March Break was a blast

Day camp was a blast – the kids learned what it takes to be a hero – heroes cannot be heroes without Jesus. Heroes forgive, tell the truth, are loyal, do what they say they will do, are generous, are humble, always stand up for what is right and never give up doing good.
The kids loved to worship with the Hillsong Kids Supernatural songs.

FamJam to return after Easter

Following on from our first and pilot FamJam in January, after the conclusion of our Forty days of Community campaign and after Easter we'll having our second FamJam. The time/date is Sunday March 30 at 11:00 in the Multi-purpose room. The virtue for the month of April is "Conviction" - standing for what is right even when others don't.

So plan to bring your children K through grade 5 with you to enjoy a faily presentation that will include acting, singing, games, short videos and of course the FamilyTimes resource.

40 Days of Community

We've started 40 Days of Community (40DoC). I'm excited because this addresses half of the KIDSZONE vision.

Partnering with parents to raise spiritual champions. (Spiritual champions are kids who love God and love people where nothing else matters.).

There is a reason why loving God comes before loving people in the vision. We can only love since we were first loved by God. And we need His love to love one another unselfishly. It is also a challenge to model God's love for our kids too.

FEAST 2008

Our first Families Eating And Sharing Together (FEAST) meeting of the year took place just last Sunday. Having changed the time of the meeting from 6pm to 12:30pm (Straight after second service) we had a 300% increase in attendance! Everybody enjoyed the pizza - my favourite was the grilled chicken on barbeque sauce(instead of tomatoe sauce). Kids went and had fun in the room next to the adults - thank you Elisabeth.

We had a recap of chapter four of "Grace-based parenting" by Dr Tim Kimmel. Then because there were so many parents we broke into two groups for discussion and prayer.
at the conclusion of the discussion we want onto our customary family activity - this time it was a bit different becasue the kids and parents were seperated for the "family" activity ! The kids were given blank white baseball caps to write blessings and things the kdis saw in their parents. The parents got white t-shirts to write blessings and affirmation of their kids on. afetr 30 minutes we all came togther and exchanged our blessings it was a blast to see the kids reactions.

FamJam Pilot

Families gathered in a crowded Multi-purpose room on the first Sunday of the year. Sunday, January 6 saw the launch of the pilot

FamJam - a family orientated presentation kick starting the virtue of the month. Families receive FamilyTimes resource that has cards with stories relating to the virtue, one a week for bedtime, one a month for the meal table, a cd for traveleling time. It looks like this.

In the presentation, we show a few other short movies that reinforce the virtue interspersed with Family games, acting out the related Bible stories.

All in all it was fun presenting and I think everybody else had fun too. I've heard good reports from a couple of families who are using the materials. I'm expecting to hear from more before we decide to do this on a monthly basis.

40 Days of Community coming in the New Year

It's been my desire for the whole church to focus on the same thing on Sundays. And we're going to get to do just that for 6 weeks starting February 3 in just a couple of months time. Unfortunately the Kindergarten kids won't be able to join in on Sundays, but they will have a Kindergarten devotional to match their parent's devotional.
The kids will have their own devotional. In addition tehre will be a family card each week that will help families relate to the theme of the week too.

Boys Club cares

I love it when kids are challenged to think about people other than themselves. Last night Dave Throop our Boys Club leader introduced the idea of buying something for a disadvantaged family in the third world through World Vision. The idea was for the kids to bring a quarter or two each week and when enough money had been received the boys would look through the World Vision catalogue and choose what they would buy - anything from a rabbit to a mosquito net.

What was even better was the kids response to his suggestion ! They were excited about helping a family and had lots of suggestions.

Day camp comes to a close

Day Camp Rocked !

Not just because we were blessed with over 60 kids over the five weeks,

or we had an amazing team of interns(thank you federal govenerment), LITs and volunteers,

or because we had amazing trips to the Science Centre, Kidstown, Toronto Zoo,

or because we had some amazing worship times,

or because we had a couple of amazing actors performing the skits,

or because we had an amzing Bible Story teller,

or because we had amazing MCs,

or because we had an awesome camp director.

BUT because God was in our midst - answering prayer, planting seeds of faith in children's hearts and bringing 2 children to know him. PRAISE GOD !

Day camp in full swing

Yee Haw ! - This week day camp started with a western theme - with 40 kids regsitered to take part in one or more of the weeks, a team of dedicated partners in minstry(volunteers), 2 LIT, 2 Junior interns, 5 interns and well-organised Camp Director.