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Mission Friends
Overview for language congregations
What is Mission Friends?
Mission Friends® is the WMU® organization for preschoolers, babies through kindergarten. Mission Friends offers preschoolers fun and exciting learning experiences to begin understanding missions. Missions Friends helps preschoolers to …
- learn to care about others
- learn that God wants everyone to know of His love
- learn that not everyone knows about God’s love
Mission Friends also helps parents or caregivers to learn ways that they can help others know about Jesus.
Mission Friends helps preschoolers complete the heart tasks of WMU:
- learn about missions
- pray for missions
- support missions
- do missions and witness
- develop spiritually toward a missions lifestyle
- participate in the work of the church and the denomination
Who can be a member of Mission Friends?
Any preschooler, birth through kindergarten, can be a member of Mission Friends whether he or she belongs to the church or not. However, every preschooler must have the parents’ permission to be a member of Mission Friends.
When does Mission Friends meet?
Mission Friends groups meet during the time that is best for the parents and the preschoolers. Some suggested times include …
- during regular services that involve adults, such as midweek prayer service, worship service, or choir rehearsal
- when groups such as Women on Mission® meet
- when home cell groups meet
- during women’s enrichment ministry meetings
- during a parent’s day out
- when other missions organizations such as Girls in Action®, Children in ActionSM, Acteens®, or Youth on Missionsup>SM are meeting
Where does Mission Friends meet?
Mission Friends usually meets in the preschool classrooms of the church. However, other possibilities include these:
• a Mission Friends class at home for one’s own children
• a Mission Friends class in a home for children in the neighborhood
• a Mission Friends class as a part of a child-care program
• a Mission Friends class in a mobile home park ministry or an apartment complex ministry
How is Mission Friends organized?
Mission Friends is organized in small groups. A group can be made of a teacher and a preschooler. Groups may be formed by the following ages:
- Younger Mission Friends—babies
(maximum group size: 10)
- Middle Mission Friends—one-year-old and two-year-old children
(maximum group size: 12)
- Older Mission Friends—three-year-old and four-year-old children
(maximum group size: 16)
- Kindergarten Mission Friends—kindergarten or pre-first grade
(maximum group size: 20)
- Blended Age Grouping—babies through kindergarten
(maximum group size: 10)
If there are more children than the maximum number for each age group in your church, consider creating a second group for that particular age group.
Who leads Mission Friends?
Each Mission Friends class needs one lead teacher and at least one teacher. If there is more than one Mission Friends group, a Mission Friends coordinator will be needed. This person will coordinate activities between the groups and work with the WMU director on the WMU leadership team.
Children need safety and security, so the following ratios of teachers and children are recommended:
- Babies—1 adult to 3 babies
- Ones and twos—1 adult to 4 preschoolers
- Threes and fours—1 adult to 5 preschoolers
- Kindergarten—1 adult to 6 preschoolers
Check to see if your church has additional requirements for a specific number of teachers per children’s classroom. If there are, be sure to follow the church’s guidelines.
Things to remember:
• Preschoolers can learn about missions.
• You do not need a large group of preschoolers to have Mission Friends.
• You do not need a lot of money to begin a Mission Friends group.
Resources for Mission Friends leaders
• www.missionfriends.com
• www.wmu.com/getstarted
Print resources available through WMU Customer Service at 1-800-968-7301 or www.wmustore.com:
• How to Involve Preschoolers in Missions: Includes a Guide for Mission Friends
Basic guide for beginning missions education for preschoolers.
• Start
The teaching guide for Mission Friends teachers. Provides missions information with related activities and stories for weekly sessions. Articles for leaders give helps for teaching preschoolers. Quarterly magazine.
• Share
Leaflets to send home for the parent and child to use. Gives information to parents about missionaries and missions studied that month. Each issue provides leaflets for ten preschoolers. Order enough issues for every ten Mission Friends. Quarterly. Also contains Care, a page on the back cover of each issue that can be used with Younger and Middle Mission Friends each quarter.
• Start Resource Kit
Each quarterly kit contains recipes, posters, booklets, pictures, and much, much more that can be used with Start. Also contains materials for use with all age groups of Mission Friends. Quarterly.
• Start Picture Set
Contains photos of the missionaries who are studied each month, and the people and places where they serve. Order one subscription for each Mission Friends group. Quarterly.
• First Steps in Missions
Annual book with more activities to supplement Start. One book per class is suggested.
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