First Kids - FBC Ocala

Parents Take to the Streets Dancing! School Starts SOON!!

2008-08-06T11:20:00.008-04:00

School is starting soon. Sorry to hit you kids with that truth-slap right across the face, but hey- it's gonna happen. And parents... for cryin' out loud stop your celebrating in front of the kids! At least make them THINK you're gonna miss them eating everything but their own underwear while they were home this summer.

We've made some lasting memories with your children this year at FBC. Vacation Bible School, Student Life Camp, Moosefeather Falls, Kid Connection, KingsKids, 5th Grade Retreat, and simply hangin' in the church halls has strengthened the bond that God is so careful to outline for us in His Word. Your kids our precious to us and without them the church (and your home) would be a whole lot cleaner, but man would we be bored.

I recently received an email that reminded me of some things to pray for in the coming weeks as school begins: Here are some things to pray for:

Anxiety: It's never easy to try something new- new classrooms, new teachers, new locker combinations, new kids, new schedule, new bus number, new shoes, new routine, new haircut, new classroom, new expectations... Why don't we just send them to school with mini-defibrillators???? Gee. At our house, we use the verse from Joshua 1:9- "Do not fear; I am the Lord your God and will be there to help you wherever you go." It's good for what ails ya'.
Sadness/Loss/Grief: Sounds hokey but it's true. Any change results in a loss in another area. In thier minds, our kids are losing a bit of freedom, time for friends, and maybe even the opportunity to see some of the friends that they've formed tighter bonds with over these summer months.
Pressure: There are high expectations placed on our precious kids these days. They are expected to perform on standardized tests, complete homework, make the grade, dress the part, and find time for piano and karate lessons in between- Help your child prioritize by setting a good example with prayer time and reading God's Word. "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness..."
Excitement!: It's not all bad! Pray for the excitement that your child may feel to carry them through this school year. Cultivate it and remember to be excited too. Sometimes it's hard with the balancing act that WE have to perform as parents but our own excitement about the things that our kids love will often boost them when they need it most.

We're praying for all the First Kids at FBC. Thank you for the opportunity of getting to know them this summer. Is there anything special we need to be in prayer for? Drop us an email or comment below.

FIFTH GRADE RETREAT!

2008-08-05T08:33:00.003-04:00

Be in prayer for our soon to be sixth graders- They left yesterday morning for a two day retreat to prepare them for the transition into world of youth and jr. high. Sounds ominous, doesn't it? Nah, not really. :)

The group will return from Orlando Tuesday evening with a tired, tired, children's minister in tow. So pray for the group until they return! Then there will be many stories, and pictures posted- Check back then!

Chocolate Syrup Tug-O-War!

2008-07-25T21:12:00.012-04:00

It was all things chocolate on Wednesday at CMFF. Campers learned about the tug-o-war that goes on around us all the time- The one between light and darkness- good and bad. We talked about David and the peace he wanted for his nation. Then, we threw in some chocolate because it's fun. And sticky. I'd say the lesson STUCK. Get it? Stuck? See because we used chocolate and it's sticky... Nevermind. We began the day with a little bit of chocolate painting. Cabins raced to complete their yummy painting of our key verse for the day: Colossians 1:11 "Be strengthened with all power according to His glorious might..." We hung those paintings up and smelled them all day. Yum. Then we played some chocolatey games...

Fill up the cups with chocolate-

Those bottles were so uncooperative. Or was it the campers that were uncooperative? Nah. Definetely the bottles.

That is one chocolatey camper.

Jackson supervised the festivities from the campsite.

After the chocolate cup game we considered hosing everyone off and heading outside for the chocolate tug-o-war. But then we thought... Why bother? We all went to war! We drizzled the tarps with chocolate syrup and it was super hard to get our footing. We drizzled the tarps. We drizzled the pools. We drizzled the campers. We drizzled the trees. We drizzled the ropes. We drizzled the grass. Hey, if it couldn't get out of the way it was covered in chocolate. I caught Mason trying to lick a streak off his elbow. :) Then we stood up and pulled on those ropes with all our strength!!!! If your team didn't pull hard enough you were dragged into the pools of chocolate pudding... gallons and gallons and gallons of it. It was awesome.

Tarps, syrup, and hot Florida sun make things a bit warm on the feet. Only the top three layers of skin were burned off our feet though. WE were OK once we applied sixty gallons of chocolate pudding to them. And counselors kept us cool by misting us with the hose. Did I say misting? I meant blasting. Water damage to my ears and brain have me confused sometimes.

Getting Drizzled. Did I mention Jesse turned six at camp on Tuesday? Happy Birthday Jesse!

Mr. Ernie looks a TAD more than drizzled. Hey Mr. Ernie, you got a lil something on your face. He kept muttering something about revenge...

