Kid's Curriculum

Here is a pic from the new John curriculum we are creating for our kids ministry. I hand drew and colored this picture.

Here is the first drawing I made for the new curriculum.

New Celebration Service

Whew...for a few months we have been busy preparing for a major new addition to our ministry, our weekly celebration service. Having celebration ready to go, meant having our kids ministry setup, planned and ready to go as well. We came up with the name "Sorrisi" which means 'smiles'. Then we took the book of John and fleshed out curriculum for several months (the rest of the church is studying it as well at the same time). We asked Marta to write the stories, Angie has been coming up with crafts and activities and I have been drawing original story pictures, videos and art for crafts. Celebration and Sorrisi started last Sunday and it went really well. We have been working this week on the next few Sorrisi kids times. I'm glad that it has gone so well and felt so normal to add this new aspect.

Mid-Winter Rally

We were low on funds but several supporters enabled us to go to the annual Mid-Winter Rally. It was in Hermeskeil, Germany (which is near Frankfurt, Germany and the country of Luxembourg). A week before we were supposed to go to the rally, our differential went out on our car and our mechanic told us that our transmission probably only had another 500 km left on it. If we took care of it then, we wouldn't have to pay for labor twice, since they already had it apart for the differential. Two of our supporting churches took care of the expenses and provided us with a very safe and secure means for travelling to Germany for the rally.

The sessions went well and the fellowship provided much encouragement. During the week were gone we were able to eat some American food! We at Chi Chi's in downtown Luxembourg, Pizza Hut also in Luxembourg and Kentucky Fried Chicken in Frankfurt, Germany. On our return trip to Italy, we saw the Frankenstein Castle near Darmstadt, Germany. Our trip took us through the following countries...Switzerland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Austria and back in Italy. We also were able to visit a Christian bookstore in Vicenza, Italy on the way home. We purchased many books, cd's and resources to help with our new Celebration services and kids' time "Sorrisi". The trip definitely refreshed us to start our year out right.