Teen Self-Control and Bowling Week

We had our last Friday Fun Day for the summer. Today we learned about self-control - "making wise decisions based on God's will not our feelings." We also took the baby blankets we made to the Baby Hospital. Dr. Sergei Korotya, one of the members of our church family and the head doctor on the first floor, welcomed us and gave us a tour of his floor. Sergei said that he and his head nurse were just discussing yesterday that they needed more blankets for the babies. The kids were impacted greatly by their visit to the hospital and the realization that these children need parents. After visiting the hospital, eating lunch and working on our scrapbooks we went bowling.

Children's Bible School Report

Our second night of Bible School was a rain out - it started raining in the middle of the first center, so we had to move all the kids inside and we just watched the movie and ate popcorn. The kids still had a great time and they wanted to make sure that we would do the same craft (which one group did and all the other kids saw) the next day. For the last two days we set up canopies and had a "rain plan" firmly in place, but thankfully we did not need it. Last night we had more than 70 kids (which sent us scrambling because we planned for 60)! It was great. We hope that many of these kids will begin attending our regular weekly classes.

I think the biggest surprise of Bible School this year was how many young children (ages 4-7) attended. They were everywhere! While that is a challenging age to keep engaged, they are also fun to work with and a delight to teach. Be praying that we will be able to effectively reach out to these kids in the coming years.

Children's Bible School

After a week of preparations we finally had our first night of Children's Bible School and what a great night it was. The weather was unexpectedly cool - about 58 degrees with a cool wind - in the middle of August (thanks I guess to global warming!). There were 45 kids, a lot of parents (which was good because we had a younger crowd than usual) and about 20 workers. Our theme is "King's Heroes" and we used a combination of Veggie Tales "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" movie and stories of Heroes of Faith from the Bible. We had four centers - crafts, the movie theater and snack bar, Veggie Tales puppet theater, and games. Speaking of heroes, our young teens did a great job transitioning from attending Bible School last year to leading at Bible School this year. We are so proud of them. Enjoy the pictures.

Teen Gentleness and Children's Bible School Preparation Week

Today our teens worked all day long working on preparations for Children's Bible School. Our word for the week is gentleness, so we had a lesson this morning and sang together. Then we worked on the scrapbooks of their summer together. Finally we divided into boys and girls teams and started on preparations. The boys cleaned the yard around the worship room and then built seven benches in the playground. Meanwhile the girls finished sewing blankets for the Baby Hospital (162 total), painted a lot of props, and work on a variety of other Bible School projects. Instead of Friday Fun Day this week turned out (by good planning) to be Friday Work Day. The kids rose to the occasion and we are in good shape for Bible School. Enjoy the photos...

Teen Faithfulness and Skating Week

Last Friday our teens spent the day discussing faithfulness, skating, skateboarding, and rip-sticking at Stirol Park in Gorlovka, eating lunch together, working on the service project of blankets for the baby hospital, adding photos to their scrapbooks and playing games together. Enjoy the pictures...