Fall Happenings

Been a while since I blogged but there is lots going on so I think this will be easier than a bunch of random fb messages. Let me go straight to Truck or Treat and then if you don't have children you might chose to skip on the rest. Trunk or Treat is Saturday, October 24 from 6:00-8:00. If you plan on decorating your trunk or working a game, concession/food, etc. you need to be at church set up by 5:00. Even though t or t does not start until 6, people will arrive early. T r T is a whole church event and we want and need everyone involved. If things go as they have in the past WBBC will have several hundred visitors to welcome and serve. It's called trunk or treat because people decorate their trunks and give out candy as the children come by. We need lots of trunks to line our parking lot so think about doing one. Pinterest has some great ideas. Plan on candy for several hundred kids. Buy cheap candy. Dress up in a costume. Please remember this is a CHURCH event and we do not want to dress inappropriately or scary. I would not want a child scared because of one of us and we do not want anyone to leave saying something negative about WBBC. And yes I have had someone send in a note about inappropriate costumes at t or t.   Now I do think you can be a witch or ghost and make them cute or funny. Use good judgement. We line the sidewalk beside the church with games for kids to play. Youth normally work those games. I try to make sure there is at least 2 youth per game so if one needs to get food or go to the restroom, there is another youth there to run the game.  This night is about community and us serving them, so we also have a free hot dog supper, free popcorn & drinks. This year the food will be served outside like we did for July 4th. There will be inflatables in the gym & a kiddie train in the parking lot on that side of the church. We will also have our hayride. In Like Ben with Jeff Atkins will be our live music.  Amy Martin will be handling a bake sale. Proceeds benefit the youth's Winter Extreme trip.

So what do we need? Someone graciously offered to pay for the hot dogs and buns & a precious lady slipped me some cash to buy candy. Made me think of years gone by. Sweet and beautiful Carol
Raines served WBBC for yrs.  As she aged and couldn't get out as much, she would catch me in the
hall, quietly slip me a $20 and tell me to go buy candy. Precious woman!  We need chips, 2L drinks,
candy, mums, pumpkins, & corn stalks. If you can please bring any of those items in starting Wednesday.

Now you ask," how can I help?" VOLUNTEER!! Volunteer to do a trunk, volunteer to help serve food, volunteer to set up and clean up. I'll be at church Friday night, October 23 to decorate outside and Saturday morning we will need to move the tables & chairs outside. The food area will need to
be set up & the stage will need to be built for the band. We will need everyone to help clean up after t or t is over. We have to clear the parking lot of trash & get all tables, chairs, games back in church. It will be a very busy night but I think you will find joy in serving our community. If you have questions because sometimes I am not clear or you want to help, message or text me at 256-393-1063.

Here is a list of those I have helping right now.

Trunks:Brandie Johnson
Rick & Sue Johnson
Paula Hopper & Teresa Coley
Amy Clark
Debbie Smith
Mandy Lindsey
Amanda Davenport & we welcome your family to WBBC! Grateful you jumped in & volunteered!

Gym with inflatables:
Tommy & Shay Layton, Dakota Garmon

Popcorn: Allison Williams, Lauren McVeigh

Hayride: Chris Jones
I still have 8 games that I need to fill with youth.

Sign in table: Glenda Southerland

Now to the Kidz Zone News
Thank you to Mrs. Vicki for working with our 4 & 5 yr olds on music. Vicki has a heart for serving our little ones. By now everyone should have the note I sent home last week about the Family Fun Days and how the Kidz Zone has been focusing on families for the past few weeks. I look forward to seeing your  families pumpkin creation  and displaying them at Trunk or Treat. Remember each month will be a new theme as we try to carve out family time. Continue to pray for our families.  The devil would  like nothing more than to  tear your family apart and to see your family out of church and not growing in Christ.  Reminder that this Friday night we will be showing It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, in the gym @6:30. We will have a pizza supper, pumpkin games &
activities & we will make s'mores. (Bring a stick to roast marshmallows)
Bring a chair or blankets for the movie. Invite friends. This is a laid back family event & we want your family to join us!

In a few weeks the Kidz Zone will began practicing for our Christmas program. It will be hear before we know it so stay tuned to our Facebook page, Whorton Bend Baptist Kidz Zone, so you know about parts and practices.

