::Coats for Kids::

Just a reminder that we will begin collecting coats THIS SUNDAY!

You will only have two Sundays to bring in your coats, so PLEASE don’t forget!!

We’re also planning to go deliver the coats November 20th together. This will be such a great opportunity for your family to serve another family!! Consider coming with us and showing your children what it looks like to serve those who have less!! There will be a sign up sheet at the check-in table on Sunday AM, but if you think you might forget, just drop us a comment here or send the office an email to let us know that you and your family plan to come with us.

I don’t think we know exactly what time we’ll be meeting yet, but it will probably be around 11am and I will definitely let you know beforehand 🙂 We typically stop to grab lunch on the way.

Here are the coats I bought for a grand low (when you consider how many coats I bought) total of $38!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s six coats for $38, meaning that I paid roughly $6.30/coat. I know a lot of you have children and coats they’ve grown out of to donate, but at these kinds of steals you could possibly afford to donate your children’s gently used coats AND buy a couple more! I found two of these at the Fish Thrift Store in Loganville and I kind of felt like I probably bought all the decent looking and warm kids’ coats that they had. But then I noticed a kids consignment shop just right across the street and dropped in there. I bought the other four coats there and there were several others I could have bought! As I was ringing up, the lady at the register actually told me that they would possibly be able to donate coats to our collection, so if you stop in there mention it to them! I will definitely be hitting them up for anything they’re willing to share because there are A LOT of kids living in these refuge apartment complexes who are in need of warm coats this Winter!! Don’t forget about them!!

If you give a preschooler an opportunity to serve…

Lately, Hannah and I have been reading the “If you give a mouse a cookie” book series thanks to Chick-fil-A.  So in the same way…

If you give a preschooler an opportunity to serve, they may ask you for a little money to buy a coat for a refugee child.

If you give them the money to buy a coat, then they will ask you to drive them to the store.

If you drive them to the store, they will ask you to take them to five stores before they find the perfect coat.

When they find the perfect coat, they will ask you to take them to the refugee camp to give the coat away.

If you take them to the refugee camp, they will connect with another child.

When they connect with another child, they will ask you to take them back again.

As you continue to take them back, they will develop a relationship with that child.

Once they develop a relationship, they will ask you to …

Give them an opportunity to serve together!

And along with that, you are changing your child’s heart!  They will see the poor as opportunities to share the love of God with rather than “those people” that they try to stay away from.  I wish I had learned this when I was a preschooler!

This is a picture of the coats that Hannah and I got using the money in the preschool offering jar from BLAST.  Thank you to everyone who gives offering each week!  We bought 15 coats for $55!  You can get creative when looking for coats.  We found these at the American Thrift Store in Athens.  15 kids will be warm this winter because of our preschoolers!  Don’t forget, we will be collecting all the coats on November 7th and 14th at the school.

Where to shop for coats this weekend!

Old Navy is celebrating their Sweet 16th birthday with a sale! Yes! But maybe instead of going there to stock up on clothing for you and your family consider going and purchasing a new coat for one, or several, kids living in the Refuge Apartments! Although if you really do need to shop for your family this is a good place to check out. However, then you should consider cleaning out the clothes you’ll be replacing and donating those to the families in the refuge apartments. I’m just sayin’, do we really NEED a closet full of clothes? For $16 a piece you could probably get two coats with the money you set aside to buy one coat with. Score! Two kids will get coats because of your family’s generosity and Old Navy’s birthday celebration 🙂

http://oldnavy.gap.com/

I couldn’t find on the website when the sale ends but I’m guessing it’s only on for the weekend, so shop soon!

We still won’t be collecting until the first Sunday in November though, so hold on to your purchases until then.

Coats for Kids

::ATTENTION PARENTS::

As we head into the month of November, we are going to be talking to your kids about how God takes care of us. God also asks us to take care of others. First we have to see a need and then we have to do something about it. We want your families to begin looking through your kids’ closets for clean, gently-used coats or buy a brand new coat to donate to the kids living in the Refuge Apartments. We’ll be collecting the coats on Sunday mornings for the first two weeks of November.

Everyone Needs a PAL!

