MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

Oh my goodness I do not think my daughter will make it through the night, we are having our Christmas tomorrow as we will be on the road Christmas Eve and with my fam on Christmas day and my goodness she has been bouncing around here all day long with excitement! I so love that, and so am going to miss it when they hit "that age" and my babies are too old to wake up at 5am and come jump on the bed and ask if we can get up yet.........well maybe will "eventually" miss that...LOL.
I just wanted to quickly wish all of you reading a very Merry Christmas and may the JOY of this holiday and our Savior find you where you are! We have been talking alot about Joy these last few weeks with the kids and the difference between Joy and Happiness....there is a difference ya know!
Happiness-as long as conditions are right and I get what I want I will be happy.
Joy-(as we have been defining it) is a delightful contentment from knowing Christ! And that Joy can and will be with you no matter what your condition or place in life! I have experienced it myself in a fathers death followed by an overwhelming sense of Joy in knowing he opened his eyes to see the face of God! Or when the checkbook does not match up to what the family budget says it needs to be happy...Joy in knowing the one who cares for me has promised to meet ALL my needs according to His riches in glory! WHOO!
I love the Lord, love all of you and am so thankful for the awesome year we have had and even more for the one in 2011 I know we will have!
You guys be safe, have a great Christmas and I will see you in the Zone this Sunday as we finish up with one final lesson on the Joy of knowing Christ and look at another name for our Savior in our continued series on the names of Jesus!
God bless and c-ya!
Pastor Darren

Snowflakes...and a big mess!

Hey Everybody!

How are you? I hope your all enjoying the happy holiday season? We here in the children's ministry are so excited that in the last week we kicked off our winter quarter with a teaching series on the names of Jesus! And a quick "thing that makes you go hmmm" is not God the coolest in how He works out things like only He can in that we began this series the very same week the adult crowd kicked off the "a.k.a God" series with Pastor Aaron????

Hey I'm good but even I could not have foreseen this happening but thankfully God does and works out these little details that I so appreciate Him for!

We had a BLAST this last week with our first name (Messiah) and also making snowflakes to liven up the Blast kids area...man did we make a mess but had such fun!

I hope all of you are keeping Christ where He belongs and that is at the center of anything you have planned for this holiday and have just a great Christmas season! This week we will be studying the name of Jesus (Gift of God) and the JOY that comes with knowing Christ as our Savior!

Have a great week and look forward to seeing you in the ZONE!

Pastor Darren

Trunk and Treat

How fun...over 1500+ who came out and shared an evening of fun/food/treats and laughter!

We had our annual Halloween alternative event this last weekend and it was such a huge hit! Not just in the number of people who came (1500+) and consumed over 800+ hot dogs, got faces painted, photos made and heard/saw a fantastic presentation by Jesse the Juggler http://www.jessethejuggler.com/ but sharing and having fun being together! I stood back at one point watching our youth do an impromptu Christmas parade, listened to the laughs and it was just the most awesome thing. I love it when God's people get together...there is nothing like it! Now I know there are many of you who question doing anything on Halloween because "guilty by association" I guess and I get that...I really do, and those of you who choose to do nothing every October 31st you have my support. But I have to tell you this event is so one I look forward to because as I prayed when we kicked off the night "we are not here to celebrate spooks and fear, but to fellowship and share in how awesome and great you are God!" October the 31st is a "holy day" it is...God made it like He did October the 30th and November the 1st! Our purpose is not to ignore the culture but do all we can to redeem it...salt? So this event fits just fine in that school of thought and we had a blast if you did not make it out make plans to join us next Monday October the 31st 2011!

Jesse joined us in the morning in our two children's services and did an awesome job of supporting our study of the book of Genesis and all the "firsts" we learn of there. Then that night he did such a great job sharing Jesus and many, many laughs and wows with his talent!

Will post some pics of the event later but for now just a few of Jesse from the morning.

See you this week in the Zone as we kick off a month study of Noah and the events surrounding his life and our AWESOME GOD!

Darren

Toy Story

Doin a bit of catch up this afternoon!

On October 24th we (adults) to reward the kids for reaching the giving goal (see previous post) dressed up like Toy Story characters for the morning and had a great time doing it! When I am surrounded by adults who like to dress up and laugh so much I know I am in the right business and place.....these people rock!

