kid's Connection

Superheroes Continues

2009-08-15T12:56:00.001-07:00

The past several weeks we have continued to learn about how to be the kind of Superhero Jesus wants us to be - based on His Word. We have had exciting and energetic services full of fun, learning and worship.

Views of the dynamic worship that our children engage in:

Joseph gets right out there in the middle to worship!

Some of the girls:

And some of the boys:

Pure energy!

Jaycie and Presley:

Each week, we have had a skit of a Bible lesson for the kids that demonstrates someone who practiced the Superhero trait that we are learning about.

For one lesson, Mark was Mordecai and Dawn was Esther - a young girl who had to be courageous enough to do what was right, even when it was hard.

Brother Jack was the King and Brandon was the wicked Haman, who Dawn points out as the one who wants to kill her people:

In another lesson about courage, Brandon was Gideon - a man who was too scared to fight, but who God used to save His people using only trumpets and lanterns. Here, Tyler, Steven and Nick help him:

Faith and Jadyn listen attentively:

Another week, we learned about self-control through David and King Saul. David and his army are trying to keep away from Saul:

David (played by Evyn) showed self control when King Saul was trying to hunt his down and kill him. Saul came to a cave where David and his men were hiding, but Saul did not see them. David had the chance to kill Saul, but chose to practice self-control instead. He simply cut off a piece of Saul's robe to prove that he could have killed him.

Our next lesson was about showing compassion to everyone. In our skit, Caleb was the leper who was unclean:

When Jesus came to town, the leper pushed through the crowd to get to Him to be healed. The crowd was horrified that a leper would come near them:

However, Jesus had compassion on the leper and healed him right there:

Brother Jack is an awesome teacher who often helps wrap things up and prays with and for the children:

We have learned so much in the past few weeks. As the children start heading back to school, it is our prayer that they will carry all of the lessons with them each day to be a light for Jesus wherever they go.

Week 2 - Be Confident!

2009-06-25T04:35:00.000-07:00

KC kids never tire of worship, and they do it with all their hearts and ALL their energy. It is awesome to watch them and see their love for Jesus:

Our lesson tonight was learning how to be Confident and stand up for what is right, even when no one else is. Brother Jack was our Storyteller/Johnny Cash who sang and told the story of Elijah standing up to King Ahab.

Brother Mark was Elijah and Brother Brandon was King Ahab. They did a southern style king and Elijah that kept the kids very entertained and interested!

Elijah shares a message from God with King Ahab and his prophet (Sister Dawn!). Elijah challenges King Ahab and his 450 prophets to a showdown on Mt. Carmel. It must have taken a lot of confidence in God to stand up to a king and 450 prophets like that - especially when you feel like you are the only one who is serving God in the whole country!

Elijah wonders what is wrong with Baal - is he on vacation or busy or maybe he's asleep and they need to wake him up? King Ahab and the prophet are tired from praying so hard, but still, there is no fire on the altar.

Elijah steps up to pray to the one, true God:

King Ahab and the Prophet stand in awe as the altar "ignites" and the flames rise:

Elijah worships the God who answered with fire:

Our Superhero this week was Kid Confidence who reinforced what Elijah taught us - that when we are in a situation where everyone else is doing the wrong thing, we can have confidence in God and stand up for what is right. Our "Remember" point this week is "You can always count on God - Be Confident!"

If the kids know this next week, they will get to add their name to our drawing for the grand prize at the end of our 10 weeks. They will also have more chances when they bring offering, bring their Bible or bring a friend!

Superheroes, Week 1

2009-06-18T05:53:00.001-07:00

We kicked off our new Superheroes unit this week in our new Children's Chapel in our Family and Fine Arts Center. This exciting unit will go on for the next 10 weeks and we are so excited to see all that God is going to do in and through our POA kids! Click on the picture below to check out some pictures from the evening! More to come soon.

superheros kickoff

Starting next week, kids can put their name in a drawing every time they: bring their Bible, bring offering, bring a guest or remember our main point from last week. (This week's was "Nothing is more powerful than God!") At the end of the 10 weeks, we will draw 5 names and those children will each win one of our Superhero cutouts! The more things they do each week, the greater the chance they have to win!

Catching Up

2009-06-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have been so exciting following our Children's Crusade. We all enjoyed and were blessed by the ministry of Brother Jeremy Joyce and had an awesome time of worship, fun, learning and definitely felt the presence of God throughout the weekend.

The teachers dressed in "Crazy Praise" for the crusade:

Kid's Praise:

Kid's Praise:

As well as having awesome review games, activities and worship each week in KC, we have also been preparing for our new curriculum that will take us through the summer - SUPERHEROES - which we will start next week in our Children's Chapel in the new Family and Fine Arts Center! We are so excited about what God is going to do in our children this summer. Be sure to invite friends to come to KC each week - you never know what might happen if you do!

Misc. pictures of some of the children over the past couple of weeks:

The Rapture

2009-04-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

As usual, we began the evening with some energetic worship songs.

