When mission starts at home
Crossing continents to move to Sheffield with her husband and two young children, Joanne might have thought that her calling to be a missionary was on hold. But then she discovered that it had simply taken on a different form. Read more about writer, app creator, and founder of charity Ruach Resources Joanne Gilchrist and how she found a new expression of her mission.
Joanne Gilchrist has a heart for mission. Shortly after she and her husband Johnny married, they moved to Fiji to work on a medical ship with Youth With a Mission (YWAM). When their first daughter arrived, they settled in New Zealand, with Johnny becoming a Children’s Pastor at their local Elim church. “I really felt like a missionary in New Zealand. Even after I stopped working with YWAM, I felt more like a missionary because I saw people all the time; I had so many opportunities to share Jesus with our neighbours and friends.”
Within a few years, Johnny and Joanne felt a call to something new, and were drawn to Sheffield to work at the Oakes Holiday Centre, in Norton. At the Oakes, a team of passionate leaders and young adults host children aged 8-18 for activity camps that share the Gospel message. Johnny became the Programme Manager for the Oakes, and his family moved into one of the cottages on the site.
Arriving in Sheffield opened a new chapter in Joanne’s life of mission. Having moved to the other side of the world with their two young daughters aged 3 and 5 - and with Johnny’s job at the Oakes often requiring him to work evenings and weekends - Joanne was looking for a way to work flexibly, and felt God call her to start writing.
“When I was with YWAM I loved learning about the character of God. I loved teaching it; we started running training camps for young kids, teenagers and adults that were coming out on mission with us. That’s when I discovered that my passion is studying the Bible and teaching it to others. So, when I considered what to write, I realised I should focus on sharing God’s character with children.”
Joanne was looking for ways to support her daughters’ growing relationships with God, and found herself creating devotional activities about the character of God, to incorporate into their bedtime routine.
“So many Christian resources for children are based on Bible stories - which is great because they need to know them - or on values - which is also great because we want our kids to learn good values. But I see God’s character as a plumb line for our faith: it’s the thing that doesn’t change. Sometimes in the Bible we read about things that God does, that don’t seem to make sense to us. But His character doesn’t change.
“Think about David: he wrote some of the most wonderful, amazing things about God’s character. He actually saw some of the stuff that we would say is uncomfortable - he felt the judgment of God - and yet he still wrote some of the most powerful verses about God’s grace, like ‘The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.’ in Psalm 103. So even for the people involved in those trickier stories, they still came back saying that God is good. So I think reflecting on God’s character is often the answer to a lot of our questions. We don’t know why God does stuff, but we can still trust Him because we know that He is good.”
Fast-forward a few years, and the audience for Joanne’s bedtime devotionals is now much larger. She recently re-launched her ‘God for Kids App’, which features interactive devotionals for preschoolers, narrated by her 11-year-old daughter. She has also published four books for children aged 2-6 to read together with their grown-ups, based on her own experience of discipling her three children. The books are titled, ‘Who Made God?’, ‘Why Can’t I See God?’, ‘Is God Very Strong?’, and ‘Where Does God Live?’ (this final one co-authored with another Sheffield local Fiona Walton). We asked why Joanne chose to start her series with these big questions.
“I’ve found that these questions are ones that lots of kids ask when they’re about four or five. It's actually a bit of a paradox, that the age at which kids start asking those questions is an age at which they don't really have the capacity to understand the answer, but by the time they can fully grasp the answer, they’ve stopped asking those questions.
“A lot of the research suggests that children's spirituality begins to decline when they ask questions and don’t get answers. Lots of people don’t respond to children’s questions about God because they just don't know what to say. This teaches the kids to stop asking questions, and that’s such a shame.
“These books are a response to that research: I really want to encourage kids to know that it’s good to ask questions and that it’s ok if they don’t fully understand the answers. I’ve written the books to help grown-ups explore the answers with children in an open way, to help them encourage children in their spiritual journey, and keep talking about God as they get older. I'm really talking to the grown-ups as much as I'm talking to the kids.”
Joanne’s heart for mission has had many expressions: from her role in Fiji as a professional missionary, to reaching out to neighbours and families as a full-time mother in New Zealand; from raising her children, to launching an app that’s reaching children and families worldwide. During each season, though, it’s clear that she’s been using her God-given gifts and passions to draw others closer to Jesus.
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