Join me with my guest, Ann Dunagan for a conversation that will help you keep Christ at the center of your Christmas celebration. Merry Christmas!
Ann Dunagan is a missions leader with Harvest Ministry, director of Daring Daughters, mobilizer with Mission-Minded Families, and global-mom with 7 kids (and a growing number of married-in-spouses and grandchildren). Since 1987, the Dunagan family have been sharing the love of Jesus in over 100 nations, caring for 1000+ orphan children in Africa and Asia, and overseeing 450+ remote village churches. Ann’s books include:
The Mission-Minded Child (for parents)
The Mission-Minded Family (for parents),
Teaching With God’s Heart for the World, Volumes I and II (for homeschooling families)
The Scarlet Cord: Nothing but the Blood of Jesus (co-authored with her husband Jon Dunagan),
The Whole World Needs Jesus (for children),
and coming soon in 2018 . . . The Fishless Fisherman (for children)
TRANSCRIBED PODCAST BELOW
Hey everybody, this is Heidi St. John, welcome to the podcast! Today is Friday December 21st. It is episode number 704 here at the podcast, and I am excited today because my friend Ann Dunagan is back on the show with me – and we’re going to be talking about how to have a Mission Minded Christmas!
Stick around, I think you’re going to be encouraged.
So you guys, we’re just a couple days away from Christmas now. I’m hoping that your lives have kind of settled down a little bit. Our family decided to take two weeks off this year. So what I mean by that is – we cleared everything on our calendars off and we bumped some people out and we decided that we’re gonna keep doing that because we need some white space if we want to make memories, and we want to have some time to sit around and play board games, and enjoy the time that we have off from school and from the normal hustle and bustle of life.
It’s good to create some white space. The other thing that we’ve really wanted to do with our children, and I find – and I know – Ann, we’re going to talk about this in a minute — but I find as my kids are getting older I am becoming more and more aware of the preciousness of their season of life when they were little. And I think when you’re in the middle of that it’s easy to forget because we’re so inundated with all the things to do and there’s Christmas parties, and Christmas caroling, and Christmas cookie bake-offs – and all those things. And we lose sight of why we’re doing what we’re doing – and so Ann’s going to come back on today and we’re going to talk a little bit about having a mission-minded Christmas. Ann Dunagan, I love you, friend, thanks for coming back.
[Ann Dunagan] Thank you.
[Heidi St. John] So you and I have first of all – you’ve raised seven children and you are at the end of the raising of your children phase of your life. Yes?
[Ann Dunagan] Yes.
[Heidi St. John] And I also have seven children but you’re a few years ahead of me and I just watch with amazement and wonder as the Lord is just expanding your family, and allowing you opportune to speak into the lives of younger parents – which is kind of what we want to do today and sort of turn the hearts of parents toward the Lord Jesus so they can point their children to the Lord Jesus. And you have a passion for helping families do that. And so your idea to do a mission mine a Christmas and I was like – great, awesome!
When you think of Mission Minded Christmas, what do you think of?
[Ann Dunagan] I think of how Jesus left everything to come to this earth. It wasn’t about just tons of presents, and stuff, and busyness. It was Jesus surrendering everything, leaving Heaven to come to this earth. It was about Mary surrendering her life and just, you know, just – be it unto me according to Your Word. And for her to trust God enough to – you know, go and follow that census not knowing if the baby was going to come during that time, and so she’s headed, you know, on a donkey – going to Bethlehem.
I just believe there was such a trust in her heart that she just knew – God’s got this! I mean, God is the one to put this baby inside of me and this baby is gonna be born at just the right time. And I just – I love Christmas time. It’s my favorite season of the year. I. I love all the lights. We have fun with decorations. I thoroughly enjoy the Christmas season, but I do know that as a family you have to be intentional about calming down. You had to be intentional about bringing a spiritual focus to this season.
And even to specifically focus on how can we even be more intentional about sharing the gospel – maybe with family, with people around us who don’t know Jesus, with even with our churches. How can we be intentional to realize Jesus didn’t just come for us. He came from the world. You know – Joy to the world, The Lord has come!