Some of our praise team this week included Christina, Riley, Alexandria, Megan and Amber:

Some more praisers - Amber, Delaney and Connor:

Our lesson this week was about being ready for the rapture, so our game followed that theme. Andrew and Megan correctly answered review questions to play "Racing the Rapture" where they had to use a magnet attached to a string to race around the room and "catch up" 4 paper doll type people. We didn't want a single one left behind! It was close enough to call it a tie for the winner.

Andrew got another one!

Megan is on her last one!

After some worship time, Sister Dawn taught a Bible lesson about when Jesus ascended into heaven. She had some children looking up, wondering where He was going. Then, some angels came and told them that He would be back! What great news! He wants us to all be ready when He comes back to take us to Heaven with Him.

Our Bible verse this week was:

"Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come"

We put some motions to the words and practiced several times:

Our object lessons helped the children see the importance of being ready and why we DO NOT want to miss the rapture! We talked about cleaning out our heart like our parents do when a guest is coming over for dinner. We don't want to be ashamed of a dirty home and we don't want to be ashamed if we have a dirty heart when Jesus comes. We need to repent, be baptized and have God's Spirit living in us to be ready - then we need to live a life that is pleasing to Jesus.

Sister T showed a demonstration of the verses in Matthew where 2 are working in the field and one is taken while the other is left. Two women were grinding at the mill - one was taken and the other was left. They all agreed that being left would not be good. We want to be ready when He comes for us. What if the one time we - watch what we shouldn't, go where we shouldn't, do what we shouldn't - what if that is when He comes for us? NOTHING is worth missing the rapture for! The children's hearts were stirred and we took some time to pray and repent and ask Jesus to help us be ready at any time and to make good choices as we grow.

We then had some open discussion with them and had some good conversation, before ending with more energetic worship! I love when they plead to do praise songs!

Ben and Peyton having some fun:

Faith in praise motion:

We love your kids and pray that as they grow, they will follow Jesus with a passion that nothing in the world can rival! We want them to be ready for the rapture!

We are gearing up for our Children's Crusade in a couple of weeks where we are expecting God to do great things in these children!

Love the Lord Your God

2009-04-23T07:53:00.000-07:00

What a fantastic service we had in KC this week! We kicked things off with some Praise in Motion, as we do each week. Here are a few scenes - our children are WORSHIPERS!! (Wait til you see the pics later!):

Jeremiah:

Jaylah, Aman and Jiliane:

Caleb and Dylan:

Jayce:

Next up was game time. Our game this week was called Love Ball, since we were learning about the love of God. Riley and Colbert correctly answered review questions to qualify them to play this game for their teams (boys and girls):

For the game, they had to use a bat to knock Styrofoam balls with letters written on them into a box across the room, spelling out the word love. It was harder than it sounded!

Colbert trying hard to get ball 3 - the V - into the box:

Riley knocks her third ball in, too:

It was close, but the boys won in the end. Good job to both for trying so hard!

Our memory verse this week was:

Love the Lord your God with
ALL your heart, and with
ALL your soul, and with
ALL your mind.
Matthew 22:37

If they can still remember it on Sunday, they may just get a prize in Sunday School!

Sister Dawn taught the Bible Lesson:

We learned about Peter, a fisherman, who followed Jesus. Jesus asked Peter how much he loved Him. We learned that, by what Jesus said, we are not supposed to let anything come between us and our love for Jesus.

The children listened so attentively:

Our object lesson this week was taught by Sister T. We learned how much Jesus loves us - so much that He died on the cross for us!

Does He ask us to go through what He went through to show our love for Him? No! He asks that we love Him with ALL of our heart, soul and mind! How easy is that - to just love Him! But, sometimes, we can say that we love Jesus and then let things get in the way of spending time with Him like we should. Then, we had some examples.

Brother Mark represented someone who loves to play sports - fish, ride bikes and scooters, play ball, etc. Sometimes, he even wants to stay home from church to play his favorite sports with his friends:

Christina represented a person who has gotten a new job. She is able to buy her own clothes and she even pays tithes now. The only problem is that she has to work weekends, so she misses a lot of church - but at least the money is great, right?

Evyn represented a person who LOVES a sports team - for him it was the Steelers. He watches every game, knows all of their statistics, collects their sports gear and reads every article written about them. His Sunday School teacher asked him to read a part of the Bible each day this week, but he really wants to read the new article in the paper about the Steelers. He decides that he will get to the Bible later.

Sister Shanna represented a person who came to church, but she is going out with her friends after service. She can't wait for church to be over - she hopes that the preaching is short and that there is no altar call made. She just wants to get to where her friends are hanging out.

Sister Dawn represented a person who loves video games. She plays them every chance she gets. One day, she was ready for church and she decided to play for a few minutes before she had to leave. All of a sudden, she looked at the time and 2 hours had gone by and she had missed church!

Each time one of them would come to the front showing their activity, they would then take it over and place it on the cross, then stand in front of the cross.

All of those things were blocking their view of what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Now, we talked about the fact that there is not anything wrong with any of these things. BUT, when we let them come between us and Jesus, when we make them first - that is when they become wrong! We never want to let anything come between us and what Jesus did for us. We want to love Him the most! So, we realized that to tear those things away from the cross, we needed to repent. As the 5 helpers removed their items from the cross and turned to kneel, the children were encouraged to come forward and repent if they felt like they had ever let anything come before Jesus in their lives. What a site:

Many others prayed at their seats.

