Church, church ministries and Spiritual growth

With the new school year just starting, church programs are restarting as well.  My kids are involved in a couple of activities and I am volunteering this year since I am not working full time.  I have realized lately that we need to have more discussions, devotions, family prayer and spiritual growth in our family.

Tuesday mornings I have started to go to "Mom's in Prayer".  In this group we meet for an hour and pray for our kids, teachers and local schools.  There are currently about 6 moms that meet, but we are praying for more.  I really believe there is nothing more powerful than prayer so we should be praying for our kids and our schools and teachers when we can.  Even if you are not able to attend such a group, you can pray from home.  If you are in the Aumsville area, we meet at Bethel Baptist at 9am on Tuesday mornings.  There may be a group in your area, the website for the organization is 

This Sunday is "Bless our Schools" week at our church.  I hear we are also going to have a dance performance...so if you are around this area you wont want to miss it.

Tomorrow is "See you at the Pole" where students can gather at their schools once a year and pray.  I have never been a morning person and have never gone, but am thinking it would be a good thing for my kids to start doing.  Tomorrow is late start, so I am thinking its either at 9am or 9:30am at Aumsville.  Kaylee wont want to sacrifice her lazy morning, but I think she can sacrifice one a year :)

Starting next Tuesday, I will be volunteering in the "Good News Club" at Aumsville elementary after school.  Kids in grades K-5 can attend every week after school.  Kaylee has gone since Kindergarten and has always enjoyed it.  They work on verses, Bible stories and have lots of fun.  I am excited to be involved in this and will know more about what goes on when I start next week.  I am going to take two kindergartners with me,  Allie, and her friend Bre...so I hope that I can still be helpful.

Wednesdays we go to Awana at our church, Bethel Baptist.  It goes from 6:45-8:30pm.  Kaylee and Alli have both been involved for years.  Kaylee started at age 4 and Alli started in a baby toddler group there when she was a baby!  Now she is in Sparks and Kaylee is in T & T.  I can hardly believe it!  I am helping out in Kaylee's T&T group (which stands for Truth in Training)  I was impressed with the organization and positive leaders last week (Good job Ted and Trish, and everyone else).  The kids look forward to going every week, they get to see their friends, play games, and work on memorizing verses.  Ted explained to the kids last week the importance of learning verses so that you have the spiritual knowledge to handle situations.  Without knowing these verses and what the bible says, how can we know what is truth and what is not? (Although I am thankful the Holy Spirit Helps with this too).  I was impressed with the way the leaders explained things to the kids.  I didn't realize I would be growing in this ministry as well.

Sunday mornings we usually relax and then go to the 10:45 service.  I think we need to start going to Sunday school again though.  I also want Dan to come to church with us more often so that he can grow as well.  Our pastor is willing to give Dan a print out of his sermon and make accommodation so that he can understand what is going on.  His wife also is thinking of starting a sign language singing group for kids.  They can learn the signs to songs and then do it for the church.  I think this would be the perfect way to get Daddy more involve din church, and it would be good for everyone.  I wouldn't mind helping in this as well, we all need to brush up on our sign language.

For the last 3 Sundays I have been in either children's church or nursery.  This is not the norm, so I am not complaining.  I just volunteered to be the Children's church coordinator, which means I organize Children's church and find teachers to teach it.  I may sub in there or be in the rotation if I wish but I am not expected to be in there all of the time.  I don't think this will be a time consuming job, and someone needed to step up.  I enjoy teaching young children, and Alli is still in this group (ages 3-kindergarten), so I am happy to help.

I am also on the nursery worker rotation.  I still enjoy doing this, and it is only once every month or two.  I don't get to see or hold babies often so this is a treat for me, and I know their parents appreciate being able to sit in the service in peace.

I joined the Deaconess committe a couple of months ago.  I have enjoyed getting to know the ladies more.  Our job's switch every 3 months.  I need to step up more in this role, as I nearly forgot what job I was doing.  Some of the jobs such as the one I"m doing now (calling people to bring food for funerals or injured and sick people) do not come up much.  I was apart of a baptism a couple of months ago which was a really neat experience.  Other than the monthly meetings this committee doesn't require that much time.

Our church also has a clothing closet once a month which I was helping with for awhile.  I would like to continue helping in that ministry, but I can't during soccer season because the time's conflict.  Thankfully they seem to have plenty of help.  Monica has done a great job organizing the clothes and setting up this ministry for the community.

Allie in Cubbies last year

Kaylee singing at Fir Point Church camp

In the summer, The girls participate in a couple VBS programs.  I haven't helped with these yet, but maybe next summer.  Our church's VBS is the same time every year as the Fir Point Free Methodist Church camp that the girls go to.  I have been volunttering at the camp for the last 2 years (it is 5 days long).  I think it is an important experience for kids to go away to camp and away from technology to experience God and make their faith their own.  I know that it was a vital point in my Christian walk as a youth.

I have been attending a parenting growth group class which was meeting every other Monday.  I really enjoyed the group and learned a lot.  IT was difficult to get there with the girls sports schedules though, and everyone was busy in the summer it seemed so we are stopping for now.  I hope that we are able to find a time to meet for another parenting group or a moms group soon.  Our church is conducting a survey to see what people need/and want as far as classes and what schedules work for them.  I am excited that they are hoping to start up more opportunities for spiritual growth.