Little Town of Bethlehem

Route 412 Reaching Out @ Christmastime

Route 412 (our 4th and 5th grader leadership team) had our winter outreach yesterday to HarborChase Senior Living Center. Our plan was to do a Christmas program at two of their living facilities. We were very punctual and actually arrived a half hour early so the kids were asked to play Bingo with the residents prior to our Christmas program. This may have been one of  my favorite parts of the evening. I watched how the elderly would light up as the kids excitedly squeaked in delight about winning Bingo. I also saw the kids sharing Bingo boards with the seniors and the kids would help point out to the residents when they had a winning number. What a precious moment! 

We then performed two Christmas programs. At the first living facility, the kids sang Christmas carols, read scriptures about the Christmas story, shared what they thought Christmas was all about, and painted a picture of the manger scene. The kids got a big round of applause after each song by the residents. 

 At the second facility, we did the same Christmas program. At this facility, the seniors had moderate to severe dementia so it was a unique experience for the kids. The kids again did great and were a blessing to the seniors. I am so proud of these kids going outside their comfort zone and ministering to others! The kids also passed out homemade Christmas cards that they had made special for this event.

I imagine that many of these residents may be lonely this Christmas and these kids def brought life to the facility. I want to encourage everyone to go out of their comfort zone this Christmas and reach out!!!

A special thanks to Mr. Remy who works at HarborChase and helped coordinate this event.

 Another special thanks to Ms. Mercedes for planning and implementing the entire Christmas program!

Our group picture....

Also thanks to the parents and small town leaders who came out to support!!!

We Need To Pray...

I think all of us are gut-wrenched and brokenhearted by the horrific events this morning at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. My heart and mind can't focus on anything else and my prayers continue to be cut short by tears the entire evening.

WE NEED TO PRAY...

not say we are going to pray, not make great intentions to pray... but actually pray. We need to cry out to God for these devastated families and traumatized children. It's our mandate.

Throughout the day I've come across some great resources that a lot of my friends have sent my way and I wanted to share them in case anyone has need of them.

{If you have come across some resources that have been a blessing to you, please pass them along in the comment section so that we can all benefit}

For your soul:

• "A Christmas Prayer" by Max Lucado
• "...a time to mourn..." blog post by Lindsay Leigh Bentley 
• "Parenting in the Midst of Tragedy" by Focus on the Family
• "Why God, Why?" by Focus on the Family
• "My Reaction..." by Greg Stier of Dare-2-Share

For your kids:

• "Talking to your children about the recent spate of school shootings" by the American Psychology Association
• Emotions Vocabulary Chart (we have a book like this at home that I use with the kids when they are having a hard time figuring out how they feel about something.)
• Child Stages of Grief and How To Help by Children's Grief Education Association
• "Helping Your Child Cope With Trauma" by Focus on the Family
• "Acknowledging Feelings" by Focus on the Family

For your prayers:

• Psalm 147:3- "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."
  
• Psalm 73:26-  "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
• Matthew 11:28-30- "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
• John 14:27-  "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."
• Psalm 55:22- "Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved." 

CONNECT: AngelTree, a night of giving

Our Night of Giving was a success.....

22 Families, 43 Children from our local area were sponsored through Angel Tree.

By being a part of this program, kids will be connected with their incarcerated parent this Christmas and these kids and their families will learn of God's love for them that goes beyond what they can imagine. 

Nursing Home Residents and Prisoners will be receiving heart felt letters reminding them that they are not alone this Christmas....that God has not forgotten them. They will know they are loved.

Our own kids were a part of something much bigger than Christmas presents. They are learning that there is a world out there that is in need. A need we can respond to.

John 15:12-14

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. you are my friends if you do what I command you.

Philippians 2:4

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 

Matthew 25:40

And the King will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." 

Gifts that Give...

 

 

It's the "Most Wonderful Time of Year"!!!

 

 Among the hustle and bustle of decorating, all day shopping, midnight-shopping, deal-snagging, truffle-making, cookie-baking, santa-sleighing, reindeer-playing, popcorn-stringing, carol-singing, must-do's, must-go's and must-HAVE's...

