What can you do to cultivate a passion for the global spread of the gospel in the hearts of your kids?
Intro
The “Gospel Shaped Home” podcast is a family discipleship resource from Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. It aims to equip you and your family to be on mission with God, to the end of the street and the ends of the earth.
Andy Owens
Welcome again to the “Gospel Shaped Home.” Thankful that you have tuned in. I am, once again, joined by Phil and his wife, Linda. Welcome back, guys.
Phil M
Thanks, Andy.
Linda M
Well, thank you.
Andy
This time we want to talk about how parents can lead their kids to love and be a part of God’s work around the world. We’re talking about cultivating a passion for the name and renown of God in all the earth and passing that onto your kids. So Phil, Linda, tell us a little about your story, how you’ve sought to cultivate that in your own family.
Phil
Yeah. As I’ve shared on a previous podcast, Andy, God saved me on a mission trip to China back in June of ’99 and changed the course of my life. But he gave me salvation on that, I trusted Christ on that trip, but then he also, in the midst of that, showed me his heart for the nations and exposed me to great lostness. When you think about a place like China, over a billion people and not as much access to the gospel and a lot of people are unreached there. And so I came home and just had that, I just call it the vision. And two years later, went on another mission trip to China, short-term trip, I was a police officer at the time.
Andy
You’re not in vocational ministry.
Phil
No, no. Just working as a police officer, Linda at home with the kids, but also working some. So we would plan my summer. At least one week I would take off vacation, and she’d work out her schedule, and I would go. It was pretty regular, especially once we started this ministry in Moldova. Every summer I was leading a team through the local church to go on a mission trip.
Andy
So how did you guys, as a family in that season, guard against … It’s something we’ve talked about in another episode, calling as a parent. How did you guard against kind of leaving your family behind, in a sense? If you’re going every year to Moldova, how did you involve Linda and the kids in that early season?
Phil
Yeah. So leading up to going on the trip, Linda would sit with the girls, and Phillip was really young at the time, and she would talk about, “Okay, this is where Daddy’s going. This is the place where Daddy’s going.” She’d show them on a map. “These are the people that Daddy’s going to minister to.” So a day or two before I was to leave, after dinner, the kids would gather up and I would get on my knees, and they would lay hands on me. It always brought me to tears because my little girls just praying sweet little prayers over their daddy who’s going to be on this plane, knowing that they had some anxiety about it. Here my daddy’s getting ready to get on a plane and go overseas. But Linda can share a little bit about what it was like when I was there, while I was away, what she would do.
Linda
Yeah. So we would, we would obviously pray every day for him. It was kind of like an addition to our little homeschooling days when we could look at the globe and kind of picture where we are compared to where Daddy was. We would pray for him. We had a specific prayer guide that I would kind of write for each day to pray for him and all the team members. Then in addition, we would read missionary biographies. They had children-level missionary stories that we would read.
Andy
Different missionaries, yeah.
Linda
Yeah, so exciting.
Andy
Any favorite biographies?
Linda
Oh, I want to say Gladys Aylward was one of our favorites. Have you ever read hers?
Andy
Yeah. Single lady missionary to China.
Linda
I want to say, yeah, she was one of our favorites. But then we would always make a huge deal about the welcome home and we would make a giant banner and welcome him home. So it became all of us involved in going and of course when he would call home, they would all come running. This was prior to FaceTime or, you know, we didn’t even have iPhones then. So to get that phone call home would be so exciting. So we just tried to truly be involved. Then when he did get home, we would all together see the pictures and look at the videos of his experience. So it wouldn’t be like he just left for a week. It was all of us involved.
Andy
I think it’s really helpful just you’re all together in a sense in this ministry. I just thought of it as you were saying it, but in Romans 10, Paul, he has a vision of the gospel going forth. People, obviously, they can’t believe in one of whom they’ve never heard. They can’t hear without someone preaching, but he doesn’t stop there. It’s not just the person who goes and preaches. He says in Romans 10:15, “and how are they to preach unless they are sent?” So, in a sense, you guys as a family, were sending Daddy.
Linda
Oh, I love that, yeah.
Andy
You’re sending Phil to Moldova each year, and your kids were a part of that through prayer, and just being aware, that’s good.
