What's a Manger, Anyway?

Remember that manger in the nativity scene on your mantle?
Not likely!
I know you imagine A-frame sticks, but a manger probably looked like this. This is an ancient cattle trough, used to feed animals.

A manger is: ‘a trough or an open box in which feed for livestock is placed’ (American Heritage Dictionary).

God uses Madame Blueberry!

Here is another example of how God is using KidzLife in the lives of the children of our church. Read the following email I received:

On Saturday we were out shopping and Trevor and Tommy kept asking if we could buy them toys and other things. They were each allowed to get a small item, but when we got back to the car and were about halfway home Trevor calmly said, "I should have remembered what we saw in the video at church on Sunday."
He recited the whole story about Madame Blueberry. Then he told us that he shouldn't be greedy and should be happy with what he has.

Madame Blueberry is no Billy Graham but God has a way of finding the least likely ways to move His people to faith and discipleship. He does this so that there can be no doubt as to who is responsible. All glory to God!!

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
--1Corinthians 1:27-31

Thankfulness

Too often, we underestimate or simply don't see when God is doing a powerful work through the children's ministry. Please join me in thanking God for the way He is moving in our ministry.

I love it when I see that a young child “gets it”!

A very proud mom handed this letter to me. Her 9 year old daughter had a school assignment over the Thanksgiving holiday to write a short paper about what she is thankful for.

Check it out!

This thanksgiving I am thankful for two wonderful things! The first thing I’m thankful for is my loving and caring family. Sometimes, my dad takes me and my sister to the park to play teeball. My mom lets me help her cook good things like cake, cookies, and maybe even pies. The second thing I’m thankful for is Jesus! Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins. Jesus is the Son of God and I could never live without Him. All in all, I wish you a happy Thanksgiving and I hope you will be thankful for your things two.

A Lot To Smile About

The largest ministry in the church is getting bigger! We have been praying that God would move the hearts of people to serve in KidzLife and He has. Be sure to welcome the following people to the KidzLife family:

Sarah Webster-11:00 Toddlers

Jeannette Russell-9:30 Nursery/Toddlers

Lindsey Russell-9:30 Nursery/Toddlers

Zac Dunn-Set Up and 1st-4th Grade

Let’s join together in praying for our new volunteers (and the rest of us!) and thank God for them.

I thank my God every time I remember you. in all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel…
--Philippians 1:3-5a

Bible Study Tips

Quick tips for children’s Bible study.

• Purchase a Bible with age appropriate language so your child will understand it.
• Pre-read what you will be sharing with your child and look for the principle or teaching point that you will want to reinforce with him/her.
• Keep the amount of time you read appropriate to your child’s attention span.
• Ask your child questions about what he/she heard or felt during the reading.
• Tell your child how you live out that principle in your life.
• Pray with your child in connection with what you just read.

As you have had Bible study time with your children, what have you found to be helpful?
Click “comments” below and share your tips with the rest of us.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

The more I think about Thanksgiving, the more sacred the holiday becomes in my mind.
Christmas and Easter are usually the holidays that get the most religious attention, and for good reason. The birth of Jesus marks the presentation of the complete, universal, and final sacrifice, pictured repeatedly for generations, in the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, for the sins of mankind. It represents the ultimate and most extravagant gift ever given to such undeserving recipients.
The Resurrection represents the final word and ultimate guarantee of eternal life to all those who believe. It is the validation of God’s acceptance of the sacrifice. On this historical fact the whole of Christian belief hinges.
What would those celebrations amount to in the absence of thanksgiving?

You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever.
--Psalm 30:11-12

Heroes of Harvest Festival

Isn’t it interesting how we see the same faces at church event after church event helping to make it all possible.

(If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of those faces!)

However, once in a while I notice faces that aren’t the usual ones I’m used to seeing. This Sunday was a case like that. Seven people got together to transport Harvest Festival supplies from a storage unit in Riverside to the church facility on Sampson. Three of them were new to our church. In fact, you could count the number of times they had come to our church on two hands and have fingers to spare.
One of the mottos for the Heroes television show is “Some people were meant for something more.”

I agree!

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10

Harvest Festival!

New Life Community Church's annual Harvest Festival is October 31st from 6:00pm-8:30pm

The Harvest Festival is one of only two events that our church calls “All-Church” events. (The other is the Easter picnic) Because it is an all-church event, we try to create an outreach component that encourages others in our community to attend. One thing that is different about this year’s Harvest Festival is the intentional nature of this outreach.

Here’s what’s different:

• Intentional Gospel Presentation

This year we have a station where children can come and enjoy a story about a pumpkin! The pumpkin is used as an object lesson to describe how Jesus can come into our “heart”, clean out the slimy gunk and make us clean. The candle in the pumpkin illustrates how His light shines through us.

• Bible Tracts

In addition to candy and small toy prizes at the game stations, we will also be handing out Gospel tracts. These small pamphlets are short, easy to understand, and encourage parents and children to talk about what it says.

• Bible Buddies

This year some of the prizes will consist of trading cards that have Bible buddies from the current Avalanche Ranch Sunday morning KidzLife curriculum. These cards have a picture of the Bible buddy on the card with a Bible verse on the back.

• Information Gathering

This year, when people get photos taken we will be asking them to fill out a form with their address on it so that we can send the photo to them. This will allow us to include an invitation to our church and thank them for coming to the Harvest Festival.

• Gift Basket Raffle

This year we will be raffling gift baskets. In addition to including coffee, gift cards, and other trinkets in these baskets, we will also include Bibles, Purpose Driven Life books and invitations/information for our church.