We just HAD to throw down the ropes, end the war and dive into the pudding together. What better way to keep peace than rolling around in sixty gallons of chocolate together??? And it makes a great moisturizer.

Camp Moosefeather Falls tip #17: Never lick a brown spot off a boys shorts. It's just too risky.

The thing about being strengthened by HIS glorious might, is that His strength comes in so many different forms. He gives us strength to be humble. He gives us strength to be courageous. He gives us strength to be color blind. He gives us strength to endure circumstances. He gives us strength to try new things. He gives us strength to meet new people and love them when they are unlovely. He gives us strength to win battles. He gives us strength when we lose battles. He gives us strength to be still and He gives us strenth to move forward. His strength is perfect. And it's all we'll ever need.

Pictures from the last day of camp will posted soon! Thank you for trusting us with your greatest treasures this week!!

Water Wars!

2008-07-24T20:42:00.019-04:00

Camp Moosefeather had some kind of fun today! After a day of green slime on Tuesday, and another day of Chocolate Syrup Wars on Wednesday(pictures forthcoming due to technical difficulty!)- I figured we should probably dunk ourselves in water to get that stuff off. Just this morning I saw two boys with chocolate still in their ears and one little blonde girl with a green scalp... STILL. Don't ya' just love the way that camp holds on and on and on and on and...

Our Water Wars reminded us of two things: "Water"- We talked about baptism, what it means, and what it doesn't mean. Our key verse led us to Matthew 28:17- "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Campers had it DOWN by the end of the morning. You guys ROCK!!!!

We also talked about "Wars"- There's always a a battle going on around us. Satan sure can make it hard to make the right choices. It's like a war that goes on inside us too! Ever had a hard time even knowing what the right choice was??? Me too. We all make poor choices once in a while. Kody showed us this morning that there is nothing, i mean NOTHING that can separate us from God's love. So we celebrated with lots of fun Watery and Warish activities... hey, is warish a word??? Take a peek at our day!

Ms. Heather has always wanted to be one of Charlie's Angels. You guys have no clue what that means... but your moms and dads do. :)

She Soooo means business!

Pastor Jerry gets NAILED in the "unloading zone". The kids were relentless- The campers have agility and speed that make him look like he's moving in slow motion. They could unleash a barrage of fire on him, run to the "loading zone" and return to fire again before he could even lift his weapon. It was sad and hilarious at the same time.

And then we slipped and slid and slided. Kid Events of Ocala has become part of the FBC Children's Ministry family. They brought out the big slides and we had a blast!

Mrs. "A" gives the ten minute warning til the five minute countdown. Huh?

See you tomorrow!

SLIME TIME LIVE!!

2008-07-22T21:24:00.013-04:00

Ah yes, the delicate art of sliming campers returns to Camp Moosefeather Falls this year. Somehow Camp Moosefeather has become famous for sliming kids. Go figure. But so very much can be learned from dumping buckets of green goo on campers' heads, don't you think? Specifically we learn to keep a sharp eye open because you never know when it's gonna hit! In the same way Jesus taught about His return in Matthew 25... It's all fun and we learn an unforgettable lesson or two. The only thing slimier and stickier than this green stuff is Kody's tongue. Pastor Jerry was the first to get frothed. He took it like a champ! Then the entire place turned into little slimey green bodies... everywhere.

We did more than just slime kids though. We also put shaving cream on thier heads and threw cheerios at them. Why? Hey, why not?? If you have shaving cream, goggles, and a kid with a good attitude you can have fun with almost anything.

Ms. Heather's a good sport. She's the one with a bucket on her head. After this the place erupted into little green monsters. No one was safe from the slime!

We finally had to remove campers from the sliming area by force- Some refused to move, others were stuck. In the end they were all hosed off and returned with only small glops of goo in thier ears, belly buttons, and noseholes.

Al in all it was a SUPERDEELIFIC campy day! Tomorrow? Chocolate Syrup Tug-O-War!!

The Bear Is Back In Town!

2008-07-22T20:49:00.012-04:00

Camp Moosefeather Falls has returned to FBC Ocala! Each summer a hugantic group of kindergarten, first, and second grade kids descends on our church in search of three things: Fun, Friends, and Jesus. Any genuine situation involves all three and all three are kickin' at Camp this year! Kody T. Bear is the bumbling and lovable camp mascot that guides us on our journey in search of Jesus. He lives in a dumpster and tries to give us all his treasures; you know, toenail clippings, dead fish, rotten yogurt... He might sound crazy but the bear knows about God! Ask him, he'll tell you!