After our prayer time, we realized that we had some extra time on our hands. We played a quick game and then, by request, had more worsip. These children are awesome worshippers! So energetic!

Hands in the air, jumping and dancing for Jesus, all with a repentant heart - JOY unspeakable!

I love "The Crazy Song" - worship, prayer and lifting hands all in one awesome song!

After service, Jayce and Conner posed for a shot:

So did Riley, Kirsten, Jiliane, Aman, Amber, and Jaylah:

Such an incredible service with the best kids on the planet!

Easter Lessons

2009-04-18T18:24:00.000-07:00

This week, we started a new curriculum in kid's connection. We will spend the next 8 weeks or so learning about all the Jesus did for us and all that He wants to give us to draw closer to him. This week's lesson focused on Easter and what it is really all about.

We started the evening with a couple of games. The first one involved plastic eggs with various items sealed inside them. The children were allowed to shake the eggs and then make their best guess on what was inside (we did provide a list of the choices, since it was challenging!). Out of the 15 items, Blake Farrow guessed 12 correct and won a large chocolate bunny as a prize!

Here, Holly helps Delaney figure out one of the eggs while Christina works on her next egg:

Caleb and Andrew are hard at work with their guesses:

Andrew checks to see how Blake is doing:

Alyssa and Ben pause for a picture:

Our next game was a relay race. Three 9 year old boys and 3 nine year old girls were able to see who could complete the relay first. The first person ran down and filled the Easter basket with all of the goodies:

Then, they ran back and handed it to the next person who had to empty the basket out without letting anything fall on the floor.

Jeremiah and Christina are up first, trying to fill their basket:

Ben and Erica hurry to unload their baskets:

Angelica does her best to load the basket one more time, but the boys won:

After games and worship, we moved on to the memory verse for this week:

"While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us"

We practiced several times to make sure they had it before moving on.

Finally, we got to the Bible Lesson. For the lesson, Sister T took the kids through the Easter story using pictures and props. Without being too gory, she shared with them what Jesus went through for us and why He deserves all of our praise. Many of the children seemed to be understanding these truths for the first time. God's Word went out and reached into their hearts in such an awesome way. They were able to see what a great thing Jesus did, for each one of us, and most importantly, for themselves. We were able to praise Him together for the sacrifice and then rejoice for Easter mroning - He is Risen! What a precious truth to hold close to our hearts! We will continue building on this lesson next week.

Time for a Party!

2009-03-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't love to have a party once in a while?! We got our night started off with a praise report. Jaylah Simpson had had a very bad allergy attack on Tuesday night while at church for a meeting - her eyes swelled up so bad that she couldn't open them the whole way. Well, some who were there gathered around her and prayed for her. By the time that we were done, her left eye was almost completely returned to normal and the right eye was significantly better! Well, when she came in to KC, both of her eyes were completely normal!! We shared this with the kids and they were excited to Praise Jesus with us for His healing power! What a way to build the faith of young people - real examples in the lives of their friends teaches better than any program we can put together.

For our party, the Orange team chose to have games for the activities, so we chose 4 different games and had a snack station - enabling us to divide the kids into 5 groups.

For the first group, we had a snack station. The orange team had a tie between cupcakes and ice cream, so we compromised - we gave them both!!

Donald, a visitor, Dylan, Corbin, Caitlyn, Tony:

Gavin, Jayce, Ben, a visitor and Colin:

Aman, Alyssa, Christina, Charissa and a visitor:

They didn't seem to mind!

Our 1st game was a Bible BINGO game, led by Sister Dawn:

Amber and Devin:

Faith and Kennedy:

The 2nd game was Pass the Present, led by Sister Tammy. The children sat in a circle and were given a present wrapped up in 7 layers. When the music played they were to pass the present around the circle. When the music stopped, whoever was holding the present got to take off one layer of the paper. There was a slip of paper on top of the next layer giving them an instruction. If they followed what it said, they would receive a piece of candy. If not, that was OK, but no candy! Play continued until each layer was unwrapped. Whoever unwrapped the last layer received a prize.

Amber, Jaylah and Kennedy:

Faith, Devin, Elijah and Presley:

Tess and Erica:

Corbin:

Megan:

The third game was Scoop the Cotton, led by Sister Shanna. In this game, the children were separated into pairs. One child sat on the chair with a bowl on their lap while the other stood behind them holding a bowl full of cotton on their head. On "GO!" the child sitting had to use a spoon to try to scoop cotton out of the bowl on their head into the bowl on their lap. When time was up, they counted the balls and then switched roles and started again. At the end of the time, those with the most cotton won a prize.

Jackinson and Colin:

Donald and Devon hold bowls for Chris and Corbin:

Peyton and Cheyenne hold bowls for Zach and Tess:

Faith, Alex, Jaylah and Elijah hold bowls for Kennedy, Presley, Amber and Devin:

Kirsten and Caleb hold bowls for Angelica and Andrew:

The final game was "Fruit Basket Turnover", led by Brother Mark. This is a fun and energetic game! The children start out on a chair, in a circle, with one less chair than there are children The child without a chair is in the center of the circle. The leader then goes around the circle telling each child a type of fruit that they are for the game - apples, bananas or grapes - until all of the children have one. Then, the child in the middle has a choice - they can call out one or two of the types of fruit OR, they can call out FRUIT BASKET TURNOVER! When they call something out, the children who fit the category must then find a new chair on the other side of the room before all the chairs are gone. Whoever is left without one is the new person in the center. Such a fun game that the kids always love and uses up a lot of that stored sugar energy!