Finally, we know there is a need at our local high school for personal hygiene/toiletry items for students. If you can pick up any of those type items drop them in the red bucket in the Kidz Zone.

As you go thru the week lift our families up in prayer. We have so many who could use the extra prayers right now. Have a blessed week

Good morning. This time next week most of our children will have survived one day of school or for those of us with Kindergardeners at least met their teacher and saw their classroom. This school year I have 2 Freshman and a Kindergardener. I try to look forward to each step of my kids lives so I am excited about the twins starting high school. I look forward to hearing about their classes, teachers and what friends are in each class. My boys are older so they'll be driving soon too. That opens up possibilities like part time jobs. I will not turn around good and it will be time for college. Some of you will be dealing with college next week, your young men and women moving away from home or driving over to Harvard on the Hill or maybe they chose to work a job. All of theses changes all require a foundation. Jack needs to know a few things to be successful in Kindergarden, the twins need the foundations they have learned from class to class, year after year to do well in their high school classes, they need to have some driving foundation to go take and hopefully, pass the driving test. If your child is going to college then everything they have learned thru 12th grade is their foundation to continue their education. Their Christian life is no different. They need a foundation of Jesus! Where do they get this foundation? Education comes from different places and involves the teacher instruction during the day and the parents help with homework at night. The Christian foundation includes Sunday school teachers but also homework. I want to stress the importance of Sunday school. This is where your child learns the Bible stories such God's commandments, miracles, Jesus's life, His teachings, His death and resurrection. Then the homework is where you follow up at home. You read those stories to your child, let them see you read your Bible, take life events and show your child how our faith fits in. Let your child see you pray and you pray with them. A foundation will not be strong if you are leaving your child's Christian education up to just the occasional Sunday children's church and Wednesday night. They need more. They need to know that every step in their lives Jesus is with them. So as a parent where do you start to strengthen that foundation. I suggest prayer. Pray to God and ask him to show you what your child needs and to
show you where you can improve your walk with Jesus. If you are half attending church, make a
commitment that you'll start Sunday school as a family. There is a class for every age group at
WBBC and if you aren't sure what type class would work best for you it is ok to try a class and then
try another one. Once church is out, ask your child what they learned, then talk about it. If they can't
remember then ask me. If you only attend Sunday services, come on Wednesdays. Years ago I didn't like to go to church on Wednesday nights. Who had time for it. I worked in Birmingham, had to go to bed early to get up early, had babies and I had things I needed to get done at home for the next day.  It took a few Wednesday night services for me to see I needed Jesus to get me thru the week. Give Wednesday nights a chance. There is something for all ages on Wednesday night. I feel like one of the most important things I can do with my kids and for my kids is to pray. I have said this year after year. Since the twins have been small, when we get in the car to go to school, we pray. Normally, the morning has been tough, nobody wants to get up, they don't want to eat, one child is taking too long in the bathroom and the other doesn't have enough time, someone can't find their homework..Yada, yada, yada. You know the craziness I speak of. So for us, when we get in the car, we take a minute
and pray. We are all calm and the kids are in a better frame of mind and attitude when they get out of
the car. Now this year will be different since I'll not be driving the twins so I guess we will take a
minute to pray before they walk out of the door. Lastly, I personally think life lessons helps build your child's foundation. I feel like I am very open with my kids and if something is wrong I don't shelter them from it. I rather them see me crying over missing my mother and explain yes I am sad but this is how God has gotten me thru these times than for them too think everything is always great.  I know this is a lot of stuff but many of you have kids embarking on new adventures, many of you know without a doubt you raised your kids up with a strong foundation of knowing Jesus and how He applies to our daily lives but some of you might be thinking that foundation needs some more
concrete. Do all you can to make sure your child has the foundation they need for this life. Off my soap box! I'll be in prayer for you and your child.

I wanted to also go over tomorrow night. The kids moving to middle school are about to promote up
from the children's dept to the youth. Tomorrow night I'll be taking those kids to eat at Zaxby's. We
will leave the church at 5:45 and be back by 7:00/7:15. They will not need any money. Teresa Coley will be leading the other children upstairs in the Kidz Zone from 6-7. Now that school is starting back we will be back to regular Wednesday night lessons in the Kidz Zone.

