Like Being a Pumpkin

It sounds like an analogy that one of my 7 year olds would make. 

Being a Christian is like being a pumpkin?

I'm pretty sure positive that if any of my kids tried to tell me that that I would plaster a big smile on my face and say something along the lines of, "Oh yeah... that's great! Sounds fabulous."  In my mind, I'd probably be questioning my teaching methods.  

It's one of those analogies that is so out there.

When I saw it explained like this, I don't think I could have said it any better myself.  

Source

"Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path."

Psalm 119:105

Bible Hero Night- Recap

The Bible is filled with stories of great people of faith, those with courage in the face of adversity, and the most important hero of all... Jesus.  With the exception of Jesus who is everyone's hero, we all have certain stories or people in the Bible who speak to our heart and who impact our lives.  

The purpose behind Bible Hero night is to get the kids to think about all of the people that they are learning about and to experience what it was like to be them even in just a small way.  

Here's the postcard I sent out the week before to remind everyone.  

The great thing about Bible Hero night?  It didn't cost me one penny.  

That's right... Bible Hero night is a completely free event!

It's important that your parents don't feel overwhelmed or pressured to send their child in an elaborate costume.  

I encouraged my parents via social media to simply use old sheets or what they found laying around their house.  

I had kids show up in bath robes, scarves, sheets, and accessorized with staff's and shields.  Seeing their creativity was amazing. 

They came dressed as Rebekah, Moses, Deborah, Mary, Elizabeth, a Christian, and lots of my little one's came dressed as the greatest hero that they know... Jesus. 

I pulled out my costume box with old Babylon costumes for kids to use who didn't wear one, and almost all of my kids chose to put on a costume for the night.  I had little one's running around everyone in tan and brown robes and it was magnificent.

I personally went as Esther.  Something about her story just grips my heart.  Her simple obedience to do what was right knowing that it could cost her her life absolutely captivates me.  It's my prayer that I too will have that innate desire to always do what is right and to speak up for those who don't have a voice.  

That's how we planned Bible night.  

It's simple, easy, fun, and most importantly FREE!  

This is a great way to stay under budget and still have a great night!  

What did you do with your little one's last night?  

Never Ever Ever- Like Ever!

It's Never Ever Ever Tuesday. 

I'm linking up again with Neeley, Steph, and Shelley for a list of 7 things that I would never ever ever do.  

The top 5 will be things I never ever ever do personally and my last 2 will be things I never ever ever do in ministry.

Never Ever Ever...

Will I stop having the urge to try out new hairstyles.
Will I wear shorts with tights.  I find it majorly tacky.
Will I look at myself as the underdog again.  I am a child of God covered with his protection.
Will I stop making spontaneous trips home for the weekend.
Will I like pumpkin flavor anything.  I know, something must be wrong with me.

Will children's ministry not be my number 1 priority.  I will stop talking to adults to talk to children.
Will I stop singing with my kids.  Learning to worship at a young age is so crucial.

What would you never ever do?

What's On My Nightstand

Today's post was supposed to be about my resource room only I didn't get it cleaned up yesterday.
Not getting it cleaned up yesterday meant I couldn't take any pictures of it.
It's so wonderful that you won't be able to really see it without the pictures.
Stay tuned to see a look at the resource room.

Instead of resource rooms today I'm giving you a look at the stack of books that's on my nightstand.
Last night I started David and Goliath: Underdogs, Mistfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell.

What leadership books are on your nightstand or in your to read pile?
Have you read any of the following?
Which one's were your favorite?

Let's talk about it!

Sunday Social- On Monday

Hello, Friends!

I've missed you all while I was away over the weekend.
I woke up Friday morning with the urge to travel, and travel I did.
I took off on Friday morning and headed home to visit my family for the weekend and to cross something off of my Fall Bucket List!

I went to the FAIR!  I've also made smores, painted pumpkins, and decorated my house.
But let's face it... clearly the fair is the most important thing on the list.
Why do I go to the fair?  Let's be honest... for the food!
While I was at the fair I ate some delicious Fiske fries, a pronto pup, a caramel apple, and a piece of chicken on a stick.
Really this is a fairly mild list.  I missed out on my funnel cake and my doughnuts.
There's always next year.