Ben and Colin race for a new seat:

RUN!!!

From here on are some random shots of your children. Here is Kirsten smiling big for the camera:

Angelica:

Donald caught by surprise playing BINGO:

Christina (with Colin in the background!):

Aman (with Alyssa in the background!):

Dylan (with Megan in the background):

Angelina:

Charissa:

Mariah:

Delaney and Andrew:

Jayce with his prize:

Alex:

Lydia:

Zach:

Chris:

We had a great party and a lot of fun with your children. They all worked so hard to earn this and it was well deserved!

Building our Life on God's Word

2009-03-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

Delaney and Amber help lead the kids in energetic worship:

POA kids engaged in worship:

We had 4 visitors in KC this week!

Our lesson this week dealt with making good choices and the importance of building our lives on the foundational truths in God's Word. Sister Dawn's object lesson helped get things started.

Chris volunteered to help out. He was given a choice - he could have either a Reese's Peanut Butter cup or a jar of baby food prunes to try out. Well, he chose the prunes (yes, we put him up to it!), took a bite and immediately regretted his decision!

I guess they didn't taste that great!

From this lesson, she reminded the kids that we all have choices like this every day. And to some of us, it seems like such an easy choice to follow Jesus - like picking the Reese's. But, many people choose the hard way and then have to live with the consequences from those decisions.

For our next object lesson, Brother Mark and Sister T showed us an example of the 2 men from the Bible - one built his house on sand and the other on a rock. He took some army guys and glued them to a concrete block and then put some in a container full of sand. The interesting thing is that most of the kids truly thought that it would be silly to build a house on sand. At first, they just didn't understand. But, when we discussed the storms of life that come and then demonstrated by pouring water on our 2 examples, they quickly understood. The men on the block did not fall...

but those on the sand drowned!

We then discussed how our lives are the same way. We can choose to build our lives on the solid rock of God's Word or on the sinking sands of this world, but only one is going to stand when the storms come.

Further examples! Caleb and Brother Mark were each given 15 cups. Sister Tammy gave them instructions to follow using the cups. If they followed the directions, they would make something in the end. Well, Caleb did exactly what he was told to do while Brother Mark ignored the directions:

In the end, Caleb made a pyramid out of his cups, but Brother Mark had nothing to show for his time.

We each have the opportunity to hear God's Word to us, but we each have to decide for ourselves whether or not we will follow the instructions that He has given us. He wrote His Word as a life manual for us to guide through every path our life takes us down - it is up to us to chose to obey!

We pray that each child who comes each week has a desire to follow Jesus no matter what direction their life takes them down.

God's House

2009-03-01T13:16:00.000-08:00

This week in kC, we took some time to review some important things with your children. After worship, offering and prayer, we reminded them about our prayer cloths. Each week, we have a prayer request box with forms for prayer requests and praise reports for the children to fill out. Beside these things, there is a small box of prayer cloths. They are available every week for the children to take as needed. They are in the same fun material that our banners are in - bright, colorful and kid friendly. We took the time to remind them that they are there and what they are for. We also assured them that it is Jesus who does the healing, not the cloth! There is no power in the cloth. But, we explained that since we can not see the prayers that are prayed for us and others can't see the prayers that we pray for them, we can give these to friends and family as a symbolic reminder that they are being prayed for. Many children have given wonderful testimonies of people that they have asked us to pray for who have been healed or recovered miraculously. God works through the prayers of children, just like He does for adults!

Sister Dawn and Sister Tammy prepared and performed a short skit for the kids called "What NOT to do in church" - as a review and reminder of the things that Pastor reminded us a few weeks ago about taking care of God's House and keeping it a holy place. The skit showed 2 girls as church is about to start. They showed everything they could think of that we should NOT do in church. Before the "service" they were gossiping (about their real selves!), talking on the phone in the sanctuary, chewing gum, then, when the music began, they RAN to get a seat. Dawn sat during worship and played on an electronic game. Tammy stood for worship, but with her arms crossed and not participating in the worship. Evyn filled in as a "preacher" for us and while he did, the girls were passing notes, eating lollipops, drinking soda, throwing paper airplanes, whispering, etc. Finally, as soon as "altar call" was made, instead of praying or being quiet, they threw their trash down and ran to the back to chat and play with their friends.

To pull it together, we asked the kids if they noticed anything we did wrong. They were able to tell us EVERYTHING! We had some great discussion with them about those things and why they are not good in God's house. Then we reminded them that it is not enough to know that these things are wrong, but that we have to remember to do or not do them, as appropriate.

Tying this to our lesson this week, we introduced John Mark and told how he didn't do what he said he would do, causing others to not trust him anymore. He learned quickly that he must do the right thing, not just say he would do it, and had to work hard to earn the trust back. To demonstrate these truths further, we split into 3 groups for small group lessons.

