We are using the life of David from the Old Testament to teach the children honor this month. From his humble beginnings as a shepherd boy to a king who was not ashamed to honor God in a public way, David will give us a great example of how to honor others.

Be sure and pick up the monthly Parent Cue. It is on the table in front of the microphone each week. There you can find the Bible scriptures, the memory verse and discussion starters to help your child apply the monthly virtue.

First hour Kids’ Kompass we are blessed to now have five students helping us. They have named themselves Team K. At the end of each service we will be splitting the kids into small groups by grade and separating the boys and girls so that they can talk with their leader about how they plan to use what they learned each week. I would love to be able to do the same thing second service however I need some more adult volunteers who are willing to serve in the Elementary Ministry. Let me know if you think God is calling you to work with our kids!

Cost: $75.00 This will help cover the cost of New Creation’s fee for us to stay there.( Plus you will need money for Food)

Why: We are going to continue the relief efforts from the Tornado that devastated Joplin in May of last year.

What: We will be helping in the construction efforts. The church we are staying with have started a 12 in 12 campaign to build 12 houses in 2012.

Who: People who should come are those with construction abilities and special skills that are in that line. Painters, Electricians, handymen, and people with the general knowledge to build. This trip will mainly be a work trip so keep that in mind. We could also use some people willing to cook and prepare the meals for the people working all day. If you are interested in this trip call Dave Parkerson or sign up on the volunteer registration.

Self control is a huge issue with elementary students. We will be focusing on four areas that speak directly to issues that children have. Children will learn that God has the power to help us practice self control, specifically to learn to control our tempers and the words that come out of our mouth. The fourth week we will learn how God’s word tells us too much of anything can make us sick. Kids will recognize that video games, candy or tv can be fun but learning to stop before we get too much will prevent us from being “sick” since God is the only thing that we can’t get too much of.

The last week we zero in on what we think. This is so important to elementary students as what we think leads to how we act.

Sunday January 8, immediately following second service we will be having a very important brief parent meeting in the student worship center (gym). Your children will be kept in the worship area so you don’t have to worry about picking them up. Please make plans to attend. We will be unveiling Foundations, a tool that will help you parent Godly children.

I’m thankful for a church that is friendly.  That’s not a cliche!  Walk in this place and within a few feet it is unistakebly clear that people are nice, kind, smiling.  They want you here and you can feel it.

I’m thankful for a church that is forward moving.  While we treasure memories and often enjoy the works of those who have went before us, we are not shackled by any of that.  I am constantly amazed at the willingness of our congregation to try new things, allow “out-of-the-box” thinking, and take risks that many others would not.

I’m thankful for a leadership team I work with who love each other, serve with passion, rise above pettiness, and are called by God.  I don’t have the time nor do you have the patience for me to thank every staff member and elder who serve alongside me.  They know who they are and they know the value they bring to what is happening here.  By the grace of God, we get to do all of this together!  Awesome.

I’m thankful for a church who loves my family.  This is personal, but it is more important to me than I can express.  Never a Sunday goes by that someone doesn’t ask somethng about my wife or children.  They understand that family is a priority and they love mine.  I could never fully repay their acceptance and support for the people I love the most.

I’m thankful for a church that leans toward grace.  It’s a constant battle to figure out if one should favor law or grace.  Both are critical, and Jesus was perfectly balanced.  That is our goal as well, but whenever we lean around here we tend to lean toward forgiveness and compassion, even when people are messed up.  There is something about that which seems right to me.  I’ve been in churches who leaned the other direction, and although definately obedient to the faith, the “grace-lean” gets my nod.

I better stop.  More and more reasons keep coming to mind and you’re probably getting tired of reading what you already know.  Eastside Christian Church is a great place.  I’m so humbled that I get to be here!

When we remember what God has done for us, we can’t help but have an overwhelming sense of gratitude to Him. Because of His sacrifice in sending His only son to die on the cross for us, we need to stop and be grateful for Him saving us, and preparing an eternal place for us.

Meanwhile here on earth our children have so much to be thankful for. When they look at children in other countries they can only begin to thank God for daily blessings that sometimes we take for granted. I hope you take the holiday season as an opportunity to share a project with your children — Operation Christmas Child or the Christmas Party we sponsor at the Community Action Center are both wonderful opportunities to let them focus on the needs of others.

The Bible lessons in Kids’ Kompass this month will focus on:  how we need to show gratitude in ALL situations, show gratitude to others, and very important to students of this age — adjust our attitudes and focus on the blessings we have rather than the blessings we don’t have!

Keep your ears open for an incredible new program coming to Eastside. It is called Foundations and is the cooperative work of Early Childhood, Elementary and Student ministries. We will be unveiling the details to all of our parents in January 2012 (which will be here before we know it!)

