As homeschool often goes (here anyway), we are ditching American History until later and going back to Diana Waring's Romans, Reformers & Revolutionaries and beginning by reading the first 100 pages or so of From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya by Ruth A. Tucker. I think it is very interesting - I don't think Angela catches my enthusiasm, but thought I'd post a few notes here of the key points:

CHRISTIANITY & MISSIONS are very much linked from the get go. The HEART of FAITH = GO FORTH with the GOOD NEWS!

What made it easy to spread the Gospel in the 1st century?

1. ROMAN ROADS

2. GREEK was the UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

3. AVAILABLE SYNAGOGUES to meet in (until they started cracking down on it and giving Christians trouble)

Every Christian was a missionary.

Tertullian said, "the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church."

PAUL the APOSTLE

Christian missions started with the New Testament church.

Matthew went to Ethiopia

Andrew went to Scythia

Bartholomew went to Arabia & India

Thomas went to India

Thomas resisted his call to India and ended up being carried off as a slave to India. There was a King Gundobar who became converted to Christianity. There are still "Thomas Christians" who worship in Southwest India.

PAUL was the greatest missionary.

5 means through which CHRISTIANITY penetrated the ROMAN EMPIRE:

1. PREACHING & TEACHING of EVANGELISTS

2. PERSONAL WITNESS OF BELIEVERS

3. ACTS of KINDNESS and CHARITY

4. FAITH SHOWN in PERSECUTION and DEATH

5. INTELLECTUAL REASONING of EARLY APOLOGISTS