ANY EXCUSE FOR A PARTY

If were going to have a party anyhow we might as well invite the neighborhood. June 18th was Savannah's 16th birthday.

We surprised her by inviting the neighborhood kids, all of them! We sent out the word by kids mail and they came, like ants to a fallen ice cream cone. They pitched in to decorate our garage, with a cake, drinks, balloons and streamers. They signed a big card and waited for Savannah to show up. Most of them didn't know who Savannah was but that didn't deter them from getting in on the free cake and noise makers. I heard one girl wish Rebeccah happy birthday :)

Thanks to all who came and made the party a great success!!!

KIDS CAMP 2013

Calling all kids... Kids Camp is back again! July 23rd to the 26th from 9am to 11:30am at Fletcher Park in Airdrie. Do you like soccer? How about basketball? T-ball? Ok... Arts and Crafts? Something for every child from 4 years old to grade 6.

Pre-registration is required. Email Pastor Rob at genesischurchairdrie@gmail.com to get a registration form or call him at 587-433-5989.

Volunteers are needed to help with coaching the sports, assisting the coaches, leading Arts and Crafts and assisting the leaders, registration, security and snacks. Contact Pastor Rob if interested. 

The Harvest is Great , but the Workers are Few

A little while ago Leigh was on her lunch break, sitting in her car overlooking a farmers field. She thought about what it would take for one person to prepare the soil, plant the seed, water, weed then harvest an entire field by hand. She said that she pictured me trying to do that. By the time I got done one part of the task I would be behind on the next.  I was getting worn out running back and forth trying to get everything done by myself. The job would be impossible for one man.

 In the field across the road she saw many combines working side by side to bring in a harvest. Even though the task was still huge, it would get done as neighbors worked together. This is a picture of what Jesus was telling the workers as He sent them to proclaim that the kingdom of God was coming in Luke 10:1-2.  

"The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. These were His instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask Him to send more workers into His fields."

There are so many people in Airdrie that have not heard the Gospel yet and have not had an opportunity to respond to God's gift of love through Jesus Christ His Son. 

Please join me and Genesis Church to pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest to send more workers into His fields of souls in Airdrie.   

249 combines harvesting at the same time on Oct 6, 2012 in Saskatchewan

Girls in ARC

ARC stands for Airdrie Regional Campus. This is a satellite campus of Center Street in Calgary. Savannah and Rebeccah have been part of their youth group on and off for the last year. They are an amazing youth group led by Grover, that's right, not Cookie Monster or Oscar the Grouch but Grover. 

Ok not that grover but Grover Bradford. He and a handful of leaders and parents do a great job of leading the kids to do learn about Jesus, learn about themselves and to do service projects. 

      They have helped locally by collecting food door to door for the food bank and cleaning a yard. 

They have helped in Calgary by making sandwiches for the Mustard Seed. 

They have helped internationally by packing shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, which is the reason for the pile of shoes blocking our doorway yesterday as we were blessed with their presence at our home filling shoeboxes.

Keep up the great work ARC youth! Thank you for caring.

SUNDAY KIDS TIME

 Two weeks ago we began hosting a Kids Time on Sunday afternoons at 3:30pm. The kids practice their memory verses, sing Bible songs, listen to Bible stories, do crafts and play games all centered on a specific theme or Bible verse.

Parents are happy with the memory verses we have chosen lately that include

Children obey your parents for this pleases the Lord
and Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Thank to Sherri and Megan for bringing your children to learn about Jesus and to entertain us with their antics, the kids that is :) Thanks to Savannah and Rebeccah for all their help.

Survival Of The Driest

Becca took an option this semester called "Survival of the Smartest". Its an outdoor ed class led by Mr Giroux that teaches survival skills. To cap off the class and use the skills that they were taught they had an overnight wilderness camping trip to an area about 1 hour from Airdrie in the Elbow River valley.

Will and 3 others from Company of Adventurers led the camp under the supervision of Mr Giroux, Mme Emilie and 2 parents including myself.

The kids built shelters, cooked their own meals on single burner stoves, went for a hike, practiced building fires and played a lot of fun games, all outside, in the snow. 

As the temperature dropped during the night to -5C the kids learned the importance of warm sleeping bags and dry clothes as they tried stay warm and fall asleep in the shelters that they had built.

Becca had some trouble falling asleep after a roommate said that Chucky was outside their shelter. Mme Emilie reluctantly got out of her warm sleeping bag and went over to comfort and reassure the girls that Chucky wasn't out there.


After a long, dark and cold night the sun finally came out and the adults and kids came back to life (sort of...). The kids made themselves breakfast which varied from cereal and milk to breakfast burritos. Then they played some field games, followed by an awesome hike to a ridge overlooking the Elbow River Valley. The bus was waiting when we got back from the hike and took us back to warm dry homes and beds.

I'm proud to say that all the kids and adults survived the adventure. At the end of the second day they were asked what advice they would pass on to the next group of kids. The comments included:  dress warmly, stay dry, bring extra socks and choose your roommates carefully, which is probably the best piece of advice given :).

KIDS CAMP 2012 OVERWHELMING SUCCESS!!!!

Please note that this post is under construction. Check back from time to time as I plan to post many more photos and videos of the Kids Camp.
 

Tom training an up and coming registrar

This year's edition of Kids Camp was an amazing, overwhelming, great, fun, outstanding time. Riverside Baptist Church in Colorado sent 52, yes 52 volunteers to help Genesis put on the Camp. There were 99 families that came to the camp with almost 200 kids. The camp was free for the kids because of the generosity of Riverside Church and local businesses and organizations that donated money and goods for the camp. The kids had a choice of basketball, soccer or arts and crafts.

We offered T-ball for the first time this year for younger children and it was well received. Dave, the lead instructor quickly realized on day 1 that the children did not even know the basics of baseball! So on day 2 he began the day by teaching them how to shell and spit and eat sunflower seeds and how to make bubbles with bubble gum. Once they had those two important skills down pat they could get to the other less important stuff like throwing and batting :)

Here is a link to a 6 minute video on Youtube with photos from the T-ball area. Enjoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH6OwnkYsaA