Summer Over?

Wha happened? I came to blog about the last few weeks and was saddened to realize I had to blog about the fall soon? How is it each summer just gets faster and faster? I hate that....did you ever see the movie Remote Control (I think that was the title)? The movie with Adam Sandler where he gets a remote control for his life and parts of his life begin to go in fast forward and many times without his doing? Before his character knows it events and years have gone by and he has been present but cannot remember them and worse...he feels the regret of not enjoying them at all...being present but not really there! Even for a clown like Adam Sandler (and there is plenty of his boyish, jock humor in there) it was a touching and thoughtful movie I thought...still, do not rent and watch with the kids...way to much for them!
But my point is, I feel like someone hits the remote each week and we go in fast forward and the next thing I know I am leaving the building and have lost out on really enjoying the day for what it was...I really am going to try and do better and enjoy each week I have with the kids more!
We have had a great July and a wonderful visit (last week) from the Champions Academy from Kokomo First Assembly, and before that The Gillam Family (an illusionist family from Missouri) and even a visit from ol' Abe Lincoln back around July the 4th to share the faith of Abe Lincoln, just awesome! And this week (August 1st) we are back in the saddle again for another great school year and fun and worshipping in the Zone! We will be back to our normal....I pause here because the word "normal" just is such a stretch for our week to week fun/mayhem/zany/wild/program we have week in and week out! But our Mentors are ready to go, our large group leaders, I know, have been chomping at the bit to get back up on stage and it is GONNA BE EPIC/AWESOME/I LOVE TO HIT THE "/" KEY!
This week we will be beginning a month long study on questions about the Bible! We will take on the questions about "Is Satan really real" "What will happen when I die" and many others that kids have..it should (will) lead to some great conversations for sure!

Hey gotta run...see you guys in the Zone!
Pastor Darren

Chalk gal

What an awesome job that Kristi (a.k.a. Chalk gal) did this last week! She is so talented and really captured the kids with the visual as well as the message!

I totally loved when we opened it up to the kids for questions on her work and art and some of the answers she gave, in particular was the one when asked about how she began! She told the kids that she just answered to an announcement in school to come and learn how to do the work she does and that was it....lessons and hard work and here she is! I love that message that we do not have to look at others who are leading, doing great things and say "well I will never be able to do this or that" NO....I wish all kids could know that interest, hard work and you can see and make things come true for yourself!

This week we go from Chalk gal to Hockey dude! Our own Paul Kobalarz (who heads up our sports ministry and is a former professional hockey player....not the Black hawks though.....but we will not hold that against him! But played for the New Jersey Devils (I know, weird right?) And he also spent quite a bit of time in Sweden working with athletes there and teaching the word of God to anyone who would listen I imagine! He will be sharing with the kids this week and it will be great!

Shoeless Sunday!

Well it was not quite as "shoeless" as one might imagine but we did get the chance to lose the shoes and jump around for a bit as we tried to imagine life w/o shoes as so many kids in the slums of Bondeni have to!

We finished our giving project yesterday and had the leader of our upcoming trip to Kenya come and share how much we had raised and just a bit more about the heart God has given him for the kids there and this plan to give each kid in the school we support a new pair of durable shoes and two pair of socks!

I was just struck looking down at my feet...the new shoes my wife got me for an anniversary gift...how blessed I am/how blessed we are, we have so much and so often take it all for granted!

Anyway...the kids did an amazing job in raising funds and yesterday was a blast hearing more about the upcoming trip and Jim did a great job in teaching how all the kids are missionaries in each of their own worlds! Worship was great, Cole and Doug did an outstanding job and we had such a blast making our "toe token" necklaces to go along with the day's theme!

Next week, Chalk Girl is in the house, I know her personally and she is an awesome individual with an awesome talent and skill for sharing the word of God...do not miss it, it will be a BLAST!

Oh in case you want to check out her work it is in the back stairwell of our children's area or you can go check her out at her website, http://www.chalkgal.com/

See you guys in the Zone!

Pastor Darren

Sorry, Mothers Day, baptisms, and He is listening!

Whew alot to talk about today, so lets get on it shall we?

1. What an awesome day yesterday in the Zone for the elem kids and mentors as we talked about sorrow, I know...just how is that awesome? Well awesome in that we get the opportunity to tell the kids what God's word says and challenge them on wrongful attitudes and tempers...now if they choose to change I leave up to parents and the Holy Spirit to do that work!


2. Great day in that it was our first day of baptisms under the new format where we are filming the services and testimonies for all to remember long after the day is over...it was so cool to hear the adults/kids/youth give voice to their experiences and faith in Christ before taking the plunge in front of the church fam!


3. Mothers Day is this week and we will be doing a short craft in the Zone before we ramp up and get things going this week, but do not rely on this craft to be Mom's surprise for the day...get her something nice (flowers, gift card, something for her) do not get caught out in the cold like those dudes you will see at 11pm on Saturday at WalMart looking blankly into the card section for something that just gets them out of trouble and not because they are truly thankful for the moms/wife's they have in their lives!


4. Finally this week we will be cracking open up the book of Nehemiah and talking about how God is listening so just ask! But we will be focusing on how it seems that old testament characters were very intentional about the respect that they showed to God before going to Him for something they wanted? I mean in the first chapter of Nehemiah read the prayer that he has there and how Nehemiah, like alot of old testament characters did, focused on God's might and holiness and our utter dependence upon him and his favor! We will encourage the kids to pray and I wonder how much of that is portrayed in the home? So how about you? You guys pray together much?

