Thank YOU!

Hello!

I just wanted to take this opportunity to say a HUGE thank you to all of you who gave of your time and talents to serve in the AWANA program throughout this past school year. We are so blessed to have volunteers who will come to church each Thursday night to help these kids grow in their knowledge and faith by memorizing the scriptures. We have awesome teachers that come prepared to teach the children stories from God’s word that will change their lives. And best of all thank you to those of you who come to love on the kids each week.  Again I will say that we are greatly blessed to have this team of volunteers that work with children starting at nursery age and going all the way up through 6th grade.

I would ask each of you reading thing if you would consider joining us in the fall for our next AWANA year. We would love to have you come help these kids learn their verses, sit with them during story time, or help with the games. Please take some time this summer to pray and see if God is calling you to help train up the next generation in God’s word.

While we are on the topic of prayer, I also want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who participated in our Pray for Me campaign this year. We had a huge amount of participation here at Liberty and I was excited to hear all of the stories come back to me from those praying as well as those being prayed for.  I am so proud to share with people that I belong to a church that believes in praying for the teens and children of our church. 

This Sunday night we are using the evening service to celebrate the next generation of our church. We will be sharing those who have achieved awards this year during the course of our AWANA program as well as recognizing those of you who have faithfully served in the AWANA program. We will be sharing about our Pray for Me Campaign and honoring those who have taken time each day to pray for someone that is the future of this church and nation. And we will be honoring those who have graduated high school and college, which is also a great achievement.


It is my hope that you will join  us as we celebrate as a church family the great ways that God has been at work during the school year. Even if you weren't involved in any of the ministries I have mentioned, come and show your support to those who were. It is our job as a family to celebrate along with each other, raising each up as they achieve, encouraging as they struggle, and prayerfully, faithfully living life together in unity.

Gratefully Growing at The Grove!

Miss Megan

Tags and Badges

Community of Faith

I had the privilege  of sitting down for coffee with another young ministry leader yesterday. We shared what was going on in each of our ministries, things we were excited about, and even things we worried about. At the end of that time we prayed and went our separate ways.

I was reminded again by this meeting that I am blessed with a rich community of faith. I am surrounded by people who are following God and excited about what he is doing through them. I am also blessed that a lot of the members of this community are of the same generation as I am. We are the "young leaders" of the churches, ministries, and jobs in this world. It is so cool to know that we are carrying on the faith.

A few weeks ago I was able to go to a conference for Children's Pastors and ministry workers. One of the keynote speakers, you may now him, Ryan Frank spoke on how we are all part of a chidden community. It spans towns, states, countries, and the globe. We have been blessed to be in a technological age where community can be built from anywhere. The same is true for us as Christians living today. We can have a strong faith community made up of people all over the place. I personally have a faith community that spans at least 3 states.

I keep throwing around this term "community" and for those of you who don't know what I am talking about, a community is a group of people you go through life with. People that are plugged in to your day to day life, who make an impact, and who have your back.

If you are not plugged into a community, or you really don't have anyone to go through life with, I would encourage you to find a group, build your own. Church is a great place to start, it is filled with people who believe the same things you do. Ask someone out for coffee or to lunch and start building that relationship.  I promise it will be worth the effort.

Continually Growing at The Grove!

Miss Megan

Life Size Candy Land

Join us for Life Size Candy Land! You and your family won't want to miss out on all the fun!

Christmas Eve

I published this post last year on Christmas Eve, and it still holds just as true today!

Christmas Eve Service

One of the traditions I have at Christmas is one that I have gained within the last 10 years, that is the tradition of a Christmas Eve service. In the church I am currently in, and the one I previously served in, the Christmas Eve service was a family service. As a Children’s Pastor I absolutely believe in age specific classes for children on a regular basis, but there is something so special about families worshipping together on Christmas Eve. Just tonight I attended the Christmas Eve service at Liberty and I was reminded again how wonderful it is to have multiple generations of families celebrating the miracle of Christmas together. At first sight you would see a dimly lit, packed sanctuary. You would hear the rustling of people and the cries and talking of children. These things may seem like a distraction or even seem to take away from the “atmosphere” of the holiday. But to me it just makes it even more Christmas Eve. You see we know from the account in Luke 2 that Bethlehem was very crowded. In fact it was so crowded that Mary and Joseph could not find any room in an inn. The light wasn’t good and so the young couple was trying to find their way around the stable to the best that they could. I can imagine Joseph trying to make it seem more like a room for his young bride who was soon to deliver her son. 

