Finishing March & beginning April

As I reflect on all the activities that have happened since my last post and look forward on my calendar to what the summer will bring, I thank The Lord for the talented, creative & dedicated volunteers who serve each week with me. Their hearts are sold out to The Lord and his love radiates through them. So very blessed to serve with them!!!!!!

We have really been focused on service in the children's ministry this spring with "spring into service". We painted the fence at Holston Home for children & finished up our last month of service for the spring at Salvation Army. The children have loved serving dinner at the Salvation Army!

Our school assemblies have been a blast! The chick-fil-a cow has joined us to wrap up the end of our school assemblies. We have one assembly left in April and two chapels in May at a couple local Christian schools. Our school assemblies will come to a close for the 2012-13 school year after these. I love hanging out with the kids, teachers, staff and principals at these schools. They get it... Core Values are important and vital for a child's success in life. This months value = friendship

I had the honor of being apart of several baptisms on the weekend of April 13-14. I am always excited to see young people chose to obey God and tell the world they love Jesus through baptism. God is so good and I thank Him for each one of the decisions that were made to follow him and commit their lives to him.

We took a fun caving trip to Appalachian caverns after church on Sunday April 21. Relationships were built, new friendships were made and our spelunking skills were put to the test. It was great to know I could fit through a hole the size of a piece of notebook paper 😀 lol!

The spirit of The Lord is really moving at Celebration Church right now. We had a wonderful time of worship last weekend led by our youth band. It was so great because many of the teens playing and singing on stage actually volunteer in children's Ministry. The children loved seeing them serve The Lord through music and worship. They did a fabulous job!

Peace

We had a great time this month talking about Peace.  It was a challenge to find the Doves, actually homing Pigeons. Special thanks to the American Racing Pigeon Society for helping us find them.

No one has a bigger influence on a child than his or her family!
That's why it's so important to share the values at HOME and at SCHOOL.

This month your child is learning about PEACE in school:
 proving you care more about each other than winning an argument.

We hope you'll enjoy this monthly ezine
(ezine = emailed newsletter!)
and get some ideas for talking about PEACE with your family.

  
Car Time -
Enjoy a song about PEACE while in the car.
Listen to a preview HERE of "Give up the fight." 
It's also easily downloadable to your phone or iPod for $1.39 a
song!

 
Open Wide - Just for Fun:   
What skill do you have that you could use to help someone else?

DISCUSSION STARTER:
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps to promote world peace and friendship. Since that time, nearly 200,000 Americans have committed to spending two years in one of 139 host countries. These volunteers work with local governments, communities and schools to meet needs in education, business, information technology, agriculture and the environment. In doing so, they're not only providing training and assistance, but they're promoting international understanding and cooperation.

 
WHAT DO YOU THINK? 
 * Do you know someone who is frequently angry and often in a fight? Do you know someone who almost never gets in a fight? What makes these people different?
* What are some characteristics of people who are peacemakers?
* What are some things you can do on a regular basis to help you become a peace maker rather than a peace breaker?
* How can we help each other stay committed to being peacemakers on a regular basis?

Rest Time - (K-2): The Conquerors by: David McKee; The general of a large and mighty country invades and conquers each of its neighboring countries, one by one. Eventually, all the countries in the world are conquered but one... a country so small it doesn't even have an army. And so, when the day comes that the general is unable to resist invading the small country, the outcome is inevitable. Or is it?

(3-5): One Thousand Paper Cranes: The Story of Sadako and the Children's Peace Statue by: Ishii Takayuki; Ten years after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Sadako Sasaki died as a result of atomic bomb disease. Sadako's determination to fold one thousand paper cranes and her courageous struggle with her illness inspired her classmates. After her death, they started a national campaign to build the Children's Peace Statue to remember Sadako and the many other children who were victims of the Hiroshima bombing. On top of the statue is a girl holding a large crane in her outstretched arms. Today in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, this statue of Sadako is beautifully decorated with thousands of paper cranes given by people throughout the world.

Experience: One of the greatest threats to a peaceful life for your child is bullying. Whether they are involved or not, bullying affects their perception of their environment. Spend some time this month talking about what to do if your child is being bullied, bullying someone, or observes bullying. Come up with a plan for each of these scenarios and talk about the importance of caring about each person enough to stop bullying.