The Waiting Tree - A Project for Mom's on December 2nd

A Completed Waiting Tree

A few years ago, Edie Broussard showed me "The Waiting Tree, the Christmas holiday tradition in her family. She had found the idea in a publication and made one for her family. It is made of felt and you can see the picture of her waiting tree on the left.

Each symbol on the Waiting Tree symbolizes a portion of God's story leading up to the gift of His Son. I love this concept of advent, because, it helps us remember God's plan for the beginning of creation to the culmination of His desire to reconcile creation through the birth, life and death of Jesus. We will give you a script of the stories to read with your family each night. Edie says they usually discuss each symbol for 15-30 minutes a night, but, each family can make their own decisions on how they implement the waiting tree in their family.

On December 2nd, 7:00 PM, Edie and I would like to invite all the Moms that are interested in making a Waiting Tree for their family to come to the Ladies Bible Classroom. I plan to buy all the material to make the tree, and will let you know soon the cost to reimburse the church for the material. I expect it to be between $5-$10.

Please email me if you plan to attend. I will need a good headcount to have enough materials on hand. We hope this simple project will become a great teaching tool for your family and a keepsake to hand down through the generations.

Your Trash Our Treasure - Art Camp 2012

We sure love our Art Camp! In fact, our planning team took about a 5 second break after Art Camp 2011 and then started planning Art Camp 2012. They have already picked out the first projects and we NEED your help!

Art Camp 2012 is going green with our new theme, Upcycle. Upcycle is the idea of taking something ordinary and turning it into something extraordinary.  Your trash is going to be our treasure!

The Art Camp committee is asking you to collect the following items:

1. 250 glass jars with labels peeled off (12 to 32 oz)
2. 320 cereal boxes
3. 200 prepaid magazine subscription cards (you know the annoying ones in your magazines)
4. 300 kids shoe box lids
5. 200 applesauce cups
6. 200 pudding or yogurt cups
7. puzzle pieces
8. colored comics from the newspaper (must be color)
9. small bubble bubble wrap
10. Lots and lots of metal washers - MEN CLEAN OUT THOSE TOOLBOXES!
11. Old sewing patterns - we will be using the tissue so you won't get it back.

Collection bins will be placed in the foyers within the next two weeks. We need to meet these needs by by June and we need EVERYONE to help to make it happen.

Additional Art Camp News
~ Art Camp: Upcycle will focus on the miracles of Jesus. We need four storytellers. The storytellers should be comfortable developing and telling a Bible story using very creative methods. You will have a room that will need decorations and you will tell the story at least 12 times over 4 days. YES, this is a tall order! But, we think it is a great theme and a good time to add a Bible story center to Art Camp. Let me know if you think you might be one of storytellers.
~ Beginning in 2012, the class for four year olds will only be open to the children of volunteers (must volunteer for the entire four days). We want to give these little ones additional time to complete their projects in a lower key environment. Susan Maxwell will be leading this class.

More Information on Bullying

This past Sunday, I was given the opportunity to use a small amount of our worship assembly to talk with our children about the topic of bullying. I know many of our own kids are hurting because they are being picked on, name called, or because of physical behaviors directed to them at school and other events. In case you weren't there, I gave the children these three points to remember for when they are being bullied. 1) God loves you and the child that is picking on you. Go to God in prayer and pray for yourself and that child. 2) God gave you many caring adults in the form of parents, teachers, and Sunday School teachers. Tell them what is happening. 3) God gave you a church family that loves and cares for you and wants you to always feel safe. The church family can help by showing love and attention to the children during our meeting times. Jim Herman, one of our shepherds, then lead a beautiful prayer of blessing and protection over our children.

 I've had several parents come to me to tell me that their children are feeling powerless in situations of being bullied. Remember to keep the door of communication open. Read the articles in the earlier post on bullying. Also, Jeannie Herman sent me this link: www.stopbullying.gov. It has excellent resources for all ages.

Nursery, King's Court and Worship 411 Winter Recruitment

It is almost time to start making the nursery schedule for the winter quarter. Currently, we are shorthanded most Sundays as we averaging 15+ babies in attendance.

If you are not currently serving in the nursery and you would like to be, send me an email back at kwcoccfm@gmail.com.We could use additional workers or workers willing to serve additional Sundays. In addition, if you are scheduled to serve and do not come (and do not ask for a sub) know that this is not only an inconvenience to our workers but the environment for our children is not as safe as it should be without all of our volunteers.

On average, during a typical worship service, we have about 10 volunteers serving in nursery, King's Court and Worship 411. Each of these volunteers serve 2 or 3 Sunday's a quarter, which means we need AT LEAST 45 volunteers to completely fill our schedule for 13 weeks for these three classes. Please consider serving, we can't do this without everyone pitching in.

Also, if you would like fill needs in King's Court or Worship 411, I'm doing those schedules at this time. We have several on the King's Court and Worship 411 teams that are serving in other ministries as well and they would appreciate additional help to lighten their volunteer responsibilities.

Bullys at School? Helpful Information for Parents

Recently, several children in our ministry has begun to confide in their trusted teachers and leaders that they feel powerless over certain situations at school. At this point in the school year many of our children begin to settle into their routines and some children begin to show disrespect to their teachers and classmates. Sometimes, these actions cross the line of what we consider typical child's play of being called names and picked on. Children may begin to feel bullyed. As a parent, it is hard to determine if a child is experiencing typical childhood antics or if they are in fact being bullyed.

I've asked myself these questions many times, especially as River has come home and told me some things that happen at school. We desire to give her conflict management skills to work out these issues and to intervene as little as possible. Sometimes, though, good conflict management skills will not solve the problem for our kids. It is these times that children should seek help.

Today, I found three great articles on a children's ministry website. As a parent, I found the information very helpful and I know you will too! I hope you take the time to read over each one.

Bullying Part 1: Establishing Awareness
Bullying Part 2: Practical Intervention
Bullying Part 3: 10 Ways Your Ministry Can Help

Thanks to www.ministry-to-children.com for these three GREAT articles.