Take a moment today and pray for teachers and staff as most went back to school today. Please remember Mary Pruett's husband Larry and Mrs. Sansom in your prayers. Pray for the students going back to school and for the families sending children off to college.  Matthew 7:24-27Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on a solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against the house, it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains come and the winds beat against that  house, it will collapse with a mighty crash. Be in prayer about your child's foundation. Have a great week!

VBS Day 4

We had another great night at VBS. God has blessed us with a great week. I believe we had 95 kids attend last night. We had 118 kids visit WBBC at least one time this week. By the time we finish serving food tonight our fabulous kitchen ladies will have served close to 900 plates of food to children, some parents and youth and adult workers. No telling how many snacks were served. We can definitely say people left WBBC with full stomachs. It's a blessing to be able to say that. It was also a blessing to have several ladies who wouldn't normally get a chance to help with VBS just show up and jump right in. June White, Mary Pruitt & Kaye Gann have already put their time in working VBS's years ago but came on out anyway and helped. Kaye said she just wanted to get to know some of the church ladies she doesn't normally get to socialize with during church. Love theses 3 ladies!

Last night I taught on Saul persecuting Christians and him turning his heart over to God, becoming Paul and then traveling the world to share the message of Jesus. I was able to talk about The Mayos being missionaries and how we can go out to our school, dance, cheer, gym classes and sporting events and be a witness for Jesus like Paul and the Mayos. We also talked about being the light and how we should want people to see Jesus in us. So I ask you, are people seeing Jesus in you? Do your actions show Jesus lives in you? Do the words you speak to someone or about someone show Jesus lives in you? How do you treat people? Will they look at you and see our Father? Just something to think about.

For the final night of GLOW VBS, we are doing something a little different this yr. Tonight is "family night". We have welcomed in the children and their families to watch a glow show, see their children perform VBS songs and have a meal with us. Continue to pray as we go into tonight. We have had lots of visiting children which has meant visiting moms or dads dropping their children off. Tonight is our chance to get the parents in to WBBC for more than a few minutes, show them some friendliness and socialize as we serve them a meal. I am excited about this. Pray that as God has made the week go so smoothly that tonight is no exception. Pray for those of us actually cooking the meal today. Pray for the children that is anyone is feeling Jesus knock on their hearts that they will have the courage to let someone know. Pray for the parents coming into WBBC tonight, that if they do not know Jesus, the seed gets planted tonight! Thank you for all the previous prayers and how you have supported VBS 2015. God has been with us!

VBS Day 2 & 3

It's been a great week so far at GLOW VBS! Day 2 we had 101 children and 99 children for Day 3. Everything is running smoothly so we give all the glory to God for the children and the smoothness! I know our volunteers are probably extremely tired and weary but the finish line is in sight! Draw your strength from God knowing you are making a difference in many children's lives.

I taught day 2 about Jesus walking on water and Him calling Peter out of the boat to the water. Peter was focused on Jesus, his mind was zoned in on him.  He was trusting Jesus and Peter stepped out of the boat and walked on water. But soon Peter lost focus on Jesus thinking about the waves and he began to sink. Made me think about us. If we aren't focused on Jesus but focused on everything zooming around us in this world we too sink. Peter cried out for Jesus and He reached out and got Peter. We cry out for Jesus too and He reaches out for us. We need to try so hard to stay focused on Jesus and we can do that by reading our Bible, praying and attending worship with others.

Day 3 was taught by Mrs. Wendy and I know she delivered a great message. Day 3 also brought us Turbo's shaved ice so I want to thank Tommy & Shay Layton for those great treats. Tonight is Deorios pizza! Yum!

If any child does not have a shirt please get with me tonight. Tomorrow night is family night, so the VBS group is looking forward to seeing the children perform and meeting their families. We will be serving spaghetti, salad, garlic bread and dessert in the gym once the show is over. The children will also perform Sunday during the worship hour. Have a great day and I'll see you tonight😀

Vbs day 1

I woke up with my mom on my mind! We buried her this time last year. I didn't wake up sad. I woke up thinking of God's amazing power. Last year Joey preached his own Mother's funeral and he was only able to do that because of God's amazing power. I know He gave Joey the strength, words and courage to do what he needed him to do. So here I am a year later, sitting in awe again of God's power. I asked for VBS prayers, you prayed and God heard.  God showed His power last night! Last years VBS first night numbers were 75 kids, verses last night 102 kids. Now don't tell me God doesn't have power. He has the power and ability to bring children to where they need to be!

