Beginnings

With the burst of babies at church, the past few months have involved some Beginnings Room preparations. Beginnings is the name of our toddler ministry for children ages 6 months through 4 years old. As much as possible the Children’s Ministry seeks to be a parent-run ministry, as we believe that it is important for parents to take an active role in their child’s education.

With this goal in mind, at the end of February we held a training session for parents with children old enough to participate in the Beginnings Room. These parents are now able to help staff the Beginnings Room when it is open. The training also served as a refresher for our volunteers who have been staffing the “on call” Beginnings Room up to this point. We are still just opening the room on an “as needed” basis on Sundays, but we will be ready if the day comes when we have a need for Beginnings on a weekly basis again.

Foundations

In Foundations, the Elementary-aged kids have been learning about the authority of Jesus as they meet for class every other Sunday. Most recently we studied about what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus, and why our response to Jesus is so important. Just like in church upstairs, in Foundations we don’t shy away from the hard things that the Bible says.

Resources

I recently listened to a Webinar from Truth78 titled “Choices Facing the Next Generation: Wisdom or Foolishness?” The webinar offered many practical ideas for helping to lead children on the path of wisdom. Truth78 is a ministry whose mission is “to inspire and equip the church and the home for the comprehensive discipleship of the next generation.” I would highly recommend this webinar for anyone looking for help in this area!

Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Psalm 127:3

“On Call” Beginnings Room

It has been several years since we had the need for a Beginnings toddler room during the Sunday church service. But in addition to the new babies that have been arriving within our church family, we’ve had quite a few visiting families lately with young children. And while we aren’t at the point yet where a Beginnings Room is necessary every week, the need has arisen for an “on call” Beginnings Room.

Over the past month we have worked to declutter the Beginnings Room and get it back to a usable state. There is also a team of child-loving grandmas who are part of an “on call” rotation to staff the room when the need arises. We make the decision by 10:30 each Sunday whether or not to open the room. So far we’ve had a Beginnings Room once, and are ready to minister to families through this avenue as God sees fit to give us that opportunity.

Christmas Program Practice

At the beginning of November, we started practicing for a Christmas Program together with the Believers Homeschool Group. For the performance this year, we are venturing outside the walls of our building and trying something new. We will be presenting the Christmas Program at a local senior living facility on a Thursday afternoon in December. The program will include several well-known Christmas songs sung and accompanied by the kids, as well as a short skit about the birth of Jesus (with an opportunity for audience participation!). Hopefully it will bring a smile to the faces of the residents who live there. The kids are doing a great job practicing, and we look forward to the opportunity to share the gift of Jesus with them this Christmas!

One of the things that I like about our church is that all of our classes continue to meet throughout the summer, including Foundations! Foundations is our class for early elementary aged children (Kindergarten – 4th grade). Have you ever wondered what goes on in a typical Foundations class? If so, let me tell you!

Memory Verse Practice

During the gathering time as children are being dropped off, memory verse practice is often taking place. Over the course of 5-6 class periods (and with some practice at home), the kids learn a new memory verse that relates to the lessons they are studying. For example, they just finished learning John 1:14 as they have begun to study Jesus and the gospels. This is a great way for them to hide God’s Word in their hearts!

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. ~John 1:14

Pray and Study the Word

Before we begin the day’s lesson we pray together, often sharing and praying for each other’s prayer requests. Next comes the Bible study portion of class. This is when we read our scripture for the day together and take time to examine what it says by asking and answering questions. Who are the verses about? Who is speaking? Are there big words we need to define? What does this all mean?

Review and Apply

Following the Bible study, an activity or review game is played to help reiterate the main ideas of the lesson. And finally, we tie everything together by talking about how we can take what we learned from the Bible and apply it in our everyday life.

I think the kids appreciate getting to have the opportunity to learn and grow together in Foundations, just as we adults are thankful for the class opportunities that we have through this church! Thank you for your prayers for the kids and for this ministry!

Class Time

Foundations class continues to meet every other week during the Sunday morning church service for kids in Kindergarten through 4^th grade. The Children’s Ministry is blessed to have a rotation of 10 teachers who take turns teaching through the Bible using Answers Bible Curriculum from Answers in Genesis. Each class we take time to pray together, study the Bible in an age-appropriate way, and apply what we learn to our lives today.

