March 2017 Kids Happenings
Hello Church Family,
These past several months have been amazing! I am so thankful for all the volunteers that have helped out with our Upward ministry. I want to say a very special thank you to the Townsend family, Kilgore family, and my husband and girls. You have sacrificed so many hours to this ministry and given of yourselves for the sake of others. Thank you for your patience with me, your time and energy to the league, and for loving the children and their families in such an amazing way. So many people have been praying for the children and families involved and God has answered prayers. Each year we pray for life change within the people of the ministry, good coaches, referees, concessions help, set up /clean up, and prayer warriors. And, each year God provides all of this. Our Upward ministry offers opportunity and responsibility for our church family, as well as an opportunity for life change within our community. It’s so much more than a ministry of our children’s department. It is a ministry of our church.
If you like numbers, here you go! We had 40 basketball coaches and 169 basketball players. We had 10 cheer coaches and 32 cheerleaders. We were able to house 11 games each weekend at our church during the months of January and February. And 26 practices each week between our church and the AIS First Ave School. Of the 202 participants in our league 51% of the participants have either no church affiliation or no solid biblical teaching and 25% are our own children. Over half of the families in our Upward ministry need to hear the word of God! This is a huge responsibility and opportunity and I am so blessed to have volunteers to come along side our Upward leadership team and do just that. I give praise to God for providing all of our needs and opening hearts to proclaim His name and opening hearts to hear the message.
On a separate note, please be on the look out for sign up sheets in the lobby for our upcoming Easter Eggstravaganza (April 15th 1pm) and Vacation Bible School (June 26th-30th). These are both great ways to serve our community and church family. I would love to have all of you be apart of these awesome opportunities that God gives our church to minister and love on others. Thank you for allowing me to love on your children.