I hated not blogging over the weekend, but I'm also happy that I didn't.
I've always said that I wanted to make sure that there was never a day when I put my blogging over actual people.
Putting blogging aside to soak up some love from my family was sweet bliss.

With that said, I'm back and busier than ever!
Yesterday's Sunday Social looked super fun, so I thought I'd go ahead and throw in my answers to another all about the blog social.  Today, I'm talking all about my blog's first.

What is the first blog you ever followed?

Enjoying the Small Things by Kelle Hampton

What was your first blog post about? 

My first ever blog post was about why I was starting #KidsMin Calling.  Feel free to go back and read all about it here.  

Who left your first blog comment?

That would be one of my sweet friends, Franchesca on my post: "A person's a person no matter how small." 

Who was the first blogger you ever met in person?

That would be my sweet friend Audra Kate! 

She blogs over at Southern Girl in Heels and Pearls. 

This girl is hilarious and she is the real deal. 

We were roommates in college and became best friends fast! 

What was your first blogging milestone?

Reaching 5,000 pageviews.  

I really couldn't believe it.  

I was speechless. 

Speaking of milestones, we are 1/3 of the way to our next giveaway!  

#KidsMin Calling has passed 100 followers on Twitter!

To help us reach our giveaway we need 20 more likes on Facebook and almost 4,000 more pageviews.

We can do it!  Hop on over and like us on Facebook and share your favorite posts via social media for your friends and family! 

Check in tomorrow to see a post on my Resource Room!

I promise you, you don't want to miss this! 

#KidsMin Calling only has 2 spots remaining for our guest bloggers in November on why you are thankful for children's ministry.  E-mail kidsmincalling@gmail.com if you are interested.  

Let's Go Fish!

Last night's theme was, "Let's Go Fish."

Here's a look at the post card that I sent home the week before to remind everyone of what we were doing.  

I truly believe that these postcards are absolutely crucial to making sure that we have good participation.  

For safety reasons kids are not allowed to bring fishhooks of any kind!  

If you'd like a copy of my template to customize please feel free to leave me a comment or send me an e-mail. 

Last year, this theme was hard to pull together.  Why?  I had this elaborate idea in my mind of what I wanted my fishing pond to look like and it just wasn't working out the way I wanted it to.  The fabric wasn't draping right, my fish looked very strange, I was covered in hot glue, and I ended the day a sweaty and hot glue covered mess.  This year?  An absolute breeze.  This is why I strongly recommend doing things right the first time and then keeping them to reuse!  

When fishing night was over last year I took my fabric, folded it up, and stuck it on a shelf in my resource room so that I could use it again this year.  Here's a look at what our fishing pond looked like last year. 

And use it again I did.  This year's set-up took me about 30 minutes.  It was so much easier.  I pulled my fabric down off of the shelves and went to town.  Last year I draped my fabric over our mini puppet stage but this year I decided to go a different route.  We have a ginormous puppet stage that I considered using but just didn't want the hassle for an hour and a half program.  To save on space our puppet stage easily breaks down and is put away when not in use.  This year I used the same plumbing pipes and wooden blocks that I used to hold our crew signs up during VBS.  All I had to do was hot glue the fabric to the top and I was good to go.  

Easy as pie. 

I actually like it better this year.  I think the uneven line at the top makes it look like it's almost moving in little waves and I like that it's a lot longer this year and easier for someone to get behind.  

That's how I created my fishing pond.  

This is one of those theme nights that can cost you a very little amount of money, or it can cost you a great deal of money.  It is all dependent on how much you want to spend and how elaborate of a fishing pond that you want to have.  This year, this theme night cost me $0!  That's right, $0.  Why?  I saved everything that I used last year and didn't need to purchase anything.  

So how did I make the fishing pond?  

I used yellow, gray, red, and pink felt, green tulle, clothespins, and some paint.  

I cut out an assortment of ocean life from the felt pieces.  

I made dolphins, fish, and even one jellyfish.  

I made my seaweed on the bottom out of green tulle and lime green felt to give it some more contrast.  

I picked up a $5 fishing net at Wal-mart.