Because Joseph and Mary were in a stable, in a crowded town, we can be pretty sure that things were far from quiet. There were probably babies crying out, overheard conversations, and even the animals making noise. It was far from a silent night, and definitely not as put together as a pretty nativity scene that we all observe each year. So hearing babies crying out or squeezing in a little closer than normal in a pew just reminds me of that miracle that happened so many years ago. The miracle of God coming to earth as a helpless baby in a less than perfect situation in a world with "no room" for Him. May these Christmas Eve services always remind me of the simple beginnings of Christmas and not allow me to get caught up in the elaborate celebrations.

It is because of this that Christmas Eve services are one of my favorite traditions at Christmas time. If you have never experienced this type of worship I would encourage you to find a church that does it. I have been blessed to serve in two churches that believe in worshipping as a family on Christmas Eve and it is something that has become very important to me.

Thankfully Growing at the Grove!

Miss Megan

Celebrating Christmas With the Family

First of all let me apologize for not keeping up with my blog posts. I guess you could say that I fell off the edge of the earth for a while. But don't worry I am back and quickly catching up.

Most of you probably know this about me but I love the Christmas season. I call it a season because I celebrate Christmas for at least the entire month of December if not longer.  There is so much to be done that I simply cannot fit it into just one day or even one week.

One of the big things about Christmas for me is celebrating with my family or families as it may be from year to year. I think this is so important because we are celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. And it is through his birth and eventual death that we get to truly have a family relationship with God. Jesus came to take away our sins once and for all and to reconnect us with God the Father in a real way. We can now have the Father/child relationship that God always wanted with us. And that is definitely something to celebrate.

 I hope that each of you take the time to enjoy celebrating Christmas with your family, whoever that may be.


Continually Growing at The Grove

Miss Megan

Why I Celebrate Advent

I love Christmas, and there are many traditions that I have when it comes to the Christmas season. Celebrating Advent is one of those traditions. I love the counting down to Christmas, and doing it in a way that celebrates the birth of our Savior.

The Israelite people were waiting and looking for the promised Messiah for many years, there were descriptions given to them of what this Messiah was going to be like. And with great anticipation they waited. I believe that we too should have a sense of anticipation when it comes to celebrating Christmas.
Counting down the Sundays leading to Christmas and taking time out to focus on Jesus is a great way to get you and your family into the spirit of the true meaning of Christmas. There are some more traditional ways to celebrate advent that have to do with the lighting of the candles, and then there are devotionals that help us to focus and celebrate in the same way.

Each year I try to supply some type of advent devotional for the families in my ministries so that together they can spend time celebrating and anticipating the birth of our Savior. There was so much that went into the foretelling, conception,  announcements, and birth of Jesus that it is hard to sum it up all at once. Taking the whole month to truly appreciate the whole of these events is a great way to celebrate, in my opinion.

I hope that each of you take the time this month to celebrate the greatest gift of Christmas, our Savior sent as a baby to earth.


Continually Growing at The Grove!

Miss Megan

Lessons Learned

I am continually reminded that valuable lessons are being taught each week to the children in our churches. These lessons are not only for kids, they are also ones that we as adults need to be reminded of.

Today I had the privilege of teaching preschool chapel at Lakeview today. This month they are learning about being thankful. This is a topic that always gets plenty of coverage during the month of November. However, thankfulness is something that should be observed every day.

I am reminded of a song found on the Veggie Tales Madame Blueberry episode.

I thank God for this day,
For the sun in the sky,
For my mom and my dad,
For my piece of apple pie!
For our home on the ground,
For His love that's all around,
That's why I say thanks every day!
Because a thankful heart is a happy heart
I'm glad for what I have,
That's an easy way to start!
For the love that He shares,
'Cause He listens to my prayers,
That's why I say thanks every day!

This is a habit that we all should add to our lives. A lesson from childhood that is not to be forgotten, taking time to thank God every day.

Thankfully Growing at The Grove!

Miss Megan

Following God...

