Full

Church schedules this time of year are very similar to your family’s schedule.  It’s full.  Christmas has a way of filling people’s hearts with the desire to focus on and bless the people that we love, but that desire can often turn into a rushed, over-filled schedule.  Things at church have been busy lately but despite the busyness some exciting things have happened.

The Sharing Christmas event was a huge success!  90 families spent the afternoon together doing crafts, making memories, experiencing the real Christmas story, and enjoying each others company.  The families also were able to bless other by providing items to a local nursing home and food pantry.  The feed back has been so encouraging that we can’t wait to do it again next year.

Most of you are familiar with Operation Christmas Child, the division of Samaritan’s Purse that sends shoe boxes filled with gifts to children in need.   Mary Kay Davis had faithfully organized our collection of shoe boxes the past several years.  This year we sent around 400 boxes to children around the world!  Huge thank you to all the families that participated and to the Davis family for leading us.

On Saturday, December 4th our 1st grade students got together for the annual Winter Fun Fest.  As always it was a blast.  Over 30 kids spent the morning with their small group leaders doing all sorts of winter related games and crafts.  Plus they all had Happy Meals for lunch, they were some excited kids!  It was a great morning where our small group leaders got to know their students better.

These next several weeks we are going to be focusing on Christ’s birth with our kids.  There is so much to learn about, be thankful for, and to celebrate right now.  We can’t wait to experience it all with them!

Needs

We have several needs that we would love for you to pray about and consider.

An opportunity is opening up in Kid Connection in January where we will need to add a co-teacher for the 5th grade girls. Our present teacher will be taking a new job that will make her unavailable to teach every Sunday. She would like a co-leader that could share the teaching with her. If there is someone that would like to share this responsibility please let Kelly Werner or Marijo Blair know. We would love to talk with you.

Also, we are looking for 2 adults to work with our 2 year old class during 2nd service. This is a spot that we need filled from January through May this upcoming year. If you are willing to serve in this way please contact Kelli McGill.

Thank you for continuing to partner with us as we minister to children.

Off to a Great Start

Just like adults, kids need the kind of relationships that can only be built in small groups with people they trust. That’s why we make such an effort to keep Kid Connection class sizes reasonable and ask teachers to serve every week instead of on a rotation. It’s also why we have so many “getting to know you” events at the beginning of the year!

First grade kicked off the events this year with their annual pizza lunch on September 25. Parents, kids and teachers stayed after church and devoured a mountain of pizza while fellowshipping with one another.

Second grade soon followed suit on October 16, except they came early and enjoyed stacks of pancakes. Parents were also invited to stay and see what goes on in the classes each Sunday.

The fifth grade boys’ classes, knowing the energy of young boys, chose to meet at Queeny park for a family barbeque on October 23. They enjoyed beautiful weather, hot dogs, s’mores and wiffle ball.

Most recently, the fourth grade boys had a sleepover here at the church this past Friday. As of press time, almost as many dads had signed up to come as boys—what a wonderful way to mentor these young men!

Thank you to all of the volunteers who have made these events possible! And we appreciate the time and heart that all of you put into your ministry. Whether you are in a classroom or not, we couldn’t do Kid Connection without you!

Children’s Christmas Musical Auditions

Kid Connection is holding auditions for the Children’s Christmas Musical:

Our Redeemer

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16 

6 p.m. in ROOM 140

Kids and teens (Grades 3-8 ONLY)

Choir rehearsals will be on Sunday afternoon or evenings 

Drama rehearsals on Tuesday evenings

Performances on Sunday, November 20

during the FamilyLIFE: Sharing Christmas event.

Questions? Contact Kelly Werner kwerner@efree.org or 636-779-2152

Meet Bev

We are very excited to introduce Bev Krueger, our new interim director.  Bev has been in Kid Connection for 10 years.  She volunteered as a small group leader in first grade for 6 years and then joined the staff.  She has served as Assistant Director for the last year and worked very closely with Karen Woolsey.   Her love of children and her desire for every child to know about the love of God, and the sacrifice of His son makes this interim position a perfect place for her.  Her management background brings a unique perspective to the ministry and allows the staff to better support and come alongside the volunteers and do ministry together.

