Ministry in the Chin Hills

We flew from Chattanooga to JFK, Frankfort, Singapore, and Yangon, arriving 37 hours later.  In Yangon we were greeted by heat, rising into the high nineties. I removed my wedding band, certain that my hands and feet would swell because of the sharp shift in temperature. I was glad I did. The next day I would not have been able to get it off.

After a day in Yangon, we flew on to Kalemyo, where Brother Kap, IPM’s missionary in Myanmar, met us and took us to a hotel. He was there for a conference, so we attended the last night of the conference meeting. The four-hour service seemed even longer after a long day.

God's beauty surrounded us.

The next day we got into Kap’s Land Cruiser to make the journey through the hills to Tedim where we would be teaching for the next two weeks. Rain, road construction, and the twists and turns on a narrow road meant that the 57-mile journey took almost three hours.  We were relieved to finally arrive at our destination where we were shown to an ample guest room with a private bath, and luxury of luxuries, the bath had hot water in the shower! We were now in the hills, where temperatures dipped into the fifties at night and hovered around seventy in the daytime, and the hot water was appreciated.

Crowing roosters and beating drums announced the coming of each new day. After a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bread, and coffee or tea, we prepared for our day of classes.

Our teaching day started at 8:45 when we joined the students for fifteen minutes of prayer and singing and then headed to class. Charlie taught the 3^rd and 4^th years students on Biblical counseling for an hour and a half while I taught the children English. We each had a break and then went to the chapel where Charlie spoke. After chapel we enjoyed lunch. Our afternoon classes lasted 45 minutes. I taught the 3^rd and 4^th year students on the teaching ministry of the church while Charlie taught the 1^st and 2^nd year students on Christian stewardship. Then we had some free time which we usually spent getting ready for the next classes.

At 5:00 in the evening, I headed off to teach the children again. This time it was more of a translated Bible club. I had a phenomenal translator who is also musically gifted. He could really get those children to sing. After teaching several songs, I told a simple Bible story which he translated. Some of the older students knew more English and were following me in English. We finished off with a review game and sent the children home at about 6:00.

The children of my evening class.

Charlie started his evening class at 6:00 with the graduate students, teaching Baptist Distinctives. When they finished at 7:30, we headed down for supper. Our meals always included an assortment of locally grown vegetables. Other things like chicken or noodles were often on the menu as well. We could not have asked for better food while we were there.

By the time we finished, the children were singing several songs and choruses without the help of the words. When I split them into two groups to sing “Rejoice in the Lord Always” as a round, they tried to out-sing each other. As they walked home at night, I could hear them singing along the way. Thongpi, my translator, requested the words to all the songs we used so that he could continue to teach them to the children. Toward the end, the children began bringing little gifts to me before and after class. My real regret was that I could not communicate with them in their language.  

Because it was the dry season, the hydro-electricity was limited and rolling blackouts were part of life. One night you would have power all night. The next night there was none. Some days there would be power, but not on others. So our evenings ended relatively early and the mornings were early as well. It was important to get the most use of the daylight.

As we came to the end of our two weeks, we both felt that we could have stayed much longer. Maybe next time.

A Guatemalan Harvest

I stepped off the plane, glad to be back in Guatemala again.  Ever since I lived there many years ago, Guatemala is a country that is close to my heart.  The people are friendly; the scenery is beautiful; and the weather is like an eternal spring.  Then, two years ago, my heart bonded with several of the people in the church where we worked, and I was looking forward to seeing them again.  Yet this time it was even more special because Charlie was already there, waiting for me.

On the two-hour ride back from the airport to the small town of Cerro Alto, I saw the corn fields, tall, tasseled, and ready for harvest.  We passed a market where the vendors tables were piled high with garden produce.  I looked longingly at all the fresh fruit and looked forward to sinking my teeth into guava, papaya, and lychees.  Flowers, ready for export, grew along the way.  The abundant gardens gave tribute to a mighty God who was providing for the Guatemala people.

Yet along the way, Charlie told me of an even more important harvest that was happening.  The previous Sunday, eight people had come forward to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.  I was impressed. In a church of less than one hundred people, that it a significant number.  I rejoiced at the wonderful work God was doing there and excited at the prospect of meeting these new believers.

