Sunday, September 30, 2007

Corn Maze is COMING!!!

THIS SATURDAY, October 6 at 6:00 - we are meeting at Pumpkinland to do the corn maze!!! Plan to come and join us - the whole family is welcome! (The maze will cost $4.00 per person and you can pay that at Pumpkinland.) Following our time in the maze - we will head to Pizza Ranch in Orange City for PIZZA!!!! (We are just asking for a freewill offering to help cover the cost of the pizza.) If you want to come and didn't sign up at the table - leave us a comment below and we'll make sure to add you to our count - oh, and in your comment, mention your favorite pizza choice too!!

See you there!!!


(If you click on the word "Pumpkinland" above - it will take you to their website for directions, etc.) AND - thanks to Jennifer Tullar for planning and coordinating this fun outing for us!!!

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Special Guests!

Honor Your Father and Mother.

Each week in Kid's Club we want to reserve some special time to focus on honor. Specifically how to honor our mother and father? We discussed what it means to give Honor. Honoring our Mother and Father includes more than just obeying it also includes respect. We gave examples of dishonor such as direct disobedience, improper attitudes and arguing. This week we were privileged to have the parents of Chris and Zack join us.

Chris and Zack demonstrated honor by answering a few questions. We started off simple, asking just a few questions about a few of their parent’s favorite things:

Tim’s favorite soft drink is Coke.
His hobby is watching sports.
His favorite sports team is the University of Michigan
His favorite food…. Anything that isn’t moving. :)

Kari’s favorite food is chocolate.
Her favorite hobby is sewing.
Her favorite sports team is Michigan State and sometimes Penn State.
Her favorite sport is Hockey.

We then focused on Chris and Zack. We wanted to know what they enjoyed doing the most with their parents. Chris enjoyed any board games and Zack enjoyed Movies with his dad. We also asked them what they would miss the most if their parents had to leave for a year. Chris would miss his mom’s lasagna and Zack would miss his Dad’s “lame” jokes.

You might be asking, “How do these simple questions demonstrate honor?” The answer is time. The thing that Chris and Zack value the most is time with their parents. They didn’t even realize that they were showing honor to their parents in the answers they gave. But think of the honor they demonstrated by in affect saying that they most wanted time with their parents; time to listen to jokes, prepare great food, watch movies and play games.

So, thank you, Chris and Zack for showing us that one way we can honor our parents is by valuing the time they spend with us.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Note from Joe...

This year has had a great start. On our first Sunday we had the first ever New Hope water logged bon fire. We did indeed have smores that night thanks to Jason’s incredible fire abilities. Not only did we have a fire but the fire was started while the rain was starting to come down. You’ll have to ask him what his secret is… (I think it may have something to do with a little lighter fluid)…

I wanted to take a few minutes to tell you about an opportunity for you during our Sunday Night Kid’s club. Some of you may wonder “what do they do with my kids after I drop them off on Sunday night?” Well, we want to give you a chance to see. We would love to give each of you the opportunity to be our special guest host for an evening. This is your opportunity to spend an evening with us, to check us out.

Our goal is to come along side you as you seek to teach your children the ways of God. We are your helpers and we want to get your feedback. We want to know how we can better partner with you as you disciple your child.

We also want to take some time to discuss with the children what it means to “Honor your Mother and Father”. Each evening we will set aside a time to discuss honor, and to reflect on practical ways that children can show honor.

Here is what are we looking to do: On the night that you sign up to be our special guest we are looking for three things. 1. Come check us out. You can come and follow your child as they go from class to class or maybe you can help us out if you feel comfortable with that. 2. (Here’s the hard part… food). We are asking that you bring the treat for that night. Maybe you and your child can work together to bring their favorite treat to share. 3. Provide us an opportunity to honor you for the greatest job on the planet… being a parent.

So when you drop off your child take a look at the signup sheet. Find a night that works for you and feel free to put down your name. If you have any questions feel free to give me a call or catch me sometime.

Thanks,

Joe

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

New Blog

Guess What - Becky's blogging has spilled over into church!! We are going to start a Children and Family Ministries blog. Our main goal is to have a place for you to check online if you need to know what to bring, where we are meeting, what time, etc. BUT it will also be a great place for PICTURES and MORE!!! If you ever want to ask a question or leave a comment - we'd love it. Just click under a post to leave a comment or question and we will get back to you SOON with an answer.

So plan on stopping by often - we will keep it updated regularly and you will know what is happening with your children and their ministries!! (In case you aren't familiar with Blogs, they update every time we make a new post and the most current post will always be first - if you want to see older posts, just scroll down or look along the right hand side at the sidebar and there will be a square called "Labels" - that will separate each post by it's label - which might make older news easier to find too!!)