Oct 14, 2012

Cycle 1: Christian Missionaries & Heroes List

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations . . .
Matthew 28:19a

As I'm making my weekly plans, I feel God leading us to study Christian missionaries and heroes of the faith. I've posted about them in our weekly plans (see sidebar), but I thought I'd make a quick reference list. This list doesn't match-up exactly to the weekly plans, but I'm listing them here in the order I'd like to study them the next time we do Cycle 1. Some are easy match-ups to our Geography or History memory work, while others are a little bit of a stretch (they lived sometime during the span of our Timeline that week, maybe), but any time spent learning about God using ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things is time well-spent, match-up or not. Also, some of the first few weeks don't have anyone listed yet, but I'm working on that. ;)

Here are some of the Christian missionaries and heroes of our faith (and, at times, martyrs) we'd like to learn more about this year:

Week 2: Lillian Thrasher (Egypt)
Week 3: Apostle Paul (Greece, Rome)
Week 6: Perpetua (Carthage/Roman Empire)
Week 7: Amy Carmichael, William Carey, Sundar Singh (India)
Weeks 8-9: Gladys Alyward, Lottie Moon, Hudson Taylor, Eric Liddell (China)
Week 10: Jacob DeShazar (Japan)
Week 12: Read selections from Tales of Persia: Missionary Stories From Islamic Iran
Week 13: Mary Slessor (West Africa)
Week 14: C.T. Studd (Central Africa), Martin Luther (Germany)
Week 15: Brother Andrew (Middle East)
Week 16: Rowland Bingham (Sudan), George Washington* (America)
Week 17: David Livingstone (Southern Africa)
Week 18: David Brainerd (Native Americans)
Week 19: George Muller (England), Abraham Lincoln* (America), Harriet Tubman (America)
Week 20: D.L. Moody (America), Cameron Townsend (Mexico, Peru)
Week 21: Corrie Ten Boom (Holland, Nazi Germany), Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Nazi Germany), Betty Greene (American, global missionary)
Week 22: Nate Saint, Jim Elliot (Ecuador)
Week 23: Clarence Jones (Ecuador)
Week 24: Solomon Ginsburg (Brazil)

* Yes, these presidents are not missionaries per se, and some see their Christian faith as debatable, but we think it's important to spend a little extra time discussing God's hand in their lives and how it shaped our great nation.

Missionary Books - Individual Biography
Christian Heroes: Then & Now series - ages 10+, but reviews say younger children enjoy these as Read Alouds
Heroes for Young Readers series - preschool to early elementary age, biography told in rhyme
Little Lights series - preschool to early elementary age

Missionary Books - Collections of Biographies
Missionary Stories From Around the World - ages 9+, but great Read Aloud for littles. This is my go-to book for quick missionary stories; each missionary gets about three pages. This book has 27 different missionary stories, and it covers many of the missionaries listed above.
Hero Tales - ages 8+, but another great Read Aloud for younger ones. Each volume in this series has 15 short stories (a page or two each) followed by a Bible verse and questions to discuss. The authors of this series also write the Trailblazer books, which are historical fiction for ages 8+ centering around a missionary or Christian hero.
Portraits of Integrity - wonderful Read Aloud book with 45 true short stories of missionaries and other heroes of the faith.

Missionary DVDs
The Torchlighters - Heroes of the Faith - Great 30 min. DVDs on heroes and missionaries. Their site also has a Kid Zone page for each movie, complete with coloring pages, quizzes, and other activities for elementary-age children. Amazon offers some of them as instant downloads.

Links
Teaching with God's Heart for the World - FREE one-year curriculum for elementary-aged children. Special thanks to the Carpenter family for sharing this incredible link in the comments!
Wholesome Words - biographies
Child Evangelism Fellowship's Wonder Zone - free evangelical ministry where kids complete 'adventures' to learn about the missionaries (and other heroes), then they answer questions.
Here is a general link of Christian missionary resources for children.

If you'd like to see how we study them at home, click here.

I know there are many more books and websites out there, these are just the ones that I'm familiar with and plan on using throughout this cycle. I also list more specific links to the weekly missionaries and heroes in my weekly plans (see sidebar). Did I leave out your favorite resource on this topic? If so, please comment and share! I'm always looking for good ideas!

8 comments:

  1. What a great idea!!!!! My parents are missionaries in Belize (born/raised Belizeans in their own country) but go through an US organization. I have a special place in my heart for missions. I recently happened upon this free download. I haven't looked through all of it but it might be a great resource for incorporating into missions study. Here's the link: http://harvestministry.org/twghw

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    1. Wow! Thanks SO much for the link, friend! INCREDIBLE! I've got the first book printed, working on the second soon. I'm going to have to do a quick separate post JUST ON THIS RESOURCE! I truly appreciate your sharing, and thanks for checking out the blog. :)

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  2. Great Idea Melody! You truly do have a wonderful blog.

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    1. Thanks, Yvana! And thank you also for the other sweet comments. I appreciate your prayers and encouragement, more than you know. :)

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  3. No pressure ;), but will you be doing this for Cycle 2? I didn't find your blog till mid-year, and adding one more thing right now is overwhelming to me, but NEXT year, I really want to do this. :D No pressure though. (she says as she pressures you)

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    1. Ha! Yes, I think I'll try to come up with another list for next cycle. We haven't been sticking with it all the way, but I sure do want to try again next year. :) And no pressure was felt, girl. ;) Ha!

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  4. This is WONDERFUL!!!! I'm so looking foward to integrating this into our CC homeschooling! Thanks for this!

    I see that this is a few years old (not that history is changing! ha!), but do you plan on adding to this? Can't get enough of missional learning :)
    Thanks so much!

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  5. This is WONDERFUL!!!! I'm so looking foward to integrating this into our CC homeschooling! Thanks for this!

    I see that this is a few years old (not that history is changing! ha!), but do you plan on adding to this? Can't get enough of missional learning :)
    Thanks so much!

    ReplyDelete

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