I work at Crossroads Church of Walton County as their part-time student ministry assistant. I basically run the children’s ministry and help Jonathan with a few things to get ready for Wednesday night youth service. I also lead the 8th grade girls small group, but I view that as my volunteer job more than as part of my job description 🙂

Anyways, my full-time job is as the special education parapro at J H House Elementary in Rockdale County. It is a GREAT school! I cannot even believe that public schools like that even exist anymore. For instance, on Friday they hosted a picnic in the park to boost parent involvement, connection, and moral. Our school serves one of the largest trailer parks in the South East. This trailer park has 8 elementary bus routes that transport kids to and from our school every day. Most of the kids that go to our school live in this neighborhood, so that’s where they had the picnic, right there in an open field in the trailer park. There was a huge playground where the kids played. Almost all of the tearchers came. Everyone brought their own blankets and chairs to sit on and it was stress-free and fun! There were easily 300 people there and it made me so proud to work at a school that would do an outreach to families like that!

I wanted to share that to brag about J H House Elementary, but I also wanted to mention the mentor program they have there. It would be a cool thing for some of our adults at Crossroads to participate in! The program is mentor program but the kids and mentors refer to each other as “pals.” It’s open to teachers that work at J H House but also to the community. Anyone who loves kids, and passes a background check :), can be a PAL! I signed up for the program and met my PAL about 3 weeks ago and I already adore this girl! She is in the 4th grade and so sweet! She struggles in reading, math, and self-esteem. Every Friday I bring her ice cream money and eat lunch with her. Every two weeks 4th grade has what they call “Fun Friday.” If they have enough tickets, which they get for good behavior and lose for bad behavior, they get to participate in Fun Friday. My PAL, Sugey, always earns Fun Friday so we hang out during that time too. Right now we’re reading through a girly chapter book together. It gives her the chance to work on her reading and we have fun because the book isn’t one of the required reading books, but one that she and I pick out.

Sugey told me that she doesn’t get to have birthday parties anymore because she’s too old, at the age of 9. I disagreed, so for her birthday I’m planning a little party for her and a few of her friends in my classroom during lunch 🙂 I can’t wait!

Obviously being a PAL and hanging out with Sugey every week is a little bit easier since I work at the same school she goes to, but it’s also a little bit trickier because I had to work around both her and my schedule. The counselor, who runs the PAL program, asks that you spend at least 30 minutes with your PAL each week. Most of the mentors that aren’t teachers come to eat lunch with their PAL once a week. The students’ teacher fills out a information sheet on the child letting the mentor know in what areas the child struggles, everywhere from getting along with others, to home life, to math and reading skills. Most of all it’s really all about being a friend to the child though. Chances are that with a positive adult in their life who they can build a relationship with, some of those issues begin to solve themselves. As a mentor you’re not called to be a parent or spoil your PAL with gifts every time you see them, but just to be their friend! However, I am definitely adding a Christmas present for my PAL into our Christmas budget 🙂

Anyways, I just wanted to throw this information out there to all of the Moms at Crossroads who stay at home during the days and have the flexibility to come eat lunch with a kid once a week. Men are welcome too! There are several guys who come up to the school every week dressed in work clothes. I can only assume that they’re coming to eat lunch with their PAL during their lunch break.

There are several children on the waiting list for a PAL. Having a PAL is something that all the kids want, so the ones who get to have a PAL are always so proud and excited to show you off. You will feel so rewarded! If you’re interested or would like some more information, let me know and I will hook you up 🙂

God-Time & Refrigerator Door Cards + A Few Fun Fotos :)

Here’s what we learned yesterday in CLUB 252:

It’s better to let go than to get even.

Sometimes you have to CHOOSE TO FORGIVE. Jacob was a liar and a cheat, but Esau demonstrated the upside of letting go (Genesis 33).

And here are the GT & RD Cards for the week:

July 15, 2010GTCards

July 15, 2010RDCard

And now for a few photos from when we delivered the school supplies to the kids living in the Refuge Apartments…

Thank you EVERYONE who contributed!! The kids were SO EXCITED!

