Children’s Ministry Schedule

The Foundations Room continues to meet twice per month on the 2^nd and 4^th Sundays during the church service for children ages 5-4^th grade. On the other Sundays, children are able to join their families in the corporate worship service. The goal of this schedule is to provide them with an opportunity to study the Bible at their level and still offer regular occasions to engage with God along with the full church body. After all, we are all part of God’s church and He wants to speak to each one of us, young and old, through the preaching of His Word.

Christmas Card Project

During the month of November the Foundations kids have been working hard to prepare Christmas cards for the Philippines. Each child is making a card that will be sent to one of seven churches and organizations that Brittany and Laura have connections to in the Philippines. The kids have been praying for the people who will be receiving their cards. We hope the cards will be a blessing and encouragement to them!

Advent Ideas

As we approach the month of December, many of us are finding that our holiday traditions are being disrupted this year. On a personal note, our family is taking the opportunity to re-evaluate our traditions and try something new. This year we will be using the Little Village Family Advent Guide, which was created by The Village Church and is available for free. The purpose of Advent is to spend 4 weeks leading up to Christmas focused on preparing our hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

This particular guide is meant to be used once a week starting 4 weeks before Christmas. (This year that will be Sunday November 29). It also has a Christmas Eve reading and a 5^th week focusing on Jesus’ future promise to return! If you are interested in trying an advent guide but don’t need the family focus, click here for the regular Advent Guide created by The Village Church

If you have younger children and already own The Jesus Storybook Bible, another free option is The Jesus Storybook Bible Advent Guide. This guide includes a reading for the 24 days leading up to Christmas, plus ornaments to color for each day.

Whatever the size of or ages in your family, I hope you are inspired by these resources to spend some focused time together preparing to celebrate Christ’s birth!

Prayer Requests

• That the Christmas cards being sent to the Philippines would bless and encourage the churches and organizations receiving them.
• That the children in our church would hear and receive the gospel at an early age.
• For wisdom as we make plans for 2021.

Can you reach down and touch your toes? Me either. But could you do it when you were six years old? I think most of us could. There seems to be inherent flexibility in young children. Not just in the physical sense, but also in their ability to adapt to new situations and new ways of learning.

Going Digital

I have been amazed at the flexibility of the kids (and teachers!) in our church! When we weren’t able to meet in person for church services, in April we started a weekly Sunday evening children’s lesson over Webex. The class was a combined class that included both our Beginnings and Foundations children. We covered lesson from the first 8 chapters of the book of Acts. How neat that in God’s perfect timing the kids are now hearing those same stories again as we study Acts in church!

Together Again

With in-person church services resuming, in June we were able to return to Foundations room classes in person. We are currently meeting on Sunday mornings twice per month, on the 2^nd and 4^th Sundays. The kids have adapted amazingly well to wearing masks and being limited in their movement. We are also happy that Ruby and Maddy are now part of Foundations! It is great to have a place where the kids can learn together at their level. It also provides a place where their questions about the Bible can be brought up and answered. I believe that is a critical aspect to a child’s journey to faith.

Prayer Requests

• For the children, when they are in Foundations during the service as well as when they are in the church service. That they would have ears to hear God speaking to them and know that God wants them in His church.
• For our teachers, that their love for Jesus would shine brightly as they teach.
• For us as leaders, for wisdom, direction, and new ideas as we seek God’s will for His ministry.

Our Mission

Our mission as the Believer’s Church Children’s Ministry is to enrich what parents are already teaching their children about God at home so they can come to know and love Jesus and grow in a relationship with Him. With all of the closures and cancellations going on right now, we are obviously not able to hold our typical Beginnings and Foundations classes for children. But one way we can still come alongside parents during this time is to share an Easter activity idea that you could use with your kids at home. Maybe it will even turn into a tradition for your family like it has for ours.

“Easter Mountain”

A few years ago, I came across an excellent idea for an activity to help prepare young children for Easter. The idea came from Noel Piper’s book Treasuring God in Our Traditions. Since the culture we live in tells us that Easter is all about bunnies and colored eggs and baskets filled with candy, I was thankful to find an activity that has helped us teach the real meaning of Easter to our children.

In short, after making an “Easter Mountain” out of homemade play dough as well as some pipe cleaner people, we use these props each day of the week leading up to Easter to act out some of the main events of Holy Week. After laying Jesus in the tomb in the mountain on Friday and covering the entrance with a “stone”, the highlight is Sunday morning when Jesus is moved to the top of the mountain, showing that He is triumphantly alive! For an excerpt of the book with a fuller explanation of this activity, click here and scroll to the “Holy Week” section of the blog entry.

Photo Highlights

Here are a few pictures and video of what we were up to in the Beginnings and Foundations Rooms since our last update.

Prayer Requests:

• For us as parents to make the most of the extra time we have right now with our children to teach them about God and what it looks like to trust Him.
• For opportunities for families to minister to neighbors and other families, and to see the needs around us.

Current Happenings

It seems each year goes by faster and faster, it’s hard to believe that it’s almost December! In September we welcomed Seth and Eli in the Foundations Room family at just the right time as we started our Answers Bible Curriculum back at the beginning.  It’s so neat to see how God’s timing works out so perfectly.  We are learning about how we can trust the Bible completely.  Even as young children we can study God’s Word by asking questions, interpreting, and applying what we learn to our life. Ask one of the Foundations Room kids to explain hermeneutics to you sometime!