We all go through times were it feels as if we are in the dark, we are lost and have little or no clue where our life is going. As Christians we have 

the promise that we do not have to go through life alone. In Psalm 23 we see that God is our Shepherd leading us everywhere we are to go.

Psalm 23 (with emphasis)

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
     He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
     he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,[a]
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

 You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
 Surely your goodness and love will follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.

All we need to do is to trust and follow God. There will be times when he seems silent, but remember he is always right beside us, holding our hand and leading the way. 

Continually Growing at The Grove!

Miss Megan

The Value of Prayer

A lot of times you hear stories of how people were blessed by someone praying for them, and how they felt those prayers in a time they needed it most. And I too can share stories of how I have had those times myself. But lately God has been reminding me of the joy and blessing that comes from praying for someone. 

I have a notebook in which I keep a list of people that I pray for daily, and on subsequent pages I list out specific prayer needs that come up. Each day I pray through these pages and I love this time spent talking to the God of the universe about the little and big things going on in our lives. 

Recently I have begun the prayer campaign with the church and I have found myself looking forward to that portion of my prayer time. In fact there have been times when I read the page for that day first and then after praying the scripture over my teens I went back and prayed it for my entire list as well. I know that I have no power in my prayers. They are just words issuing from my mouth. But my God has more power than is imaginable and he has promised that his word will not return void. He has promised that when we call out to him he will answer. And I am banking on those promises as I pray. 

Prayer is a blessing for both sides, the ones praying and the ones being prayed for. I hope that every Christian gets to experience this blessing from both sides in a real way.

Gratefully Growing at The Grove

Miss Megan

Taking Time

I missed posting here last week because I was on vacation. It was very enjoyable and I was sad to see it end. But one thing that being on vacation reminded me of is that all of us need to take time every now and then to just get away from our day to day grind. You do not have to go far away, in fact you do not have to go anywhere at all if you don't want to. But what we all need is to have some time a day, or two every now and again to stop checking our phones and email, leave the housework, and job behind, and just rest and rejuvenate. This looks different for everyone. For some it may be reading a book, for others it might be exploring somewhere new, it could be going shopping with friends, for others it might be getting a full nights rest and maybe even a nap. Whatever you need to do to take time for yourself, make sure that you make the time to do that. This is the example we were given by God during creation. He took time to rest, and so why should we feel the need to work harder than God?

Gracefully Growing at The Grove!

Miss Megan

Seeds Taking Root

Today on Facebook I saw a picture of two of the kids in my ministry dressed up for career day at their school. The kids were asked to dress up as what they want to be when they grow up. One of the children dressed up as a pastor, just so he could carry his Bible around school all day today. This is definitely one of those moments that is encouraging to a children's minister like me. Not because it is something that I can take credit for, but because it is something I can praise God for. God promises us that he will not forsake us, that we will not labor in vain. God promises us that fruit will come from our work, even if we never get to see it. Well this is one of those moments were we can thank God for a glimpse of seeds taking root in this little boy's heart. Seeds of truth planted by his parents, family, Sunday School teachers, children's church leaders, awana workers, and other people of influence in his life. Seeds of the truth of who God is and what he wants for us, the truth of The Gospel!

I am so grateful that God gives us these little glimpses of the seeds of faith taking root in these children's lives. It is such an encouragement to carry on planting the seeds, to keep pouring the truth into these little lives, because one day God will grow it into something amazing!

Grateful to be Growing at The Grove!

Miss Megan

Beautiful in its Time

Every year when I make out my calendar for the year I fill some of the empty spaces with quotes and verses to encourage me. This week the verse in my planner was Ecclesiastes 3:11
"He has made everything beautiful in its time."
Every time I hear this verse I am reminded of the waiting portion that is implied in the verse. If you live in Indiana like me, or even any northern state, you know the long winters that we have. The seemingly endless waiting that we go through to stop seeing snow and feeling cold.  Growing up I always had a marker point which I knew that spring was here and winter was finally over. Every spring there were these little blue and purple flowers that popped up in our front yard. I am pretty sure that they are weeds of some sort, but as a child I didn't care. I would look out our front door window every day searching to see if they had popped up in the yard. The excitement I felt was probably way more than it should have been but never the less it was there each year as I spotted those little flowers. After the long winter I was rewarded with a sure sign of spring. God had made the earth beautiful again just in time.

