For many Adventists in North America, the voice of master storyteller Eric B. Hare evokes fond memories. With dramatic accounts of missionaries and miracles, Hare's stories have captivated generations of Adventists.
For many Adventists in North America, the voice of master storyteller Eric B. Hare evokes fond memories. With dramatic accounts of missionaries and miracles, Hare’s stories have captivated generations of Adventists.
The audio version of one of his most familiar stories—“Silver and the Snake”—is on the lineup of Mission Week, a new DVD curriculum of missions-focused classroom devotionals for grades K-8. The Office of Adventist Mission launched the DVD at the August 2006 teachers’ convention for the North American region of the church.
Along with a variety of other missions-related stories, PowerPoint presentations, video clips from around the world, games, and other activities, Mission Week aims to recapture the enthusiasm surrounding missions in the past.
“Lately, there has been a resurgence of interest in missions among baby boomers who remember with nostalgia the excitement over mission stories and offering goals they experienced as kids,” says Nancy Kyte, marketing director for Adventist Mission. “They want kids today to capture that same feeling,” she adds. “And with today’s technology, there are so many more ways to experience missions than in previous generations.”
During Mission Week, October 2 to 6, Kyte anticipates teachers will incorporate the weeklong curriculum into morning worships, much like a Week of Prayer or Week of Spiritual Emphasis. “Our goal is to get kids to focus on missions and mission projects without crowding out other subjects,” she explains.
So far, 2,000 Adventist educators have indicated they will add Mission Week to their regular curriculum. While Kyte admits this focus on Adventist schools will not reach all kids, she believes “it’s a good starting place.” As for Adventist students attending public school or home school, Kyte says they, along with anyone else wanting to use the curriculum, can visit www.adventistmission.org and request a copy of Mission Week.
“We’d like to see the program be as international as possible, but to start out, we are piloting the program in North America,” says Kyte.
As the project grows, Kyte says she and other planners will develop it further, with the goal of releasing a new version—featuring different countries and coordinating materials—every year. This time around, she’s inviting students and teachers to submit original skits to be included in future DVDs.
Kyte says the Mission Week DVD is designed so that students can handle much of the “teaching” themselves. They’ll be able to lead out in crafts and games, and run PowerPoint presentations such as “The Pumpkin Lady”—the miraculous story of a North Dakota woman who grew US$7,000 worth of pumpkins during a drought to fund the building of two churches in India.
Students are also encouraged to submit original essays and posters to a Mission Week contest. Not only will the winners be featured in an upcoming issue of Adventist Review, but Adventist Mission will donate funds in the name of their school to an Adventist project of their choosing. “In that way, [Mission Week] shows how a focus on missions and missions donations help make a real difference in people’s lives,” says Kyte.
It’s that visible impact that Kyte hopes will excite students. “We want kids to see that missions is a worthy career, that it is worthy of their prayers and financial support, and that it depends upon all of us doing our part, whether we’re out there in the mission field or not. We’re all a part of the mission team,” she says.