Now I know our volunteers are worn out this morning but I want to give you some hope to cling to as you get even more tired as you go thru the week and a reason for why we put so much energy, time and money into VBS. I don't remember what age group I was teaching last night but I was tossing the GLOW beach ball and asking the child who caught it to tell me something about Jesus, anything they know, things they pray for.. Just anything about Jesus. I called on a child I didn't know. He said,"He didn't know anything to say about Jesus because his parents never take him to church." Praise God he is at church this week! This is our 1 chance to plant the seed of Jesus. This one child is the reason for VBS! Pray for this child! Pray for his family! Pray that this week is the week that changes children and families, that this is the week they come to know Jesus!!

Thank you to those of you who are volunteering! You are making VBS possible! Get some rest, if you can and continue to pray! I'll see you tonight!

It's been a few months since I have blogged but I had some thoughts and figured I would share. There is a lot going on at church so I want to cover all of that first. Friday, July 3 is Blast in the Bend. Bring you family, friends and neighbors for a night of fellowship. We will eat hot dogs & have homemade ice cream. Bring your lawn chairs and enough drinks for your crew. Mrs. Sue is in need of homemade ice cream & large bags of chips. Over the past few yrs, the guys have gotten even better with the fireworks show. I am sure this year will be even better.  I'll have a table set up to register volunteers and children for GLOW VBS.  If you are new to WBBC, this is a great chance to just hang out and get to know others. We want to know you!

For this weeks Wacky Wednesday, we will be loading the van and leaving the church at 5:45. We are going to Southside McDonalds. We will have a ice cream treat and pay for random people's food. We will arrive back at church by 7:15. Let's all wear our tie dye shirts.

GLOW VBS is July 13-17. We will feed kids supper at 5:30. VBS will start at 6:00. I say this every year but VBS is the best week at church. There is nothing like a bunch of excited kids in God's house. If you are debating on volunteering, just take a leap and do it. Everyone isn't suited for everything, so if you know you don't like to craft, you don't have to sign up for crafts. ( I have never signed up for crafts). You might like to cook, volunteer in the kitchen. You might not be free all week. That's ok too. If God is calling you to volunteer, then there is a place, a spot and a need for you. Don't miss out on a blessing. Get with Allison or me and let us know if you wish to help.

As we move into July that means school is unfortunately around the corner, so to end summer, the kids will have a lock in Friday night, July 31 from 7pm to 7 am Saturday morning. Now parents, don't get excited thinking you have a date night, I'll need you at church to help! Lol I'll give you more
info as it gets closer but go ahead and practice sleeping on the air mattress to break your back in.
Hehe

Lastly, as summer ends and school begins our now 5th graders, become middle schoolers and they will leave the children's dept and move up to youth. The youth will be having a shrimp boil at church on July 11 and Scott has invited the kids and their families who will soon be moving up to his group. This will be a great chance for the kids and parents to get to know Scott and our wonderful youth! I take the kids who will be moving up out to eat each year, as kinda like my last time with them so I'll be taking  them out on Wednesday, August 5. I'll have more info on that as it gets closer but for now save the dates!

Now that I have all of that out of the way, let's just talk. I was able to stay in preaching yesterday because Jerri and Mandy lead children's church. That was such a blessing. Immediately, after that I was blessed by a conversation I had with a parent. Our church was able to bless a family earlier in the
week. The youth blessed some of our seniors yesterday afternoon by delivering fruit baskets and spending a little time with them. I know of a church member who paid for a young families lunch yesterday. I am sure that was a blessing to that family. Hunter blessed someone this week by mowing their yard. Misty blessed me yesterday by just bringing in treat box prizes. So it got me to thinking about blessings. One of the definitions of a blessing is something promoting or contributing to happiness. Many of us spend so much time worrying about our own happiness but what about the happiness of others? I am not saying go out and buy every family you see dinner but what if we listened just a little more to what God tells us to do. I think we would be blessing others more. A blessing doesn't always require money. It could be just spending time with someone who needs to talk, helping someone who needs yard work and can't afford it,  complimenting someone or offering a prayer. I don't know about you but I need to be blessing others more and a little less worrying about if I am getting blessed! I am going to work a little harder on bringing happiness to others. I challenge you to do the same.

Have a week full of blessing others! I hope to see your family this week!