 

There are a few treasures that I have come across that help celebrate God's love throughout the season and beyond.  While my kids love all things Lego, Batman, Hello Kitty and My Little Pony (and I do too:) there a couple of things that I am ecspecially excited for them to be receiving this year...

Veggie Tales 'All About Me' book...a place to record all about her life and faith, including her favorite things, and even a special spot for her prayers...can't wait to fill it out together!!!

 

Armor of God for my little warrior...because what child doesn't like to dress - up and what better way to teach than during play-time???!!!

 

 

and my ALL-TIME FAVORITE...

 

Hearts4hearts...These dolls represent girls from different countries, and each one comes with accessories and a story about who they are and how they use what they have to reach out to their communities and share love...even better, the manufactuer is partnered with WorldVision and a fraction of money from purchases will help real children with real needs.

 

you can read more HERE...

 

 

 

 

 

...and lastly, this one is for the family.  After a conversation with a dear friend about giving, I remembered seeing this book last year and look forward to seeing what kinds of ideas are in store...

 

 

 

 MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

 



In a Frenzy :)

Fall Frenzy 2012

Route 412 Greeters

Candy Station!!

Stephanie's Photo Booth

Relay Race

Pumpkin Painting

Pie Smash!!

Bounce House

 Sumo Wrestling!

Kiddie Tattoos

Spider Web 

Balloons 

Hay Ride

Costumes

A special thanks to everyone who came out.

An extra special thanks to all our volunteers! We LOVE you and are grateful for you!

The Orange Tour

Today myself and 2 of our Family Ministries Directors had an opportunity to attend "The Orange Tour" at Woodside Bible Church. I can't even put into words yet what the Lord did in each of our hearts because it is so overwhelming, but I have to say that I have never been so excited to be a part of what God is doing with this next generation!

During lunch we raided the Orange Store like kids in a candy store and were had so much fun picking out some new stuff for our ministry. One of my favorite things was getting some new tunes! I put them on in the car on my way home with the kids and they went NUTS! They loved it... and I did too. We even checked more out online! If you are looking for some new music, check these out:

ZAPPED

Favorite Songs so Far: "Imagine the Impossible" and "No One Greater"

 

TURN IT UP

Favorite Songs so Far: "Better Than The Best Thing" and "Our Great God"

 

JUMP

Favorite Songs so Far: "Through the Fire" and "Glory To God Forever"

 

Here are some cute ones for little ears:

Whoooooo Loves You?

I Can Count On You

One Big GULP

Prayer Bubble

I found these today as I was searching around for Bible coloring pages for an upcoming outreach. I was immediately drawn to them because of a question I asked my kids the other day..."If you could ask God anything and He had to give you an immediate answer, what would you ask Him?" One of them would like to know why He decided to make the grass green and the water blue, and the other wanted to know why God made our 2-year-old son so crazy. I love the idea of sitting the kids down and having them write or draw the things they would like to say to God.... might be really interesting what they come up with!

Praying Girl PDF
Praying Boy PDF
You can find more wonderful coloring pages from ministry-to-children.com here.

True Consequences

Are you having a hard time explaining salvation to your kids? Check out this video!

scripture scraps

I needed a solution for all of the wonderful papers my kids bring home from church. I'm not as sentimental as most, so I have no problem purging myself of things I don't feel any attachment to. I keep the things that I love and discard the things that I don't. Recently though, I have been having a hard time getting rid of the stuff that comes from church, because it is saturated with things that we are discussing throughout the week in our family time and in our LifeGroups. I wanted a way to hang on to it so the kids could reference it, without having it clutter my kitchen counter or refrigerator. I decided to purchase composition notebooks for each of the kids (only $.50 right now at Target) all in different colors.

I started to take each of the things the kids brought home, cut it to size and place it inside the notebooks. It doesn't look pretty, but the kids love seeing what is new in their book and start telling me the lesson that goes with the page. It's not only a way to organize, but a wonderful way for the kids to review what they are learning each week.

I got this great idea from lowercase letters and you can check the original out here. As with most things I try, mine is so amateur compare to hers, plus she used some TLC and made scriptures by herself for her kids. Whichever way you choose to go, it's a great way to continue to surround your children with the Word of God.

love notes.