Sister Dawn had an activity in her session to demonstrate what happened if she had a game for them and didn't supply all the necessary materials, but didn't tell them until it was too late. How disappointing to not be able to trust someone to do what they are supposed to do.

Brother Mark asked the kids various questions and gave them each a paper with Yes on one side and No on the other. They then held up the side that answered as they wished for each question. He reminded them that is important to let our yes be yes and our no be no and to be true to our word.

Sister Tammy had a demonstration where she was going to play catch with someone, but kept tricking them and not throwing the ball, until finally, they stopped trusting her to do what she said. We then talked about things we do or don't do when we say that we will or won't - they offered some great discussion.

Through these small group lessons and our skit, we pray that the children left with a valuable truth to treat God's house with respect and also, to do what we say we will do and be trustworthy. How important of a lesson that is and the earlier they can learn it, the better off they will be!

Alexandria and Erica before service:

Filling out the review sheets to earn points for their teams:

Pre-service activities:

God's Love - Part 2

2009-02-19T17:48:00.000-08:00

The past few weeks in kid's Connection, we have had awesome times of worship. The children have participated with energy and enthusiasm in praise to Jesus. Here are some pictures from this past Wednesday:

They all want to come up to the front and help the "praise leaders" and as long as they are worshipping, we love the energy and let them!

I love this part of "The Crazy Song" when they fall on their knees before Jesus in prayer. To see a room full of children on their faces is amazing.

The next part of the song is awesome too. They lift their hands to Jesus:

I just love the energy and passion they have been bringing each Wednesday and hope that it not only continues, but gets better every week!

After worship, announcements and prayer, we had a very neat object lesson from Sister T. It was called The Corners of God's Love. She held up a piece of paper with the words "God is Love" written on it. After asking the children if they believe that it is important to share the love of God with others, she asked if they thought that when they share God's love, do they have more or less of His love for themselves. They thought that it was the same or more, so she did a demonstration.

Holding up the paper, she asked how many corners there were on it. They assured here that there were 4, so she continued by asking how many corners there would be if she cut one off. Most of the children answered that there would be 3 left, but a few caught on quickly! Holding their curiosity, she cut off a corner and "shared" God's love with one of our visitors - giving them the corner she cut off and telling them that Jesus loves them so much and He wants them to know it.

Now, to count the corners that are left. Well, if you cut a corner off the paper and then count again, you will find that you now have 5 corners! They were in awe!

Again, she shared God's love with another visitor, telling about how much He loves them, then counted the corners and now, there were 6! Completing all 4 original corners and continuing to share God's love with the visitors or those who haven't been in a while, the final count was 8 corners.

The moral: When we share God's love with others, we don't have less for ourselves - it actually gets bigger and we have more of His love, for ourselves and to share with more people!

Next, Sister Dawn taught an object lesson with a tootsie roll pop. She compared the inside to our hearts when we first give them to Jesus. They are soft and sweet. But, when we do things that make Jesus sad, we add layers of hardness to our hearts - like the candy around the tootsie pop. But, when we repent and ask Jesus to cover us with His love and mercy, He takes that away, like when we eat the outside of the tootsie pop and He leaves us with His love in our hearts. They were given tootsie pops to take home to share this with their family.

The last thing we did this week was to play a quizzing type game that was also similar to a sword drill - asking questions from verses that had to do with the love of God. So, we set up a buzzer, put children onto teams and started. Each team had a Bible. The question was asked and the team was given time to look up the verse and hit the buzzer with the answer. They earned points for their team when they answered correctly.

Aman and Jiliane search for the correct verse:

Presley searches as well:

Brett found the right one and stands to read it out loud:

The game ended with each team having answered at least one question correctly. They seemed to enjoy this type of game and did a great job looking up the verses!

Faith brought her friend Kennedy for the 2nd week in a row - she is already sharing God's love - must have been her baptism!

Zachary Hinkle, Dylan Stitt and Jayce Hinkle:

All in all, we had another great week in KC!

God's Love

2009-02-12T20:02:00.000-08:00

Since most of our lives are bombarded at this time of the year with the message of Valentine's Day, we decided that we would use this as an opportunity to remind the children of kid's Connection where true love came from in the first place.

Through the use of various colored hearts, we learned a message of the love of God for all of us.

A black heart represents our hearts when they are full of sin and we don't let Jesus in; when we continue to live however we want to live.

A red heart represents the blood that Jesus shed on the cross to cleanse us from our sins. He died for us because He loves us.

A white heart represents our hearts after Jesus has cleansed us - after we have repented and given our lives to Him, he makes us clean and new!

A green heart represents our new life. Just like in the spring, the grass will turn green again with a new life, so we have a new life in Jesus when we let Him lead us.

A yellow heart represents the streets of gold in Heaven where Jesus is preparing a place for us. He loves us so much that He wants us to be there with Him.

With this simple message, we hoped to convey to the children a message of God's love and His desire for them to know Him and give their lives to Him. That is the true meaning of love - God's love for us.