FOR THOSE GOING ON GATLINBURG TRIP

Ok I am making a few changes today for the Gburg trip. As yall know our weather is kind of crazy and with us going to Gburg in March you just never know what we might get. So I had us set up with Ripley's aquarium tickets that included mini golf. There is no way to know if the weather will corporate. The original ticket including mini golf was $43.00 for an adult. I am going to cut us back and do just an aquarium ticket which is $23 for the adult and if we have good weather I can buy golf tickets when we get there.  I also have us going to the Nascar Speed Park for the day on Sunday.  The difference at the moment in me buying in advance is $2.00 than us buying at the door. I am going to keep a watch for price changes but as of now I am going to say we watch the weather the week before and then decide if we can do Nascar. I do not want to mail off money and it be 30 degrees and lose money or have to try and get it refunded. I am coming up with a back up plan incase we do have weather that does not permit outdoor activities. So what does this mean for you money wise? Here is what you need to know and what you need to do. Everyone paid their deposit for Dixie Stampede. I do have a deadline to pay the balance so each adult needs to have their balance of $23.00 in no later than March 15. I know everyone plans on going to the aquarium so that will $23.00 and it needs to be paid no later than March 25. Now the other activities are up to each adult. If you chose to do them, you'll need to pay for them by March 23 also. Nascar Speed Park, $20 (only pay if you plan on riding), Gatlinburg Roller coaster, $10. I should be able to let everyone know before we leave if mini golf will be added on. 

I am going to work on looking at other shows and activities for a weather backup plan. 

I have us 2 vans reserved. (NOT USING THE CHURCH VAN) I know some have said they might drive so they have their own vehicle. Please let me know if you think you are riding a van or driving. I know the Smiths will be on a van since Chris is a driver & Jami will drive the other van. I figured our money today and I feel like if we can sell the remainder of the coupon books and the tickets to put a pie in Joey's face, we should be good, unless I have made a mistake. I am use to June just telling me this is your balance and she has been sick so I had to go from previous records. PLEASE try to get coupon money in asap. Any left over books we need to try and get them brought back to church so we can see if someone else might have luck selling them. 

I do know this message is probably confusing but I am trying to keep us from having to meet just to relay this kind of stuff. If you have questions please ask me. Y'all start praying God shows us some favor on good weather. Have a great week! Kristi

Good evening. I have a crazy busy week coming up so I wanted to go ahead and get the blog info out to y'all tonight. I wanted to tell you about children's church today. You know those conversation hearts that come out at valentines and they say things like "text me", "bff" or "cutie", well I asked the kids if God was to send us conversation hearts, what would they say. They gave some really good answers and I wanted to share them. Envision God sending you a box of conversation heart candy and as you pull a heart out of the box it reads, "you're special". Another one reads, "you're loved".  You continue to pull heart candy out and word after word is meant for you as a message from God. "You're beautiful, you're handsome, you're mine, you're smart, you're kind, you are wanted, I hear you, let's talk, I am with you, you are not alone, you have a purpose and you are a child of the one true king." Just envisioning that gives me goosebumps. How uplifting it would be for not just children but for us adults to see or hear those words everyday. How awesome would it be if us parents spoke those words to our children. I pray as our children go thru the week of "love" that they remember some of these sayings and remember that no matter how this world judges them or characterizes them that God  loves them and thinks they are pretty special.

Wednesday night the children will meet in the gym from 6-7 for a a Valentine's party. We are going to have a Christian science lesson about the hardening and softening of our hearts, play some games, and eat snacks. I am bringing the cupcakes and drinks, I have 2 people bringing chips and some bags of candy but we would love some other snacks so parents feel free to indulge us :)) This would be a great night to let your child invite a friend.

I want to remind everyone that Saturday night is our Parents Night Out. It is a fundraiser for the Gatlinburg trip. If you need childcare for Valentines night please keep us in mind and share the info with other parents. We will also be having a fundraiser night at Deorios on February 23. I'll be sending more info out on that soon.

Please remember to keep Kyle Patterson in your prayers tomorrow as he has surgery. Remember his parents, Chris and Amber too,  because as parents we all know the worry and concern for our babies. Keep Cooper Jones in your prayers as he continues to slowly improve.  Be on the look out on the Whorton Bend Kidz Zone page as I continue to introduce y'all to our fabulous teacher in the children's dept. Remember  Mrs. Vicki has been working with our 4 and 5 yr olds and they will sing 2 songs Sunday. I am encouraging Jack this week not to say or do anything CRAZY!! I hope you all have a blessed week!