Love you guys, love the kids and all our v-teers and we will see you this week up in the Zone!

Darren

Sorry...been busy man!

Hey friends/parents/kids
Sorry I have not posted since Easter...have heard and obeyed alright? What an awesome time we had in the Zone last week...I am so thankful for the entire group of peeps/mentors/leaders/helpers/zombies and Jesus freaks I work with each week and this week was no exception! We tackled the topic of leadership in the time with the kids this week and had a chance to encourage them and for some of the older groups I know really challenge them with the fact we all are called to be leaders in our worlds for God!
It was a pleasure to be in worship with both services this last week and hear the observations that both Cole and Doug made on the subject. Doug had an interview (video) of this man who is inspiring thousands of dad's with his commitment to his son and his disabilities. Maybe you know of him? This guys has run many marathons/iron man triathlons (not sure if it is harder to say or spell that word)? Anyway with his son in tow the whole way, just awesome for sure and really inspired me to be a better leader/dad for sure!
This week the topic will be a rip roaring good time! Whoo! Sorrow is what we are going to talk about Ezra and his sorrow he had over God's people who had traded in a relationship with the one true God for a relationship of comfort and complacency with the world...I wonder how many of us really truly feel sorrow for the sin in this world...it hurts Christ for sure, it pains him terribly I believe so how is it we, as having Christ in us, do not even feel a twinge of pain at the things going on in this world? To say that "well there is just so much one could do nothing but feel sorrow and God wants us to be happy" really? I mean yes I believe all in the joy of the Lord and His presence in my life brings with it unlimited possibilities...after all "nothing impossible with God" etc. So I'm with ya there but how do we handle what 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 teaches us? Seriously read the chapter and in verses like verse 10 "For godly grief produces a repentance not to be regretted and leading to salvation...." how or what do we do with sorrow or grief? Feel free to comment please I would love your thoughts!
And this week we will be taking the first 15 minutes or so to take the kids into adult worship to witness some very special baptisms from our kids and adults as well! Now that (baptism) always has a joy with it that just makes you smile!
Hey you have a life and I have alot to do for Sunday so I am out!
Love you guys
Pastor Darren

Eggxplosion!

So who seriously knew an egg could explode like that? Anyway, so Easter yesterday, wonderful, great, awesome...love our kids, love our mentors and extra help was so great and helpful yesterday! Pastor Aaron did such a great job with the message and choir great..just a wonderful Easter, so the "egg"plosion...I am teaching second hour to large group and wanted some way to illustrate what a "mess" they made of Christ when the crucified him and also how when He rose He came back healthy, whole, still had his scars but was risen and not a "mess" at all! So to do this I was going to crush a few eggs in my hand into a bowl and make a real mess, and to do this right I needed to slightly crack the eggs so they crushed all nice and neat in my hand. Well I make my first point and then go to crush this egg and realize in my head "oh man I forgot to crack the egg...oh well I am a strong guy I will just squeeze and it will........BOOM!" Egg went everywhere...it blew up like a hand grenade man! I had yolk everywhere, all over the first few rows of kids and egg shrapnel flying as far back as the back of the room, one kid even yelled out "ow..I'm hit!" Now don't worry he was alright, just a bit shocked, as I and every other adult/kid in the room was! It was all good, we all had a good laugh and boy when I pulled out another egg they really perked up and paid attention! And to make the point about our Savior I emptied out a few eggs and when I crushed them...no mess...no yolk cause...nobody in the grave, He was not there and was not a mess any longer! It was alot of fun, I love the "energy" and "excitement" on Easter all the visitors and just the celebration of the day....it was good!

But looking forward to getting back to things this next week as we continue to dive into the person of Ezra and God's Wall of Protection for us all! Thanks to those who lent a hand yesterday to make things so fun and I hope we all keep in our hearts and minds all year long the message of Easter and how free we are because of what Jesus did for us! See ya friends and careful with those morning eggs...they can go off in your hand and make quite a mess!

Darren

Easter is a comin!

How exciting, how awesome, I cannot wait for this weekend and Easter! I mean seriously is there any better day for a Christian than Easter? It seems to me it should be the biggest day on our calendars (yes bigger than the big C) the day we celebrate our Savior and His resurrection!
I love all the kids, all the x-tra people whom have given of their time to come and hang with the kids, it is going to be great! I will blog next week about how awesome it was but first want to thank all my peeps for this last week and stepping up to fill in and make sure things ran smooth up in the Zone! Ya see I was out last week...sick, maybe a hangover from Superstart two weeks ago? Not sure, but I was so out and I just love our people who work week in and week out so selflessly up with the elem kids they are great! I was so pleased to hear how people stepped up with ideas and helped out my man Doug with leading both services and our wonderful K-dog for taking care of so much behind the scenes. And someone please tell me you got a pic of Dean Bennett doing his best "Ezra" impersonation....that I have to see! Parents your kids are in the best of care with the people in the Zone, they so love your kids, you and most of all God...and it shows, each and EVERY week their love and devotion shows! Got lots to do so will get back to it, see you on Easter!