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"The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.” Zechariah 8:5
This Sunday after worship we will gather to dedicate the new playground for our kids now and for future generations. It is beautiful and has lots of features – slides, swings, ladders, a playhouse, suspension bridge, and climbing wall. It makes me want to be a kid again!
When I was a student chaplain at a suburban hospital I spend time in the pediatrics unit, visiting children who were sick or injured. One lesson I learned that I have never forgotten was that for children, play is work! Play is work. As adults, we are tempted to think of play as silly, useless, or just killing time, but it is truly an important part of a child’s learning experience.
Play, which includes playgrounds, help children grow up. They learn motor skills – climbing, balance, strategies, and coordination. They also teach community – sharing, friendship, communication, and team building. Playgrounds can be wonderful places for their parents to do the same. Playgrounds are valuable places for all of us to put into practice the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Let’s play!
Children in those early years are like sponges, soaking up everything around them, building skills and experiences that will help them live their lives. The environment around them is important, and to have a place for them at church also shows people we value them – we want children at church! This is also true with our basketball courts, the nursery, courtyard, grassed areas, and even the kitchen – where we feed Youth For Christ food twice a week, as well as adults and families on Sunday mornings.
We will dedicate it for physical movement, for making friends, for creativity, laughter, and joy. We dedicate it for putting our faith into practice. We dedicate it as a witness to our community that we value children and this is a place for them to come and grow. We dedicate it for all the ministries that share and use our space. In fact, I was overjoyed to see it already being used for Sunday School last week, and then, at Carol Robert’s funeral service on Monday.
So, let’s dedicate, celebrate, and use our new playground in Jesus’ name!
Playfully;
Pastor Dan
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Join us for worship this Sunday at First Evangelical and Holy Cross Churches. We pray you experience God’s love and grace in worship. Please join us after worship for a delicious lunch in the Fellowship Hall.
- We will have a special Playground Dedication Service after worship this Sunday It was installed recently and will be a blessing to our youth. Check it out! We plan to install a security fence around it soon.
- Holy Cross Church Council will meet on September 6th after worship, with a Special Church Congregational meeting on September 13th after worship, all Holy Cross members are encouraged to attend.
- Thank you for taking part in our “Back to School Supplies Drive” for Conniston Middle School. Items were delivered this past week to provide kids the things they need to learn throughout the school year.
- Join us for a Special Sunday Cultural Meal on September 6th after worship, featuring an Ecuadorian beef stew, prepared by the Luzuriagga family. RSVP by September 1st. Sign-up at the back of church. A freewill offering received.
- Join us for a new Bible Study starting September 16th. “See Through the Scriptures” makes the Bible more accessible by taking readers step-by-step through the entire biblical narrative from Genesis to Revelation, putting everything in clear context. There will be a sign-up sheet in the back of church for materials. Class will meet in chapel Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. for 10 weeks.
- Come for a very special time of Music & Testimony with Dr Elihana Elia, on September 20th during morning worship. Elihana is passionate about creating inspirational music with messages of faith in the G-d of Israel, hope and love for this generation. She serves in ministry with her mother Dr. Hadassah and her brother, Israel, in teaching and Jewish outreach ministry through FRONTLINE ISRAEL; Restore Israel and the Nations