Our motto this year at camp is: "Twice the mess, double the fun". It's only day two and we've totally, totally lived up to it! Monday was our "Goin' Green" day. We learned in 2 Corinthians 4:18 to set our eyes on what is unseen instead of what is seen. Everybody's GOIN' GREEN! We just gotta be careful not to worship creation (what is seen) and keep our focus on our Precious Creator (what is unseen)- It's ALWAYS been our responsibility to take care of the Earth. It's an incredible gift from God! We went on a bug hunt:

We also looked at owl scat. That's some nasty stuff but man is it interesting. Our Nature Trail Guide takes us on a walk through the Bible:

Our friends at the YMCA let us come swim everyday- The slide and water playground is awesome!

Mr. Ernie's record for throwing Ethan is about 8.72 feet at approximately 39 miles per hour. The splash that ensues reached 14 feet in the air. Awesome.

Then we hike back to the church for lunch. By 12:30 we're so hungry that Kody's leftover sock-sandwhiches look delicious. We settle for bagged lunches and a carpet picnic. Then we have a big activity together and close out the day with some music and more fun!

By the end of the day this is what our campers look like- Ah... a day well spent.

2008-06-28T13:35:00.004-04:00

So it was Karaoke night at Kid Connection last Wednesday night. This flat-thumbed pirate found out about it and showed up to steal the spot-light. Arggh. He waved his sword around wildly and knocked Amy aside, grabbing the microphone from her as she tried to kick him in his knobby knees. You can see from the picture that he was totally into his song... "Ooooooooh!! Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Absorbent and yellow and porous is he... if nautical nonsense is something you wish... then drop on the deck and flop like a fish..." Too bad Simon, Randy, and Paula weren't there. He really could have used some of Simon's advice. Really.

Ha. No, it wasn't REALLY karoake night and for those of you who's gaze can't get beyond the stark creepiness of the knobby knees the pirate is actually Pastor Jerry. He dressed as a pirate to help us locate treasures in God's word! Cool, huh? And

though it looks like he's belting out a Jonas Brothers song he's actually quoting one of the treasures we found as we dug through God's Word! Come hang with us on Wednesdays this summer. We start at 6:15- The first person to bring a visitor gets to draw smiley faces on the pirate's knees. :)

2008-06-16T17:37:00.003-04:00

A big F A T Wahoo!! VBS was a blast this year as we took the ride of our lives at SonWorld Adventure Park. First Kids stepped up to the challenge and invited friends, family, neighborhood buddies, school buddies, and probably even strangers. The result? Average attendance at about 520 kids, and 118 volunteers.

DAWG! Aren't you proud of yourselves? Well, you should be. You guys were awesome. There were no 911 calls, no vomit comet kits used, and Pastor Jerry didn't even crack open his bottle of Antacid. I'm totally impressed.

Even better than all that, 12 kids were baptized at our Friday Family Fun night. And as you can see, they had the support of five hundred kids in the choir right behind them. So after our baptisms, Drama (arggghhhh!), and music presentation we headed outside for an evening of food, fun, and friends. The rock wall, laser tag arena, bounce houses, giant slip-n-slides, and water slides kept everyone busy. And wet. And the hot dogs, cotton candy, popcorn, snow cones, and drinks kept everyone energized for another round of fun. Now, I didn't get to see much of the outside fun ( I was cleaning up about 15 tons of confetti in the choir loft :) but I heard about it. You guys know how to throw a party!!!

To top it all off, our VBS offering totalled 818.72! I can't wait til next year!

What do you say????

2008-05-18T18:28:00.002-04:00

Hey guys! Welcome to the new blogspot. What's a blog? Got me. I like to think it's a Big Lipped Otter with Gout. Hee Hee. Sorry Pastor Jerry. No offense intended with your recent Gout issues. Anyway, if you're here you saw the spot on the website or the article in the First Kids newsletter. You're gonna need to check back often for pics, stories, and questions.

So the question of the day is, "What do you say about Jesus?" In Matthew 16:13-20, Jesus asked the disciples what people were saying about Him. His buddies let Him know that everyone wasn't really sure who He was. Some folks were saying that He was just a prophet; others said He was John the Baptist, still others thought he might just be the newest guy selling new and pre-owned luxury donkeys- complete with ground effects and seat heat! OK, that last one isn't in the Bible but it could've happened.

In all the stuff that you say during a day, who do YOU say that Jesus is? Think about it. Think about all the things that Jesus is to you; I mean, really do a brain drain about it. I'll wait... Still here... Yeah, still waiting. Done? Now- What if He was more? What if He was more than You could ever imagine? He IS! He's more than a story from the Bible you know. He's more than some guy spying on everything you do so He can zap you when you mess up. He's more than a guy with a cool beard, and He's so, so, so interested in you.

With your parent's permission, leave a comment and tell me what Jesus is to you. He loves you so much guys. He wants to talk to you. He wants to listen to you. He wants to hang out with you. He wants to laugh with you. He wants to hear your secrets and stories. Most of all He wants to have you Heaven one day with Him. That's what this is about. So- Whaddya Say??????