Wow! Spring is here and I have the fever, how about you? We have some exciting news in children’s ministry. First of all we are planning our first ever Vacation Bible School on June 21-25 at 6:30 in the evening. We will embark on a SonQuest Rainforest adventure that will transport young minds into a vivid rainforest environment of jungle sounds, sights and smells, where they’ll dig into the Bible and meet Jesus in every day’s story. We invite your entire family to participate either by attending or by volunteering to help in some way. Registration will begin in the near future, but don’t wait to volunteer. Please call or email Kelly Blanchard or Dana Teefey if you are willing to help.
Promiseland Kids have been so awesome this year with their participation in our mission projects. We are so impressed that we have challenged them to adopt a child from another country and support him monthly. They have chosen a boy from Africa and will soon get to meet him through the mail. Our hope is to make this mission project more personal to each one of them through correspondence with our adopted child. We appreciate your part as parents in this adventure.
Some more exciting news is we will not have Discovery Hour this summer. This may not be exciting for you, but for those of us who continually work in children’s ministry we will welcome the break for the summer. We will have June, July and August off. We will, however, have Children’s Church each Sunday. This unfortunately means May 30th will be the last time your children will get to spend their Bible Bucks at the Promisemart Store. If they don’t want to spend all of their Bucks they are welcome to save them until September when we start Discovery Hour again. We had thirty kids shop on April 11 proving bribery really does work!
Our last but by far most exciting news is eight children in Discovery Hour accepted Jesus as their Forever Friend in April. We celebrate with these children and their parents as they begin a new life in Christ. We give God the glory for what He does in the lives of our children in Promiseland!
This month our Discovery Hour 3-5 year olds will learn that they can follow Jesus. They will hear stories about Jesus, including Matthew throwing a party for Jesus, Jesus healing a paralytic when the man’s friends let him down through the roof, Jesus multiplying a little boy’s lunch, and Jesus spending time with His disciples.
K-3rd graders will focus on the beginning of the early Church. Through four stories about Paul, children will learn that because of Paul and others, more and more people were learning about and believing in Jesus – the Church was growing. These stories will also help kids learn that, just like Paul, they can trust God. Through the story of Paul’s trip to Damascus, children will learn that God has a plan for them, just like He had a plan for Paul. Next, kids will hear about Paul’s escape from Damascus in a basket and learn that God protected Paul and He can protect them, too. The story of Paul and Silas in prison will help children understand that God is always with them, so they don’t have to be afraid. They can trust God like Paul and Silas did. Then kids will hear the story of the shipwreck during Paul’s journey to Rome. Children will learn God is with them so they can have courage like Paul did. Finally, they will review all the stories from this quarter and take a look back at many of the stories they learned earlier in the year. They will be reminded that God wants them to be a part of His amazing stories.
Through incredible stories of the early Church and present-day people, 4th and 5th graders will be challenged to be History Makers, impacting their world for Jesus. They will:
• learn lessons on the beginning of the Church with the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
• focus on individuals who, through the power of the Holy Spirit, made history by changing their world.
o Peter boldly preached and healed in the name of Jesus.
o Paul was the “chief among sinners” but was forgiven and impacted the entire world with his message.
o Timothy was young, yet was used as a History Maker in the early Church.
o John was persecuted and exiled because of his faith and wrote Jesus’ message regarding the “rest of God’s story.”
They will close the Spring quarter with a New Testament review.
One last reminder: We are planning an outdoor movie night for Riverside family and friends at the church July 15th. More information later.
As always, it is a joy to serve the Lord through children’s ministry. May we give Him all the glory and honor for who He is and what He does.
Dar Muehlhausen