Rough Start

This entry is a part of a series from July 29-August 13. Join me in taking your family on a World Tour Vacation at Home using the Operation World prayer guide.

A Rough Start

Well, not every family trip starts out smoothly. I didn’t exactly market this one intentionally. Plus, our kids want input into all family activities, so it should not surprise me that I met with some resistance. Ok, a lot of resistance. So much resistance that everyone is in bed feeling badly except me. I am feeling badly, but am up writing this blog to let you know all about it.

Kazakhstan
Today we tried to go to Kazakhstan found in the Operation World resource on page 497. In spite of the irritation and attitudes around the table, we did learn quite a bit about the country.

• The name has 10 letters, but only three vowels—all a’s. (Here we had complaining that there was spelling involved in the activity.)

• It is three times the size of Colorado. (Here we had complaining that there was math involved.)
• It also has a similar climate to ours so we could “pack” our regular clothes (though now that I think about it, that probably wouldn’t fly with the culture).
• We pulled up pictures of the capital city which has amazing buildings and architecture.
• The food included mutton (lamb), horse, and sour milk (cue the “ewws” and “yucks”).
• To get tickets for the five of us would run $15,000!
• The church has gone from almost zero 23 years ago to over 15,000 believers now.
• The animals got the most interest: coyote, sheep, yak, bobcat and saiga (look this one up, it’s quite an interesting looking animal! It’s a little like a cross between a camel and a goat).

Good intentions
Tomorrow I may not wait until evening to visit our next site. I think the kids were tired by the end of the day which added to their behavior. Maybe starting when they are fresh will be helpful.

Also, I think I wung-it a little too much. I will definitely read the section first tomorrow so I can share more fluidly.

For the little ones
The blow-up globe we used today was fun. I think little kids would enjoy learning with it especially.

I think if I could go back several years, I would begin to weave into my conversation with my kids the importance of the whole world to God. I would talk more about how God has kids all over the world in faraway countries and that these are our brothers and sisters. I would pray for other countries as a family earlier in their development.

Discussion and Debrief
My discussion tonight with one of the kids (after two of them were sent to their rooms) revolved around a kid’s job of being teachable and praying for a teachable spirit—even when they don’t understand why something is important to their lives. I am glad that we went through this exercise tonight. It revealed a weakness we need to address. No fun, but good for us as a family.

Hopefully tomorrow's mood will upswing. Thanks for being on this journey together. I hope it encourages you to talk with your kids about how important it is to pray for God's kids all over the world.