Back in Fullswing

Hi everyone,

Well with the kids starting back to school, so have all of our programs. I hope that you take advantage of the many opportunities we have here at Trail Alliance Church:

• Sunday Morning Kid’s Programs
  Nursery (with live audio/video feed of the service)
  “Frog Pond” – age 2 to age 5
  “Kidz Church” – kindergarten to grade 4
  Max Morning – grade 5 to grade 7
  Kids Choir (inbetween the 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. services)
• Awana – Mondays, 6:00 – 7:15 p.m. at the church
  Puggles (2 and younger)
  Cubbies (age 3 – 5)
  Sparks (kindergarten – grade 2)
  T&T (grade 3 – grade 5)
• Family events
  Next one is Sunday, September 20 – Picnic Lunch at Nancy Greene Lake

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the church office.

VBS 2009: Crocodile Dock

Hey everyone!!

Vacation Bible School (VBS) is almost here! August 24-28, 9 a.m. ’til noon. Be sure to get your pre-registration in right away. If you have not received a form yet, you can print off a form from here.

2009CrocDock-RegistrationForm

See you at the dock!

Club 47

WHO:    CLUB 47
“Club 47” is for anyone who has completed grades 4 to 7.

WHAT:    GOOD TIMES!
A week of hanging out and fun. We will play an assortment of games, eat yummy food, and enjoy the fact that there is no   school!

WHERE: A DIFFERENT DAY, A DIFFERENT PLACE
Monday:     Games at Gyro Park
We have a variety of games planned to play in and around Gyro Park

Tuesday:     Video Games at TAC (Trail Alliance Church)
We will be running multiple machines playing different games. There may even be a rock band concert, so be sure to bring your “rock”!

Wednesday: Pool Party at the Aquatic Center
Time to cool off at the pool! (Make sure your parents give you money so you can get into the pool)

Thursday:    Beach Day at Champion Lake
Our week will wrap up playing beach games and having a hot dog lunch

***(depending on the weather forecast, we may swap events, so make sure you register so we can let you know!)

WHEN:     JULY 20 – 23
Each day we will meet at the “Where” at 10:00 a.m. We will be finished by noon each day expect for Thursday when we will go until 1:00 p.m. (after the hot dog lunch).

Make sure you fill out one of the registration cards and put it in Pastor Jared’s mailbox before the week. Be sure to bring all your friends along.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask either Pastor Jared or Pastor Anthony:
250-368-9516 (church)

Family Survey

If you are a young family in our church, you would have recently received in the mail a survey asking you some questions as to how we, Trail Alliance Church, can be helping you lead your family. I hope that you have had an opportunity to go through those questions and think about them. Once you have the survey filled out, please return them to the church.

However, if you have misplaced your survey, or are not a part of our church but of our community and would like to submit your input, then here is a copy of the Family Survey.

Family Survey

Building Faith At Home

This 5-part course led by Pastor Jared will help you, the parent, bring Jesus directly to the core of your family. The aim of this course is to merge a Christ-filled life with your active family-life. You will be given the tools necessary to lead your family towards a more Christ-like life and to integrate Jesus into your working, schooling, sporting, and vacationing.

• WHEN:     Once a month beginning on Sunday, February 22 from 1 – 3 pm (we will have a pot-luck lunch immediately following the service – please bring a         main dish and a dessert/salad dish to share with everyone)

• WHO:     Parents with young children at home (childcare will be provided)
• WHERE:     Trail Alliance Church (downstairs)

Course material based on the book by Mark A. Holmen and Dave Teixeira.

Important Dates – Awana

We have a number of great theme-nights coming up at Awana, and I want to make sure everyone is aware of them. As well, some reminders of when Awana will be off due to Spring Break and when our last evening will be (so clubbers, get working so you can finish your books!).

• February 16 – “Inside-Out” Theme Night (everything will be backwards, so dress accordingly!)
• March 2 – “Crazy Hair-Style” Theme Night (get out the gel and get crazy!)
• March 16 – No Awana (Spring break)
• March 23 – No Awana (Spring break)
• April 20 – “Birthday Party Night” Theme Night (we are going to celebrate everyone’s birthday!)
• May 11 – Final Awana Night (Awards Night!)

Be sure to write these down on your calendar.

Books

I came across this article today listing tips for families to help them in their daily devotionals. Below that article, I found two links of Amazon Wishlists (essentially a list of books meant for individuals to list what books they would like their friends and family to buy them) listing books specifically for parents and for children.

Personally, I have not read all of the books on these lists, so definitely use with care, but I felt this worthwhile to share with our families. I believe that a parent and family can never have enough resources.

If you happen to read some of these books, please let me know your opinions on them.

List #1 – For Parents

List #2 – For Children

Family Pizza & Skate

Sunday, January 4th
4:45 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.
Beaver Valley Arena

After the big meals have been eaten and you have got your fill of egg-nog, grab your family and skates and join us for an afternoon of skating, pizza, and fun.

If you plan on joining us, then please bring either some snacks (e.g. chips, cheezies, left-over Christmas baking) or something to drink to share. We will provide the pizza and the ice-time.

We hope to see lots of family out that day. If you have any questions, then feel free to contact Pastor Jared at the church.

Staring into the ‘Twilight’

The number one movie this past weekend [Nov 22-24] was the next big book-to-movie phenom called “Twilight”. Many people, especially teenage girls and their parents, are either already enthralled with this book/movie or are about to be.

I thought it would be helpful, especially for you parents, to have some Christian reviews of the book and movie. Here is a great review for the book, and here is one for the movie.

My advice to you as a parent: if your son/daughter (most likely daugther) wants to read this book (and then probably the rest of the series), read the book yourself first. If after reading it, your consceience is clear to give to your child, then be sure to discuss it with them as they go through it. Maybe once they are finished the book, go out for coffee and have your own little book-club. Discuss the book. Discuss the themes. Discuss what was positive and what was negative about the book. This could be an opportunity to teach your child how to filter what media they are ingesting.

One Holiday to the Next

This past Friday we had our Fun Factory here at the church. It was a great success (aside from those that wanted cotton candy!). We had 26 different stations for the children to enjoy with lots of prizes and candy to take home with them at the end of the evening. All told, we have close to 80 kids come through the Fun Factory.

Thanks to everyone who donated candy and thanks to those who were here helping run stations, hand out prizes, set-up/clean-up, etc. It is such a joy when we can work together on a project like this.

Looking ahead, from Halloween, we look to next month and our Kids Christmas Concert titled, “Christmas at Bethlehem Gulch”. Be sure to mark your calendars for that special event on Sunday, December 7 at 6:00pm. This will be a great opportunity to invite friends and family that do not normally come to church. Danette, our kids’ choir director, has been doing a lot of hard work in preparation for this, and we look forward to watch sort of cowboy-fun is in store for this Christmas season.