Kids and Parents

This is your page to fill with

your artwork, stories, pic-

tures, puzzles, and much

more. Submit your contribu-

tions by Sept. 15 to Tammy

Wood or email them to her at

tammy.wood@gracelifecc.org

GLCC’s Kingdom Rock VBS was a huge success on June 24th-28th as we saw our church trans-formed into the Royal Realm with a Royal Palace created by our amazing decorating team.

The theme for the week was to “STAND STRONG”. The children learned that God’s love, family & friends’ support, prayer, trusting God, and learning and applying Biblical truths help us to STAND STRONG. What a thrill to hear close to 440 children shout out that they will “STAND STRONG!”

It was a wonderful week led by six Admin Direc-tors that have served VBS over the past three years. A special thanks goes to Pam Benedict who took the lead as VBS Co-Director.

We had 215 volunteers who served behind the scenes and during the week to make this VBS possible. It took 105 engaged and empowered crew leaders and assistants to lead the 54 elemen-tary crews and 20 preschool crews.

Our station leaders and their teams covered Reg-istration, Tournament games, Epic Bible story, Imagination station, Preschool Crafts, 3’s pro-gram, Kings Kitchen Snacks (serving over 4000 snacks!), and Chadder’s Royal Theatre & Mis-sions. All did a great job sharing important Bib-

lical truths to the children coming through their stations.

We even had nursery and staff child care availa-ble so that the volunteers could participate in our morning devotions, staff meetings, and other ac-tivities throughout the day.

The famous Sir Bob-a-lot (Pastor Bob), Lady Sophia (Hannah Montgomery) and Chester the Jester (Matt Patti) led the Sing and Play Rock opening and closing sessions with songs, skits and even surprise entrances on an inflatable horse!

Beginning Wednesday, we announced our Cele-bration Challenge to the crews to help raise mon-ey for David & Abigail Babu’s Sunshine Minis-tries in Hyderabad, India. This ministry had just built a school for the orphaned and poverty stricken children there, but still needed student desks and supplies to get the school ready for their pupils.

Tessa Miles spent time with the crews in both Imagination Station and Preschool Chadder shar-ing more about Sunshine Ministries. She has a first hand connection with their school through multiple mission trips to India.

The children gave generously. The $3702 that they contributed will purchase all 40 desks need-ed as well as a couple teachers desks! What a blessing it will be for Pastor Bob to hand deliver the check to David in India!

And here is what really makes it all worth-while…On Thursday and Friday the salvation message was shared with all 400+ children. They were asked to let the crew leaders know if they would like to talk with someone about being saved. Close to 65 children met with the leaders and accepted Christ as their personal Lord and Savior!

Kids Connection Zoom in

CONNECTING KIDS WITH CHRIST THROUGH DISCIPLESHIP, FELLOWSHIP, WHILE TEACHING THEM TO BECOME DEVOTED FOLLOWERS OF

GOD, REACHING OTHERS THROUGH SERVING HIM.

July

9th – CM Leadership Team Meeting ~ 6:30am

August Recruitment Month!

NO 9:30am Sunday School this month.

22nd – 5th Grade– Kings Dominion Trip

September

1st – Sunday School Class Parties

7th– CM Appreciation & Training Workshop 9am-12noon. Lunch will be provided.

8th – New CM Season begins with Class/ Grade Promotions

15th – Sunday Evening CM Classes begin. Including “Going Deeper” class for

4-5th graders.

CALENDAR OF

This newsletter is a quarterly publication. Our next issue will hit the GLCC news stands October 2013.

September 7th from 9am-12noon.

Lunch is provided All CM Team Members MUST attend to be equipped with vital ministry updates (check-in process, evacuation proce-dure, and more), teaching techniques and team build-ing.

Come and meet your TEAM for a team building power

Written by Stephanie Hugh

I woke up this morning with a heavy strong feeling on my heart to share this with you.

There was a crew leader named Doug who led crew 51 with his son (Hagen) who shared on Thursday morning about how, since he lost his daughter (he still has 3 sons), the couple girls in his crew had a special place in his heart. He also shared how he received that great compliment that he smelled good (LOL). Our Lacey was in his group that week. Later that night on stage, I saw him pay extra close attention to Lacey. He was trying so hard to make sure no one covered her up on stage. I saw him always keeping an extra close eye on her. I felt so good knowing that he was watching out for one of my babies if I or her daddy couldn't be with her.

