By Karen Walton, WOW co-director
For six weeks this spring, my two preschoolers and I attended story time at the library. We eagerly arrived to greet Miss Sue and Willie the monkey puppet. We sang songs and did finger plays and, best of all, we read books. It was a highlight of our week spending time together—with each other and new friends and stories.
The story of the work God is doing in the world continues to unfold.
God is writing a redemption story that spans all time. We learn how the story begins in Genesis. We meet the hero of all history in the Gospels. We even get a glimpse of how the story comes to its glorious conclusion in Revelation. Hear this tantalizing hint. “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb’” (Revelation 7:9–10). But there is a gap, a time between Acts and that time in Revelation, a time that is now. The story of the work God is doing in the world continues to unfold.
This summer, we invite every child, age 4 years through 6th grade, to our version of story time. We call it Wide Open World (WOW). We’ll play games together, and sing songs, maybe make a craft or two. But best of all, we’ll share stories. Not just any stories, but the best stories ever! These are the true stories of what God is doing through our global partners in lives around the world today, serving in the Dominican Republic and Liberia, in China and India, in Ethiopia and the Middle East, and more. We’ll hear from the families that Tenth supports in these locations. We’ll learn how we can better pray for them and hear how God is answering our prayers.
By God’s grace, these shared stories will raise the vision of another generation to go out to serve the world as those who know and love the Lord Jesus.
We’ll also have the opportunity to become a part of the story God is writing. As the kids participate in global outreach-related and cross-culturally focused activities, they will earn stamps in their WOW passports. Each stamp, backed by donations from people like you, will raise $1 toward our WOW summer project. (Curious about what that is? Join us June 5 as we unveil this exciting opportunity.)
We’ll come to know our global partners in a deeper way, building relationships that will inform our praying and shape our thinking now and in the future.
The stories we read and hear shape our view of the world, teach us, give us new vision. By God’s grace, these shared stories will raise the vision of another generation to go out to serve the world as those who know and love the Lord Jesus.
Are you feeling the excitement? Do you want to be a part of the wonderful story of God’s work in all nations? You can be. Send us your children on Sunday evenings from June through August. Ask them to share with you the things they’ve learned. Participate with them in cross-cultural learning experiences. Read with them stories of what God has done in the past and is doing now around the world. And if you don’t have children of your own, participate by praying for us. Consider backing our passport program with a donation. Stop by the Catacombs on Sunday evenings to meet our visiting partners. Maybe even sit in on one of our classes to share in our worship and hear the stories for yourself. And one more thing, this summer you will have an opportunity to contribute to our WOW project in a practical way. Stay tuned as the details unfold.
God’s story is truly the greatest story ever told. We have the opportunity to hear it, to learn it, to live it. Please join us!