Better Together...Parents & Church

Parents, you’re such a vital part of our children’s ministry. Without a doubt, you’re the most important mentor in your child’s spiritual life. This year I want to be sure that you’re fully
equipped and encouraged to draw near to the Lord as a family. Our curriculum for Sun. mornings and Wed. evenings (252 Basics) is designed not just for teaching kids God’s truths, but for allowing families to experience God’s truths and grow together. Please plan to join your child(ren) every Wed. for the Family Experience! This program will have you all laughing, worshipping, and learning together! 252 Basics calls it the “Orange Theory” - Orange is what you get when you combine two primary colors—red and yellow. If you paint only with red, you will get what only red can do. If you paint only with yellow, you will get what only yellow can do. But when you paint with red and yellow, you’ll get new possibilities, fresh solutions, vibrant outcomes. We use the color orange to symbolize what it means to parent beyond your capacity. Orange parents understand that by tapping into a wider community, they have the potential to make a greater impact in the lives of their children. Parents - visit www.orangeparent.com for great resources and encouragement!

I Can't Wait for Sept 8th!

Don’t get me wrong—I LOVE SUMMER! However, I’ve spent most of my summer dreaming about the AMAZING Kids of Faith programs we’ll have starting Sept 8th and I can hardly wait!! Wed, Sept 8 will kick off an incredible year! Bring your entire family out Sept. 8 as we introduce our fabulous programs! It’s going to be a great evening of family fun and learning starting with dinner at 5:30. Each Wed from then on, kids K-4 will get to bring their parents to KidStuf, a fun-for-the-whole family program! Meanwhile our 5th & 6th graders will be having a crazy good time at TrendSetters!

God is Good, so I'll be Good and Do Good

I am so thankful that the Lord allows us to be a part of His work! I was immensely blessed with the opportunity to speak to 2nd and 3rd graders during their week at Pine Lake Christian Camp! I never cease to be amazed at how the Lord moves in the hearts and minds of children to allow them to understand His love, their sin, His grace, and their need for a Savior! Wow! Thank goodness we can rely on the work of the Holy Spirit to move, but how awesome that He allows us to be a part of that work, and deliver the good news! My heart is so full of love for the Lord and for His children!

Jimbo's Surf Shop was the summer theme - so we spent the week hitting the waves and getting a crash course in the book of James. It was TOTALLY TUBULAR Dudes & Dudettes! A quick review....

Night 1: God is Good! We deserve to be punished for our sin, but because of His great love for us, God sent His Son Jesus to take our punishment for us, forgive our sins and offer us eternal life in Heaven. God is SO GOOD. We started memorizing Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." God is good for creating us and allowing us to be a part of His work.

Night 2: Be Good! Because God is so good, the desire of our hearts should be to obey Him and take steps to Be Good! We cleaned a lot of trash up off the beach and added a few things to make it a better place. We need to do the same thing with our hearts...get rid of the trash (Anger - James 1:19, Favoritism - James 2:1, 8, Unwholesome Talk - James 3:10/4:11, Envy - James 3:16, Pride & Boasting - James 4:6, 16).

To Be Good, we also have to add some good characteristics to our lives...Perseverance - James 1:3-4, Wisdom - James 3:17, Listening - James 1:19, Peacemakers - James 3:18, Prayer - James 5:13-16.

Night 3: Do Good! God is so good, that I want to do good for the glory of His name! We learned all about surfer Bethany Hamilton who believes in God's goodness and gave her life to the Lord at a young age. When Bethany's surfing career was halted by a shark attack, Bethany chose to be good and persevere, trusting and giving glory to God. After she lost her arm, it took Bethany only 3 weeks to get back to the waves. Now she is Doing all kinds of good with her life - sharing her story and the truth of God with others all around the world. 2nd & 3rd graders learned that they are not too young to Do Good with their lives, by caring more for others than themselves. God created all of us to DO GOOD works (Eph. 2:10). We studied James 2:14-14 - if our faith is not active, it's no faith at all!

Surfer Cari & Surfer Ton ready to shred the nar ;)

God is good, so I'll be good and do good! Surfer Ton & I thought it was totally rad to share God's truth with these little surfers.

Here's a pic of 2 kids of faith surfers. Drew and Braden are super stellar dudes that both made a decision to follow Christ while at camp. Praise the Lord!

Packaging 1300 Meals for Kids Against Hunger!

We were humbled by the opportunity to serve with Kids Against Hunger. Don Fields (Brighton, IA) shared the tremendous need for nutritous meals for children and families in developing countries who are malnourished and dying from starvation. For just 23 cents a meal, Kids Against Hunger packages nutritious, life-saving meals. "The goal of the organization is for its meals to provide a stable nutritional base from which recipent families can move their families from starvation to self-sufficiency." (http://www.kidsagainsthunger.org/)

Take a look at how it works in this video of Kids of Faith hard at work...


In 2 hours our Summer Serve crew packaged 1300 meals! It was a blessing to work alongside these children, as we learned together the blessing of spending our lives on behalf of those in need. We took a look at Isaiah 58:10 that morning, "and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday." We are definitely learning that life is not all about us, but we are blessed when we pour out ourselves and our resources for others!