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