Growing Up Wild: Encouraging Kids to Live for God's Global Glory

Justin Taylor

Justin Taylor Blog | May 22, 2012

Here's a video series that churches and families might want to consider in mobilizing kids with a global vision. Many of our future missionaries are kids today, and for many their only exposure to missionaries is in reading older biographies or in seeing missionaries come home to visit on furlough. So I'm thankful for the Wild family, who is providing us with a glimpse of what it looks like growing up in the jungle, seeking to reach the unreached.

You can watch some clips below:

Comments:

Carey Olson

May 27, 2012 at 08:25 PM

Thank you, very much, Justin! I love how the Wilds' mission involvement includes pursuing their desire and goal to stir up interest in reaching unreached peoples. May the Lord be pleased to use Growing Up Wild to that end!

nate

May 24, 2012 at 04:36 AM

Mike & Libby: thanks for doing this! And Justin, thanks for giving this some great exposure.

--nate in papua

Jenny

May 23, 2012 at 12:45 PM

Amazing! Love the videos! Children really need to experience something other than America.

Growing Up Wild « thereformedmind

May 23, 2012 at 09:23 AM

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JRJ

May 23, 2012 at 01:51 AM

This looks great! While I think it's great to let children get an idea of cross-culture ministry, my opinion is that it's too often parents who are the greatest obstacle in sending a child away for long-term missions. Short-term is usually fine but even the attitudes can be thinly-veiled ("Enjoy your 1 or 2 year trip; then come back and get a real job" or for the more spiritual, "Come back and get a seminary degree so you can do real ministry.")

Does this generation of parents have what it takes to send their grown children off, near or far, for the sake of the proclamation of gospel of grace? If not, will the next generation? Will we be so supportive of them that we help them raise the money they need, recruit for their teams, speak on their behalf before congregations when they're not here?

Rather than hearing young aspiring missionaries say "My parents are all for missions, but their attitude is more like 'Not in my own backyard,'" I pray we begin to hear how fathers (!!) and mothers - NOT John Piper, David Platt, Hudson Taylor, Adoniram Judson, etc. (yet with all due respect to their efforts) - were the single most influential people in urging them toward missions.