August / September 2019 - Vol. 105

Grandparents On Mission
Grandly image
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Something Old, Something New…

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Grandparents have a God-given role in their grandchildren’s lives
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by Pili Galvan-Abouchaar

Are you a grandparent who is concerned about the spiritual welfare of your grandchildren? If you are, you are not alone. It only takes a brief look at the circumstances of the modern world to draw the conclusion that your grandchildren won’t be growing up in the world you did.

Grandparents have a God-given role in their grandchildren’s lives as Moses defined in Deuteronomy 4:9:
“Take heed and be diligent not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen. As long as you live, do not let them pass from your memory but teach them to your children and to your grandchildren.”
As grandparents, you have a great influence in the lives of your grandchildren. Just like youth workers, you often complement the role of parents without having the responsibility of being the primary authority figure.

Similar to youth workers, grandparents seem to have time to spend with youth that other adults generally don’t. You can just be there. You know how to play and, at the same time, you are responsible adults.

Yes, you can trustingly ask him. But trust more in him who is ever with you. Answer his gentle invitation to join him in resting in the security of knowing that you are a dearly beloved son or daughter of the heavenly Father.

You can also be a role model to your grandchildren as youth workers often are. Teenagers, especially, look for role models. Yes, they usually look to someone who is young and cool. They know that Grandma and Grandpa aren’t interested in the latest trends or fashions and nor do they understand all the new technology or latest music.  Oddly, you can be a role model simply because you don’t conform. You are above the pressure to fit in. You don’t care what other people think. You are independent and in charge of your own time. And that makes you cool!

Not all youth workers can be grandparents, but all grandparents can be youth workers.  Grandly is a “youth workers” organization, made up of grandparents! It is just one more way that Kairos does youth work like no other organization.

Grandly: one of the newest, oldest, and coolest youth work organizations on the planet.


Pili Galván-Abouchaar is the Program Director of Grandly: The Strategic Grandparents Club. Pili is from Xalapa, Mexico, has a degree in Industrial Engineering, and began her professional career as a quality control coordinator. She has done missionary work in seven countries across three continents. She became the first program director for Grandly-The Strategic Grandparents Club in February, 2016.



About Grandly: The Strategic Grandparents Club

Grandly: The Strategic Grandparents Club is a program of the Sword of the Spirit. This program was founded in 2016 by Mike Shaughnessy as a resource to equip grandparents to share their faith with their grandchildren. Grandly teaches grandparents to “Think, Pray, and Act Strategically” in the lives of their grandkids. It recognizes that grandparents occupy a special role in the lives of their grandchildren, and if properly trained, can make an outsized impact on their spiritual lives.

As a youth minister, Mike knew the difference grandparents could make in the lives of their grandchildren. He wondered if it could happen more often. It wasn’t that they lacked the faith. What they lacked was a strategy. If grandparents learned how to think, pray, and act strategically, the way youth workers did, something marvelous would happen. It has. Strategic grandparents have become missionaries to their own grandchildren.

We equip grandparents to be “youth workers” to their own grandchildren. When we ask grandparents, “What is your biggest concern?” Most answer “our grandchildren,” not their retirement or the next vacation. Many see that their grandchildren are not getting the spiritual and moral formation they need, and feel equally unable to address that need. We currently equip grandparents to be youth workers through two venues: our website (grandly.org) and our “Do It Grandly” Seminars.

Our website reaches a network of grandparents who are interested in learning how to think, pray, and act strategically. We publish bi-weekly online articles that provide encouragement, motivation, and practical tools on how to pass on their faith to grandchildren. Through our “Do It Grandly” seminars, we help grandparents to grow in their relational skills while providing insight into contemporary youth culture, giving them valuable tools for building impactful, Christ-centered relationships with their grandchildren. These seminars provide a way for Sword of the Spirit grandparents to re-enter internal (their own grandchildren) and external (their own peers) mission. Grandly has hosted five seminars this past year in Michigan, Minnesota, Maryland, and Ireland.



For access to inspirational articles, sign up for a free membership at www.grandly.org.

Interested in hosting a seminar in your local community or learning more? Please email Pili Galvan Abouchaar at grandlydirector@gmail.com

Grandly is recruiting 10,000 youth workers, all of whom are over the age of 55!



top illustration (c) copyright by Grandly:The Strategic Grandparents Club 

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