Take time to say thank you to God this month and teach your children gratitude in our day to day lives.

Student Guidelines

For both the parent/guardian & student please understand that along with obeying the leadership, the following guidelines need to be adhered to:

• NO form of tobacco, alcohol or drugs
• NO displays of affection (ie. kissing, etc.)
• NO fireworks, guns, knives, pornography, etc.
• NO ipods, cell phones, gameboys, tv’s, etc.
• NO bikinis/2 piece swimsuits that show stomach.
• All clothing must be modest and not distracting.

• I need to make the wise choice.
• I can trust God no matter what.
• I should treat others the way I want to be treated.

There are many resources for parents that help them partner with the church to raise Godly children. Two free resources that are available are The Refrigerator Door and God Time Devotions.

The Parent Cue communicates to parents the monthly virtue, the monthly memory verse, the weekly Bible stories and most importantly provides opportunities for intentional “God moments”. These opportunities are expressed in the form of questions that you can use as discussion starters throughout the week. They provide a parent the opportunity to share their faith with their family and teach their children to apply the Biblical principals learned to daily situations.

God Time Devotions are a series of four weekly devotions that older elementary students can complete on their own and younger students can complete with mom or dad’s help. These devotions are thematic and help students remember and expound on what they learned on Sunday mornings.

In addition there are many other resources available to parents at www.orangeparents.org. One resource that is very intentionally designed to help parents raise Godly children is the Cue Box.

The Cue Box is available in either a physical or an electronic form. The physical cue box has a DVD, a music video for the virtue song, a mystery widget to help families remember how to apply the virtue of the month, collectible cards and a virtue poster with a bedtime story on the back. The electronic cue box has access to everything online but no mystery widget. Both are available by clicking on the “store” tab on the website. The physical cue box is $12.00 a month and you can sign up for an auto-ship subscription or order it one time. Both forms allow you access to the 252 website which has a wealth of information for supporting your family.

Each month in Kids’ Kompass the children learn the virtue song which accompanies our lesson. These are also available for purchase at www.Amberskyrecords.com.

October’s virtue is Creativity and our theme is Imagine That! God has created us and given us talents and abilities to glorify His name. Children are amazing at thinking outside the box and remind us of how we can creatively express ourselves to help point others to God. This is a great month to plan a family project that uses your individual talents to accomplish something big for God.

   ³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

   ⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

I am constantly reminded of this verse when we do Outreach events here. I want Christ to look at us and say that we took care of the people who needed to be taken care of. This past Saturday we took one of those opportunities and held our second Freemarket day here at Eastside. I was really unsure of what to expect this time. Our first installment we saw 16 families come through our doors. These people took home clothes, furniture, and household goods. It was by all accounts a great and successful day.

Saturday I was again unsure of what to expect. I will be honest I was blown away.  The volunteers showed up at 8 am and by 8:15 we had people here waiting to take advantage of the Freemarket. It was amazing because people just kept coming all morning and by 11am 60 families had come though the doors. They took furniture and clothes that will hopefully help them through the winter months.

I want to thank all the people who donated their belonging and their time to enable the Freemarket to happen. I really believe that God is pleased when His people come together and take care of those who cannot take care of themselves.

David Parkerson

Outreach Minister.

Right after that I turned to head to the vegetable aisle when there she was, another woman that needed a little “Vicki smile adjustment”. She really looked stressed and walking behind her were her three serious looking kids. She had such a stern look on her face. So I had a plan, I was going to walk right beside her and give her the smile. I got myself motivated and there I went. We were both moving towards the heads of lettuce. I stopped, and smiled ever so kindly to her. I waited for a second for the miracle to happen when,
lets just say if looks could kill, I would be dead! I thought maybe she wasn’t looking at me, so I caught her eye and tried again. What is this, no reaction? How could she not respond to this willing servant wanting to cheer up her day? What a grump! What a meanie! Then right at that moment her husband came up with her other babies in the cart!

I went on shopping to buy cat food…. just kidding I don’t have a cat! Then I headed out to my car. I could not get that lady out of my mind. So I prayed for her–not even knowing why. I just felt like I needed to pray for her. Obviously she had such a big family and lots on her mind. Maybe she had worked a ten-hour day and then gone home to take care of her family.

I thought about that lady a lot these last couple of days, what types of things she deals with on a daily basis. What pressures and responsibilities she faces,  and I keep coming back to the theme of our women’s retreat–grace! We all need grace for every day, not just when we were saved or once in a while, but every day. That is the only way to get through life and to be able to smile when you don’t think you have anything left to offer!

As women I think we do feel like supergirls sometimes. Help us oh Lord to delight in You and rely on your grace and strength.

I challenge you to pray for that and to pray for those around you!

Check out the Supergirl’s table in the commons area for more information about the retreat.

Vicki