One by One Ministries?

Thanks to T&S (Trevor&Susanne) and Candice for their thoughts on a name! I'm still kind of stuck on One by One, but I'm still hoping that others might have some ideas too.

I found a passage in the Bible that could end up being our theme passage if we stick with the name:
"See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.
"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost." Matthew 18:10-14

Thoughts?

marvin

EXCITING NEWS

Hi everyone,
I'm happy to tell you that we're just in the process of getting a small prayer team assembled for the bus ministry. The idea is to assign one bus route to each prayer warrior. Prayer warriors will pray for us, families in need on the routes, and of course for a new harvest! We're going to try the idea of having each route pinpoint a few roads--specific roads where we'd like to reach kids and their families. Please start thinking and praying about what roads/neighbourhoods to target in prayer.
marvin

Evening Service Jan. 29

Hey, I just wanted you all to know about the service this Sunday night, 6:00 in the Heritage Rm. It's to get everyone up to speed on the "Discovery Process" that we're on as a church. Church leadership is trying to get a sense of where God wants to take us, and this "Discovery Process" is a part of that.
marvin

Evangel Kid Outreach

What a great idea to inspire each other along as we serve together and spread the good news of God's love !
A couple of weeks ago when Marv and I went visiting the kids we got to one little boy's house, rang the doorbell and heard him yell, "Marvin, Marvin!" As he ran down the stairs to the front door. One of things he told us was that he was grounded so I not so tactfully asked, "How come?" Apparently he had left school during school hours without permission! Mom says he is quite a handful but that he has told her how much he loves church and that he feels better after church. That is so cool! Even though he doesn't know what is happening there is a peace in his spirit when he is spending time in God's house. We also delivered a bible to mom and she was really happy and said that she is planning on reading it with him every night. She is really interested in the Wed. night programs too, she wants to get involved too. If you think of them pray for them that she'll follow through and they'll get connected at church and then who knows what can happen...!

JAN 21 TRAINING MEETING CANCELLED

Hopefully you will all get a phonecall about this, but since so many people are away or busy this weekend, we're going to have to reschedule. Date and Location TBA.
marvin

Help me choose a name for this ministry

What should we call our ministry? The name can't specifically relate to busing; the busing is just one of the things our ministry does. And it can't specifically relate to Back Country either because we work with Bible Barn kids too. Something that's stuck in my mind is "One-by-One Ministries". It kind of embodies the relational aspect of what we do. Or a spin on that could be "Won-by-One". Something else I've been considering is something to do with a bridge, because in a sense we're a bridge between the kids/families and church/God.

What do you think? Post away!

marvin

Win a Free Coffee!

They don't know it yet, but Candice and Cassie have each won a beverage of their choice in a size to be chosen at my discretion from Connexions in the church foyer! Why, you ask?! Because they have actually made efforts to post on this blog.

The next 3 people who either respond to the email invitations that they've already received or email me to get an invitation will win the same.

Good luck!

marvin

A.C.T.I.V.E.

In a comment to Cassie's post, Candice mentioned that the next A.C.T.I.V.E. conference is on January 27. A.C.T.I.V.E. conferences are great times to connect with each other as well as other children's workers in the city. If you're not into that, come anyways and hide in the corner so that you at least come to get a little smarter about kid's ministry. Nobody already knows it all! Interested? More information coming on Sunday.
marvin

Better Than Billy Madison

Well I survived my first tutoring session this morning. "Survived" is of course a bad choice of words, except that for some reason I was quite nervous about doing it for the first time. Anyway, once it got going I had a lot of fun with it. All the kids are in grade 3, and although I didn't know any of them, I did know 5 of their classmates, 4 of which still come to God's Back Country. They were excited to see me, which was cool.

The kids actually in the reading program were great. I love how a lot of kids at that age will tell you all kinds of things about their lives prompted by just a few basic questions. And then there are the random blurtings too. I now know that one little girl's big brother is mean and likes to hunt, but I'm not sure why that was important to know at the time! I can already see that my biggest challenge is going to be to keep the socializing time shorter...