It was a fun day....except for Tonya who dressed up like an evil clown....all clowns are evil you know, right? (Shudder, shudder) I told her this last Sunday I just cannot look at her the same ever again! Not sure where my irrational fear of all things clown came into being but baby believe me they totally creep me out man! Enough...rambling...a bloggers worst enemy, rambling...well I think "clowns" are actually ones worst enemy but I digress.

Anyway here are a few pics for you LOL(ing).

Toys Toys Toys

Hey kids/rents/grand rents and anyone else who may be looking in!
Lookie at what the kids did...and I mean that in the nicest way possible! Look at all the toys the kids collected to be included in our giving project we are doing here at the church, is this awesome or what? I have not gotten a total number count of all the books/games/puzzles and toys the kids collected but they did a great job and met their goal and won "The Toy Story Challenge"!!!
Now this week all, well most all, the adults have to dress as a favorite toy story character...do you know how hard it is to find a Buzz Lighyear in 3XL? Not easy my friend, not easy at all....and just what people do they use to measure and say this is an XL or M or whatever...they certainly are small framed people I tell ya that!
Hey just gonna post some pics and split but this week promises to be another fun one as we tackle the topic of "First Kids" and talk on corruption and what God has done for us to overcome the corruption in the world through Christ!
See ya friends, will have pic's of our embarrassment for you on Monday!
Darren

I'm baaaaack!

Hey parents/kids/whoever out there in cyber world!

I will not dwell very long on just saying how nice it is to be back at work full time and back to blogging and working and playing and feeling good! Had to take the better part (actually all) of August off and part of September for some health things/surgery/healing/going totally mind numb in a recliner! You know I always wondered about those people who complained about having to be on bed rest or not able to get up and around for a time and thought "man I would love that for once to be able to drop everything and just lay there" well ummm no, not for me man, got a bit crazy and just have much to much stuff in my head and energy to do that again! Anyway....great to be back we had a record number of kids last week and we had a great time up in the Zone learning about the first sin, as we continue on this quarter with all the firsts mentioned in the book of Genesis! This week....first punishment. I know, fun right? Hey I like a good laugh and to have fun like the next kid..err I mean adult, but lets face it, there was a first sin and there was a price to be paid! Missing in this society today is the accountability for a persons actions, we always have someone or something to blame for what we have done or what we did not do! This again comes from the book of Genesis....Adam, "it was the woman's fault", and then Eve, "it was the serpents fault". But God is the final/righteous judge and He did judge the serpent for His part and then Adam and Eve were held accountable for theirs! Sadly in the whole account is how sin played a part in even causing all of creation to be punished! Our sins, wrongdoings almost never end with us but have so much harm and hurt to those around us as well and kids need to hear that and that is just the message we will lay down this week that with our sin, because of our sin, our CHOICE to sin comes punishment!

Trust me parents if it is your first time the team and I will do everything within our power to get this message across with all the love we can....and not to brag but we do a pretty good job of it....well God does the pretty good job we just show up and let Him use us!

Hey good to be back online I will promise to do my best to begin again in updating each and every Monday as to what has happened and will go on in The Zone!

Pastor Darren

Back in Bidness!

What a great first Sunday we had! New rooms/new faces/new curriculum/new smells (well not everything was great!) Anyway, what a wonderful way to kick off the end of summer/first of fall with our kids moving up and getting back into the swing of things!
I always get a kick of how young our kindergartners look on the first Sunday as compared to how big they will look this coming May....the wide eyes as alot of the kids see the Zone for the first time with the lights and music! And to see all of our old friends/and new ones joining us again as mentors for yet another spectacular year the God has in store for us!
And I love the way we are kicking it off in talking about questions kids have...this last week "Is Satan Real" and next week "Is Hell a Real Place".
Now I know, I know...."how morbid are you guys?" I wonder that myself sometimes...just kiddin...but we look for a way each year to kick off things with how we want the kids to behave/be respectful/be worshipful and on and on, and how God expects us to be. What right actions look like, but....how many times do we tell the kids from the perspective of what not to do, or "whom" does not want them acting the right way, what are the consequences of not following God's laws and commands?
I think we have hit on a nerve that will lay a great ground work as we get into September and our fall study on firsts....first man, first sins, a study of Genesis, the book of firsts!
I love all of you and want to thank each and every member of the team for a great first week! I will be out for the rest of the month but the ministry is in some very capable hands while I am away......God Bless and see ya in the Zone soon!
Pastor Darren