Don’t Forget to Pack the Kids Book Description:
Short-term missions have traditionally been the province of singles, youth groups, and married-with-no-kids.
Five years ago, few would have picked up a book about taking the family on a short-term mission. Now, more and more of us 30 and 40-somethings with kids are asking― Why can’t we do something meaningful for others with our kids? Why do we have to wait until they’re teens and then and pack them off on a youth group trip? Why can’t we let them experience using their gifts in ministry now? And why can’t we discover those gifts alongside one another in an experience they’ll never forget? Well, you can. With some planning specifically geared toward making a family mission trip successful, you can. And you should.
Don’t Forget to Pack the Kids interweaves personal experience stories with extensive how-to information.
Statistics tell us over three-fourths of our kids will leave the church when they leave home. Why? Part of the reason is their feeling that church is irrelevant to their lives and they can get entertainment and fulfillment elsewhere. If we taught our kids early that the church is relevant because they are the church, and it is fulfilling because they fill it with their gifts and ministry, we could reverse those statistics.
Serving together can be a huge part of that.
About the Author:
Jill has a BA in English and Education and an MDiv in theology. She is ordained in the Free Methodist Church and has served as a worship, preaching, and discipleship pastor. She is also a professional speaker available for speaking engagements. Jill is represented by Diana Flegel at Hartline Literary Agency.
With three daughters, three cats, and (thankfully!) only one husband, she keeps busy otherwise with community theater, gardening, reading, scrapbooking, and bugging her last child to do 4H projects. Jill loves oceans, cats, chocolate, teenagers, her family, the Cubs, and God, not necessarily in that order.
Book Details:
- Format: Softcover and Kindle
- Publisher: BeachGlass (February 28, 2012)
- Language: English
- Page Count: 134
- ISBN-10: 0615581188
- ISBN- 13: 978-0615581187
- List Price: $8.00 Softcover, $3.99 Kindle
My Thoughts:
Jill has done a wonderful job of putting together a book about families going on short-term mission trips together. Very often, we see youth groups or adults going on short-term mission trips, but it isn’t often that we see families going together. Jill takes readers through the process of deciding to go on a short-term mission trip as a family. She talks about the why’s and why not’s of doing a short-term mission trip as well as how to determine where to go, how to plan for it (physically, emotionally, spiritually), how to go about fundraising, and even how to keep the mission trip going after you return. She takes her real life experience of her family’s short-term mission trip to China and shows how a family can do a short-term missions together. Her practical, heart-felt advice and experience truly warmed my heart.
I appreciated the fact that this book wasn’t about “you have to do a short-term mission trip”, but rather, it was about how to go about doing it as well as what a blessing it can be for the entire family. She even included resources such as a practical spiritual gifts inventory for family members and family Bible studies. The spiritual gifts inventory isn’t your traditional test-type format. Instead, it lists the spiritual gift and then some ideas on what that gift would look like when applied to real life. It makes figuring out your natural, spiritual gifts much easier as you can see if that gift applies to you (or other family members).
Obviously, Jill has a heart for short-term missions, and this shines through in the writing of her book. She wants to encourage others that it can be done as a family. She doesn’t gloss over the difficulties that come with short-term missions as a family. Instead, she shows how many of the difficulties can be overcome with patience, understanding, a big dose of prayer and support, and planning.
