Cultural relevancy

This mission trip had many teachable moments for me. One such moment came about through a friend's experience with the children's ministry. The purpose of the children's ministry on this trip was to play with the children,

give them love and attention

and teach them about Jesus Christ. 

One way that we did this was by giving them bracelets with colored beads that represented the salvation story. 

Before they could get a bracelet, my friend would explain to them what each bead meant.

Gold/Yellow
      God has prepared heaven for us. Rev. 21:21b
Black
      Sin separates us from God and keeps us out of heaven. Rom. 3:23, 6:23
Red
      Jesus shed his blood on the cross to pay for our sin. Ro. 5:8, I Pete. 3:18a
White
      If we accept Jesus and turn from our sins, our hearts are made clean. John 1:12, Romans 10:9
Green
       After believing and receiving what Jesus did we need to grow in our relationship with Him by reading the Bible, praying,and attending a church where the Bible is taught. Matt. 18:20 John 1:7

When my friend got to the white bead she said (which was translated to spanish of course), "Jesus' sacrifice washed away all our sins so that we could be white as snow."

The children were all confused.

"What is snow?" they asked.

 They had no idea what snow was. It was 95 degrees and they thought it was winter.

I'm not sure how she changed the saying so that they could understand. Maybe she said something like, "...as white as that chicken."