[Heidi St. John] I love that. And for the mom… and we’re at we’re at the 21st of December now. And I imagine that there are parents listening to this right now and there’s like – oh we didn’t do that this year, we felt like Santa and a sleigh just overran our family, and now we’re so close to Christmas – how can we pull it back in?
But it’s never too late.
[Ann Dunagan] Oh, it’s never too late.
[Heidi St. John] And so we’re not here to give any kind of condemnation or say – hey you know, if you didn’t do this you didn’t do it right. We’re saying – hey, pull back a little bit. Where are some good places start for that family who’s like – oh my goodness, I want my children to really really really know that Jesus is the reason for the season?
We see the T-shirts, and we argue about Starbucks cups, and we do all those things. But at the end of the day you’re absolutely right. This season is about the Lord Jesus giving up heaven. He gave it up to come down here into the most humble of circumstances, born and placed in a manger. What an incredible story.
[Ann Dunagan] Yeah. To realize it’s not just presents – but the presence of the Lord. And even just like our presence of time that we can have with our children, or the presence that we have as we are with our loved ones and our relatives that of just bringing the presence of the Lord.
A couple of things at this stage of the game, you know – just a few days before Christmas maybe turn out the lights, light a few candles, and just read the Christmas story from Luke Chapter 2. It’s very very simple but it just brings that focus. I love the part where the angels said good news, you know, fear not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. It is not just for us.
The message of the gospel, the message of Jesus coming — it is for all people and we’re not to be afraid. I think another really good focus at this stage is — as we go and as we’re around relatives – ok sometimes that can be volatile, sometimes that can be touchy, sometimes it can be stressful, there can be contentions and stress. How can we as a family go into a relative situation, you know, into where extended families are — with peace, with joy. You know, how could we even as a family present the message of the gospel in a way that wouldn’t be threatening. And I think a lot of times even just as we go with young children – you can, like the children could make like little pictures of the Nativity to give to grandparents, or the children could put on a very simple little nativity scene and sing a couple songs.
[Heidi St. John] Have you seen see the little people version?
[Ann Dunagan] Oh, yes. We haven’t for all of our grandchildren.
[Heidi St. John] We do too. So I love that Nativity set and we take it out every year around first of December and we will play with our kids, with our grandkids now, and we’ll play and have them tell the story. And it is so sweet and it’s not threatening. You know if you say – hey are kids been practicing you could put your little nativity set, or you can do you know that the little paper cut outs – they’re all over the internet. The little paper cutouts for Nativity. Have your kids tell the Christmas story and there’s something so precious about hearing that from a child.
[Ann Dunagan] Something we did when our children were young, and we’re bringing back this old tradition that we had. We call it the hunt for baby Jesus. And it’s where we have the older kids will take the nativity set out into the woods, or just outside in the dark somewhere – nobody knows where they’re going to put it. And then they usually put some little candles around it. And we have some like hot chocolate, we had like a little Christmas cookies and then we all bundle up with all the little kids, and we take flashlights and we go out and we sing like, you know — We Three Kings, Following the Star, and you know – we sing other songs, Away in a Manger, and Oh Little Town of Bethlehem as we’re going out into the woods.
It doesn’t take very long. It takes about 10 15 minutes. We follow the little candles, and then we figure out where it is – and then when we get there we sing a couple Christmas songs and say Luke 2.
And when kind of shake it up a little where you’re creating a memory where you’re like outside, and it’s a little bit different. It’s a memory. And then I think also just to pray ahead of time before you go into your extended family situation. So to pray that we would be a light for Jesus among our relatives, and maybe we could have like a little family candlelight service before the present opening time, and you know just pray together – or have the grandchildren say a little something, sing a little song, that would bring Jesus and bring the gospel into our extended families.
[Heidi St. John] This really is such a great time of year to do it because it kind of is one of the only times that our kids can really talk openly about Jesus because Christmas is about Christ. It really is. I mean we’re trying to, you know, wash Him out of the culture and replace him with Santa Claus, but you can’t.
[Ann Dunagan] And it’s getting better.
[Heidi St. John] It is getting better!