• Over 20 people have already signed up to help with some part of this event. However, that’s less than half of what it will take to make this event great. Please pray for the Harvest Festival, the people that have volunteered, and the invitations and flyers that have gone out to the community and consider how you can play a role in making the Harvest Festival a blessing to our members, our kidz, and to those who may hear about Jesus for the first time.

God works in the lives of children

Hi Everyone,

I was fortunate enough to travel to Mexico and visit the orphanage that we support as a church. Gwen Edwards and Emily Wagner from KidzLife also came and had a great time hanging out with the kids there. In the next couple of blog posts I will share some more pictures and stories about what we experienced there. First, though, I want to share the story of Lupita, who you see pictured between NLCC member Dave Bourbinay and his son, Jonah.



Lupita was found going from truck stop to truck stop in Baja California when she was 7 years old. She was brought to the Casa Hogar orphanage by the authorities. This is the orphanage that we help support as a church.

Devon and Cindy Dickinson, former members of New Life Community Church, began to work with Casa Hogar in 1998; around the same time Lupita arrived there. Devon had a friend who was in medical school at the time and thought it would be a great idea to bring him down to Mexico to perform some minor health check ups. When he got to Lupita, he noticed she had a heart "murmur" of sorts. He believed it to be unique enough that it warranted further investigation. Mexican physicians confirmed that Lupita had a hole in her heart.

Lupita, being extremely young, said that she remembered having surgery at an earlier age, but couldn't provide any more information than that. Devon and his friend were able to get travel papers for Lupita to be seen by a heart specialist at Loma Linda University.
Her condition was so serious that the doctor said he couldn't explain why she was still living and breathing. The good news was that Lupita's serious condition was operable. The bad news was that, even with Loma Linda's kindness and generosity, the surgery would still cost around $50,000.

A group of concerned members from our church sprang into action and started to "shop" heart surgery rates.
God provided. The pediatric heart specialist team at Cedars Sinai was able to provide the surgery for $20,000. The funds were raised and Lupita had the surgery.

As a testament to the toughness of this young girl, she had open-heart surgery on a Wednesday and was released on a Sunday evening .........that's one tough 12 year old!

During the next year and a half, Lupita stayed with different NLCC families while commuting back and forth from the orphanage in Mexico so she could see her doctors for follow up.

Lupita just celebrated her Quincenerra Fiesta for a Mexican girl's 16th birthday. She has a strong faith in our Lord and has personal, first hand experience of His grace and healing. She has made strong ties to friends on both sides of the border.

God truly provided “New Life” to this young girl. Lupita's story is awesome and inspirational, but not rare. Each one of the 90+ children and adolescents at the orphanage have unique and amazing stories to share. God says He will neither leave us nor forsake us. When we are dealing with our own difficult times, let us all remember the strength, courage, and faith that these children have shown us.

Thanks!

Thank you to all the KidzLife volunteers who were able to make it to the Nursery appreciation party at my house!
I had a great time getting to know you all better and it was a lot of fun getting together.
You guys are great!

God's purposes through His servants

I want to share two verses and a story with you:

Acts 2:47 ...and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
1Corinthians 3:5-8 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe--as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers...


Sara Clark serves in our nursery and her daughter, Josie attends the "Sharktank" on Sunday mornings and is in second grade. God has touched her through the faithful service of His "fellow workers". Thank you to those "workers" and Praise God!

(Following is a portion of the email Sara sent me today)

I wanted to share with you the happenings of this morning. As I was driving Josie to school she asked me "What does it mean to give your life to God?". I explained to her that God gives us the ability to make choices in our lives. We could choose to do what is not right/easier, or we could choose to do what is pleasing to God. And that when we give our life to God that means we are choosing to do things that are pleasing to him even when they might be hard. Anyways, I asked her if she had given her life to God and she said "no". So I asked her if she wanted to give her life to God and she said "yes." So in our car in the school parking lot we prayed and Josie told God that she wanted to give her life to him.
When you are having a bad day I hope you will remember that good things are happening in the children's ministry and our church. Jeremy and I are so thankful for the changes that God has made in our lives because of New Life, and now for the growth in Josie's life too! God is good!~sara

Team Party!

Attention Nursery Volunteers!

This Saturday, September 22, you and your families are invited to a barbecue at the Wagner’s house! We’ll have a Bible study, food, games, and fellowship. I’m looking forward to seeing you all then!

You do like your burgers well done right?

Letter To God

One of the things I like most about KidzLife is being a witness to the impact God is having on the kids that are attending. Here is a letter that one of the children wrote in May. You’ll notice the spelling. I typed it just as I saw it on paper!

Ministry or Job?

Some people have a job in the church.
Others involve themselves in ministry.

What’s the difference?

If you do it just because no one else will...it’s a job!
If you do it to serve God...it’s a ministry!

If you quit because someone criticized you...it’s a job!
If you kept on serving in spite of criticism...it’s a ministry!

If you’ll do it only so long as it doesn’t interfere with other things...it’s a job!
If you’re committed to staying with it, even when it means letting other things go...it’s a ministry!

If you quit because no one ever praised or thanked you...it’s a job!
If you stay even though no one notices your efforts...it’s a ministry!

If you do it because someone else said it needs to be done...it’s a job!
If you do it because you sensed God saying it needs to be done...it’s a ministry!

It’s hard to get excited about a job.
It’s almost impossible not to get excited about a ministry!


Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men
Ephesians 6:7

Welcome to the KidzLife Blog!

Hi Everyone, welcome to the New Life Community Church KidzLife blog. This will be a web page that you can check out to learn more about what's happening in children's ministry, get access to resources, and simply share thoughts, stories, and ideas. I hope you will enjoy this format and use it frequently. I look forward to sharing with you and together, making KidzLife the best hour in a child's week!



Mike W.

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