I first heard about YWAM (Youth With A Mission) when I was a teen. I loved reading stories about missionaries, and the amazing way God worked through them. So of course I jumped at a chance to do a review for YWAM Publishing. I chose Jim Elliot: One Great Purpose and the corresponding Unit Study Curriculum Guide.
Jim Elliot: One Great Purpose is about 192 pages and aimed towards ages 10 and up. We are reading this as a read aloud so I have ages 7, 10, 14 and 17 listening in. All of them know the basic story already, but it’s really coming alive through the pages of this book. I’ve already read through the whole book, and found the story captivating, exciting, and yet bittersweet in the end.
Jim Elliot, the men working alongside him, and their wives knew sacrifice, hard work, danger, and great rewards of the heavenly kind. It’s an amazing story of laying ones life down so others might know God. Many came to know Christ through their efforts. Plus, their story inspires other people to go into missionary work, too.
I don’t want to give away much of the story, but some of what they faced were devastating floods, incapacitating illness, and deadly tribesman. You’ll have to read the book yourself to learn about their adventures.
Unit Study Curriculum Guide: Jim Elliot has about 62 pages, and is designed to be used with Jim Elliot: One Great Purpose. This book is a smorgasbord of ideas to use with students of varying ages, abilities, and learning styles. The first thing they recommend is planning a culminating event to end the study with, and we just happen to have a Biography Share next week. Perfect.
Some of the ideas included are writing assignments (essay & creative), arts & crafts, map work, scripture memorization, field trips, books to read, movies, ideas for the culminating event, and more. Subjects tied into the study include social studies, bible study, life skills, math, government, science, and more.
The study guide recommends starting out by planning your culminating event, and then using ideas that appeal to you, and building towards that event. Like I said, we have a Biography Share next week, so all four kids are making a tri-fold board display. They are including some of the ideas from this guide, and all four kids will be sharing something about Jim Elliot.
After making notes about what I wanted our family to do, we settled in for the reading. At the end of each chapter, the kids answer the questions given. We chose to do this orally rather than have them write down their answers. Plus, it leads to discussions, and sharing of our favorite parts which I think reinforces what they are learning beautifully.
After we read a chapter or two (depending on attention spans of the younger ones), they spend some time working on the pieces for their display board as well as planning what they want to do and say for the Biography Share.
Besides loving the story, the kids have enjoyed researching and filling out the fact sheet, doing map work, copying scriptures into notebooks, attempting to eat the way they do in Ecuador, learning to say the Spanish phrases, and other activities that are slipping my mind at the moment. I love that they have an end goal, and an outlet for all they are learning.
Deeper than just the story and activities, the kids are impressed by the strength and character of the missionaries in the book. I love that they have wonderful examples of living out the call God has placed on our lives.
Jim Elliot: One Great Purpose costs $6.99 and is available in paperback, Nook, and Kindle formats.
Unit Study Curriculum Guide: Jim Elliot costs $7.49 and is available in paperback. You can see samples from the unit study on the website (the link is right above the pricing).
YWAM Publishing also carries a lot of other neat products, plus you can find them on Facebook and Twitter.
Interesting links:
You can find out a little about Jim Elliot’s brother, Bert, and Bert’s wife, Colleen.
There is a free Ecuador coloring book which would be a nice addition to your study.