[Ann Dunagan] I think is getting better easier to say Merry Christmas and as family. You can even do something like have a birthday cake and actually sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, which just brings that attention back. Or to take maybe an afternoon right near Christmas and go – either go out into a park, or go into like a nursing home facility, and there’s probably people that don’t have family that are coming in and they’re alone. We had, a couple of years ago my dad had had a stroke and so we brought the whole family to him because he couldn’t be home for Christmas. So we all, and we did a little family nativity inside of the nursing home where he was staying – but then also my husband disappeared and we couldn’t find him anywhere! What happened to John?
And it turned out that my husband had gone into one of the rooms, this is actually the room that my dad had been rooming with – and he was sharing the gospel with this elderly man and the man prayed to receive Jesus Christ on Christmas Eve.
[Heidi St. John] Oh my goodness!
[Ann Dunagan] It was so beautiful!
[Heidi St. John] How did John know? So here’s the question everybody listening is going -I don’t have that kind of guts, I don’t think I could do that.
John really has the gift of evangelism, and you do too. My grandmother did – so we would take the bus into downtown Portland. I was a kid, and Grandma – I mean people on the bus were getting saved. She was talking to everybody about everywhere we went – you know have you met my Jesus – that’s how she would, and I you know I’m next to her, you know – 10 years old, bury my head. Not Grandma, come on!
Do we have to do this? I asked her one day like — Grandma, on the bus? Really? And she’s like – Heidi the whole world needs Jesus, they need Jesus. And it just burned inside of her. And I think about that so often because part of it – we’re just so driven by our fear. And I wonder did this guy come out and John catches his eye? Or did the Holy Spirit just say – hey, go wandering down the hallway? or how did he end up talking to this gentleman?
[Ann Dunagan] Well he was stuck in his room. He couldn’t come out to where we were. So he was all by himself. And my husband felt drawn to just go and sit and talk to the man for a while – and you know my mom had been sharing with him, and my dad had been – my dad couldn’t talk very much at that time. But he definitely was having people around him sharing the gospel. But it was – you know sometimes people just actually, they are ready to just yes.
And what a beautiful time – would you like to pray and receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior on Christmas Eve! What would be a better time to do that!
One time I got in a conversation with someone on top of the Eiffel Tower, and I was talking to them about Jesus and what it means to be a Christian. And I’m like – how would you like to accept Jesus right here, right now? He’s like – right here? I was like- what would be a better place, on top of the Eiffel Tower? That would be the most incredible memory! And he was like – Yeah it would be. And I I’d prayed with someone on top of the Eiffel Tower to surrender their life to Jesus.
Yesterday I was talking with, we were recording this a little bit ahead of time, but I was talking with a son that is at Liberty University right now – he’s actually taking an evangelism class. And one of the assignments in the class is that they have to talk to someone who doesn’t know Jesus. Well he doesn’t have a car, and he’s on campus, he didn’t even leave campus for fall break. He just stayed on campus to do some homework. And then on the Thanksgiving break, he just went to a Christian family’s house in the middle of nowhere.
He has not been able to find anyone who doesn’t know Jesus. I’m like – now come on, there has got to be. So I’m trying to brainstorm – how can you find people who don’t know Jesus, on you know, Liberty University campus – where you know, practically everyone is Christian. I said – I know that not everyone on that campus is a Christian.
You know you can go to a ballgame and there’ll be people from another school coming in. There’ll be people. What about over by the visitors center. Maybe there’s homeless people on the street, you can talk to them.
So I was just brainstorming all kinds of ways of how he could you know go and share the gospel. At Christmas time we could take like a carafe of hot cocoa and go out on the streets, and you know maybe just have a little – we did it before, we’d put a little verse on the cups that would say like, you know – you’re sweet, and Jesus loves you. Something just kind of like that or an invitation to a church service or a special Christmas service and just to pass those out. We’re past the Operation Christmas Child time.
[Heidi St. John] Yeah we did that here at the Resource Center.
[Ann Dunagan] But that’s always a fun thing of every year of being able to do that. In our home we have areas of those decorations where we actually have little trees with globes around them. And we have like these little ornaments that have little passports on and where it’s kind of our little area that focuses on that we need to take the Christmas story to the world. It’s not just for us.
[Heidi St. John] I think people, I think sometimes we’re afraid because we don’t – we have forgotten what it’s like to have that own, that hunger in our own hearts. You know?
