Ministry with Balloons is a blast!

Ever since I was the house magician at the Rock ‘n Roll McDonald’s in downtown Chicago (in college) I’ve been twisting balloons for kids at church, birthday parties, magic shows, etc. But my use of them in my ministry for teaching was pretty minimal and limited to one balloon creatures. That was until very recently. “Master Ron” as he is known, is a Christian children’s entertainer and awesome juggler and balloon artist. I have used him for years to sub for me in Kids Church when I’m out of town, and he is the only sub I’ve had that the kids just don’t seem to miss me at all when I get back. (is that good, or not?) :-) A computer systems analyst by day, and a balloon twistin’ juggler by evenings and weekends, Master Ron is a great teacher and communicator with kids…. and an inspiration to me. This summer I had him teach all our grade school kids at our church for Sunday School in June. We found ourselves with three weeks to ‘fill’ between our regular Sunday School and when our summer Family Sunday School class could start, and I needed something easy for me and fun…

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The Missionary Game! How many villages will YOU reach?

The Jungle is Calling…. PLAY: http://www.themissionarygame.comYou have 30 days to get the Gospel to as many villages as possible! But, BEWARE of many dangers! What do you do when confronted by a Lion?!?! (I got eaten three times before I remembered Daniel!) PRAY! (or hit the ‘P’ key!) and the lion falls asleep! Watch the church being built and the happy natives who get a copy of the Bible and the supplies they need to survive! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

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Gimmie a "U" !! Gimmie a "W" !! What’s that spell?

UPDATE: Bad Link to photo gallery corrected! Gimmie a “U” !! Gimmie a “W” !! What’s that spell? UNCHARTED WATERS! Uncharted Waters is the Sports Camp Ministry we have used for the past two years to reach out to the kids in our church and community. (see last year) We had 50 kids come divided between basketball… and cheerleading. GO! GO! GO! We had at least six kids make a decision to give their lives to Jesus and GO FOR THE GOLD that will last for all eternity! The secret to the success of these sports camps is NOT me… I could never lead a sports camp (unless it was sport stacking!) What I love about the ministry of UW is that they do most of the work for us. Here is the UW Team: Coaches Josh, Catie, Lindsay and Lisa! Of course, a lot of work was also done and thanks are due to our Sports Camp director, Cherie and a bunch of volunteers. Anna Maria, Barb and Cherie (not pictured: many more!) What did I do all week? Worked on my six foot unicycle shooting…. (still needs much work) And my “Air Karl” moves!Were you there? SEE ALL…

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Year End KC Krew Party!

Well, it’s hard to believe, but I just finished my fourteenth year of K.C. Krew. (Kids Church Krew) So we headed off to a friends house on a lake to celebrate a year of serving God together. I still remember that first KC Krew – I didn’t have a clue what to do with the kids, just a conviction that I needed to be trainig kids to serve in church, rather than just sit and be entertain/ministered TO. Since then, well over a hundred kids have been trained to serve God and given the experience of serving God at church. Several of my past Krew members are in ministry today and a few are at Bible college! But even those who don’t do vocational ministry have learned that serving God is a lot of fun and rewarding too. My prayer is that serving at church will always be just something they do. It’s no mystery to me why so many adults have no interet in serving, the church trained them through childhood and youth to come to church and sit and watch…. and then we wonder why they won’t volunteer. It’s about time we taught kids to serve at the…

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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…

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