School Supplies for Refuge Kids

Our families are AWESOME! I sent out an email this morning reminding everyone that we were collecting school supplies for kids living in the Refuge Apartments to deliver this Saturday. I also let everyone know what we still needed. I received several emails promising supplies and we’re a lot closer to having everything we need now. Actually, as I type this Jayne Wahr just dropped supplies off at my house! We do need a few more things though. Here’s what we still lack.

100 packs of paper

51 boxes of crayons

183 folders (they’re 15 cents @ Wal Mart by the way)

137 boxes of colored pencils

137 pairs of scissors

147 rulers

We have all we need of pencils, spiral notebooks, & glue sticks!!

Please leave a comment here on the blog to let us know if you’re able to get something. That way we don’t have too many of one item and not enough of another.

If you’re a parent you know how much school supplies cost each year. Imagine if you had no way of paying for your kids to have the things they need for the new school year. Some of you may have found yourselves in that situation considering the economy right now. I pray that this makes life a little easier on these parents and that the kids will be super excited about getting brand new stuff and not having to worry about whether their parents can afford their supplies.

Remember, God doesn’t bless us just to have us keep it all for ourselves!!

Here are the faces of some of the kids who we’ll be delivering the school supplies to.

BYBC- Takin’ VBS to the (neighbor)HOOD

This week is our Back Yard Bible Club! I’m super excited because it’s only a little bit about a production and a lot about building relationships and teaching the kids about Jesus! That is so my cup of tea 🙂

So our BYBC won’t look like a VBS at the first baptist church by any means. Not to knock the VBS because VBS is cool, but we’re doing this for outreach reasons and taking VBS to the neighborhood. We have our volunteers set up but PLEASE come to hang out with us even if you’re not signed up, and bring your kids to participate! It’s our goal to be present in this neighborhood a lot more in the future! The neighborhood is off George Washington Carver in Monroe. Everyone will be meeting at the WH at 2:30 to drive over there on Monday.

It really will be a lot of fun! We’ll have a Bible story, some small group time, GAMES, crafts, WATER GAMES, worship, snacks, and we’ll probably end with a few fun GAMES!

We’ll be there all week, Monday-Friday from 3:30-5:30pm. Remember to meet @ the WH at 2:30 if you want to carpool and serve.

On Friday after we wrap up the BYBC we plan to have a cook out so that we can get to know the parents and share Jesus with them too. Our families are definitely welcome to come hang out because you’re the ones who we need talking and sharing with the parents!

What in the World Are You Doing :to help the kids @ the Refuge Apartments:

Here are a few pictures of the kids we’re collecting school supplies for. Don’t forget to keep bringing in school supplies! We’ve got a lot but still need more!! Scissors and boxes of tissue especially.

God-Time & Refrigerater Door Cards

Hey Families!

Awesome night tonight @ Kidology Live!! It is so much fun having all of our pre-school & elementary aged kids together with their parents worshiping! If you weren’t there you missed a good time, so make sure to make plans to be at our next one which will hopefully be scheduled for sometime in late September.

If you don’t have older kids in the student ministry @ CCWC then you may not know that this upcoming week is our Refuge Camp. It has taken the place of our summer retreat the past two years and as a volunteer it doesn’t make me miss those week long trips to youth camp at all! Basically we pack up and head south, but only about 30 minutes, to a church near Stone Mountain. We spend the week ministering to people between Monroe & Atlanta. The teenagers get to give of themselves in such cool ways. Not to knock the youth camps, but I just love that the teenagers get to see how much God cares about others and learn first hand how to serve those who have so little or even nothing at all. It also goes along with what we’ve been learning about in CLUB 252 this month, SERVING.

With that being said, I will be at Refuge Camp this week and out of the office, hence the GT & RD Cards being posted on Sunday night! I bet you didn’t think I was capable of being so on the ball 🙂

I also wanted to post this funny picture of the 1/2 grade small group acting as the good Samaritans & bandaging up poor little Eileen! They covered her in like a hundred bandaids & cloth bandages and then carried her on a beach towel, like any “good Samaritan” would do 🙂

And FINALLY here they are, the GT & RD Cards,  after much ado…use them wisely 🙂

7.11.10GTCards

7.11.10RDCard