I’ve already discussed how we want to equip the next generation in our family and our church, as part of the adventure that God has for us. Now I’ll discuss two other areas.
3. Our Culture. Not only should we pour into the children in our family and our church, but we feel that God has given us tools and experiences that we can share with others. From a staff perspective, we want to help other churches’ children’s ministries. We have had a significant increase in the number of questions and contacts from other churches (across the country and even from other countries!) over the past year. With regards to our own family engaging the culture, we are trying to prayerfully discern how we can make our resources (time, money, “stuff”) available, such as by mentoring young singles and couples, giving, opening our home, and possibly fostering and/or adoption.
4. Our World. How can we impact and disciple children of the world? This is more challenging logistically than the other three areas, and is an area that we’re still trying to figure out how to be involved in. Mission trips through Grace Church have been a great opportunity; I have been to Nicaragua (March 2003) and Kenya (November 2007), and Joanna is about to go to the Bahamas in May. We have also supported overseas missionaries, given money (as a family activity) to organizations like Samaritan’s Purse, and have supported a child through Compassion International for over 10 years.
I’ll summarize all these thoughts tomorrow.
-- Joey Espinosa
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