Today trailer comes from Jill Richardson for her non-fiction book Don’t Forget to Pack the Kids.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo3I2Tl7PA0]

Short-term missions have traditionally been the province of singles, youth groups, and married-with-no-kids. Five years ago, few would have picked up a book about taking the family on a short-term mission. Now, more and more of us 30 and 40-somethings with kids are asking―

Why can’t we do something meaningful for others with our kids?
Why do we have to wait until they’re teens and then and pack them off on a youth group trip?
Why can’t we let them experience using their gifts in ministry now?
And why can’t we discover those gifts alongside one another in an experience they’ll never forget?

Well, you can. With some planning specifically geared toward making a family mission trip successful, you can. And you should. Don’t Forget to Pack the Kids interweaves personal experience stories with extensive how-to information.

Statistics tell us over three-fourths of our kids will leave the church when they leave home. Why? Part of the reason is their feeling that church is irrelevant to their lives and they can get entertainment and fulfillment elsewhere. If we taught our kids early that the church is relevant because they are the church, and it is fulfilling because they fill it with their gifts and ministry, we could reverse those statistics. Serving together can be a huge part of that.

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Jill has been a high school teacher and editor and is now a pastor and writer. She writes in a variety of genres, having published hundreds of magazine articles, one novel, one script book, and two non-fiction books. Her next book out will be a youth devotional based on Tolkien characters from Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas. Jill has a BA in English and Education and an MDiv in theology. She is ordained in the Free Methodist Church and has served as a worship, preaching, and discipleship pastor. With three daughters, three cats, and (thankfully!) only one husband, she keeps busy otherwise with community theater, gardening, reading, and scrapbooking. Jill loves oceans, cats, chocolate, teenagers, her family, the Cubs, and God, not necessarily in that order.