This is also true in our daily lives.  Every one goes through times of long "winter" where things aren't as we would like for them to be. A time that we may refer to as suffering, or waiting. This may seem like an endless period of time, and often we may feel like giving up. But we must hold to the promise that we find in Ecclesiastes 3:11. Just like God provided a sign of winter coming to an end with the little blue flowers in my yard, he is faithful to provide us a sign as well. He has promised to make everything beautiful in its time. Any situation we face, any problem we have, any period of "winter" we go through. At just the right time God will turn it into something beautiful. We just have to hold on to the promise and wait. I know its easier than it sounds, but its true. Believe in God's promise!

Blessed to be Growing at The Grove!
Miss Megan

Running Dry

Have you ever been working outside on a hot day and you reach for your water bottle to get a bit of refreshment only to find that your bottle is empty? I have, and its a disappointing feeling. Sometimes there is even the feeling of anger that the water is gone. But we all know that there is no one to blame but ourselves, we cant blame the bottle it is an inanimate object. And the bottle cant become angry with us for being used up.  The correct response would be to go and fill the bottle back up with water so that it can be used again.

Sometimes this is how we treat life. We use up the talents that we have (the water) and when we run dry or run out of steam, we get angry and upset that its gone. We get angry at the job or the ministry that we feel has sucked "the life" out of us. We blame everyone but ourselves. The truth for the water is the truth in our lives, if we do not take the time to refill what we have used, we will always run dry. The more you pour out of your time and talents the more you need to also take the time to be refilled and refreshed. God gives us equal opportunities to be refilled as he does to use our talents. We just have to be willing to be refilled and refreshed. 

Don't be an angry water bottle. Use the opportunities God gives you.

Continually Growing at The Grove

Miss Megan

Baby Burst

We have been blessed with lots of babies being born into our children's ministry. That is definitely a blessing. There is no better way that I know than growing a church from birth.  But with this awesome blessing comes added responsibility. Having 30 children under the age of 2 presents the need for more workers, and especially workers who are willing to diaper, clean up, walk, and even chase the children. I do have to admit that we have a great team of workers now that give up service hours to minister to these children, and their parents. But there is always room for one more.

Many people see classes for children this small as simply childcare. But that is not the truth at all. You see these children may not be able to leave their class and tell you a full Bible story but they can let you know that they feel safe, and loved while they are at church. These children are gaining the foundation that the church is the place where they are loved, where they are safe, and where they are taken care of. And if we are honest as adults, these are the same things we want to feel about church as well.

Classes for kids this age, and even older also have another purpose. It allows the moms and dads to have time away from their kids to refresh themselves, to focus on their own spiritual growth, and to have adult conversations. In a new mom's life that can be like gold! To help mould the spiritual lives of these children we also need to be helping their parents. Another added blessing of having a baby burst is that we have lots of families that are in the same boat, going through the same phase of life together. They are able to understand and support each other in ways that the rest of us fall short. It is truly amazing how God works these things out.

Continually Growing at The Grove

Miss Megan

Getting Bogged Down

In ministry it is often easy to get bogged down by all of the things you have going on. In those really busy times, all too often we can become discouraged that we cant get everything done or if we can get it done it wont be good enough. And it is in those times that what would normally be criticism that rolls off your back, now seems like a weight that is dragging you under. I know I have personally had those times in my life and ministry.
One way that I try to combat being bogged down by the weight of criticism and busyness is to keep scripture up around me. One such scripture is Romans 8:31 which says, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" This reminds me that I have God on my side and that he will fight along side me against anything that I face. And he is the almighty creator of the universe so nothing can stand against his power.

Sometimes we all need to be reminded that we have an almighty God on our side, that we aren't really alone in it all, and that He is willing to fight for us.

Continually Growing at The Grove!

Miss Megan

Kids Camp

This time last week we were hauling our first load of supplies out to Rainbow Christian Camp in Converse, to our camp site for the next few days. Coming right off the end of a week long missions trip, I was a bit tired but more than that I was excited for the days ahead. I love camp! I love the opportunities that come from camp. We have the opportunity to build relationships with the kids present and to disciple them. I once heard that change comes through relationships. That is something that I try to pass on to the leaders at camp so that through the relationships they build with the kids, real life change will happen.