I was talking to a bunch of moms at a conference recently about — we decided to take about half an hour, and just remember – where we were when we first realized that Jesus loved us, where were we when we first were touched by the message of the gospel? And we forget that passion and that zeal – and you know it dawns on you – Oh my goodness He loves me! He loves me. He sent His Son, God sent His Son to die for me. And it’s a message of hope, and it’s a message of joy. And you never know who’s gone before you ‘till the soil. Right?
[Ann Dunagan] Yeah
[Heidi St. John] Yeah
[Ann Dunagan] In my book The MMission-MindedFamily we have a couple of Christmas stories and one of them is there were some Christians in Liberia, West Africa – and it says it was Christmas and the Liberian Christians had been asked this year instead of receiving gifts to help carry the gospel to others — and many mission fields they brought not money but produce! So presently the great plates were piled high with offerings of rice, and cocoa, and bananas, and palm nuts, pineapple, and cassava.
And there was a moment’s pause. Slowly a 12 year old boy walked forward and solemnly placed his feet in one of the plates. And afterwards, when the missionary questioned him the boy said – We are very poor. I did not have anything else to give. So I gave myself.
And there’s another one that is – I’ll Be Home for Christmas – and I know as our children start growing up we can sometimes feel that it is our right for our children to come home and be with us for Christmas. And to just really surrender that to the Lord. And just to be happy when they even go over there with the other side of the family at Christmas time. And realize that Jesus actually was not home for Christmas. That Jesus left home in Heaven to come and surrender everything at Christmas time.
And this is a little story about Wycliffe Bible Translators and it says – Only a few days before Christmas says Bernie Mae, a pilot for Wycliffe Bible Translators, successfully delivered emergency medical supplies to the isolated Amazon village. Now he eagerly anticipated being back with his wife and children in their South American home away from home. Yet as the evening drew dark, he knew he would not be able to fly out until morning. With his pontoon plane waiting on the river Bernie arranged for temporary protection for the night, but then it began to rain. The rain continued even up until Christmas Eve as the missionary felt increasingly depressed by his misfortune. His wife Nancy and their boys were six hours away, and by this time they would have received his radio message. He would not be home for Christmas. As a family, they had prepared their hearts to be separated from their loved ones and friends. But it was Christmas Eve and they were now separated from each other.
Back in Pennsylvania, everyone would be coming home from church to the sound of caroling and the smell of roasting turkey and the sight of falling snow. But where was God’s missionary? Here he was, stuck in a remote jungle in a makeshift shelter, in the pouring rain, alone. He said. Oh God! I moaned. I’m in the wrong place! But that night under my mosquito net I had a visitation from God. Something like those shepherds must have had on the hills of Bethlehem. There were no angels and no bright lights. But as I lay there in my hammock desperately homesick I felt I heard God say – My son, this is what Christmas is all about. Jesus left heaven, and on Christmas morning He woke up in the wrong place – a stable in Bethlehem. Christmas means leaving home, not going home. My only begotten Son did not come home for Christmas. He left home to be with you.
[Heidi St. John] Wow. That’s amazing. That puts it in perspective. Ann Dunagan, thank you so much for coming and ministering to our listeners today. And I know that as we’re getting close to Christmas, I thought I’d be just a sweet thing to do, to have you close this out in a word a prayer for these families who are listening and thinking of ways that they can point their children to Jesus, and that the whole world really does need Him. Would you mind closeness and prayer?
[Ann Dunagan] Father we just thank you so much, for your love for us. Jesus, we thank you that you came to this earth to be born, and to live, and to die. And Holy Spirit – we just are so thankful for just Your presence with us, and we just invite Your presence Lord God , Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – to be with us this Christmas season. Give us Your wisdom in raising, and training, and just bringing times of a quietness to our family. Give us your passion for those around us who don’t know You. Lord help us to not be afraid. Fear not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. Lord help us to not be afraid, but help us to bring your joy to our family, to our extended family, and to those who have never hurt you before. We love you, Lord. Thank you for Christmas.
[Heidi St. John] Amen. Amen. Thank you Ann for coming on the show today.
Everybody if you want more information about Ann Dunagan and their families ministry to families, I will link back to the Dunagan’s in the show notes today.
Have a great weekend everybody – it’s almost Christmas and I’ll see you back here on Monday.