When I was a child I spent lots of time in Sunday school learning about Jesus and his followers. My Sunday school teachers would teach the lesson, sing songs, read Bible picture books, and provide coloring pages. Though songs, picture books, and coloring pages are still used to teach Biblical truths, the internet has become the source for finding Bible lessons and activities.
I recently turned to the internet to find resources to teach my girlies about Paul’s missionary journeys as noted in the Book of Acts. Our family is reading the Book of Acts this month, so it has been fun to use these online resources to help the girlies better understand Paul’s travels. I hope you will find these resources just as helpful as I have found them.
Before you begin teaching, it is important for you to know who Paul was, how his relationship with the Lord began, where he traveled, and who accompanied him. I recommend that you read through the Book of Acts in its entirety and then dig deeper into Paul’s life and journeys over at BibleStudy.org. Be sure to click on all of the blue links there. You’ll find plenty of supplemental information you can use.
Once you’ve completed your personal study of Paul and his travels, you’re ready to teach Paul’s missionary journey to your kids. An excellent place to begin a children’s study is with Bible Wise’s 2011 Holy Land Tour. This amazing resource features interesting videos with animation and photographs of the areas in which Paul traveled. Have your children print out their passports and take off on a virtual tour of:
- Syrian Antioch
- Selucia
- Tarsus
- Cappodocia
- Pisidian Antioch
- Iconium
- Lystra
- Lystra with Timothy
- Derbe
- Pamphylia
- Cesarea Part I
- Cesarea Part II
After you return from your tour, head over to YouTube and watch these engaging videos about the life of Paul and his awesome missionary journeys.
- Paul’s Adventures (animated drawing that provides a great overview of Paul’s life)
- Acts of the Apostles: Paul’s Journeys (from the What’s in the Bible series)
- Paul’s first missionary journey
- Paul’s second missionary journey
- Paul’s third missionary journey (map)
Finally, no exploration of Paul’s missionary journeys would be complete without a map study. When locations are charted on a map, children are better able to see just how extensive Paul’s travels were. Explore these maps with your children.
- Acts Maps (from Love in Truth)
- Missonary Maps and Text (great printables from Rose Publishing)
- Charting Paul’s First Journey (Bible Wise)
Paul is one of the great heroes of the Christian faith. God used him to help spread the Gospel throughout the world, so his life and travels are worth taking the time to study. I hope these resources will be useful as you’re teaching Paul’s missionary journeys to kids. Get started today so you can better understand the work of this amazing man!
Photo courtesy of pat138241/freedigitalphotos.net
© 2014 – 2015, Andrea Thorpe. All rights reserved.
This is great information! As you know D is still young, but I may be able to find some afternoon activities he can enjoy!
thank you for taking the time to compile these resources!
You’re quite welcome! We had an AWESOME time studying Paul’s missionary journeys using these resources. I hope you and the children you’re teaching will be blessed by the resources as well. I’m currently working on a list of resources and activities for the book of Daniel, so please come back and check them out later this month. Have a marvelous day.
Thanks so much; I just thought about this as an idea to teach the children in a series for Children’s Church. So glad to see someone else thought of this! Blessings
Hello Andrea: I love your site. Fabulous information of the study and travels of Paul. I’m thinking about using it for the kids Wednesday night program at our church this summer. Do I have your permission?
Debbie, thanks for the kind words. I am glad you found the information about Paul’s travels to be so helpful. My girls and I had a fabulous time learning about these important missionary journeys. You are more than welcome to use the information during your study with the children. Enjoy! Thanks for visiting and may your day be happy and blessed!
In 1990 I retired and trained by Scripture Union I took up teaching R. E. in 5 Primary Schools per week. The classes in those days numbered over 100 at a time but later regulations limited this to 25 per class, although on some occasions several classes came together for something special. We were trained to design a program to last for 12 months and my programme called, ” Paul, one step at a time gave an insight his four journeys, one each quarter of that year. I produced and printed their work books and issued then free. Their cost was approx. $2000 per year for several years, which came out of my tithe set aside annually. Each qtr, approx. 200 would come together forday camps in a local hall and explore Pauls journeys by hiking a short distance locally, cooking over an open fire, orienteering y using sun-dials for time and directions. I gave it all up in 2014. God Bless
This was really helpful to me….Now i know clearly on the map, the places where Paul travelled on his journey’s….thanks so much for helping me…