Next, we had a scavenger hunt prepared for them. They were in three teams for the hunt and were given a list of items to find that would symbolize God's love - lots of hearts - representing His love for us: sweet candy - His love for us is sweet; a stuffed animal - He provides comfort and love; a heart eraser - His love erases our sins, etc. We gave them 5 minutes to see which team could find the most items. All of the items were found just in the nick of time and the blue team had the most items found. This earned them 1000 points for their team! The orange and green teams tied and each won 750 points for their teams. The points remain very close.

On Your Mark, Get Set, GO!!

Caleb, Dylan and Erica looking for the treasure:

Don't give up - keep looking! There were 14 items hidden in Griffin Hall.

Jiliane and Cameron checking off their lists:

Chris found the last hidden item - a pencil (God is writing our story!):

Remember that they earn points several ways. They can fill out a review sheet in their team color when they arrive each week. They can participate in worship. They can win contests. They are all awarded points for bringing offering. Participation is also rewarded. Soon, we will have a winner for this quarter to choose the type of party we will have. We are looking forward to another great party!

Paul

2009-01-23T12:40:00.000-08:00

An awesome character trait about Paul is that he did what God wanted no matter what people thought of him for it. That is what we wanted the kids to learn this week in KC - that even when people don't feel that it is good or important, if God does, that is all that matters! We began with a great time of worship and prayer. The kids always jump right in to give their prayer requests - written down and orally - and also to tell of answers to prayer.

We enlisted some of the kids to help out with a simple skit retelling the story of the good Samaritan to reinforce the character trait Paul was demonstrating.

Brock was the man who was beaten by theives (just for pretend!):

Caleb was the priest who came by and ignored the injured man:

Jiliane was the Levite who was too busy to be bothered:

Jaycie was the good Samaritan who put the man on her "donkey" and took care of him. It was unplanned but worked out perfect that she was Brock's sister and brothers and sisters would not normally be ready to help each other, but she did what was right no matter what anyone else did!

Next, we separated into small groups for some focused lessons. Brother Mark used a potato head to teach his lesson. If we listen to what other people say, even if it is not what God would want, we end up as messed up as a potato head with a foot for an ear and a mouth for an eye! The kids really seemed to catch on that that would not be good and that it is better to obey God and have things turn out the right way. They got to make their own potato head pictures to take home with a reminder that it is better to obey God than man.

Sister Dawn talked about caring too much about what our friends think. We have parents and teachers to help lead and guide us, but our friends can often tell us the wrong thing. She led the children in praying with and for each other to be set free from worrying about what our friends think and standing up for what is right.

Sister Tammy used pudding to reinforce the truth. She had a box of pudding to make for a treat for the kids, but didn't really think that it was important to follow the directions on the side of the box and just did it any way that sounded good. Instead of 2 c. of cold milk, she just used about 1/2 c. of warm water that was nearby and easy to get to. Then, it said to stir quickly for 2 minutes and she was too tired, so she just did about 30 seconds. (lots of sweet children offered to help when she was too tired!) Needless to say, the pudding was not very yummy looking! She compared that to living for God without following His instructions for us - those found in the Bible - and how yucky our lives would be if we don't follow those guidelines. The kids still got to have some pudding made the correct way!

Riley and Christina before church:

Jared before service:

Jeremiah and Dylan:

Thank you for sharing your children with us!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-16T19:37:00.000-08:00

2009 is here and it is the perfect time for new beginnings and fresh start - even for kids! We began with brainstorming things that we do that we really don't like to do or don't want to do anymore - things that Jesus probably wouldn't want us to do. They were so honest and we were amazed at some of the things they brought up - realizing that they are not concentrating in school, needing to stop mocking others, needing to obey their parents better, needing to be more honest, not eating too much sugar... - they were really thinking!

After we brainstormed, each child was given a blank piece of paper. They were encouraged to close their eyes and think of the thing they wanted to try to stop doing this year and then we prayed together, asking Jesus to forgive us of those things and to help us to stop doing them.

After we prayed, they brought their blank cards forward and placed them at the foot of the cross. We rejoiced that as of right then, when we repented, Jesus forgave us and it was as if we never did those things before! We are clean now!

Next, we helped them brainstorm good habits that they wanted to developed this year. We compared starting new habits to seeds. When you plant a seed, you need certain things to help it grow - you have to prepare the soil and get rid of the weeds. We just did that by giving things to Jesus! You need water and sun - we get those from spending time with Jesus and he washes us and shines His light on us. We want to plant good seeds so that good things will grow in our lives.

Then, they were given seed shaped papers with the verse "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" written on one side. They were encouraged to put some good things that they want to do this year on the other side and then to place that by their bed or in their Bible, so that they could see it and remember to continue to ask Jesus help them to be their best for Him.

We pray that they will continue to want to live for Jesus and allow Him to work in their lives this year while their good seeds begin to take root and grow! 2009 can be our best year ever!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-18T19:09:00.000-08:00

Although we haven't had kid's Connection due to various events, the children were so excited to get back in the swing of things and we were excited to get to hang out with them for the evening. We had a lovely party planned for them with fun, games and lessons to learn.

We started the evening with a Christmas Carol game. Each of the children had a number. As we played a familiar Christmas Carol, we would randomly call out a number and stop the music - while each child with that number would stand up and continue to sing the song. Then, the music would start again and we would go another round. The kids really got into it and enjoyed singing loudly and with gusto.