The next day Ward picked up Lacey as usual, signed her out. Then we got busy with clean up mode, etc. Later at home we were sitting at the dinner table and Ward shared with me how eve-ry day Doug praised Lacey and her enthusiasm and great attitude. On the last day he asked for a hug from her and of course she was very eager to give one. We certainly didn't mind! Come to find out it was our Lacey who told him he smelled good. (No surprise there...she is always checking out what someone smells like, what they're wearing and you get the picture). When it dawned on us both that she was that little girl he shared about and I added up all the pieces. You can imagine how the tears just flowed from us both. Although, we were all there to serve, God knew that one of the staff needed love and healing himself. He found it from a little girl who was there to have fun loving The Lord herself. As a parent I can't imagine the pain he must have felt or still feels. My sweet Lacey who is passionate about The Lord and loves everyone who comes in her path was able to minister to a need of a hurting person by being her cute, fashionista self! My heart just swells!............................................................................................

I woke up crying this morning thinking of how much it probably meant to Doug to talk with Lacey about girl stuff, sing and dance with her. ………………………………………………

It's just a great reminder how when we give we receive so much more. He needed that love and attention and little girl nuggets in his life. He treated our kids so wonderfully. Lacey had noth-ing but nice things to say about him (and his son).)………….………………………………...

How God uses His children always amazes me. Even a cute, curly haired 5 year old (almost 6 as she would say!) ministers to the need of someone she has never met before and she didn't even know it!

CHILDREN’S MINISTRY APPRECIATION & TRAINING WORKSHOP

Little Junior Church Mission

Project~ ACTS Turning Points

Led by Sheri Holdaway and her team, the Little JR. Church (K & 1st grade) meets during the 11:00 service. During the month of April, this group collected 82 gently used stuffed animals that the children contributed to the shelter at ACTS/Turning Point. ACTS/Turning Points is a Prince William county organization whose mission is to assist families in crisis from domestic violence, home-lessness, or needing food and much more!

On June 2nd at GLCC, the children presented their col-lection to Lydia Teutsch, the Children’s Program Coordi-nator. The cuddly animals will be given to children who come to the shelter and attend the programs, providing them with something to love and cuddle and giving them a sense of security as they experience uncertainties in their lives.

Ms. Lydia shared about the children she cares for and was truly grateful for the class’s generous contribution. It was a real blessing to see the children give so willingly to help other children who are going through challenging times in their lives.

The toys were selected by the children at ACTS on their last day of classes July 1st. Tammy Wood with her ther-apy dog Zoey and other therapy dog teams were there to see the children’s excitement while selecting their new toys. Their smiles said it all!

Check out www.actspwc.org for more information.

Children’s Ministries Director

Tammy Wood

Nursery Jennifer deFranco Joan Culbertson

Preschool

Patti Easley Judy Dickerson

Preschool Junior Church

Nelli Popa Elizabeth Reinhard

Little Junior Church (K-1st)

Sheri Holdaway

Junior Church (2nd-5th) Jennifer Suliga

Sunday School (Elementary)

Heidi O’Donnell

Welcome Station Alexandra Briggs

Newsletter Editor

Janda Sample

PLEASE….Won’t you Teach us and Tell us more about Jesus, this next year?

Thanks to 189 team members this season who are devoted in teach-

ing our next generation about Christ. It takes 56 team members dur-

ing the first service and 26 during the 2nd service to minister to our

children each Sunday! We can use your help. Let a team leader or

Tammy Wood know you are ready to ENGAGE and make a differ-

ence!

Our ministries rely wholly on willing and devoted team members to

serve in one of the 8 areas of our Children’s Ministries.

New for 2013-14 season:

Sunday evening classes for children beginning September 15th.

Nursery, Preschool, Early Elementary and

“Going Deeper” class for the 4th-5th graders.

Preschool Exceptional Class– 11:00 class for our children with

special needs.

Sir Bob-a-lot traveling to India.

Power Sunday is a quarterly event for our Elementary children when we emphasize Power in Prayer, Power in God’s Word and Power in Missions.

On May19th our Power Sunday was led by Becky Courliss, our Missionary to Togo, Africa. Becky shared about fearing God, teaching the children that to fear God does not mean to be afraid of Him, but rather to revere and respect Him.

The children generously contributed $120 toward a much needed generator to provide power for Becky’s home.