Promotion Sunday

Okay. We needed a new post and Jenny is very, very, busy. Promotion Sunday is THIS Sunday. New little first graders (my sweet boy) and I am sure lots of new faces will be bouncing down the halls and singing in Celebration. We have lots of new volunteers to Journey and some returning faces. The children will no longer be fruits of the spirit but colors. Don't forget to wear your team color on Sunday. Dress your children in their Journey color and wear comfortable shoes! I can't wait to see what God has in store for this new year. Thanks for serving and post your stories so others can see what God is doing at Westwood.

Crosspoint Thank You

What a great week we just finished up at Crosspoint. The kids and adults played hard, laughed hard and more importantly, we prayed for each other, we prayed for others, we prayed to, sang praises to and worshipped our God. We did this throughout the day and night. I may write more about Crosspoint week itself, but, today I want to say thanks.

Thank you parents for entrusting us with your kids for the week. I cannot tell you how many times I have said it this week, but, we have a great bunch of kids. It was really rewarding to see the kids of Westwood interact with other kids, to see "our" kids show God's love to others, to see "our" kids put others before themselves, to hear them pray for others, to see them actively participate in worship, taking notes in worship and actually going back to those notes and looking up the verses that were mentioned in the service and just to see them laugh and have fun. Parents, again thank you for giving us these blessings.

Thank you adult campers (yes, Michael, technically you are an adult), wow, I do have photos of how you acted. Seriously, you all are the greatest. You all were encouraging and comforting to the kids when the day got long and the kids were tired or just when things did not go exactly to plan. You all had a hug, a smile and sometimes you just had your ears to listen to the kids. You prayed for and with the kids. You were coaches, umpires, you were in OMC with shaving cream and toothpaste, you shined the light of God's love to the kids. You did all of this and much more, WITHOUT COFFEE!!! In all, this was an awesome week with a great time had by all.

What Celebration Captains Do in Real Life...

Today in Celebration, as a lead-in to our lesson about Paul being a tent-maker and how God has a plan for us to glorify God in whatever occupation He leads us too, I had the bright, spur-of-the-moment idea to ask the Celebration captains what they did for a living and then had the kids guess what the captains who were not in the room did.

They were excited to learn that Mr. Tim is a mailman, they cheered for Mrs. Cherry that she was a mom, they didn't really understand that Mr. Steve sold software to schools. It was all going so well. They thought Mr. Stuart worked at the church but then someone else guessed he was a missionary. How sweet. A fourth grade girl was going to guess that Mr. Joey was a rock star, but someone cleared up that he is an engineer. Someone thought Mr. Kevin was a librarian (seriously???) and then when I named another female captain one of our sweet 4th grade boys said, "Underwear model?"

I held it together until I caught Steve's eye and it was over. So totally inappropriate, but very, very funny. Seriously, did any other ministry laugh as hard as we did Sunday morning? Who knows what they are going to say?????

From Brian (11:00 Gentleness Shepherd)

One of the greatest celebrations of Mr. Dereks life can be knowing that he won; he defeated Satan. I saw the importance of that in the words written by a fourth grader on his art room door that said "Congrats on going to Heaven". As bad as we miss loved ones here, it's tiny compared to an eternity of peace and joy we will spend with those very same loved ones when we reach the place our Father has prepared for us. God gave us the ability to love, and gave us an example of that love in his son Jesus Christ, but with Love comes sadness. I imagine God cried the day Jesus was crucified for our sins, but look what a gift was given to heaven. I was not given the opportunity to know Derek very well, but from the impact he left behind here on earth, I have a feeling he is well. To Jill and the children; though sadness clouds our lives at times, it cannot take away our ability to Love. I pray that when the clouds part and the sun comes back out in your life, you will see the victory for God's kingdom Derek was. God Bless you and I will continue to pray for your healing. We see it as a lose for us, but through the eyes of a fourth grader it was a win. Praise God for Derek’s victory; he defeated the greatest enemy in his life, Satan.

P.S. - Derek, Congrats on going to Heaven!

Some More Fun from VBS

66 First time decisions for Christ. WOW!
750 registered elementary kids
1274 total registered kids, preschoolers, volunteers
$2700 raised for missions - Jade and Shelah Acker

Here are some random stories and comments:

- As we were dismissing on the final day of Power Lab, a crew leader came to me and said, "if you ever doubt the power of what you do, look at my 8 year old son. He is sobbing because VBS is over. He is crying more than when we left Disney World."

