Momma is Home
Angela was able to come home today...YIPEEE! She is delighted to be back in a bit more familiar surroundings. She was blessed to come to a cleaner house, huge thanks to Tracy Podraza and my mother (I helped some but I will take no credit whatsoever.) She was also surprised to find a table full of gifts from friends and family. It was a great supply of very essential items just in case this little guy decides to come too early. It sounds so cliche', but all of the stuff is SO SMALL! It is unbelievable to think that some of this stuff is going to be too big at first. It is so exciting to think that he is about to come out and play so soon. Just remember little guy, don't come too soon!!!
Today was a busy day on the job front. Being a children's minister makes for a crazy schedule anyway but this weekend was extra crazy. I had made arrangements for someone else to teach for me this Sunday in our 4th and 5th grade class, but something came up and I was asked to step in. New series, new stage, new lesson...lots of stress. The new series is called Lost World and dives right into the why it is so important for all of us to seek out the Lost that are out there to bring them closer to Christ. It has often been said that there are about 100,000 lost people within 10 miles of our church. Needless to say there were lots of potential problems with everything from sound and lights to too many people being out this Sunday.
The lesson stressed the point that lost people matter to God. He is willing to go to great lengths to go after them and bring them into relationship with Him. One of the big problems is that people often don't even realize that they are lost. It is our mission to take God to these people or maybe vice versa, bring these people to God. Our church is designed to be a place that allows people to invite their friends and give them plenty of reasons to check it out and come back for more. I challenged the kids to use the opportunities that they have to build relationships with those around them in order to bring them closer to Christ. Kids have so many ways to do this with the kids in their classes, sports teams and neighborhoods. I wasted so many of these chances when I was a kid, I just hope that some of them heard me and react. What an incredible revival could be started if these kids heed these words and invite their friends to church. I have always had incredible faith in children, that they can make a huge impact in their world. My prayer now is that they will act on these words.
Our Sunday evening service also had its own stressors, but seemed to go off without a hitch. The highlight of the evening is really a toss up. Our "fun" activity is designed to be an attention drawer and interest the kids in coming. We couple that with a short but appropriate devotional and also use the time to practice for our upcoming Christmas musical. The fun activity was a Lego Build-Off. Really a pretty easy idea, but the kids loved it. The Legos were sorted evenly and placed in lunch sacks. The kids were grouped into groups of 3 or 4 and each group was given a bag of Legos to work with. They were given about 20 minutes to create whatever and then were voted on...every group was a winner of an award such as: Most Creative, Most Original, Most Practical, Best Theme, Largest Project and Most Unique. The kids loved it! What an easy activity, but something that all of the kids liked. I highly recommend having a few of the kids that arrive early help you sort the legos into same size piece piles and then make sure that all of the bags get an equal amount of pieces.
The most fun part (at least for me) was the devo. This month we are focusing on prayer and teaching the A-C-T-S method. We have covered Adoration and Confession and tonight we talked about Thanksgiving. My first thought was to talk about Thanksgiving, like the holiday in November, but wanted to steer clear of the holiday and talk about what it means to really give thanks in all things. With the week that we have had, in and out of the hospital, medicine that has made Angela sick, steroid shots, LOTS of contractions and now bed rest, I certainly have had reason to not be thankful. But instead I was able to talk about how all of the things that have happened are reasons to celebrate. We have doctors that are able to diagnose these problems and help solve them. The meds although they make her sick have slowed the contractions. The steroids were not any fun to get, but will help in the development of C-Bob's lungs. And bed rest is truly not all its cracked up to be, but is allowing Angela to get the rest that she has missed out on the past few months and allow her to get rested for what will be some exciting weeks, months and years. I then presented the kids with a blessing basket full of several mementos and explained what each meant and why I was thankful for these things. After I had emptied out the basket, I gave all of the kids a chance to write down their blessings and add it to the basket. I can't wait to read them tomorrow.
I just meant to write a few things and wow did I ever write a few things. Angela jokingly told me that she has finally figured out a way for me to journal. I guess she is right.
Today was a busy day on the job front. Being a children's minister makes for a crazy schedule anyway but this weekend was extra crazy. I had made arrangements for someone else to teach for me this Sunday in our 4th and 5th grade class, but something came up and I was asked to step in. New series, new stage, new lesson...lots of stress. The new series is called Lost World and dives right into the why it is so important for all of us to seek out the Lost that are out there to bring them closer to Christ. It has often been said that there are about 100,000 lost people within 10 miles of our church. Needless to say there were lots of potential problems with everything from sound and lights to too many people being out this Sunday.
The lesson stressed the point that lost people matter to God. He is willing to go to great lengths to go after them and bring them into relationship with Him. One of the big problems is that people often don't even realize that they are lost. It is our mission to take God to these people or maybe vice versa, bring these people to God. Our church is designed to be a place that allows people to invite their friends and give them plenty of reasons to check it out and come back for more. I challenged the kids to use the opportunities that they have to build relationships with those around them in order to bring them closer to Christ. Kids have so many ways to do this with the kids in their classes, sports teams and neighborhoods. I wasted so many of these chances when I was a kid, I just hope that some of them heard me and react. What an incredible revival could be started if these kids heed these words and invite their friends to church. I have always had incredible faith in children, that they can make a huge impact in their world. My prayer now is that they will act on these words.
Our Sunday evening service also had its own stressors, but seemed to go off without a hitch. The highlight of the evening is really a toss up. Our "fun" activity is designed to be an attention drawer and interest the kids in coming. We couple that with a short but appropriate devotional and also use the time to practice for our upcoming Christmas musical. The fun activity was a Lego Build-Off. Really a pretty easy idea, but the kids loved it. The Legos were sorted evenly and placed in lunch sacks. The kids were grouped into groups of 3 or 4 and each group was given a bag of Legos to work with. They were given about 20 minutes to create whatever and then were voted on...every group was a winner of an award such as: Most Creative, Most Original, Most Practical, Best Theme, Largest Project and Most Unique. The kids loved it! What an easy activity, but something that all of the kids liked. I highly recommend having a few of the kids that arrive early help you sort the legos into same size piece piles and then make sure that all of the bags get an equal amount of pieces.
The most fun part (at least for me) was the devo. This month we are focusing on prayer and teaching the A-C-T-S method. We have covered Adoration and Confession and tonight we talked about Thanksgiving. My first thought was to talk about Thanksgiving, like the holiday in November, but wanted to steer clear of the holiday and talk about what it means to really give thanks in all things. With the week that we have had, in and out of the hospital, medicine that has made Angela sick, steroid shots, LOTS of contractions and now bed rest, I certainly have had reason to not be thankful. But instead I was able to talk about how all of the things that have happened are reasons to celebrate. We have doctors that are able to diagnose these problems and help solve them. The meds although they make her sick have slowed the contractions. The steroids were not any fun to get, but will help in the development of C-Bob's lungs. And bed rest is truly not all its cracked up to be, but is allowing Angela to get the rest that she has missed out on the past few months and allow her to get rested for what will be some exciting weeks, months and years. I then presented the kids with a blessing basket full of several mementos and explained what each meant and why I was thankful for these things. After I had emptied out the basket, I gave all of the kids a chance to write down their blessings and add it to the basket. I can't wait to read them tomorrow.
I just meant to write a few things and wow did I ever write a few things. Angela jokingly told me that she has finally figured out a way for me to journal. I guess she is right.
posted by Unknown at
8:52 PM
1 Comments:
Why didn't you tell me about this earlier??? I like this!
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Anonymous, at 2:40 PM
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