I knew, from our previous visit, that newcomers to this church do not always realize that they need to make a decision to follow Christ.  Their religious background has led them to believe that they are fine.  After all, they were baptized when they were young, and they have tried to do right.  Then, after attending for a while and hearing the commands of Christ to repent of their sin and follow Him, they realize that they need more.  They need to surrender in faith and ask Him to save them.  Eight of them had done this on a single Sunday!

If only those eight had accepted Jesus as their Savior, I would have been impressed by the rich and bountiful spiritual harvest, but God was not done.  The following Sunday, the pastor preached a strong sermon about sin and the hold it has on people.  At the end, he asked if anyone there realized they needed Christ's redeeming work to save them from the power of sin.  Six more people walked to the front!  Now the church was really rejoicing together.  Warm hugs and hand shakes reached out to welcome these new believers into the family.

On the third Sunday, Charlie taught Sunday School.  For some reason, the pastor thought he should follow the lesson with an invitation to receive Christ as Savior.  This time a husband and wife walked forward and asked Jesus to save them.

The birthday girl

On our last Friday night, we gathered in the home of one of the members instead of holding the usual Friday evening service at church.  Their daughter was having a birthday, so they invited the whole church for supper.  Once again, the pastor gave an invitation and a ten-year-old girl raised her hand.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a 9-year-old boy had done the same.  He invited them forward.  Then another four children came forward as well.  The pastor spoke with them and they professed their faith in Christ to save them.

The last Sunday afternoon we were there, we traveled to a nearby town where a new church plant has started.  A man arrived late to the service.  Most of the seats in the small auditorium were taken, but there was a row of empty seats in the front row.  Together with his little girls, he made his way up there and listened intently as Pastor preached.  Charlie whispered to me, "He is not yet a believer."  I nodded and began to pray for him.  At the end of the service, Pastor asked, "Is there anyone here who is ready to ask Jesus to be His personal Savior?"  The man stood to his feet.  That night one more man was born into God's family.

It was amazing to watch what God was doing in this corner of Guatemala.  I felt as though I was back in Bible times when it says in Acts 2:47, "And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved."  Almost every time the church met, someone else was being saved.

Eight Evidences of Erroneous Education

Thoughts on Teaching Children in the Church

Through the years, I have read many different lessons for children.  I have seen enough problems in teacher’s manuals that I sometimes cringe when I am handed a manual and asked to teach.  Fortunately, people who know me know that I will refer first to the Bible and later to the manual. They expect that, so I am blessed that I am not expected to take the manual and use it exactly as it is presented.

At the same time, I know there are people who may be teaching for the first time.  They will usually take the materials and use them in the way they are presented.  So when I read something that misses the mark, I think of all those teachers who do not realize that the material they have been given is inadequate.  They think they should follow it as written. 

In order to alert teachers to the need to carefully examine their teacher’s materials, let me give you some of the main errors that I see in children’s curriculum.

1. Leave out or undervalue the main point of the Bible story.  What is the main point of the “Feeding of the 5,000?”  It is that Jesus, who looked like just an ordinary man, could take a little bit of bread and fish and feed more than 5,000 people with it.  He was not an ordinary man after all, but the Son of God.  A miracle happened that day!  Yet too often that story, when it is told to children, focuses on the need to share.  The story is not about sharing.  It is about a miracle.  It showed the people the power Jesus had.  We should teach the story with awe and wonder, not make it a moral about sharing.
2. Make the lesson one that will build up the children’s self-esteem by assuring them that they are at the center of God’s love.  Yes, God loves children with a love that goes beyond our comprehension, and nothing can separate a believer from that love.  However, we do not need to encourage a child’s self-centeredness.  Instead, if we help the children to understand God and His amazing plan of redemption, then His grace, mercy and love will naturally create a healthy view of God and a healthy view of themselves.
3.  Focus too much on the human characters instead of the supernatural One.  David killed the giant, Goliath!  Yes, he did.  But David was the first to give credit to the One to whom credit was due.  “I come in the name of the Lord.”  God was the one who put David there that day.  God was the one who gave David the ability to shoot straight.  God was the one who responded to David’s faith.  If we leave out God, why are we asking our children to come to Sunday School?
4. Waste time by using filler that has nothing to do with the main points you are trying to get across.  We have so little time in our children’s ministries that not one minute should be wasted.  Yes, we can teach using games, songs, crafts and other activities.  But we need to ensure that the activities actually teach something important that will help them remember the lesson.  For example, does the song, “Father Abraham” really help to teach children something about the lesson?  When the child walks away from Sunday School, will they go home talking about an amazing God or something much less important?
5. Focus on good behaviors instead of dealing with spiritual issues.  Too many lessons encourage children to act right rather than helping them realize that without God’s grace at work in us, none of us can ever measure up.  God has set a perfect standard before us.  Good behavior is not enough.  When children are old enough to understand their own sinfulness, we need to help them depend upon the God who can change them rather than asking them to change themselves.  We want to see what God can do in their lives, not what self-discipline can do.
6.  “Dumb it down.”  Too many people assume that children cannot learn the great theological truths of God’s Word.  True, it is very hard to teach those truths in simple terms, but if a teacher will give careful thought on how to present those truths, it can be done.  Since children are trusting, they will often believe these truths even more quickly than adults, and those truths will stay with them for a lifetime.
7. Forget about the whole counsel of God.  I have used curriculum that uses the same Bible stories over and over and thereby neglects huge portions of Scripture.  I have been in churches where the same lessons were being taught on Sunday and Wednesday, but the repetition was accidental, not intentional.  There was no attempt to say, “If this child stays in our church until they are eighteen, will they be equipped for adulthood when they are done?”
8.  Ignore the fact that the child is part of a family.  If we are going to do a good job of teaching children, we must also teach the family.  We have very little time with the children who come.  Their families are able to teach much more than we can.  Therefore, we must reach the home and help the parents teach their children.

