A New School Year Fast Approaching. . .

A little over a month left of Summer vacation and so much to cram in there.  Sprat has camp, a college tour, and lots more football practice.   Our Church is going to do some mini mission camps on Saturdays around our Church neighborhood.  A lot of our kids work and our youth leaders work too so we are going to fit our mission work in on the weekends.  How is that for teaching our kids to serve others?  I like it.  Maybe they will remember this when they get older and are on their own and not forget to serve.  I know I forgot as I got older, it took having my own children to remember that we should serve others just like Jesus did.
We have the best youth leaders at our Church, they really get our kids involved in the community and I think that is very important.   Our kids are going to host some date nights for the parents so that they can leave their children with our youth and be able to go and enjoy themselves.    They are going to offer these as we get closer to Christmas so that the parents can do their Christmas shopping.  We have done this in the past and it has been a huge hit.
We set up in our fellowship building and show age appropriate movies and have snacks and goodies.   They also do a craft and play games, the youth enjoy it and I think the kids that came did too.
We also have movie nights on the lawn with popcorn and slushies.   Those are a lot of fun for the whole family.
The picture below is when the youth built our Labyrinth beside our Church.  Big T taking his stroll.

Youth Sunday. . .

Yesterday was youth Sunday.  Our youth took over the service and did a wonderful job.  We have some very talented young people in our Church.  We are also blessed with some very talented adults to lead them. They sang, read scripture and had some of the parents come up and participate in a melodrama   The parents did not know they were going to be called on so that was very entertaining.  They did a great job though.  Big T does not like to sing in front of people, he is more of a behind the scenes kinda guy.  So he and a couple others were in charge of taking up the offering.  Big T also took pictures.  Sprat, on the other hand, is not so shy.  He read scripture and sang with the Grateful Choir.  They always make me a little teary to hear them sing.  I think the congregation enjoyed the service, I know I did.  I am so proud of those kids, they did such a good job leading the service.

30 hour Famine . . . .starts Saturday

Our Fundraiser 30 hour famine begins tomorrow at 10 am.  Poor Jack has baseball tryouts at 10 and then on to Church.  Now they will not be completely with out food for the full 30 hours.  They will have fruit, juice and water available all day for the kids.  They will be affiliated with a particular tribe in one of the 100 countries that World Vision covers and they will be fed a small meal similar to what a child eats in that particular country.  They will be joining another Church for an evening of fun and games and a lock in.  They will be attending morning worship on Sunday at that Church.  Their famine will end with our Day of Prayer Lovefeast at our Church and a potluck after the service.  We are still trying to raise money for the World Vision 30 hour Famine.  Please check it out www.30hourfamine.org.  If you would like to make a donation for Jack, just click the "Donate" icon and then click "Donate" again to find a student, then enter Jack Crater and follow the prompts from there.  All donations are welcome and appreciated and are Tax deductible.
There are 46 million Americans living below the poverty level, 16 million children are in food insecure homes, part of our donations will go to the US.  Thank you and please remember our youth doing with out to raise money, raise awareness, and learn more about famine.

Knitting. . .

I am a part of our Prayer Shawl knitting ministry at my Church.  I am a beginner knitter.  Sorry for the bad grammar.  This is a group of women that knit shawls and squares for our sick, elderly, or anyone that may have lost a loved one.  We knit the shawls and squares and our Minister delivers them when needed.  We have only been doing this since the beginning of the year.  We have given many shawls and squares to people.  The squares are small knit pieces, almost like a pot holder, we call them prayer hugs.  We use these for kids and men.  The kids and most men would not use a shawl per say, but they can hug and hold a prayer square.  We also have lap shawls for the men as well.
As these items are made they are prayed over by the person making them.  Once they are complete the group  prays over them too.  We get together a couple of times a month to talk and knit and enjoy fellowship with one another.  Those of us that are beginners get help on our shawls where we have made mistakes and so on.  We also get advice along the way on how to do better the next time.  I am so glad to be a part of this ministry.
I learned to knit from my niece when she was in High School.  She is now in College. She and some of her college friends made baby blankets and took them to a local Hospital.   She inspires me.  I am excited I am almost finished with my shawl I have been working on for a while.  I knit very slowly.  We have thrown around the idea to make prayer scarves for our youth for Christmas.  That one is still up in the air.