Happy Groundhog Day! Unfortunately, it looks like we have 6 more weeks of winter. Lol Only God truly knows what tomorrow holds so I am hoping spring comes quicker than 6 weeks! I wanted to share a conversation I had with the twins recently. They will be moving into 9 th grade this coming August and we were talking about college. Lots of questions about how college works, different degree programs, explaining money (such as you will live off  Ramen noodles so learn to eat them now) and yes it is possible to work while you are in college. I have one child who is dead set on being a lawyer and one not forsure what his path may be.  I appruptly stopped our conversation and told the boys we need to take a different path with this. We really need to be looking at your future from a different standpoint. Instead of saying I want to be a lawyer or I want my child to go to school here or there and be this or that, we should be saying we need to pray that you follow God's plan for your life. We need to pray that God shuts doors that will lead you to the wrong choices. That you are in tune with God to feel Him direct you in the path you need to go. No matter what career path you take, if God has directed it then you will be blessed. Even though the boys care nothing about talking about girls with me, I told them the same thing is true about their future wives. We need to be in prayer now that God directs them to the right woman one day and pray as they date that if this isn't the right person for them that God will close that door. It is so exciting watching your children grow up and experience life. I know we have lots of seniors making huge life choices right now. I pray they have asked God what does He want them to do and they follow His path. Alright, I am done with my parenting stuff now to the kids!

We have about 20 kids going on the Gburg trip and about 15 parents. I have sent texts and posted on fb that I needed to know who wanted to go by last Friday so unfortunately the trip is now closed. Reservations have been made. Fliers are going home this week at both local elementary schools about our Parents Night Out. We need this to be a huge success to help pay for the trip. Please share the info with your friends on fb.

This Wednesday night in the Kidz Zone we will continue with our lessons on how God blessed Joseph. The children will have a Valentine's party, in the gym, Wednesday night , February 11. We will have a Valentine's "science" lesson, games and lots of snacks. I want to encourage you to keep your children involved, not just on Wednesday nights, but Sunday's too. Sunday school is where we learn the deeper lessons about Jesus. If you are not in Sunday school, there is a class for you at WBBC. If your not for sure where to go, ask me!

I hope you all have a blessed week. I missed my kiddos Sunday so I look forward to seeing everyone Wednesday night!

Gatlinburg Spring Break Trip

This will be the details for the Gatlinburg Spring Break trip. A few basics up front. Every child needs one parent to go. The child must be 5 yrs old thru 5th grade. You might question the start age but it is too hard to keep up with a toddler in a house with 20 or more older kids running around, doors being opened, flights of stairs, crazy amounts of noise and having high balconies. Even though it is someone else's child.. it is too much stress for me. I would be in worry mode the entire trip. We will have a devotion each day. You will need to bring patience with you. Things might not go as planned so be prepared to go with the flow. You might end up sleeping on an air mattress. Ok basics out of the way. Details:

Depart from WBBC Saturday morning 7am, March 28. I am going to call about renting 2 vans but depending on how many adults and kids go, we will need some adults to drive and carpool. We will eat fast food for lunch. Adults and children will need lunch money. Exception will be if we make raise tons of money then kids will be paid for and adults will pay for themselves. Arrive in gburg, go to cabins. Devotion, down time, kids can play. We will go to Dixie Stampede that night. Adults cost is $43.00. This will include our supper. Afterwards we will head back to cabins. 

Sunday morning March 29

We will get up and cook breakfast and when I say cook, I mean frozen pancakes, waffles, bacon, poptarts... things like that. We will go to the Nascar speedpark. This is an all day pass and has been extremely popular the past trips. Kids can ride unlimited on go karts and rides. The adults  price is $20 for the unlimited ticket. You do not need to include this in what you pay if you do not plan on riding. Like for me, I will not ride, ill just wonder around and watch kids so I will not pay, but I know Jami will ride so he'll pay for this. I should also warn you that the speedpark has a concession stand an any purchases there are on you. lol In  the past we have gone to a park after Nascar for lunch. I normally buy lots of lunch meat, pb, jelly and we eat sandwiches. It could be I leave Nascar a little early and run and pick up hamburgers for everyone, still eating at the park, just doing burgers and chips. We will have a devotion there. We will go back to Gburg for mini golf, mirror maze and the rollar coaster. The mini golf and mirror maze are included with the aquarium price. The roller coster will be $10 and if you don't plan on riding you would not pay for that either. We will go back to the cabins for a pizza supper. Ill order a bulk of pizzas for everyone.  

