On Monday afternoons, as part of our homeschool, we invest time in discovering more about Christian Living. This is distinct from our time in the Word. Instead this is an opportunity to focus on learning more about the church, and developing spiritual disciplines in a practical way. Topics could include studying church history, the lives of missionaries, the significance of Jewish festivals, evangelism and apologetics, or volunteer work, hospitality, prayer and worship. This term, I will be teaching my children about the persecuted church. According to Open Doors, “More than 365 million Christians worldwide face persecution and discrimination for their faith – that’s a staggering one in seven believers”.

Who are Open Doors?

Open Doors is a non-profit working in seventy countries around the world where believers risk their lives to follow Jesus. They distribute Bibles, train church leaders, offer a Christian education to children, provide emergency relief and help persecuted believers stand strong for the long-term. The organisation was founded in 1955 by Brother Andrew who smuggled Bibles to the persecuted church in Communist Europe.

Open Doors publishes a ‘World Watch List‘ of the fifty countries where the cost of following Jesus is the highest. They also provide a number of free resources for families who want to pray for the persecuted church. Though the resources differ slightly, you can find similar materials in the USA also.

Resources: World Watch List 2024 Children’s Pack

The World Watch List 2024 Children’s Pack (from Open Doors UK) contains a large map so that children can locate and colour each country. It also contains a prayer passport with short stories and prayers for each country.

How I Teach My Children About The Persecuted Church

We learn about one country each week and begin by locating the country on the map provided. The children colour in the country and see where we live in relation to that country. If possible we read a little about this country in a book such as Children Just Like Me by DK or Children’s Illustrated Atlas by DK.

I find a five-minute video from the Open Doors You Tube Channel which tells the story of a Christian from that country. As an example, we watched this video for North Korea, and this video for Somalia. We read a page from the ‘Prayer Passport’ and take it in turns to pray together for the believers in that nation. This time of learning and prayer takes about thirty minutes in all. Then for our evening meal, I try to cook something related to that country, like a Korean Bibimbap, Nigerian Jollof or a Pakistani Chicken Karahi!

I hope that hearing how I teach my children about the persecuted church is helpful to you! No matter how you choose to educate your children, I encourage you to grab some of the free resources from Open Doors, to pray for the persecuted church as a family.

Next term, we will be studying apologetics, so I will share more about that when the time comes. In the past, we have studied the lives of missionaries. You may like to read about ‘The Best Missionary Biographies for Kids‘ or check out the resources we used here.