Bev grew up in St. Louis. She lives with her husband in Chesterfield and has been married 31 years.  She has one daughter that is married and teaches 5th grade.  She can’t wait for grandchildren but her daughter has only been married for 1 year so she says she’ll try to be patient.  Do you want to know a passion of Bev’s?  Sailing has stolen her heart.  She takes regular trips to Michigan to sail.  She has been going to Michigan in the summer since childhood but this new interest in sailing larger boats has only been the past 5 years when she was certified with the American Sailing Association.

Please pray for Bev during her time in this role to really listen to God’s leading and direction for this ministry.

Bev, Congratulations on your new role!

The Value of Children’s Ministry

 

Family Movie Night

In the past you have heard us talk about how the 2 CEO’s from Wal-mart & Proctor and Gamble are making a concerted effort to bring family entertainment back to television.  Well, they are at it again.  On August 6th at 7pm (Central) they will be airing “Who is Simon Miller?” on NBC.

Check out the trailer to see if it would be a good fit for your family.

Also on August 27th at 7pm (Central) they will be reairing “A Walk In My Shoes”.  This previously aired in December so check it out.

Prayer Wall

There is one universal thing that kids of all ages love, cameras.  Give a camera to a 3 year old and they are happy.  Give a camera to an 11 year old and they are happy.  And digital cameras makes taking a lot of pictures so easy.  Give your kids a camera and let them take pictures for a couple days of people that they want to be praying for.  They could be pictures of anyone, a friend in the neighborhood, a Sunday school teacher, an elderly neighbor, the librarian that helps them each week, the mailman they wait for each day.  They could even look for pictures you already have of people that you don’t see daily (maybe a grandparent is not local or someone serving overseas in the army).

Once they have a good collection of pictures, have them printed and create a prayer collage.  You could do this however you want!  Mount them on poster-board and hang it on the wall.  Put magnets on the back of each picture and cover your fridge with prayer.  Or have the kids come up with ways to display them, they will take even more ownership of the project.

This will be a great reminder to you all summer of people that you need to be praying for both individually and as a family.

Ding Dong Ditch

Let’s take the excitement of pulling a prank on someone and put a positive spin on it.  We all heard of Ding Dong Ditching (knocking on someone’s front door and running before they answer), well this is a great way for your kids to bless someone without getting lots of credit.  They will learn that blessing others is a blessing to them too!

How about taking a box of Ding Dongs and putting it on the door step of a neighbor that needs some cheering up?  Or maybe a new family just moved down the street, what a fun way to welcome them (of course, go back later and actually introduce yourself).  Obviously you could do something other than Ding Dongs (but who doesn’t love a Ding Dong on occasion), maybe a small fruit basket or some homemade cookies would be a lovely treat.  Plus you could go a step further and leave a note letting this person know that they are being prayed for!  Most importantly don’t forget to let this be an opportunity to talk to your kids about how Christ blessed us and it’s important for us to bless others.

(Click on the image to be taken to a blog and find a template for this adorable tag.)

Together

Our nature as humans is to care for our own needs first and then with what we have left over we are happy to give to others.  Mark 8:34 reminds us that we are to deny ourselves and follow Christ.  Choosing Jesus first over our own selfish ways.  This is a conscious choice that we all have to make daily.  Cast our desires aside and do His work.  This is a huge thing that parents need to teach and model for our children.

 

I can’t think of a better way to teach your child this than serving our community together, showing them Christ’s love in acts of kindness.  Many of you may already have done this in a variety of ways.  Maybe your family participated in one of our Get Out Saturdays.  Take a look around your community, do you see any needs that need to be met?  Drive around as a family and ask God, “What needs to be done?”.

 

We do know of one need. Circle of Concern is a local organization that provides many types of assistance to families here in West County, and a major part of their program is a food pantry. You all probably know that our church collects donations for Circle of Concern on a continual basis.  We are looking for a family to take on the project of monthly collecting the food from the collection spots here at the church and simply delivering it all to Circle of Concern in Valley Park.  It’s a wonderful way for your children to see how our giving directly effects so many families.  If your family is interested in this project email Kelli at kmcgill@efree.org so we can chat more about it.