The children in the Beginnings Room continue to have a memory verse each month along with their lessons.  The verse for November is “The LORD always keeps his promises; he is gracious in all he does” from Psalm 145:13b. This is a great verse for us all to remember.  If you ask them, I am sure that they would be happy to tell you the verse that they are currently memorizing.

Wednesday evenings continue to be “family night,” with children staying in the sanctuary with their parents for the church service. It is neat to see them singing during worship and being able to hear the teachings.

We are very excited to have an updated webpage that provides more complete information about the Children’s Ministry. We would like to say a big “thank you” to all those who have helped make this possible!

Our Philosophy

We believe it is of utmost importance that every parent is involved in their child’s education here, and we have been making some changes to help ensure this can happen. Ultimately as parents, it is our responsibility, not the church’s responsibility, to teach our children the Bible (Deuteronomy 6:5-7). Parental involvement is important so we know what our child is being taught. Additionally, parental involvement provides an opportunity for us to see how our child behaves and interacts in the classroom environment.

Traditions

As parents, one of the ways we can teach our children to love God is through our traditions. Do you have family traditions that help you to treasure Christ during this holiday season while most of the world is in a flurry buying presents and hanging up Christmas lights? One of our traditions has been reading (and then re-reading!) the book Jesus is Most Special by Sally Michael. The book is the story of Christ’s birth, simply but beautifully told with alternating scripture references and portions of biblical Christmas songs. It begins with Old Testament prophecies of the promised Savior and ends with a call to go and tell others about Jesus, who is the most special of all. We like to read it while placing characters into a nativity scene as suggested in the book. If you have young children and are looking for ways to keep Jesus the focus during this holiday season, I would recommend this resource!

Prayer Requests

Please pray for us as we seek direction for this ministry for the coming year, and for all the children. Pray that they would grow and desire to have a relationship with Christ.

Transitions

Summer is here! For us in the Children’s Ministry, that means we are coming to the end of another year of classes. September 1 is the time when children entering 5^th grade “graduate” from the Foundations Room and the Children’s Ministry. It is also the time when children entering Kindergarten move from the Beginnings Room to the Foundations Room. This year we have both transitions happening. Kasidy, Madison, Greta, and Sophia are all graduating, while Seth and Eli are moving into the Foundations Room!  If you think of it, pray for these kids as they transition into these new stages.

Curriculum Updates

Just before the girls graduate from the Foundations Room, we will finish our chronological trek through the Bible with the Answers Bible Curriculum. How exciting that they get to finish the material before moving out of the room! It is also wonderful that the boys coming in will get to start at the very beginning!  God’s timing is good!

This summer in the Foundations Room we have also started Worldview lessons from a book called Get Wisdom! The goal of this new material is to help us to develop godly character and grow in wisdom. Our first lesson introduced wisdom as knowing and understanding the truth, and using that knowledge at the right place and time. We also learned about listening, and that when we listen well to someone it shows that we love them. We studied Proverbs 4:1 which urges us to listen to instruction from our parents so we can gain insight. Next up will be a lesson about obedience.

Schedule Changes

One big change for us that will start in August is that the Beginnings and Foundations Rooms will be open on Sundays only. On Wednesday nights, children will remain with their families for the church service and small group discussions.

We have always desired to be a ministry that is mainly staffed by parents. With our current staffing situation and the number of children involved in this ministry, we believe that this change will help make the best use of our resources. It will also provide a neat opportunity for families to learn and grow together. As we move into fall, we will continue to evaluate the needs of the church and make adjustments to the schedule accordingly. To those involved in this ministry, thank you for your flexibility and support as we make these changes!

With help and guidance, even very young children can learn to actively participate in the corporate worship service. In March we posted this sermon notes sheet to help young children take notes during the church service. For those with non-readers, these listening pages can be printed and used to help your children actively listen to the service and discussion on Wednesday evenings. You could also use them as a springboard to make your own listening pages! If you are looking for more tips on how to help your children participate in the corporate worship service, please talk to Sara Huhmann or Teresa Cline. We would be happy to share some other ideas with you!

We may not be perfect spellers, but we are learning God’s Word! Much learning and growing is happening in the Children’s Ministry these days!

New Teachers

In February we held a new teacher training class. Four servants who have been faithfully assisting in the Children’s Ministry are currently training to begin teaching in the Foundations Room. Please pray for Danielle, Amber, Abby, and Rachel as God is growing them into this new role!

All Servants Meeting

In March all of the Children’s Ministry servants gathered together for a meeting. We were able to refresh on our mission, talk through policy updates, review a few procedures, and discuss several related questions. Our goal in these meetings is to keep everyone on the same page so we can better serve the parents and children of our church. It is always good to be reminded of our mission. It is also good to be flexible as God leads changes!

Foundations Room News

We also have a Family Worship Day coming up on March 31 for the kids in the Foundations Room.  On Family Worship Days, the Foundations Room closes to provide families an opportunity to experience the full corporate worship service together. Attention spans of young children can be short, but paying attention doesn’t naturally get easier as we grow older.  As parents, one of the ways we can serve our children is to help train them to be active listeners and participants in the worship service. If you’d like, you can click here to download or print a notes sheet that your child can use to help them actively listen to the sermon. (Note that it is meant to be printed two-sided with short-edge binding.)

Check out this video the Foundations Room kids practicing their last memory verse (Matthew 28:19) during a recent class. We like to make learning fun!

If you would like to learn how you can get involved in the Children’s Ministry, please contact Sara Huhmann or Mandie Schug.