globalisation and crucially, the internet, the world is a smaller and more accessible place.
Not only can we easily go to far-flung parts of our planet, but the world is also on our doorstep. Chances are that in your city many different nationalities are represented, and chances are, these international people can speak or are learning to speak your native language.
The opportunities are unprecedented. The harvest is plentiful.
So, how do we give our children a heart for the people around them?
We think that starts by giving them a love and appreciation for different cultures. It’s incredibly enriching to enjoy the music, food and if possible, the company of people from other nationalities.
Enjoy the culture
If you have people from another country in your church why don’t you invite them round to your home? You could encourage your children to help you make a traditional meal (we’re British, so fish and chips, a Sunday roast, or a breakfast fry-up would be appropriate). You could put on some famous music from your country (perhaps the Beatles for us), and during your time together teach your guests and your children a bit about your culture – the customs, a bit of history, your quirks. For example, as Brits, we like to discuss the weather a lot, we don’t like to express too much emotion (known as having a “stiff-upper lip”) and we like to have a cup of tea after we eat our meal. You could go as far as you like with it, perhaps teaching your children and guests about a significant person in your country’s history who has made a difference for Jesus. Perhaps John Wycliffe, who translated the Bible into the English language, would be a good option for us.
And here comes the really fun bit… why don’t you then invite yourselves around to their house to learn about their culture? Or if they don’t have the space/ resources. You could offer to buy the ingredients, use your own kitchen and get a cookery lesson from your international friends!
The beauty of giving your children a heart for the nations it that it’s actually really fun for all involved and it’s relatively easy to do.
Read all about it
Reading is a wonderful tool for transporting your children (and yourselves!) across the world. Novels, biographies and non-fiction books can give us an understanding and appreciation for places that we’ve never been to before (and may never ever get a chance to explore). One of the excellent benefits of reading to children is that it helps them to develop empathy for the character in the story. Therefore, reading books about people in different cultures and with vastly different lives from ourselves can be extremely challenging and enlightening for our children.
We recently had this book recommended to us Give Your Child the World: Raising Globally Minded Kids One Book at a Time
* (only 99p on kindle at the time of writing!). It’s essentially a reading list which takes you to all the continents of the world. It’s got a description of each title, a recommended age (from 4-12 years) and it even tells you if there is religious content that you may want to discuss with your children.
What a brilliant way to introduce your children to a myriad of different cultures, experiences and people groups from the comfort of your own sofa!
Biographies can also be helpful, we recently wrote a blog post on this topic. We are finding that our son is fascinated to learn about Bible smuggling into other countries (Brother Andrew), about a famous athlete becoming a missionary (Eric Liddell), and about men who were willing to live and die in the jungle for people to learn about Jesus (Jim Elliot and friends).
If you like reading all about different cultures, then you would enjoy our blog post series “Global Insights” written by Christian parents who live all over the world.
Raise awareness of the needs
A challenging part of being a parent, is figuring out how to expose our children to the harsh realities of the world, while still inspiring hope in their little souls.
Being part of a local church should help with this, as you pray for missionaries that you partner with, as videos are shown of church plants, the persecuted church and humanitarian crises and as you fund-raise for global causes. All these can facilitate fruitful conversations with our children, and action too as we pray and give.
When our eldest turned three, we decided to start sponsoring a little three year old boy through Compassion. We wrote a blog post all about how we planned to use this both to bless him and his family, but also to teach our son about poverty and the need for education. Our son frequently talks about his African penpal, and is always asking if we can go on an air plane to visit him. Perhaps we will someday! That would be amazing.
Language Learning and travel
We recently decided to start learning Spanish as a family (none of us had any previous knowledge of the language!) But it’s one of the easiest languages to learn, it’s widely spoken (in Mainland Spain and Latin America) and Spain is a cheap holiday destination from the UK. We do feel a bit crazy at times, why didn’t we choose French – the language that both parents have a GCSE in?! But then we remind ourselves that it’s just a bit of fun, we’re in it for the long-haul and the benefits will be worth it.
Learning a language can be very inexpensive. We grown-ups are learning through free Apps on our phones: “Duolingo” and “Memrise”. We’ve had to invest a bit more in the boys – we’ve bought some books and paid for some “Lingotots” lessons, but you can get lots of free resources too, through the library, youtube and by watching Dora the Explorer on TV. Here’s a link to a podcast which is really helpful on the topic of teaching your children a foreign language (even if you are just learning yourself!)
Learning a language is fun, but we’re also motivated by a desire to help our boys have a love for other nationalities. When this post is published we’ll actually be on holiday in Spain. We won’t be having an high-brow conversations in our new language, but we’re taking some baby steps to get the boys communicating with the locals – probably just saying greetings and basic words to the hotel staff. But still, we’re excited to see what fruit comes in the future from these little cross-cultural interactions.
We hope that you’ve found this post inspiring and helpful. We’re so thankful that our God is a cross-cultural, missional God who loves the nations. Here’s a few verses to remind us of his intentions for the world:
700 years before Christ, God promised a Saviour of Israel and the world:
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Jacob
and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” Isaiah 49:6
Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” Matt 28:19
And this is the day that all history is headed for:
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Rev 7:9-10
We’d love to hear how you help your children to have a heart for the nations. Please leave any of your tips and wisdom in the comments box below, or if you found this post helpful we’d love it if you would share it on social media.
Muchas Gracias!