Party Time!

Well, the big night for our KC kids finally came last night! What a great time we had together, celebrating, playing and eating. As the kids came in, we had activities for them to work on at their tables - word searches, puzzles, mazes, coloring pages, etc - not to mention some candy to snack on! Here are some pre-game shots of the kids:

Caleb and Blake:

Brooke:

Alexei and Jaycie:

Angelica, Christina and Alexandria:

Melissa, Amber, Angelina and Maya:

Corbin, Scotty, Brock, Cameron, Devin and Colin:

Alesha, Nike and Daisy:

Brittany and Alex


We started the evening off with snack - the green team voted to have cupcakes, so we had a nice variety for them and capri suns to drink. We separated the kids into 5 teams to do rotations to our games stations and quickly got started. Here are shots and info from each of our games.

Our first game station was mummy wrapping. The children got into teams and one was the mummy while the other was the wrapper. They were given 2 minutes to see who could get the most wrapped - it's not as easy as it sounds!

Jiliane wraps Brooke and Angelina wraps Taylor:


Alexandria wraps Amber:

Caleb wraps Colin:

Corbin wraps Peyton:

Delaney wraps Melissa:

In another session, Jonathan performed tricks for the kids to enjoy.

Nike, Alesha, Alex, Christina, Vanessa and Presley wait for Jonathan to start:

Jonathan and Megan:

Is that really an empty container or is it a trick?

How did he make a baby rooster appear from just an egg?

A third station gave the kids a chance to "bob for donuts." Individual donuts were tied to a string. While one player held the donut as still as possible, the other tried their best to eat it - without using their hands! It was quite fun too watch and just a little messy! =D

Spencer gets a piece of one:

Donte and Taylor give it their best while Brock and Brooke hold the string:

Gavin is trying hard to get a bite!

For a 4th game, we had a relay race in which the kids had to hold a balloon between their knees, run to their teammate on the other side of the taped off area and pass off the balloon so they could put it between their knees and run back - so fun to watch!

Carrigan and Brittany run as fast as they can:

Get it quick, Delaney!!

Which team was the winner?


Our 5th game was a candy corn toss game. One child tied a plastic pumpkin around their waist while their partner stood across from them and tried to throw as much candy corn into the pumpkin as possible - again, not as easy as it sounds!

Presley, Jadyn and Alex ready to catch:

Tate, Alyssa and Faith ready to catch:

Blake, Hanna and MaKenna give it a try:

Christina, Vanessa and Jaycie wait for "Go!"


Tyler, Alexei and Ben toss the candy to the buckets:


Amber, Alexandria and Mandy try to get as much as possible while Ben tries to find a faster way to get more candy in the pumpkin!

Devin and Andrew look pretty intense!

Hmmm - did more get in the pumpkins or on the floor??

Time to clean it up!

At the end of the evening, everyone had a hard time choosing their favorite game and they all said that they had a great time! Isn't good for our children to have good, Godly fun with their friends?

Jiliane and Brooke had a great time:

Vanessa, Jadyn, Christina and Alex agree - the party was a ton of fun!

We are already preparing for the next one and hope that it will be as much of a success as this one was!

Skits

Last night we did something very different in KC - we let the kids be the teachers, so to speak! We have been learning this month about Barnabas and that, as Christians, we should be encouragers like him and celebrate the good things that God is doing. So, with that in mind, we separated into groups and chose Bible stories where God had done something good that we could celebrate. Each group had a different story and could choose to act it out however they wanted.

One group showed the story of Moses parting the Red Sea and then the sea closing in on the Egyptians. The children were the sea!

Here comes Pharoah's army:

The sea closes in on the Egyptians:

The Israelites celebrate their victory:

In another skit, on Jesus feeding the 5000, children were asked if anyone was hungry:

A boy offers his lunch:

The children rejoice at the miracle of provision:

Another group showed how God took care of Joseph and then brought his family back together during a famine. Here are Joseph, Pharoah and helpers:

Even the people waiting for food were glad over what God had done:

It was an exciting night in which all of the children got to participate and help teach some of the things that we can celebrate from God's Word.

The Lost Cookie

We had a wonderful time of prayer in kid's Connection tonight after rejoicing over the many praise reports that were turned in - God truly answers prayer, even those offered up by children!













To reinforce the Bible lesson of The Shepherd who lost one of his 100 sheep, we chose a volunteer from the kids by asking a review question from last week. Daisy answered correctly and was told that she was going to receive 10 cookies as a reward! Sister Dawn decided that that wasn't enough - she should have 20 cookies! Daisy looks pleased, don't you think?













The kids watching were anxious to get some of those cookies for themselves!













Sister Dawn continued to add cookies to Daisy's reward until she had reached 100 cookies.













Corbin looks desperate for a cookie!













Once she had the 100, she was asked what she would do if she lost one of the cookies. Through the object lesson, we saw how important one person is to God. Of course, it helped to reinforce the lesson when each of the kids received their share of the cookies!

We also talked more about the importance of encouraging each other and our friends wherever we go. They were encouraged to do their best to say kind things this week and to do all that they are asked to do as if Jesus asked them to do it. It is our prayer that they will begin to apply these lifeskills to their lives as they grow up.

Barnabas - The Encourager

We began October with a study of a new hero - Barnabas, known as the encourager. Who doesn't want their children to be more positive and encouraging to each other?! We had a lot to cheer about, too - starting with worshiping the King of Kings:













They learned more about their KC leaders and cheered for them, then heard some awesome testimonies of amazing things God has done in their friend's lives. Brock and Jaycie shared the details about the accident they were in last year and how God miraculously spared their lives. We were able to rejoice with them and thank God for what He had done!
















Everyone felt good about being an encourager:













Cameron, Caleb, Brock and Scotty













Angelina, Alesha and Kirstin













Erica, Brittany and Alex