Home Archive by category "Children’s Ministry" (Page 124)

Category: Children’s Ministry

Pastor Karl’s Potty Party Pictures!

Children’s Pastors get the strangest opportunities, from cat funerals to…. potty parties? Several months ago a mom wrote to me that they were having trouble with getting their son to be potty trained. (who doesn’t?) She wrote, “We’ve tried the stickers, the candy, the big present, you name it, and nothing worked. SO, the other day I told Caleb that if he could go pee and poop in the potty for a week we’d invite you and Sara over for dinner to help us with a special celebration. He was so excited that yesterday he actually initiated going and did so without any help. He seems pretty psyched about having you come to celebrate with us and the motivation seems to be going well so far……” Well, I agreed to help encourage him and finally it was time for the Potty Party Celebration! Pretty Cool Potty Party Cake! (the smeared writing is Luke’s fault when I got too close to the cake he lunged for it!) Proud Expert Potty Boy! How do you entertain at a Potty Party? I thought of making a toilet out of balloons, but passed.I chose the Magic Talking Potty of course who congratulated the party…

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Baby Luke’s Adventure at Kid U Ohio!

Luke and Dad hangin’ out and roaming around the conference. Well, it was a crazy weekend but a lot of fun. There are still lots of pictures to go through, but since Luke was so excited to go to his second Kid U, I thought I’d post some pictures of his adventures. I had NO idea how many of the attendees would be greeting him by name as they arrived. I guess more people read my blog than I knew! So, by popular demand, here are some more Baby Luke pics: Too Sexy for my Shirt! (Kid U morning at the hotel) Me and My New Bear! (Gift from Pastor Kim!) Awana be in Awana! (Awana my diaper changed too!) As you can see by Baby Luke’s Awana Uniform, he is a big fan of Awana. (This Commander uniform was hand made for him by Commander Teri at Village Church!) I think he signed up at least three new churches for Awana while working their booth! Star Struck with Mary Rice Hopkins. (or is it the spotlights?) Mary Rice Hopkins held him while singing a beautiful song about babies. He got a little star struck – it was rather funny…

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Baby Luke Headed to Kid U Ohio!

What is Luke doing? Why, he is choosing his workshops for Kid U in Ohio next weekend! He’s excited about the preconference Creativity Blitz and all the awesome presenters that he can learn from. So he is studying the schedule, wondering where he will lodge, checking out the directions and planning to register soon! Don’t have a brochure? You can download one here! OK, now that my director of web operations is proud of all my shameless marketing links, what is the REAL reason Luke wants to go to Kid U? Because it is where he first met me! Yes, it was at Kid U Chicago, this past March that I met this little baby boy for the first time, and as you can see, he loved me at first sight: Well, ok, maybe not… but it is so fascinating to me that at the time of this picture, I had NO IDEA that I would be adopting this precious (screaming) little boy. He wasn’t so excited about Aunt Meepa either! (at least not in this picture) And he even cried for his mom-to-be, though, again, Sara had NO IDEA at the time of this picture that we would soon…

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Dreary Day… until you look closely.

Today was one of the hardest days of my life. For the first time in over 18 years I didn’t kick off a new season of Kid’s Church. To make it worse… of course, it rained. The bleary view out my back patio door. Change is difficult. I suppose I should feel some relief from my former hyperbusy hyperacheiver hyperactive hyperministry hyperspeed pace of life… and in many ways I do. But I still miss painfully the things I loved most… and have deep regrets that are still healing. I prayed for one phone call today from one person who might realize what today was and meant to me… but instead, God must have wanted me to feel the emptiness and loneliness of loss. My head understands and is accepting, but my heart is still catching up and has quite a ways to go. One day at a time. One relationship at a time. One prayer at a time. I’ve not allowed myself much time to focus on what these changes in life have cost me – selfishness got me into the mess I got myself into – so I don’t feel entitled to focus on my own losses, but…

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Backyard Bible Splashes!

After a one year break to do a Family VBS last summer, it was time to return to Backyard Bible Blasts…. but this summer we called them Backyard Bible SPLASHES! A giant waterslide, water games and a Gospel message were our formula to help equip our families to reach their neighbors with the Good News! Of course, I like any excuse to get my Waternator outfit on and squirt kids! It definitely was wet! We started with some open free time, then went into some organized water games and relays. The Giant Water Slide was a huge hit. The kids would have played on that for the entire time if we let them! It turned out to be a great draw. Plus, its the kind of thing parents don’t want to buy for their own kids (a little big and expensive for a family, $399 at Costco) but great for the church to provide! There’s just something fun about water. So refreshing! The parachute games were rather pointless, but still fun. Racing with leaky cups! But of course, it all is for the purpose of a fun entertaining Gospel message at the end. No matter how many pictures are taken…

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