God has given us a book.  That book is about Him.  When we teach it to children, we need to be sure that we are teaching in such a way that what we teach will not have to be unlearned at a later date.  We want to provide a solid foundation that will last a lifetime.

Children of the Amazon

We wandered through the streets of the town, marveling at the beauty of dark thatched roofs against clear blue skies.  Flowers abounded and palm trees swayed elegantly in the warm breeze.  It was, from what we could gather, a typical Sunday afternoon here.

Children scattered down the road in front of us, laughing as they chased each other between the houses and back on to the street.  As we walked further, we heard laughter coming from the river's edge.  There children splashed each other in the shallows.  One boy dived into the murky water and emerged a few seconds later within inches of his friend, startling him.  They both squealed in delight.

We walked on.  The front yard had been converted into a soccer field.  At first I thought it was sand, but on closer inspection I realized they had made good use of the sawdust from the nearby lumber mill.  

"Goal!" one small boy shouted.  He spun, his fist beating the air, and his friend slapped him on the back.  Another chased the wayward ball down the narrow street.  When he returned, they took their positions again and the game resumed.  We walked on, careful to not get hit by a stray ball.

There certainly was no lack in the number of children here, I thought.  They seemed to be everywhere:  children carried wood home in small bundles for cooking fires; others played happily at their mothers' feet while they tended the small stores in front of their houses.  I smiled at the joy and blessing they were bringing their families.

The next day we visited Pastor M.'s family. His eldest daughter was staying with them after the birth of her baby who slept peacefully in the tattered hammock in the kitchen.

"What is her name?" I asked.

"She doesn't have one yet," her mother told me.

"How old is she?"

"Ten days old."

Ten days old and not yet named.  How different things are here, I thought.  Is it because you do not want to name a child that might not survive?  I decided I would leave that question for another time, but here was another example of a beautiful child in this beautiful town.

On Tuesday I wandered into the market.  A round-faced girl with shining eyes, no more than four years old, ran up to me and grabbed my hand in her little one.

"Why are your legs so white?" she asked me.  Reaching down with her other hand, she stroked my leg from ankle to calf.

"God made them that way," I told her.  I smiled at her.

She happily chatted on, tugging at my hand the entire time.  Eventually she asked, "May I go to your house?"

"I don't live here," I told her.  "My house is very far away."

"Oh," she said. "I really wanted to go to your house."  Eventually, she let go of my hand and ran off to play again.

The next day when I headed out for a walk, a makeshift barricade prevented moto-taxis from using that road.  I carefully stepped around the barricade, wondering why it was there.  A few moments later, I got my answer.  Outside the school, dozens of children stood in groups with their teachers, lining up in neat lines.  Independence day was coming, and they were rehearsing for their part in the parade.

"Now let's march," called the teacher.  "Left, right, left, right."  The children followed their teacher, marching down the road.  Some looked my way as they passed, smiling for my camera.

