Good Friday

Today we went to the Inner City Church- ( the one we used to work at.) and Melissa played the piano and we worshipped with the congregation for Good Friday. It was a good time for our children as Makayla is old enough for the first time to realize that Jesus suffered on the cross. She may have seen pictures and heard a million times. But, this was the year she realized that Jesus paid a price for her, and that it was not an easy price, but one of suffering and love for her!

Annual Easter Egg Hunt
Today was our annual Easter Egg Hunt.
It was a busy week as Chris and I had been preparing every evening after everyone went asleep. We prepared the crafts and organized food for what we were expecting was about 150 people.
Families in our church pitched in and helped. We had a sand cross necklace station, and a colouring contest station, a magnet station, and temporary christian tattoo station, jumpy castle station, and an egg decorating station, as well as the jelly bean guess where we got families information. and of course the Sausage Sizzle.

The afternoon went off without a hitch and despite the rain early in the morning the day was lovely and all three groups of kids got to do their Easter egg hunt as well as, we were able to do the egg toss. Afterwards the kids came inside and we read the Legend of the Easter Egg Hunt, and then we handed out awards. Truly was a lovely afternoon!

Straight after the Easter Egg Hunt we had our Palm Sunday Service. This was lovely because for the first time we had a few families stay from the Easter Egg Hunt! Truly an exciting moment for the families of our church who had been praying for this event! Chris's father has been here for the past two weeks and he shared from the word of God with these families. Which worked out perfect, because it allowed Chris the opportunity to meander and speak with families. And, took a lot of pressure off of him! Thanks Dad for all you did as well as Chris's Sister ran around with me collecting all the items and food, and helping organize as well!

Pray for Chris and I as we follow up with these families. And make an effort to connect them to our church and Kids Club.

You're prayers are impacting lives! Do know that God is moving here in these people. One of the families that attended our palm Sunday service has now been to church two weeks in a row! Pray that God would move in their hearts!

One of the difficulties of both Chris and I pastoring the church and always being incredibly busy on these days is watching our children. Luckily this year they had Aunt Melissa who came all the way from the USA to see them. She looked after them and they had a wonderful day!!!

Family Kids Club Day!
To close out Kids Club this term we had a family day. The Kids came after school and we had a great big party! We had a jumpy castle and every family brought snacks and it was a BEAUTIFUL afternoon of fun! Then, afterwords all the parents joined us and we had a movie night. Kids brought their chairs, and bean bags and sleeping bags and the families all brought their own dinners and we all sat around for a wonderful evening. My favourite part of the evening was sititng and chatting with the mother's. I especially got to know one of the mother's a girl who has just started coming to Kids Club for a couple of weeks. It was truly a special moment. I can't wait to see how God is going to connect and build a relationship with us and the Stamp family.

Term 1 Kids Club Awards Night

Kids Club tonight was a very rewarding evening for not just the kids, but for Chris and I . We were able to see the fruit of our hard work. We had 23 kids receive 46 badges. Not all of them were able to make the evening. But, none the less the kids shared with their families the special songs they learned as well as they received their badges. We focus this whole term on God! The Kids learnt- God created everything, God is Love, God is our friend, God is our Father, God is Holy, God is Powerful, and a few other topics about God. But, they also shared their main memory verse. Genesis 1:1. And, I was very VERY proud of them! We had a record number of Kids Club families come and we had three regular kids club families away for a wedding! So, God is moving in these families lives and pulling them closer to him! Praise God he works in even the smallest of us! Tonight I was reminded of just the fact that we ALL need to be like these children and have child like faith! For many of these families.. .Their children are the first generation Christian in their home! Praise God!

MACHINERY! ---not always helpful!

Today was a very busy day. It started off this morning with me trying to print off the badges I had created for the Awards Assembly. What I thought was going to be a VERY simple task turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. I think the devil was trying to smoosh his way into our awards evening for Kids Club. We had 23 kids who earned 46 badges! This is huge! And, God is AMAZING. But, God works in mysterious ways. With the help of a few families and getting the badges RE-printed. Praise God Chris's Dad and Sister were here and able to work the badge machine and get the badges finished in time for us to put them on the sashes and still hand them out at church on time! For some of these children it was their first time ever getting badges so it was a REALLY big deal! Praise God he looks after even the tiniest of details! PS. Chris's Dad and sister brought us this fancy machine in their luggage from the states! That is why I was a bit delayed in getting them done on time! :)