International (MNN) — When it comes to parenting curriculum, there are several options out there. But while Susan Espenlaub worked with at-risk families, she found that the available curriculum options for these parents were lacking.
(Photo courtesy of SAT-7 USA via Facebook)
Espenlaub shares, “The population I have worked with and continue to work with are people whose families are at-risk for a variety of reasons. These families may be coming from poverty. They may not have English as their primary language. They’re not highly educated and often have a lot of challenges in their families such as abuse, domestic violence, drugs, and so on.
“I saw a great need for just basic parenting skills such as knowing how to communicate with your children [and] understanding some positive discipline strategies. I saw that they needed help in knowing how to raise responsible children and children with moral character. And as I began to think about these needs the parents had, the Lord compelled me to leave my current position and he challenged me to begin writing a parent curriculum that would address the needs I saw in families.”
That’s how “Putting the Pieces Together” came about. “Putting the Pieces Together” is a parenting curriculum offering biblically-based lessons and practical tools for families from at-risk backgrounds.
Espenlaub says that while her parenting curriculum started off as a singular venture in the United States, God has taken this resource and used it in communities around the world as various ministries request it.
Ministries in Moldova and Ukraine have used “Putting the Pieces Together” in their outreaches to national at-risk families. And parents are seeing results from the curriculum. “I very recently went to Moldova and Ukraine and there were people there who came up to me and said, ‘I still remember what you taught us a couple of years ago, and I’m using these ideas!’ So that was really so wonderful to hear that God was using it.”
(Photo courtesy of Mohabat TV via Facebook)
Espenlaub adds, “Most recently, this curriculum has been translated into Farsi and was programmed by Mohabat TV to be streamed into Farsi-speaking communities.”
Mohabat TV’s programming presents the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout North Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula. It is also available to stream 24/7 online. Isolated, Farsi-speaking Christian parents in creative-access communities can often feel alone in their journey to raise children according to God’s Word. “Putting the Pieces Together” on Mohabat TV equips those believers in critical contexts for biblical parenthood.
“Putting the Pieces Together” is a great, free tool for any ministry to use as an encouragement and support for parents from at-risk backgrounds to know how to raise children with a biblical model. If you’d like to get this parenting curriculum and even have it translated into another language for your ministry’s needs, you can reach out to Espenlaub for more information.
“They can contact me of course at [email protected]. I am happy to share this material. It’s God’s work, I believe it’s to his glory, and it’s free to you!”
Meanwhile, please pray along with Espenlaub for God to use this tool to raise up families as witnesses for his Kingdom.
“My prayer and my vision really is to build up the Body of Christ, to build up our Christian homes because our homes are supposed to be a testimony of who God is and what his character is like. Therefore, the curriculum is intended to strengthen and restore families, make them strong, make them influential in their communities so it gives them a platform to share the Gospel of Christ.”