Later that evening the seven of us sat in a restaurant, discussing the events of the day.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw four teenagers walking quickly down the street carrying something between them.  It was a stretcher with someone on it.  The figure under the sheet was quite small.

"What is that?" I asked.

"It looks like they are carrying someone to the hospital," one of the men said.

"But his face is covered," I said.  "Is he dead?"

By this time the restaurant owner had joined us. 

"A ten-year-old boy died this morning,"  he said.  "You should have heard the father wail."

"Who was it?" Pastor M. asked.

When the owner told him, a look of deep sadness spread across the pastor's face.

"I know the family," he said.  "The children occasionally come to special children's events.  I talked to that boy about his need of a savior, but I do not think he ever made a decision to follow Christ."

"That's the second child to die this week," the owner elaborated.  "The first one, also a ten-year-old boy, drowned on Monday."

My heart sank.  Two children dead in this short span of time while we were here.  Thousands of children in this town who need a Savior, yet so little gospel witness here.  Who will tell them?

"Lord," I prayed.  "Help Pastor M. to reach these children.  Raise up more workers who will reach these precious souls before it is too late."
 

Celebrate Easter with Your Children

I stood by the nursery desk, wondering why the nursery leader was late.  I could not remember her being late before.  A few minutes later, she flew in apologizing.  "I'm so sorry I'm late," she said smiling.  "But it is your fault, you know."

"What?" I questioned, wondering what her explanation would be.

"Easter," she explained breathlessly.  "I was up before dawn this morning putting out the items for the treasure hunt.  I awoke the children early and started them on the treasure hunt while I put the hot cross buns into the oven.  You gave us so many good ideas for celebrating Easter that I just had to do some of them, and things took longer than I thought they would."  

She was flustered, but her joy in helping her children celebrate this special day was contageous.  She put down her things and began greeting all the parents with a beaming smile on her face. 

Easter.  It is the focal point of our faith.  Without Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, our faith is in vain.  We cannot begin to explain our own faith without pointing to Christ's work in that last week of his life.  We owe everything to it. The assurance of our relationship to Christ rests in it.  We have no hope without it.  Yet in spite of this, Easter is often an overlooked holiday for many Christians.

Think about it.  Do you look forward to Resurrection Sunday with the same excitement as Christmas?  Do your children?  Do they have reason to shout "The Lord is Risen!" on Sunday morning?  Do they know that this is the most important holiday for Christians?  Do they see your excitement as you prepare that special meal to celebrate with family and friends?  Do they hear you singing precious songs about the suffering of Christ that week as you enter into His suffering, identifying with the Man of Sorrows?  Do they sense from you that this day is more important to you than Christmas?

Let us make Easter a BIG deal for ourselves and for our children.  I am not talking about Easter baskets and Easter bunnies and new clothes.  I am talking about celebrating the week and the day in a way that makes a profound impression on the value of what Christ did for us. Here are just a few suggestions on things that will help children grasp the importance of this week.

• On Palm Sunday, buy small palm branches or make them from construction paper and play out Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem.  Let them re-enact going into town to get the donkey, bringing it back for Jesus, and then laying clothing and palm branches out for the donkey to ride.  Shout "Hosanna to the Son of David together."  Sing praise songs to Jesus, and talk about what it would be like if the stones had actually begun to praise Him.
• Make a picture poster of the events of Jesus' last week.  Each day this week add one picture of what happened on that day.
• Celebrate the Passover Seder together as a family.  There is information online that will help you celebrate this.  Explain that Jesus and his disciples celebrate this together just before He died.  
• If your church has a special service on Thursday or Friday, go together as a family.
• On Friday (or Thursday, if that is your tradition) read together one of the stories in the gospel of the crucifixion.  Whenever a different person is mentioned, try to imagine what it was like for them that day. 
• Find a devotional that you can use to focus your family's devotions on the sacrifice Jesus made.
• Invite people to church for Easter and then home to your house afterwards to eat together.
• Make cards together that celebrate the resurrection.  Send them to friends or pass them out to neighbors.
  