Monday morning March 30

Breakfast, pack up. Devotion. We will then go to the aquarium. The ticket price for this is $43.00. Every adult will need to pay this. We will stop for fast food lunch heading home. 

We have a lot of money to raise to cover the children's tickets. It is going to run about $90 per child and it is always my plan that the children never pay so..... we have to get busy raising funds. Anything extra raised will go towards the van rental, gas and food. We do have a children's budget at church but it takes every dime of that for the activities and events thru the year. We can dip into that but that means less things we get to do the rest of the yr. for some reason we raise enough to cover it all then I'll apply it towards parents tickets who have help fundraise. I know this is short notice but I need to know who is going by January 30. Now i am not crazy, I know things come up and people need to cancel but I have to have a very close idea so I can call these places and make reservations. 

I hope you'll consider the trip. We have had so much fun in the past. This is a great way for adults to get to know each other better and a great chance for the children to bond. Some of my favorite memories with my twins have been made at these trips. This will be Jack's first church trip so I am excited for him. If you have questions please ask me. One last thing. I'll prob need a man to volunteer to drive a van and I know we will need some air mattrresses  The adults would not pay their money until March 22. The only exception might be the $43 for Dixie Stampede. When I make reservations Ill find that out.  

Please promote and use the childcare services for Vday night. This money will go towards our trip. 

Good morning. It has been a while since I have blogged but I wanted to let you know what will be happening soon and talk about things I have witnessed in the past. 

Lets start with the soup lunch fundraiser. Thank you to everyone who cooked, set up, served, cleaned up and especially those who donated. We were blessed with $477.00. I have not received an email back on the cabins but both are showing booked for the times I requested so it has to be for me! I'll start planning out the trip this week and begin seeing who wants to go for sure. Please don't think this will be like a luxurious vacation. You could end up on an air mattress because I will put as many people in a cabin as I can to avoid us renting one. It will be fast paced and you will probably have to help cook and do dishes. We cook breakfast and supper at the cabins. It will take all us adults working to make the trip a success. It is about the children so their needs and wants will come first. There will be no time to go shopping at the outlets! lol If you choose to go you will have a good time, the kids will have a good time and adults and children will get to know each other much, much better. This will be the 4th or 5th trip we have done to Gatlinburg as a children's group and I have so many great memories! The very first trip we did, Amy Martin's car got hit, while it was parked in front of the cabin,  and while all the kids looked on. The man just continued to drive on, even with someone trying to stop him. The police came and it was a habitual offender who was intoxicated. It was our first night there and it was CRAZY!! I didn't think the kids would ever stop talking about it. Anyway, I look forward to this group making some memories of our own!

So now that we know we are going, we need to come up with some definite plans to raise money. Even though the cabins are free, I like to offer to pay the cleaning fees. We will need to rent vans, gas, food and I like to make sure all ticket prices are paid for kids. So the next fundraiser coming up is the Parents Night Out for Saturday night, February 14, from 6-9pm. We thought this might offer couples a chance to get out for Vday without the kids. This would also be great for a single parent who just needs a little alone time.  How awesome would it be for that single parent, who more than likely is on a limited budget, to be gifted 3 free hours. Offer to pay this for someone as an act of kindness. This will be for newborns thru 5th grade. The price is $10 for one child and a max of $25 for 3 or more children. We will show them a movie, feed them pizza, and make a Vday craft. I am asking very few parents to work this with hopes that some of you with kids will use the service! How can you help? Sign your children up today!  Tell everyone you know who has children!! We will have limited space and I ask you send me a message with how many kids no later than Feb 11. 

I'll check the church calendar and if it is open for February 22 or March 1, we will do a spaghetti lunch after church.  I'll let you know by the end of the week. 

Okay so I have a lot of planning to do so I need to get off of here and get a move on. I do want to encourage you to have your child in the Kidz Zone on Wednesday nights. This month we are studying Joseph and how even though his brothers hated him, sold him, God was always with him and blessed him.  We will be having the kids Valentine party February 11 in the gym. I"ll let you know as it gets closer as to what you can send. 