The next game was a Christmas card toss. They got into a line, were given a Christmas card and had to attempt to throw the card into a bin about 3 feet away from them - much harder than it sounds! The winning team was only able to get 2 cards in the bin!

Kirstyn, Collin, Brett, Cameron and others wait in line for Sister Shanna to give them their card.

The next game was the "big one"! The children sat around tables and picked up a small Christmas stocking, waiting anxiously for the next step.

Next, we placed a tray filled with candy, toys and goodies in the center of each table with instructions to NOT touch until instructed. They couldn't take their eyes off the prizes, though!

Caleb and Jeremiah eye up the goodies while Amber looks on:

Such a lot of good things to choose from:

Waiting patiently, kind of!

On the "Go" signal, each child had 30 seconds to fill their stocking with the goodies from the tray.

At the end of the time, they had to stop immediately and listen for the next instructions. This was where it got interesting. We reminded the children that Christmas is not about getting, but about giving, that it is better to give than receive and that sometimes, we can get too caught up in thinking about all that we can get to make ourselves happy. For that reason, they were asked to pass their stocking to the child on their right! Each child now still had a stocking, but it was different than the one they had filled. Some were not very happy with this arrangement, but were again reminded about the true meaning of Christmas. It is our prayer that they will have learned a valuable lesson from this experience that will go with them for the rest of their lives.

After finishing up with the stocking game, we moved to the front to have a snack of Christmas cookies and here a story - The Legend of the Candy Cane - that incorporated the true meaning of Christmas in a unique way. Each of the children was given their own candy cane at the end as a reminder of what Christmas is truly about. Again, it is our prayer that each child will remember the most important things about the Christmas season.

A few more random pictures. Evyn was a great help during the party:

Cheyenne and Alexei wait for the party to begin:

We hope that all of you have a wonderful Christmas filled with good times and people that you love!

Thankfulness

2008-11-20T04:48:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We spent this week in KC simply learning to be thankful for the things we have and to not take the little things for granted - even toothbrushes and shoes! We related some of the stories the men brought back from a recent trip to build a church in Guatamala and all that those families go without - we are so blessed in our country!

In addition to those lessons, our KC children participated in creating a gift for the Women of Worth - the widows group - from our church. They have an annual Christmas party and KC wanted to contribute something to make them smile. The children all helped in making pretzel rods dipped in different types of chocolate and then putting various toppings on them - so pretty, fun and easy to do! They also signed cards to give to each woman.

Alexei and Alexandria sign cards:

Zach uses M&M's to decorate a pretzel:

Alesha and Corbin work on their masterpieces:

A group signs cards while others work on various "Thanksgiving" activities:

The prayer request box in an important weekly part of kid's Connection. Students have the opportunity to right down their prayer requests and their praise reports and turn in for all of us to pray over them or rejoice with them. With continue to have prayers answered from requests turned in each week! God is building their faith.

Some of the finished products:

It is our prayer that you and your family have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving week filled with faith, food, family, friends and all the things that you love the most!

Surprise!

2008-11-14T09:01:00.000-08:00

This past Wednesday turned out a little different than all of you were expecting! If you were at church with your children, you know that we did not have kid's Connection. Instead, Pastor made a few remarks and then we were all asked to go and tour the new building!

Some of the kid's Connection staff were stationed in the new children's chapel to welcome everyone and to answer questions. It was awesome to see the looks on everyone's faces when they saw the new facilities.

We are so excited to start having services there on Wednesday nights! What a blessing it will be.

We pray that you are all as excited as we are of the great things that God is doing and that He is going to continue to do in and for our kids and our kid's ministries.

See you next week for our regular kid's connection service!

Party Time!

2008-10-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-23T07:23:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-11T19:23:00.000-07:00

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

Thomas, Continued

2008-10-06T18:55:00.001-07:00

This past week in kid's Connection, we continued to learn about Thomas and the need to seek the truth in God's Word. All of the children were encouraged and challenged to read their Bible every day. The younger children, ages 5-8, were challenged to hide God's Word in their hearts. The older group, 9-12 year olds, were given a chart to follow that would help them read through Psalm 119 before we meet again and were told that they would receive a prize for doing so! Psalm 119 speaks over and over about following God's Word and meditating on it, the importance and the value of it. It is our prayer that they will read these verses and find a love for God's Word for themselves. We continue to pray for your children daily.

Seeking Truth in God's Word

2008-09-17T20:15:00.000-07:00

We began learning about the desciple named Thomas this week. Through his example we are learning, not to doubt, but to seek in God's Word for truth and for answers that we should live by. We had such an awesome service tonight! For starters, we had 7 visitors with us. Here is a picture of them:

We also had a great time in worship with lots of excitement, energy and participation from the children:

There enthusiasm and passion for worship is inspiring. We had some prayer requests tonight that ushered us into a great time of prayer. Each of the children took home a prayer cloth as a reminder that their Kid's Connection teachers pray for them daily. We honestly do. Several children also had great testimonies of prayers that have been answered that we prayed about in KC a few weeks ago - God is so good to allow their faith to be built at such a young age!