This past 2 weeks our church was a part of Champions For Life Kids' Camp, a camp for foster kids in our area. One of the focus' of the week is a "love note" station, where kids and adults can come and write notes of love and encouragement to one another. It may seem like a simple thing, but some of these kids have never received mail for themselves, and a lot of them keep them for years.

Seeing the love note station while I was up there really challenged my heart about the amount of time and effort I put into making my own kids feel loved and special. Sure, I try to meet their every need and I am constantly grabbing them for kisses and hugs... but there is something different about a handwritten note... something you can keep.... something that took an extra effort.

I found these super cute lunch notes at Michaels today for $.20 (I love a good clearance section!) I quickly scooped them up. You don't have to have pre-made notes, even writing on a napkin will do. Just think of ways you can constantly remind your kids of the love you have for them. I know of kids that even have a journal with their parents that they pass back and forth and write to each other... just simple ways to love constantly. I even have notes saved in my memory box from my parents growing up... and they mean so much because it's in their handwriting! Hide them under their pillow. Sneak one by their seat in the car. Put one in their backpack, their Bible, or even send one in the mail!
You can download some fun free printable lunch notes HERE.

right now: 20 days. 5 hours. 26 minutes.

I haven't met anyone who doesn't love the summer Olympics.

What a great opportunity to have some fun with your family using the Olympic theme!

Here are some ideas I've come across that I would love to use with my own family. These are easy things to do as you are sitting down to watch the Olympic games.

{Please post other ideas in the comment section if you run across anything else you would like to try.}

Olympic Biographies.

Have your kids choose the sport that they are most interested and read as a family the story of one of the Olympians competing in that sport. It's interesting the conversations that are started by looking at another person's life and the choices they've made to get where they are today. You can find some biographies here, here and here. Use some follow-up questions for further discussion:

• Why was this athlete so successful in their endevors and how were they able to make it all the way to the Olympics?
• Did they have any struggles that they had to overcome?
• What character trait do they possess that made it possible for them to become a champion?

Banner Bonanza.

Purchase a poster-board or piece of heavy-duty fabric and create a "Family Olympic Banner" that reflects the most valuable characteristics of your family.  Talk about the Olympic flag and the unity it represents. Discuss ways that you can unite as a family and things you can do to connect more with one another.

"The five rings represent the five continents. They are interlaced to show the universality
of Olympism and the meeting of the athletes of the world during the Olympic Games.
On the Olympic flag, the rings appear on a white background. Combined in this way,
the six colors of the flag (blue, yellow, black, green, red and white) represent all nations."

Bible Search.
Have each member of the family find a verse in the Bible that would relate to the Olympics... running a race, training, perseverance, etc. Come together and discuss how these verses relate to us as followers of Christ.

Out of Darkness, into the Light

We had another successful CONNECT event. Our church gathered together Friday night after our prayer service and headed to our neighborhood St. Clair Shores Fireworks. We did an outreach while we were there that I am sure we will be doing yearly! 

Our kids passed out free glow sticks to the strangers and neighbors around us at the Fireworks (what kid does not want a glow stick at the fireworks?!!!)  On the glow stick, we had the scripture Micah 7:9 God will bring me out of darkness into the Light and I will see his goodness and also included our church's website. Everyone was very happy and grateful to receive their free glow sticks :)

We had bought extra glow sticks for our kids to also enjoy but they had so much fun passing them out that most of them gave the extra ones away too!! We were SO PROUD of our kids and their hearts to serve and bless others!

faith like a child.

Our family has been having some health problems this week, so this morning one of our kids was getting pretty worried and upset that one of us wasn't getting any better. This spurred on a wonderful conversation about FAITH and TRUST in God. It's so much easier to explain to a child to have trust.... they understand trust because, for most kids, they have many people in their lives that they trust already. It's challenging to me, as an adult, to trust the way kids do.... I can sometimes be scarred by my experiences and critical of things I don't understand. A lot of times when I have doubts, I re-read biographies of men/women of faith that I have grown to love and respect. I was so excited when I found the "Little Lights" series, which takes the biographies of the heroes of the faith and puts it in ways that little ears can understand.
Check them out here.