- On Wednesday, thunderstorms were rolling into the area. The lightning made one of our second graders a little nervous. She stopped and said, "Jesus gives us the power to be brave." (The Bible point for that day). Another friend was walking by and said "Aha!" (that won't mean a thing to you if you weren't at VBS :) )

Comments from volunteers:
- "We have been struggling with our son and the importance of making good choices for friends. He came home from VBS literally each day "on fire" for God. Towards the end of the week he mentioned several of the kids he met and formed friendships with were going to camp and how he really wanted to go"
- "I was a crew leader this week at VBS. What a great time both the adults and the kids had! It was awesome and I loved being a part of it. This was my first time and it was GREAT! Thanks for letting me get involved. We are new to Westwood and this brought me even closer."
- "Just wanted to say "WOW". What an awesome week. I know that we had a lot more kids attend VBS than we had planned for, but you would never had known it since everyone had so many cool crafts and even in Chadders we sent home some neat stuff. The directors and staff made it possible for everyone to feel special and have something to remind them of what an awesome week it was.
Even the 5th graders were able to get their slime that they missed on Wednesday. I had a van full of kids everyday going and coming and I did not hear one negative comment about VBS. Everyone said they had a great time and was looking forward to the next day. It was neat listening to them talk and sing about God's power."

Leave a comment and tell us your VBS stories!

Journey Funny from Mrs. Sue

"Yesterday I had Manal's class in story time. The lesson was about Jonah and foreign missions. To try and get these kids to get the idea of a "foreign" country, I had them name any other country they could. One came up with Japan, another was England, etc. They are really too young to be heavy into geography. Anyway, to prompt them along, I was giving one little boy some hints. So I said, "What about a country that is south of Texas. (no response) The people there eat tacos and wear big sombreros." Immediately another student yells out, "HABENEROS". Manal and I got a good chuckle out of that one."

Look all around and you will see His POWER!

What an incredible VBS week. We had 750 elementary kids registered and averaged about 650. When we added in all the youth workers, adult leaders, and preschoolers, our numbers were over 1200. That is incredible.

I love VBS weeks for many obvious reasons... lots of kids are experiencing God, lots of money is raised for missions, lots of children give their life to Christ. All of those are awesome things. But none of that would take place to the magnitude that it does without the power of God working through volunteers. I think it would be safe to say that VBS is our largest volunteer venture of the year at Westwood. There is great power in the church body being focused in prayer and manpower for one event.

Thank you to Kathy and Vivian and the set-up team for the incredible decorations. I know it took lots of work and lots of time. Thank you for setting the stage (literally) for kids to have a blast learning about God.

Thank you to Michelle and the registration team. We teased you about having those envelopes beside your bed at night, but your hard work and diligence paid off. I heard comment after comment about how smooth everything was and how there was no tension in the air. That is in large part due to your determination to have everything as organized as possible. GREAT WORK! I need you in my world.

Colleen, words can not express our gratitude for you. I wish my brain worked like yours. :) Like I said for Michelle, your organization was the other half of the peace that hovered over VBS week. You are incredible. Thank you for all of your hard work.

Cyndi, Mary Jane, Cammie, Cherry, and Stu, thank you for leading each of your teams. Each area of VBS is critical and I appreciate your dedication to making it the best it could possibly be.

Carol, thanks for the yummy snacks!

Frankie, thank you for being my rock and my friend. I said it on Thursday and I meant it... I could not do what I do without you. You keep me straight and steady and you really make me laugh. ("He's coming!")

Preschool workers, thank you for loving our babies. And thanks for not growling at me when I was the last one EVERY day. Kaylie and Brenna thank you.

Crew leaders, I had challenged you to be the children's ministers for the week. You did it. All 56+ of you. Thank you for pouring into the kids.

Dr. David - thanks for helping me be able to talk again.

Virginia, you are the hardest working woman I have ever seen. I know it was a hard week on you. You and your childcare team made it possible for 50+ (or was it 2,000 like you said on Monday) to come to VBS who would have not been able to. Thank you for your servant's heart and for your friendship.

Ronda and the Special Touch team. thank you for providing a great experience for all of our kids.

Last, but certainly not list, thank you to Bre and Marsha. I am so thankful that God has brought both of you into my life. I enjoy partnering with you in ministry, but even more I enjoy the friendship He has blessed me with. Thank you both for taking so much off of me and for running with this thing. The successes that God blessed us with were much more because of you than because of me. He used both of you in incredible ways to touch so many children. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I know I've missed people and I'm sorry. I'm out of words now. :) Thank you, Jesus, for an incredible week.