Kids are so hungry for attention and affirmation from adults (and teenagers!). They thrive on those things and that's what makes the "1 to 1" reading program as successful as it is. Let us never forget that a major strength of our ministry is also in giving that attention and affirmation. Look at how Jesus himself loved kids in the gospel stories...

marvin

Hey Hows it going?

Hi how is everyone doing? I thought I would just let you know that I signed up. I think that it's really cool that marvin is going to those two schools to help out. I hope that he has fun with that.:)

Back to School for Marvin

Hey team. I thought I'd fill you in a little more on my endeavors to get involved in some of Kelowna's elementary schools. At the beginning of the first week of the year, God put it on my heart to look into volunteering at some elementary schools. After becoming frustrated in the fall by not being able to come up with any new outreach plans or dreams, it was exciting to finally be given some direction.

The next step was to figure out what schools to call. Because I personally know so many kids at Springvalley, it only made sense to start there. It turned out that they were looking for volunteers for their "One-to-One" reading program. And just like that, I'll be doing my first tutoring session on Thursday morning after receiving training this Monday!

Beyond Springvalley I was having trouble figuring out where else to go. I got to the point of thinking that one school was enough to start with, but I wasn't able to get Pearson Rd. or Bankhead (downtown) out of my mind. I had the strongest feeling about Bankhead so I finally gave in and called there. I've since been playing phone tag with the "One-to-One" coordinator there. In one of her messages she mentioned that there would likely also be other opportunities in the coming months, through PAC-run events...

As for Pearson Rd. I had written it off right in the beginning after I was told I'd first have to meet with the principal. But, like I said, I haven't been able to get it out of my mind so I'll be looking into a meeting next week.

So, although I don't know where it all will lead, I am looking forward to being Jesus to the kids I'll be helping in the coming months. And beyond that, I'm going to simply watch for opportunities in the coming months and be obedient when God speaks again. Won't you be a part of this adventure by joining with me in prayer for all these things?

Serving with you,

marvin

January Dates to Remember

Week of January 2: Visitation resumes.

January 8: Busing resumes.

Jauary 15: Plan to Protect Training in Rm 27 from 9-9:45AM. Mandatory but only for those who missed it before. Please register in advance.

January 15: Team Potluck Lunch in the Heritage Rm, 1:00PM. Beware of the phone call asking you to bring your special dish!

January 15: Bus Captains' Planning Meeting at Leathead Starbucks, 3:00PM. (Note the location change.)

January 21: Training Night Part II in the Fellowship Rm, 6:30PM.

Let's get personal

It was quite a season for me personally too. Doubts abounded and I often felt that I didn't have what it took to lead this ministry. Thankfully God believed in me more than I did! All the same, it was a hard transition from being a leader's right hand man to actually being the leader. I know my leadership was sometimes shaky at best, but looking back it's so cool to see how God kept the helm steady while I was learning the ropes. A heartfelt thanks to the whole team for sticking it out with me.
marvin

Reflections

What a crazy fall season we had. September brought with it much uncertainty regarding the future of kids ministry at Evangel. Attendence on our Sunday morning buses was low, and what did KidMo have to do with God's Back Country anyway? Yet, by the time October rolled around, Children's Outreach was it's own entity as a ministry within Family Ministries, and marvin was given a new lease on life at Evangel by being called to lead it. We had our first training night in October. (Go The Gospel of John!) We also had our first planning meeting. Last but not least, October also saw a number of our kids get saved on a Sunday morning. November was...a blur. There was choosing Christmas presents (What exactly was that mirror all about?!), planning the Christmas dinner, and our first annual staff Christmas dessert party. (Hats off again to Pastor Kevin for being our barista for the evening!) Then came December: School Christmas concerts, gift deliveries, Christmas Dinner and Gala--along with all the usual weekly visitations. Not to be forgotten, we were also able to bring a handful of our newly saved kids to a special discipleship class. (Speaking of not forgetting, hopefully the many apologies and extra pieces of cake helped Brody to forgive me for forgetting to pick him up for this class!)

Well, those were some of the highlghts, but obviously not all of them. Do you have a memorable moment or two that you'd like to share? Reply to this post and remember away!