Home Archive by category "Children’s Ministry" (Page 127)

Category: Children’s Ministry

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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Baby Luke Goes Camping!

Well, it was time for our third annual Children’s Ministry Leadership Team / Kidology Staff Camping Trip! Starved Rock, Illinois was the destination this time. This week away from cell phone, e-mail and Internet each year is a wonderful break for me! And… it was Luke’s FIRST time camping! A family at church was nice enough to loan us their RV so that Luke didn’t have to suffer in a hot tent, and with temperatures in the high 80’s and 90’s all week, it was GREAT to have an air-conditioned RV… it also meant we had lots of visitors often as well: A bunch of happy campers enjoying Luke…. or the air-conditioning? (ok, both!) but my favorite is always the evening camp fires. Luke took right to it! We feared that camping would be rough on the boy, but he seemed to enjoy it alot. Never cried and was sooo easy going. Of course, there were lots of kids and big friends constantly giving him attention and love. Here is Baby Luke in his swing… and he LOVES to swing! Mom with Luke ready for some evening singing around the camp fire. Dad enjoys playing the guitar and leading singing….…

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Superman: As a hero, SUPER, as a Dad, Super Zero.

NOT SO SUPER. I was excited to go see the new Superman movie – and the rave reviews got my expectations higher than they already were. I left disappointed.The gist is Superman left for five years to go check out his planet that was recently discovered. He arrives back in another crash landing on the Kent farm… kinda odd that with no survivors he still comes back in a meoter instead of just flying home. Oh, well, I can dismiss that, it made for a grand entrance. The opening scene flying through space was almost as good as “Contact” (Jodie Foster) and had a few planets I’d love as wallpapers. GREAT FIRST FEAT! His first big ‘Save the Day’ hero duties was pretty awesome… we were alone in the theator so I went ahead a clapped and cheered out loud with the crowd on screen, it was a sweet return and his one liner to those he saved was priceless, “I hope this doesn’t discourage you from flying. Statisically its still the safest way to travel.” I won’t give away the rescue, just to say, it was what I was expecting the whole movie, but unfortunately it was downhill from…

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