• Have a special Easter dinner.  Serve lamb and talk about Jesus being the Passover lamb.  Make a cake in the shape of a cross or a lamb.
• Make a paper mache or bread dough tomb.  Put together clothespin disciples for the children to reenact the events.  Find a rock to cover the entrance to the tomb.
• Separate your celebration of Spring from Easter.  Celebrate Spring on the first day of Spring.  In your gift for your children, include colored eggs, bunnies, chicks, new clothes, and other special things.
• Attend the Easter Sunrise service, if your church has one.  
• On Easter morning (or afternoon), send your children on a treasure hunt.  Inside small paper or plastic bags or cloth bundles, put symbols of the events of the last week of Jesus' life.  If it will make it more fun, add a small amount of candy to each one.  When all the items are found, see if the children can identify each symbol and tell why it was included.  Then, for older children, see if they can put the symbols in the correct order.  

Easter is coming!  I cannot wait!  But first I will walk through this week with a sorrowful heart as I grieve His horrendous suffering and my own sin that made it so necessary.

Guatemala, I miss you.

 
I miss the everyday sights

• Early in the morning, the mountains slowly appeared through the mist and stood like powerful sentries around the village, announcing to anyone who paid attention that our Creator God was bestowing bountiful blessings on this little country of Guatemala.
• Flowers cascaded down front gates, lined window boxes and pathways to homes, and sold for pennies in the marketplace..
• The market in San Juan Sacatepéquez was teeming with the vibrant color or produce for sale and lively bargaining between vendors and buyers at 7:00 in the morning.
• Children played outside.  A soccer game, marbles, or simple tag might take place in the village streets or in the alleys.  
• Vendors and housewives carried their wares on their heads.
• Dogs roamed freely and without the territorial viciousness I often see back home.

I miss many of the things I smelled there.

• Freshly washed clothes hung on the line, wafting their scent of lavender in my direction when I walked by.
• A jasmine bush grew by the driveway, and Barbara picked a few flowers for our desk just before we arrived.  For days, I smelled their fragrant aroma whenever I walked into our room.
• Walking up the driveway, I’d stop to smell the jasmine and the roses that grew there.
• Before a rain, you could smell it coming.  After it left, the natural smells of earth and grass were more prominent than before.
• Tortillas or tacos for sale at a roadside stand tempted us as we walked by.
• The fragrant aromas filtered out of the kitchen several times as day, awaking our senses and making us ready to enjoy the next meal.
• Of course, there were some not-so-nice smells that I sometimes smelled, but even those were a reminder to me that I was not at home.  Bus fumes, garbage, and manure could not overcome the positives things I smelled there.

I miss the sounds I heard there.

• Firecrackers at midnight announced the beginning of someone’s birthday.
• Dogs barked, and roosters crowed their way-too-early greeting of the new day.
• Buses blared their horns, as early as 4:30 in the morning, to announce their departure for the capital city.
• A lonely cat let everyone know of her presence as she sat outside mewing for attention. 
• Children played on the patio, their laughter and imaginative conversations drifting in to where I quietly worked on my lesson plans for the day.
• The gentle rain pinged off the metal roof, quieting the other noises outside and lulling me to sleep.
• Children called out “Gringos!” to each other whenever we were out on the street.

Barbara teaching the children.

But mostly, I miss the people.

• Giovanni and Barbara Avendaño and their wonderful family. Our house seemed way too quiet when we returned. 
• The indigenous women in their colorful dress celebrated their distinctive culture.  Their shyness made it obvious to me that they had different cultural values from the ladinos in their midst. 
• The church people sang enthusiastically when they gathered for worship.
• Hosts and hostesses warmly welcomed us into their homes for a typical Guatemalan meal.
• At prayer meeting, their prayers were fervent as they lifted their voices to God, asking Him to do impossible things in their lives and in the lives of those they loved.  
• Passersby greeted us pleasantly as we walked down the village streets, sometimes stopping to talk or walk with us for a while. 
• Children called out their few English words when we passed and giggled when we stopped to talk to them.
• The people of Guatemala were friendly and welcoming to us.  Wherever we went, they greeted us with a smile.

So, Guatemala, we do not know exactly when we will be back, but we are looking forward to our return.

Back in Maine!

If I were to have designed a first week back in Maine after being gone for nine months, I don’t think I could have thought of a better week.  These are some of the highlights. 


The view from our bedroom window.

An absolutely gorgeous place to stay with very gracious hosts.  Rick and Kathie Ramsdell have a beautiful home on Holmes Bay.  The location itself would have been enough to soothe and cheer my heart, but I also cannot say enough about how gracious they were.  All of the people who have hosted us over the past year have been gracious, but the Ramsdells have definitely stood out as having a God-given gift of hospitality.  We are so grateful for their generosity and genuine love for us and for the work of the ministry.




