|
"They are going well — extremely well," Deborah Haines, the
book’s editor, said of this year’s sales. “I
think it’s popular because it’s providing a resource
for students in an age group that have not had access to information
about the mission of the church in quite the same way.
“It’s the illustrations. It’s the international
mission stories. ... It’s the action component.”
Sales of last year’s edition of the Children’s Mission
Yearbook prompted Mission Education and Promotion officials to
order up a second printing, then a third. In all, the yearbook
sold 23,000 copies.
“We sold out completely,” Haines said. “Not
bad for a first edition.”
The editor said only one printing is anticipated for the 2004
edition because more copies were printed in the first run.
Haines said work has already started on next year’s edition.
The book is divided into 53 two-page spreads, one for each week
of the year. Each spead includes information about one domestic
presbytery and one overseas mission locale. Also included are
scriptures and prayers, games and puzzles, activity ideas and
recipes for dishes such as Pisang Goreng (fried bananas), a popular
dessert in Singapore. There are helpful facts and figures about
the nations where Presbyterians are at work in mission.
Adults are using the yearbook, too.
“Actually, a lot of the people who are learning from the
Children’s Mission Yearbook are adults and new members,”
Haines said. “A lot of congregations are giving the book
to new members, not just to children.”
Such is the case at 475-member Fort Street Presbyterian Church
in Detroit, MI, where Dana Hansen, director of Christian education,
has found the publication “invaluable” and calls it
“one of the best things that’s come out of the Presbyterian
Church.”
Hanson said she encourages families to use the yearbook as a
daily devotional, and includes excerpts from it in the congregation’s
bulletins and newsletters. She also uses it in Sunday school classes
and in youth fellowship sessions.
“It’s a Christmas present,” Hansen said. “...
The new people who come into the church with children and begin
to attend regularly, they receive one. The children like it. They
refer to it. It’s very, very good stuff. It is becoming
our tradition.”
The yearbook also is incorporated into the 2004 We Believe intergenerational
summer curriculum, Christ’s
Command: Go into the World.
To order the Children’s Mission Yearbook for Prayer &
Study, call Presbyterian Distribution Service (toll-free) at (800)
524-2612 and ask for PDS #70-612-04-451. Or place an order online
at www.pcusa.org/marketplace. |
