“If you want people to care about missions, you need to raise up a generation that will do that.”  This quote really challenged Joe Ensley, Pastor at New Beginnings Church in Myerstown, Pennsylvania. Ensley had been burdened for missions but didn’t know exactly what to do with that. He knew he wasn’t called to go… so what was his role?  

In response to this tugging on his heart, Ensley spent time writing curriculum for a brand-new missions program for kids called Missionary Adventure Prayer Squad (MAPS). It’s a program that’s designed to be supplemental to any other type of teaching curriculum a kids’ ministry may have.   

In MAPS, each child receives a monthly newsletter and sticker with missions-based activities that get tracked in their special notebook. The children earn stickers, bracelets, and/or pins for completing journals on various missionaries (including missionaries supported by their church). In each journal, they learn about that specific missionary including that missionary’s family, ministry role, prayer requests, etc.  If they happen to get an opportunity to meet the missionary in person, they get a special “I Met This Missionary” sticker to put in their journal. After completing 25 journals, they are rewarded with MAPS “Commander Status.”  

The program itself, which very soon will become its own 501c3 non-profit, has three main objectives for kids:  

1. Develop missionary awareness
2. Facilitate adventure learning (global culture, language, and daily life)
3. Raise up the next generation of missionaries and missionary partners   

Ensley’s desire is for the MAPS curriculum to be free for other churches to implement in their own children’s ministry.  

Thanks to this fresh curriculum, New Beginnings Church has seen a lot of new excitement coming from their kids about missions.  They are completing journals, learning about what missions really is, and praying for the missionaries they’re learning about. A nice side-benefit of the program is that when the kids are involved and excited, the parents and families often get involved as well!  

Because of this program, even the adults in the church have been pushed and challenged in their pursuit of prayer and support for missionaries.  Encompass’s own MaryAnn Barlow was able to participate in the very first MAPS awards ceremony last year at New Beginnings Church.

Perhaps your church could implement this program as a portion of your kids’ ministry? If you are interested in more information about MAPS, you can check out the website at www.mapskids.com.