Before I go I wanted to mention our youth group.. this is me coming as a  youth parent not a church employee. Over the years I have witnessed many things at WBBC. I have seen preachers go, music ministers go, almost no congregation (seriously all fit on one pew), deaths, growth, remodels, just many changes. Six months ago I watched not just our youth but the parents, myself included, be torn up, confused, and shocked by our youth minister situation. I personally felt like I had been kicked in the gut and the wind knocked out of me. I cried more about that situation than I have ever about any other church issues. I am not going to rehash any details, this is not ment to disgrace him or his family or even bring attention to what happened. I say all of this because what I saw Sunday was a youth group who showed resilience. I saw a group who had faith in Jesus. I saw kids that had been through a hard time (personally in my own home many unhappy conversations), they leaned on the church and trusted that Jesus had a better plan in store for them. What we saw Sunday was God's faithfulness. We trusted God, He placed a call on Scott's heart and Scott responded to the call and the kids continued to trust in Jesus.  I know God is still working and who knows what tomorrow holds for the youth, the kids or our church. What I do know is that we have a testimony. We can say, we had a tough time, the devil tried to tear us apart, we trusted God and we were able to see much better days come. I am thankful for the testimony and I am thankful my kids my kids learned a real life lesson. I can't wait to see God continue to work thru all the ministries, all the groups and each individual at WBBC. Have a great Tuesday!

Happy New Year!  The beginning of a new year is always exciting to me. It gives me a chance to reflect on what great works God did in the church and gives me renewed excitement as to what God might do.  This Sunday we will be back to children's church with Clif and Vickie Redden teaching music to the 4 and 5 year olds and the kids 6 yrs and up will be with me. We missed a few Wednesday nights with the holidays, so this week we will be back to regular Wednesday night lessons in the Kidz Zone. 

I wanted to go ahead and lay my plans out for the Spring Break trip to Gatlinburg. As i stated in the message  sent out, I will not know for sure about Gatlinburg until the end of January. We will go ahead with the soup lunch fundraiser on January 18 and if we do not get to go to gburg then we will use that money towards something else for the kids Spring Break week. The trip will be Sat, Sun and Mon, March 28, 29 & 30. Each child going needs to be 5 years old or going into kindergarden this year. and each child will need at least one parent to go, unless another parent chooses to watch after someone elses child. I plan on renting at least 2 vans but that will depend on the number of people we have going and the amount of money we raise. I am not taking the church van.  I am looking at us going to the Ripley's Aquarium, minigolf, The Nascar Speedpark and the rollercoaster. Except for the roller coster, we have done these activites in the past and the children seemed to enjoy them. In the past we have also done a hayride at Cades Cove but with the time of year the weather can be hit or miss and i would hate to pay for a hayride outside at 9am and it be freezing in the mountains so i think we'll skip it this time.  When we get to gburg I normally go buy groceries for the cabins so that we eat breakfast in each day, we will grill out one night for supper and have pizza the other night. We normally do a picnic for lunch and then fast food for the other lunches. Parents will have to help cook breakfast in each cabin, but we will come together to eat suppers. My goal is that the trip be absolutely free for the children and all food covered for everyone. In the past we have been successful at fundraising so the goal was met but we are getting a late start this time. We also need to remember this will be a church trip so we will have a devotion each day.  There should also be a little bit of free time if you would like to walk around Gburg.  Some of you might suggest we visit Ober as a group. Been there & organized that for last yrs Winter Extreme and Ober was very difficult to deal with for a large group. Disney was easier to deal with! 

So go ahead and start thinking on if this trip sounds like something you and your child would be interested in. As soon as I know I have the cabins reserved , Ill finalize the details. Make plans to help with the soup lunch January 18. 

I want to encourage you to start the new year off in Sunday school. If you have been slacking on SS due to the holidays, now is the time to get back to class.  Sunday school is were relationships are formed and for children this is where the basic Bible stories are taught.  I hope to have a full class Sunday!!

With the New Year brings opportunity for great growth. As many of us are trying to decrease our physical size we need to increase our spiritual size. I pray that we as individuals grow closer to God.  I am looking forward to seeing Him work in each of our lives and the lives of your children! Kristi