The children were taught several things tonight about God's Word and the importance of reading it daily and applying its truths to our lives. They were challenged to read it every day this week! It is never too soon to begin building good habits. It is our prayer that His Word is real and alive to them as they read.

Learning to be Content

2008-08-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

We are so blessed to work with the best kids in the world each and every week! Here they are during worship time:

Our Bible Heroes this week were Mary and Martha. We were realizing that often, many of us are not content with who we are, where we are, who our family is, etc. Mary and Martha had a lot to teach us about putting God first as well as being content with how God made us and where He has us.

They also learned through the parable of the workers called for at different times of the day (yet paid the same wages) that sometimes life isn't fair, but we have to be content with what God does for us. They are awesome kids and are willing to learn all that they can about the Lord.

We will continue to learn from Mary and Martha the next time we have kid's Connection.

Pizza and John the Baptist

2008-08-17T11:52:00.000-07:00

You may be wondering what pizza has to do with John the Baptist, let alone anything spiritual! Well, in class this week, we learned that John the Baptist knew the importance of putting things in the right order - that is, God, and the things of His Kingdom, first. To demonstrate the importance of doing things in the right order, we had 3 children follow 3 different sets of directions to build a pizza. Each one had the same ingredients, but only one set of directions was in the right order. So one had to put the cheese down first, then the sauce then the crust and finally the pepperoni. Another put the pepperoni, then the sauce, then the cheese and finally the crust. As you can see, if you would bake them the way they were made, you would have a mess. That is what happens to our lives if we don't build them on the solid foundation of Jesus!

Through this example, we could see that it IS important to put the right things first in our lives!

We also learned that even kids can get so busy that they feel like they don't have time to put God first and discussed ways to overcome this and why we should.

We even learned some new songs and had an awesome time of worship!

Our kids go back to school this week and we are in prayer for their safety, blessings and annointing to stand firm in what they believe in and not be swayed by the things in this world.

God will help us be ready for anything

2008-07-31T13:21:00.000-07:00

This week, we learned about Timothy and how God helped him to be ready for anything. Through Timothy's example, we can trust God to help us be ready for anything that comes our way. Through small group lessons, a visual story, a skit, a game and prayer, we helped cement this concept in their mind. Our kids need to know that even though they are kids, God can use them and He wants to use them anywhere, anytime for anything - they just have to be willing and available!

We had several first time visitors this week. It is always a blessing to see new faces.

We have the opportunity to work with some of the best kids! They are so sensitive to praying for others needs and for the second week in a row, they have followed God's leading to pray for their friends. We also had a couple of praise reports about answers to prayer that were things we prayed for last week! Thank God that He is working in our children and giving them a testimony!

A special thanks goes out this week to Brother Jeff Davis who helped us out with our skit and to Jonathan Diogenes who entertained children who were there before service started.

Small groups enable us to teach the children in a more one on one way so they are better able to learn. Here are some pictures from this past Wednesday's service.

Welcome Back!

2008-07-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

Last night was our first night back in KC this summer. We had a lot of changes to introduce the children to and they were troopers through it all. We mixed it up with some games to get to know each other better, so we had some fun as well.

One thing that we reintroduced them to is our prayer request box with forms that they can fill out each week as they enter. We added a new element to this that will hopefully make it more meaningful to them - prayer cloths in our fun KC material. If necessary, they can now take a prayer cloth and during prayer, they can hold that up and then take it home as a token of the faith and prayers that went out for that need. We are hoping that they will use these, either for themselves or to give to the person they were praying for in KC. After telling them about these things, there were several somewhat serious requests that the kids had, so we asked them to come forward with the need and had other children come to stand with them and pray with them. It was such a special time to see them praying with and for each other.

Some other changes that we have made involve our helpers and I want the parents to be aware of these changes. First, if your child is asked to be on the praise team for a given week, it would help if they could be at church a little early on Wednesday to go over the songs. We will let you know if they are asked and are going to try to rotate it so that everyone gets a turn to help. Some children will be asked to help with offering or to help lead prayer. We are hoping to involve as many as possible each week. There are some jobs that we are making special for just the 12 year olds to help with. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments!

We have also brought back our points competition! We have the children in 3 groups - The Orange Group is called SONG (Soldiers of the Next Generation), The Green Group is called SWAT (Students With A Testimony) and The Blue Group is called PUSH (Praying Until Something Happens). Each of these groups started with 100 points last night and each week they can add to their team points by their worship, their participation, bringing a guest, turning in review sheets that we will have each week for them, and anything good and Godly that we see their group doing! The only way they can lose points is if they just can't seem to settle down in service and listen to the lessons. At the end of 2 months, we will see which group has the most points. That group will get to choose the prize (maybe a movie night, game night, ice cream party, etc.) and the lowest scoring team will have to do the serving! This way, all teams with points will get to participate in the prize - they are all great kids!!! Hopefully, this will make it fun for them and enable them to learn and grow in Jesus all that they can.

Please keep our KC team and all of our POA kids in your prayers - we love these children and have such a burden to see them love Jesus and put Him first in everything that they do. It is our hearts desire to reach them and convey that love to them. Thanks for sharing your children with us each week!