Few things are better in life….

Few things in in life are better than an afternoon with friends at the park…

Today was the final event of the year for our VIP Family Ministry at my church. (VIP = Very Intentional Parent) It’s been a fantastic year! Our family ministry this year was an experiment in an opt-in partnering ministry where families and the church participated in a genuine partnership. I will be writing a review/evaluation soon for my church and will publish on Kidology.org for those interested in what we are doing at Village Church to attempt a better solution for families than just planning ‘family events’ and hoping parents will come. It has been a very encouraging year for me, and MUCH thanks goes to the Dawne and Jay who helped coordinate the ministry and manage the communication and details! THANKS!

Any casual time hangin’ out with the kids you love is the best spent ministry time. Better than you greatest lesson is giving your love and time to kids. They will remember YOU longer than any cool lesson you can come up with, and will learn from those lessons better too! Its the best of everything… it’s all about relationships.

Sack races are always a hit. My mom had these sack race sacks made for me YEARS AGO and they are still holding up! Made of thick canvas and made tall and thick and very well sewn, I’m amazed how many sack races they have survived in over a decade!

Nothing cutier than kids sack racin’

We even got a few of the grown-ups to compete as well!If you can’t jump with your kids… just drag him across the finish line!

Next it was parachute games…. good way to work on team work!

Oh the thrill to send the ball flying as a group!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Did they set the distance record??

Me, my boy, his buddy (only 10 days older) and buddy’s older brother.

The highlight of the afternoon was not the food, the games, the fellowship… it was when one of my rockets (that I like to shoot off and let the kids race to get and return to me) got stuck in a tree. It became a matter of manly pride and competition as volley balls, soccer balls, baseball, softballs, even plastic bats where thrown repeatedly into the tree to try and knock therocket down.

Here is the CHAMPION DAD who got the rocket down with his chosen weapon!

A BIG thank you to Dawne and Jay for helping coordinte our VIP Family Ministry all year, for ALL the familes who made their kids and family a PRIORITY this year by being intentional parents, and a HUGE thank you to God for giving me and my wife a kid this year so we can join the club of Very Intentional Parents too!