We had an awesome week with about 75 kids and 25 adults in attendance. Brad Merchant taught the kids on Psalm 23. Each child heard how God is their shepherd, always with them providing for their needs, protecting them, and even saving them and offering them eternal life.

I know that only a week has passed and probably just now are we all caught up on the lost sleep, but I am ready to do it all over again!

Teaching Little Hearts

This week I have the privilege of teaching the preschoolers during VBS in Davis City, Iowa. Most of the kids in this community do not go to church anywhere because there are not a whole lot of Bible teaching churches in the area, in fact in the two towns we are visiting, there are only 3. I am so blessed to be able to introduce these little hearts to my savior! This week they have been learning that God should be the guide of their life and that they can trust him to lead them in what is right and what is best for them.   It is my prayer that I am able to plant seeds of faith in the hearts of these precious little ones. I am so glad I am able to be used by God to teach this amazing group of kids.
Our verse for this week is  "God will help me know what to do". Isaiah 30:21 (paraphrased)

Family Missions

This summer on Thursday nights, the kids have been learning about how missionaries help those in other parts of the world, and how they can be missionaries.

Somewhere along the way I picked up this definition of a missionary that I have been sharing with the kids each night as we learn. " A missionary is someone who goes somewhere to tell another person about Jesus love, no matter if it is across the hall, across the street, across town, across the country, or across the world." I want each of these kids to know that they can be a missionary, and that it doesn't have to wait until they are grown ups. Every one can share the love of God with someone else.

During my lifetime I have had the opportunity to go on mission trips to other locations. And some of my favorite trips have been those where families are ministering together. One such trip was one where a group from the church I was attending went to another state to do Vacation Bible School for the kids and teens in that community. You would think that this would be a job just for adults, as they would be the ones doing the teaching. But we had whole families that went, and so the kids were given a job to do at VBS as well. Their job was to show the love of God through friendship. The kids we took had already experienced this VBS so now they were to help the others around them understand the stories we were telling. They got to be the ones to play with the kids and begin conversations about the God they were hearing about. Everyone on that missions team had a job to do, including the kids. And I have to tell you that watching the kids on our team, play and talk with the kids in the community was a joyful thing to see. Connections were made that would have had no place had we not brought peers for the kids in the community. And the joy on the faces of the kids on the team is almost indescribable. No one is too little, or too young to share God's love with someone else. I wish that more families would embrace this pattern of ministering together through missions. It doesn't have to be going to a foreign country. Family missions opportunities can come through serving at a homeless shelter, a nursing home, or even partnering with an intercity ministry.

I would like to encourage you as parents and grandparents to seek out opportunities where your whole family can serve together. Show your kids that missions work knows no age limit. I can promise that the work may be hard but will definitely be rewarding!

Continually Growing at The Grove!

Miss Megan

Happy Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day

I love looking up creative or silly holidays and filling up my calendar with them. It makes the weeks more interesting, and sometimes it even coincides with an event I can do with the kids in my ministry. Since we do not have a Wednesday midweek service, I guess I will have to pass on celebrating this particular holiday with all of my kiddos.

Those of you who know me, know that I enjoy doing crazy, silly things with the kids not only because, lets face it, I am a big kid myself, but also because all too often we get caught up in the programming and lessons, and forget to take the time to just have fun with our kids. Now don't get me wrong, I think that Bible lessons are the most important thing we do at church each week, but I also know that it is through the fun and even silly times that memories are made and relationships are built.

So if I were to celebrate Creative Ice Cream Flavors day, it would probably go a little something like this. I would get a bunch of vanilla ice-cream for the kids, because that is the best base for building flavors, and then lay out a whole bunch of toppings and syrups. After each kid builds their very own flavor filled concoction. We will then talk about why they chose the flavors they did. And why different is good. And the truth is different is good, because God made us all different. There may be things about us that are similar, just like there are toppings that were used that are similar but no one person, or ice-cream is exactly the same. We have an awesome, creative creator who made us all different and we can celebrate that.  And we can celebrate that he made us all creative too, even if it only extends to ice cream flavor creating.

Creatively Growing at The Grove!

Miss Megan