Currently as we continue through the Old Testament, we have been learning about God turning the hearts of kings to accomplish His purposes (Proverbs 21:1). Daniel, Esther, and Ezra are the people we’ve studied recently.  We have seen that God is faithful to keep His promises, and that God uses regular people to accomplish His plans. This gives us hope that God will do the same in our lives, even as kids!

Welcome Time

We love getting to have new kids join us, and God has recently blessed us with that opportunity in Foundations class! We have also created a new “welcome clipboard” that can be given to families with young children if they visit on a Sunday when Foundations isn’t meeting. The clipboard includes a box of crayons, bible verse coloring page, a church notes page, and a sheet for parents with tips for helping children to worship during the church service.

Prayer Time

If you would like to pray for this next generation of church members, below is a helpful daily prayer guide from Truth:78. Please also pray for the teachers who faithfully teach in this ministry. We appreciate your prayers!

And Then There Were Four…

The number four seems to be a theme this fall in the Children’s Ministry!

Four Kids

As of September and the “graduating” of our upper elementary kids, Foundations has four children regularly attending. While the class size has decreased in number, it has not shrunk in enthusiasm! The change in dynamic has provided an opportunity for the remaining kids to step up and take on new challenges, such as reading Bible passages for the class.

Four Weeks / Four Practices

As I write this update, we only have four weeks and four practices remaining until this year’s Christmas Program! At the beginning of November, we joined forces with Believers Homeschool Group to begin practicing for the program. We have 11 kids (6 families) taking part! This year we will be performing a play called A Pondering Heart: Christmas Through the Eyes of Mary. The kids have been hard at work practicing lines and gathering costumes. We look forward to getting to share it with you on Wednesday, December 21 at 6:30 p.m. in the church sanctuary.

Fourth Quarter

We are also moving into our fourth quarter of curriculum in Foundations. Over the past few months, we have been learning about God’s justice and mercy through the prophets of the Old Testament. As we move into December, we will begin to see how God protects and restores His people with lessons on people like Daniel, Ezra, and Esther.

Four Requests

If you would like to join in praying for the Children’s Ministry, here are a few requests:

1. For healthy kids so we are all able to gather together for Foundations and for practices
2. That God would do exceedingly more than we could ask or think through the Christmas Program performance this year
3. For wisdom in planning for the coming year
4. For lasting fruit to come from this ministry

Moving Up

It is hard to believe, but three of our Foundations kids are moving up to the sanctuary full time after August! We don’t have an official “moving up” ceremony like they do in schools in the Philippines, but we did have fun taking some pictures with a graduation hat!

Foundations is a ministry for early elementary aged kids that meets every other Sunday during the church service. This provides an opportunity for children to get Bible teaching geared for their age level, while also allowing them to regularly participate in the corporate worship service with their families on alternating weeks. As the children get older, it is important for them to be in the service each week so they feel an increasing sense of belonging to this church family. Church is for kids, too! We are a church made up of all different ages, and God wants to speak to each one of us through the corporate worship service.

Book Recommendation

For family devotions, our family is currently reading through the book Who is Jesus?: 40 Pictures to Share with Your Family by Kate Hox. If you are looking for a resource to help your child or, a child in your life to dig deeper into the Bible, I would highly recommend this book. One of my favorite things about the book is the way it helps readers to see Jesus throughout the whole Bible. The book is simple enough for young children to understand, yet deep enough that older children and adults can also learn something new.

Prayer Requests

When I pray for the Children’s Ministry and the kids who are part of it, I’ve discovered that I often pray “small” prayers. Not that it’s bad to pray for Foundations class to go well, or for new families to come to church. But the scope of my prayers has been broadened recently after reading the booklet Big, Bold, Biblical Prayers for the Next Generation by David Michael. It has challenged me to pray for “the Kindgom-sized things” and to trust God for the smaller things. If you would like to join in praying for our kids, here are a few requests:

• That the Father would draw them to Jesus (John 6:44) and that He would do so at a young age.
• That Christ will dwell in their hearts through faith, and that they would have the power to understand how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:17-18).
• That they would have opportunities to boldly proclaim the gospel and be given the words to do so (Ephesians 6:19-20).
• That the “moving up” changes happening in Foundations would cause them to trust in, hunger for, and be consumed with more of a passion for God.