Phil
I would get home, and like Linda said, I would have already prepared sort of like a little slideshow. Then we would have the kids sit down, and we would do a special dessert or some cookies. Then I would show them what the Lord did and then share about some exciting things that I saw God do. Over the years, I had a great desire for Linda to go. Our kids were small, and so it was going to be a really difficult thing to get that to happen, but she went. She decided to go, and I think our youngest, Phillip, was maybe two years old. We got the kids settled with my mom and her sister were going to help. So we get on this plane, and she’s all excited, a little anxious. We get over to Moldova. I mean, we’re tired. We had 18 hours of travel, and we’re staying in these cabins-
Andy
Luxury, right?
Phil
Yeah.
Andy
The poorest country.
Phil
We don’t have much contact back home. She says, “I need to talk to you for a second.” I mean, we literally just got there, and she takes me behind the cabin. She’s in tears, and she says, “I want to go home.”
Linda
I was serious.
Phil
She was. I said, “Well, that’s not that easy.” I said, “But just give me one day at the camp and let me know if you want to go home after that.” So Linda, do you want to share?
Linda
Oh gosh, I so remember that like yesterday. It truly was absolutely, I was serious. I was trying to figure out a way to get to the capital to get on a plane on the next flight home. But I began to watch Phil. In my pity party, self pity party of missing my kids and wondering where I was in the world, I watched Phil, and what I saw in him I’d never, ever seen in him before. It was so apparent that this was what he was called to do and be, and he was not in ministry at that time. He was a police officer. But seeing the joy and seeing his interaction and then obviously getting to be a part of that was absolutely … It captured my heart. So to be able to do ministry together and do mission trips together as a married couple was truly something that has enhanced our marriage in many, many, many ways.
Andy
Yeah. Praise God. Praise God. So it started out, Phil, you’re going on your own. The family’s sending you. Then Phil and Linda, you guys both went, but I know it didn’t stop there.
Phil
So what a testimony for our kids, for them to see the faith that we had to go together and leave them home. They had great time with their Pops, with their aunt and grandmother. But as Valerie got a little older, we thought, okay, at what age would she get to go? Because she really wanted to go. She started getting that heart. So at 13 we allowed her to go. She went to Moldova, and she just loved it. She dove in. We get home, and I wanted to see what the Lord did in her heart. We’re sitting at the breakfast table one morning. I said, “What do you think about your first mission trip, Val?” She just sat there quietly and tears running down her face. She said, “Daddy,” she said, “who’s going to tell the people on the side of the road that weren’t at the camp about Jesus?” I said, “Sweetie,” I said, “stop right there.” I said, “What God just did in your heart was Psalm 67. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy.”
Andy
May the peoples praise you, oh God.
Phil
Yes.
Andy
Let all the peoples praise you.
Phil
And it changed the course of her life, and it’s done that in all of our kids’ lives forever. They understand the vastness of the world, the lostness in the world, and God’s heart for those people in the world.
Andy
All the peoples of the earth. That’s so good. So good. So families participating together, whether the whole family’s going or not, right? Maybe Dad’s going. Maybe Mom is going. Maybe Dad and Mom are starting to take kids with them to the mission field, praying together, reading missionary biographies. Anything else you guys would add? I mean, well, you could speak to trips that Providence takes that families could go on together. Or is there just anything else that you think parents at Providence, families at Providence should consider building into the routines of their lives to help them, help parents, help their kids see God’s global purposes?
Phil
Absolutely. One of the things that we provide for our families and for our people here at Providence is a prayer guide for the short-term teams that go out. It’s a great opportunity for families to gather together and spend a few minutes praying for the teams that are serving somewhere else in the world. Some of the trips, they’re great for families. Costa Rica, Peru, Moldova is a great family trip. Czech Republic is a great family trip. Some of our domestic trips are great family trips as well. I would encourage any family out there, get your family on a plane and go together. We did this for the first time when our kids were age appropriate. It was the biggest blessing. We created so many memories serving together on the mission field as a family. So I would encourage other families to consider that. But you can just start for praying, asking God, “God, what would you have us to do as a family to reach the nations? Obviously we’re going to pray. Is there an opportunity for us to go?” And to consider that.
Andy
Well, praise God for the way he’s worked in your family to cultivate this heart for his glory amongst all the peoples of the earth. Thank you for your ministry here at our church, and thank you all for joining in for this episode of “Gospel Shaped Home.” We hope to see you next time.
Outro
Thanks for listening to this episode of the “Gospel Shaped Home” podcast produced by Providence Baptist Church of Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information and resources from Providence, visit us online at pray.org. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider subscribing and leaving a review on Apple podcasts.