Resonate Global Mission missionaries and the churches they work with use Christmas as an opportunity to share the gospel with people who rarely set foot in church. Last Christmas, Sunday School teachers at a church in Honduras staged a pageant.

Equipped to Share the Gospel

“Kids who come to church often invite their friends from school or next door to join them,” said Caspar Geisterfer, Resonate Global Mission missionary in Honduras.

Many parents, however, have never set foot in church. Parents often work long hours nearly every day of the week in order to provide for their families. Going to church is just another task on an already packed to-do list—especially when they don’t have a relationship with God.

But then Sunday School teachers participated in Educational Care, a curriculum of Raise Up Global Ministries that Resonate missionary Caspar Geisterfer facilitates in Honduras to equip Sunday School teachers to better share the gospel with children and their families.

During the training, the Sunday School teachers discussed how they hardly saw their students’ parents in church. But they realized that parents and children alike love Christmas Eve, and Hondurans love to celebrate it—and that gave the teachers an idea. They put their Educational Care training to work and created an action plan to use Christmas Eve as an opportunity to bring parents into church by staging a pageant.

Building Anticipation for Christmas

For months, the teachers worked with the children on acting, singing, and dancing. They spent hours designing and sewing costumes for stable animals, shepherds, wisemen, and angels. “The teachers created excitement in their students, and the students went home and created excitement in their parents,” said Caspar.

The day of the Christmas Eve pageant finally came. The children fidgeted in the church basement and tugged on their costumes, anxiously waiting for the service to begin. Upstairs, the parents trickled in.

“Eventually, the room was full and we were scrambling to get more chairs,” said Caspar. “Before you know it, there are fathers and mothers in church who seldom set foot in church. They have come to see their children perform.”

Hearing the Christmas Story

The children bustled upstairs and lined up on stage to present the Christmas story. Parents crowded to the front, whipping out their cellphones to take photos and videos of their children singing.

“[The parents] loved seeing their kids being happy, with good friends,” said Caspar. “They will always be reminded about what the church did for their child.”

Praise God that these parents heard the Christmas story—possibly for the first time! Resonate missionaries and ministry leaders continue to partner with churches to find creative ways to share the gospel in their communities.

“The kids will continue to come to Sunday School,” said Caspar, “and then one day, mom or dad might say: I want to go back there with you.”

Pray that these parents will be drawn to church and discover the true meaning of Christmas this year.

A version of this story was originally published by Christian Courier.