{Elementary} 1-6th Grade ministry Sabbatical

In our latest Summer 2011 Newsletter we announced that their will be no programming for kids 1-6th grade for the month of August. Here is why behind it:

The Children's Ministry of New Life Fellowship has gone through numerous changes over the past 9 months or so. One major change was that of the transition of Children's Pastor Linda Johnson to Rosie Villodas. As you know transitions take a lot of work and time to be done well. A lot of behind the scenes work was going on during this time.  Besides that, there are many changes that have occurred since then:

• We introduced new curriculum to our Preschool environments (Nursery, Toddler & Preschool/Kindergarten), AND our Elementary Environments (1-3rd & 4-6th).
• We are strengthening our volunteer structure and training process.
• We have begun recruiting volunteers to serve the kids and families at New Life Fellowship.

New Curricula

We started using First Look in our Preschool environments and 252 Basics in our elementary environments. We chose these curricula because we wanted to create a comprehensive plan from cradle to middle school to help kids see God for who He is and themselves the way God sees them, so they can love others the way God does.

First Look curriculum INCITES WONDER, helping preschoolers embrace a God who is bigger than their imagination.  252 Basics curriculum PROVOKES DISCOVERY, inviting kids to a new understanding of how to grow in relationship with God.

Volunteer Structure/Training

Introducing the new curriculum to our kids and volunteers creates a need for us to properly prepare and train our volunteers to effectively minister to the kids at New Life Fellowship. This also takes time and energy to do well.

New Volunteers

Finally, we have recently begun a new volunteer recruitment initiative to properly staff our rooms for the safety and well being of each child that enters our environments. As you may know this too requires time and effort to properly screen and train all new volunteers.

All of this change, although VERY GOOD and necessary, has put a strain on our Children's Ministry department. Since New Life Fellowship is a church that values embracing limits we have decided to give the New Life Kids a sabbatical for the first time in, well... EVER!

New Life Kids and the leadership of New Life Fellowship have decided to have a "Movie Month" for our 1-6th graders in the month of July and a full sabbatical (1-6th grade ONLY) for the month of August.

This time will be used to:

1. Give much needed rest to our Children's Director, Rosie Villodas, as she prepares for a new and exciting year at New Life Kids.
2. To develop and train our Preschool Department as Julie Choi, Preschool Director, transitions out to start an internship outside of New Life.
3. To develop and train our Elementary Department volunteers.
4. To train and place all new volunteers throughout New Life Kids.
5. To help parents and kids transition to their new classes (Kindergarten Konfidential & Jr. High Orientation, more info coming soon).
6. And finally, to get ready to Kickoff an awesome new year @ New Life Kids on September 4th!

During this time we are asking that parents would help us by having their kids (1-6th graders only) sit with them in the service for the 4 Sunday's in August. We understand that that this is a bit different and perhaps a bit inconvenient for some families. So we humbly ask for your support and understanding as we strive to healthily build a great ministry to children here @ New Life Kids.

Please note: This will NOT be an annual thing. The timing of this sabbatical has come on the heal of 9 months of transitions, introductions, recruiting, etc. And has culminated to a place where we, New Life Kids Ministry, need to Stop, Rest, Delight and Contemplate on what God is doing in among our kids and volunteers. We need a moment to breath and take a step back to see the big picture and reflect on what God has for us in this new year.

Thank you for your patience and prayers as we work towards building a great kids ministry. Please continue to pray for the kids, volunteers and the leadership of New Life Kids, for His Grace, Peace and Holy Spirit.  If you have any questions please email us at Children@newlifefellowship.org.

Thanks!

You can pick up your New Life Kids Summer Newsletter when you pick up your kids on Sunday OR See it below!