Craft time

Game time.

Vacation Bible School with the Downeast Baptist Church in Machias, Maine.  My days were spent studying, writing, walking, meditating and praying.  But every night culminated in the best part – VBS.  The children were eager to learn and were enthusiastic about the week, asking at the end of it if it could go on.  The adults fully participated by helping with games, snacks, decorations, registrations, and providing meals for us.

The beautiful bride

A wedding at West Hampden Baptist Church on Saturday.  A young woman we have known for the last twelve years was married on Saturday, and we got to be there!  Seeing so many of our friends from West Hampden made it extra special. 














On Sunday Charlie shared our ministry with the people there, and then our hosts treated us to a lobster dinner.  What says “Maine” more than a lobster dinner?  Whoopie pies?  Well, we had those too!

Eastport, ME

Yesterday we travelled to Eastport, ME. We visited Raye’s Mustard factory, a place that Charlie wanted to see since we arrived in Maine and spent a couple hours enjoying the beauty of the place.  When we returned to Machiasport, the fog had settled in again, but I still spent more than an hour walking the beach.  It was a much needed and relaxing day off for me.



God is good – all the time.  Even when I don’t feel blessed, I know He is blessing.  But it is also a blessing (though not a greater blessing) to feel so blessed, and I thank and praise Him today for these special blessings.

Off to a Great Start

The people of Downeast Baptist Church have done a great job of getting ready for Vacation Bible School.  I was “blown away” by the obvious time invested when I saw the work they had done on decoration.  Here’s a sneak peek for you!



Can you see the camel trying to get into the tent?

    

The craft room waiting for children.

        


The table will soon be laden with snacks.

A closer look inside the tent.

We are looking forward to a wonderful week as we learn about the Israelites being "Lost in the Desert."

Shannon

I wish I had taken a photo of her.  Her straight brown hair streamed down to the middle of her back, and her big brown eyes smiled as I talked with her.  Her skin was the color of carmels.  As a seven-year-old, her black velvet and red taffeta dress and shiny dress shoes seemed perfectly suited for "Sunday-go-to-meeting" clothes.

I wish I had recorded her when she spoke.  Her eyes lit up when she talked to me, especially when she said, "I'm going to be a missionary when I grow up.  I'm going to tell Muslims about Jesus. "  You would have seen the intensity of her desire to serve her Lord and heard her compassion for those who do not know the joys of having Jesus as their Savior.

She knows all the missionaries in their church by name and where they serve.  She prays for them.  She prays for us.  When we go back to her church, I look forward to seeing how she has matured in the Lord and what God is teaching her to prepare her for her future.

I'm encouraged by children like her who love us and pray for us.  It is the joy of my heart to hear someone say, "We pray for you every day."

Instilling a Love for Missions in the Heart of Your Child, Part 1

Missions and children.  When a child catches a glimpse of the needs of the world, it is exciting to see.  But for some busy moms, the very idea of trying to find ways to include missions in family life can be overwhelming.  So here are some practical ideas that won't take much more time.

Host a missionary family.  When a visiting missionary comes through your church, get to know them on a personal basis.  Invite them over for a meal, a play date, coffee, or overnight, depending on what your schedule can handle.  Don't worry about private bathrooms or even bedrooms for them.  They are used to sleeping anywhere and will be delighted with the opportunity to be in your home.

Pray for missionaries as a family.  You know those prayer cards that missionaries give out like candy?  Keep them near the kitchen table.  Grab one at supper and include them in your mealtime prayers.  Or let your children keep some in their room and pray for them at bedtime.

Ethnic meal times.  Three times a day and 365 days a year, meals are made.  So every once in a while focus on a country for one night.  Go online and find ideas for decorating and let the children help with decorating.  Set the table (or the coffee table or floor) according to the traditions of the country.  Many missionaries would be delighted to cook an ethnic meal for you in your home and provide eating instructions. 

Learn geography together.  When her children were small, my sister picked up some geography placemats.  While she was preparing dinner and the children were hanging around the kitchen, she played geography games with them.  "Who can be the first to find . . . ?"  And the children raced each other to see who could find it first.

More ideas next time.  If I put all my ideas into one blog, it would be overwhelming.  If just one of these ideas work, you will be on the way to leaving an international mark on the heart of your child.