I love to study genealogy. I find it fascinating to look at lists of names and dates that tell me who my ancestors were, when they were born, and when and how they died. I enjoy reading those long lists of names in the Bible and figuring out who was alive when various events took place. I even love visiting cemeteries and reading the gravestones. It is interesting to see what names were popular at different times and what each family thought was important enough to record on the headstone. But what I really love is the stories that are hiding behind all those names and dates. That's also why I love geography- it is the study of stories that are still being lived.
There are many wonderful resources available on the internet to help you start learning these stories from many nations. Harvest Ministry is even offering a complete free downloadable homeschool curriculum with an emphasis on missions. Teaching With God's Heart for the World is a two-volume world missions curriculum by Ann Dunagan. The curriculum includes day-by-day teaching plans, missionary highlights, motivational mission stories, crafts, songs, prayer projects, and hundreds of ways to incorporate a passion for the lost into nearly every subject (including Bible Study, Family Devotions, Reading, Writing, Geography, History, Art, Science, and even highlights for Math).
Everyone, in every part of the world, has a story to tell and every story is different. But no matter how different, they all have one thing in common. Your story and my story and every other story from Adam until the end of time are all part of a bigger story- HIS story. No matter how different we all may be, God can still use our lives for His glory. And even though the world may seem like a very large place, there is no place so far away that God's love cannot reach it.