I painted my clothespins to look like worms with some simple craft paint and extra googly eyes I already had in my craft room.  

After that I grabbed my hot glue gun and just started hot gluing pieces onto my fabric.   and when I pulled it out yesterday, it was still intact!  

How does this night work?  

It's simple really.  As kids say verses they are allowed to come into the sanctuary and "go fish" for a special prize.  

The prizes can be anything from a piece of candy to leftover trinkets from last year's AWANA store.  

This night is used as an incentive to help kids learn those verses.  

Our kids love it.  Going to "fish" for their prize is one of their highlights. 

There are so many great object lessons and verses that you can use to theme your night around.  

My personal favorite is found in Matthew 4:18-20.  The moment when Jesus calls His first disciples to Him. 

"As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew.  They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.  'Come, follow me,' Jesus said, 'and I will send you out to fish for people.'  At once they left their nets and followed him."  

How important is it for all believers to know that being a follower of Jesus is about more than ourselves.  Being a follower of Jesus is about sharing that love and that grace with other people.  Every Wednesday I have the opportunity to impact anywhere from 60 to 70 kids.  Let's just imagine that each of those kids had the opportunity to impact ten people.  Before you know it anywhere from 600 to 700 people have been impacted by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Isn't that amazing?  

I am constantly challenging my kids to share the love of Jesus with their friends, family, teachers and schoolmates, and I hear the stories when they do.  And oh my, it is absolutely glorious.  It's in those moments that I truly believe heaven opens up and the angels are celebrating.  Those are the moments that I live for.  Those moments when I realize that my five year olds, or that my 4th graders understand what it means to truly go fishing.  

Known- Part 3

Throughout the last two days I've been sharing with you all what I learned from the two day leadership conference that I attended last week.  Despite the conference being over 4 days ago I have still found myself  thinking about all of the things that I learned over those two changing days.  If you follow my Twitter feed then you have seen me post lots of recaps over the last two days.

I wrote on Monday about what impacted me most deep down in my spirit and on Tuesday I wrote about what impacted my ministry the most.  If you haven't read them then I encourage you to.  Isn't it refreshing to know how much we can learn from each other?  It is always my prayer that God will use my blog as a way to reach out to those who I may never come in contact with in any other way.

Today, I want to share with you what I like to call truth nuggets.  We all know what I'm talking about.  These are those little statements of truth.  Those nuggets that are so good that when you hear them you sit up a little higher, you grip your pen a little tighter, write a little faster, and listen in closer because you know just how good those words are.  These are the nuggets that you remember out of every sermon.  These are the statements that you keep going back to days later.

Here are just a few of those nuggets that I have been meditating on over the last few days.

"I am known to make him known.  Remember who it's from and who it's for and know that God can cut it off in a minute.  
Your appetite for known will never be satisfied by a number.  It will only be satisfied by a who or a name, and never satisfied by a how many."  -Andy Stanley

"Don't underestimate the power of the heart or the power of your own faith.  David was not the underdog."  -Malcom Gladwell

"I am designed by God to display God's identity.  God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him."  -John Piper

"Jesus never promoted a childish life, but He did promote a child-like faith."  -Judah Smith

"Change from the inside out is the kind of change that lasts."  -Priscilla Shirer

"When you see how much time you have left you tend to get serious about the time you have now.  I am not God.  
I am not the Holy Spirit.  I can not change anyone, but I can love a few.  Inheritance is what you leave someone.  
Legacy is what you leave in them."  -Reggie Joiner

"Love the church you're in and not the one you wish you were in.  Love the calling you have and not the calling you wish you had.  Rejoice in the God who calls you and you will begin to rejoice again in what He has called you to."  -Jud Wilhite

Were you at Catalyst this year?
What have you been meditating on the last few days?
Did any of these nuggets speak to you like they spoke to me?

Let's talk about it!

Come back tomorrow for a recap of tonight's theme: Go Fish!
It's the one day of the year that I wear camouflage and I like it.

*#KidsMin Calling is looking for guest bloggers for the month of November to write about reasons they are thankful for kids ministry.  If you are interested please e-mail kidsmincalling@gmail.com