KIDS IN MISSIONS....25 YEARS!!! PART TWO (1996 - 2002)

     It's so difficult to write this blog in only 2 parts so I have decided to write it in 4 parts. There is just so much to write God has done so much in the 17 years this ministry operated at Smithtown Gospel Tabernacle. I am humbled that God gave me this amazing concept and know it not only touched the kids who were a part of it but also the children and families we ministered to. As I mentioned in the previous blog our classes began on January 14, 1996. I used my college textbook as my guide to teach the kids. Classes went well as we did a lesson and then I had the kids practice clown and puppet skits. Although the pastors and mission board were thrilled with this new concept others were not big fans. I am referring to our Sunday School department. They were not happy that I emptied out there classes and claimed I had "no control" of the kids. The bottom line was that they were not big fans of change. I challenged them and said that these kids were hungry to serve God and learn about missions. They still believed that Sunday School should be taught the same way it has been since 1976. The seven words exclaimed in every church is...WE NEVER DID IT THAT WAY BEFORE! I believe we need to give kids what they want and need and change things up. Others disagreed with me so we agreed to disagree. There was one individual who held this against me for years but I didn't care. I wanted to do what God told me to do.

     We did our first ever outreach at a Nursing Home in Smithtown a month later during the February school break. The kids did their clown skits and puppet skits and it was a hit. A month later we had an open door to go to a Welfare Motel in Brentwood, NY and that was also a huge hit. God started opening doors for us at many area churches. My biggest challenge was trying to find clown skits and puppet skits. With the kids being young and their arms being short and weak, many of the puppet shows looked like the puppet characters were in quicksand. It was a learning experience trying to come up with new ideas but God always provided! We purchased white Kids Mission Bridge T shirts for the kids and our leaders wore black polo shirts. Black was not a good choice for 90 degree heat in July! One issue I had during the first year was when to end our classes. The Kids wanted to keep going year round! We did end our classes that year and held a graduation. I got so much positive feedback about our first year. It was a "work in progress." Year two began January 1997 but before that I knew I had to write a curriculum so I wrote the lessons each week as we went along again using my college textbook. A gentleman from my church, Ron Simmons had a binding company and donated to our ministry loose leaf binders. These kids held onto those binders like it was a treasure. I was excited to be able to continue doing this program. I was invited by the International Network of Children's Ministries to share the concept of Kids Mission Bridge at a Children's Pastors Conference in San Diego, CA at a workshop. It was an honor and I got a lot of great feedback from fellow children's pastors. The second year went well and our highlights were ministering at Bethlehem Assembly of God in Valley Stream at a bandshell and later that summer at our first ever outreach at the Ocean Grove, NJ Beach pavilion. A tradition that would last on and off until 2012. We also began doing outreaches at Smithtown Day and King's Park Day. Getting into the community was always my goal. The folks who ran these 2 festivals were not thrilled we were there and made life rough for us for many years. We still continued going even though we did not exactly get greeted with "open arms." 

     

     In 1998 I wanted desperately to publish my new curriculum and was hoping to keep the name "Kids Mission Bridge". I wrote to the author of "Mission Bridge" in hopes he would allow me to use the name and just put "Kids" in front of "Mission Bridge" but he declined stating it would "confuse" people. So I was back to square one and needed to give my program and curriculum a name. One of my workers suggested "Kids in Missions" and the rest is history. I tried to find a publisher but had no interest so I did what is known as the "poor man's copyright" where you mail your manuscript to yourself certified mail in a manilla envelope you never open. I did just that in the summer of 1998  and still have that envelope to this day. Changing the name of your ministry meant changing the logo, getting new t- shirts and coming up with new ideas. My brother in law Allan designed an amazing logo that is pictured above. He used my two older kids Jordan and Kaylee as "models" in the logo as to kids in the logo look like them as young kids. We had the kids wear red or navy blue shirts as the leaders had the same colors. We also got away from doing clown ministry. Truthfully, as the kids wore their clown make up, they all began to look like something from a horror movie after their makeup smeared on their faces. We made up some "kid friendly" dramas using songs from "The Donut Man" as well as some bible story songs like Noah from the band David and the Giants. In 1999, we launched a website www.kidsinmissions.org (that no longer exists) in hopes of selling the Kids in Missions curriculum along with my puppet scripts and a gospel tract I wrote. Sales went okay and I discovered many churches were starving for help in establishing a Sunday School program. Many had no room or did not have enough help. We also put pictures of our students on our website after each outreach they did. One first we had in 1999 was a foreign missions trip to Belize. 13 of us went and the trip was for one week. One mistake I made was I did include one person who was not a part of our ministry. I interviewed each team member as well as the adults asking them if they were in shape to do A LOT of walking. This person was not in shape at all and it made for a challenging week. It was the one and only foreign trip I did with this ministry. It did go well but my heart was always to do more ministry at home. Long Islanders are a tough breed who need Jesus!

     As we entered a new millennium we continued moving forward and I tried some new ideas to reach children and families. One was building a set that we would take on he road. I created a character I named Dr. Heartmender and we did a theme centered on a hospital theme that included tongue puppets. It only lasted a year as it was so hard to put the set up and down at each event and we also couldn't fit the set at many churches we visited because their platform was too small. In the year 2000, I asked my summer assistant Christine to create a program we called "Servant Thursdays." She organized for the entire summer service projects our kids could do each Thursday during the summer. We did implement service projects as part of our ministry from our inception but I wanted to use the time our kids were off from school to have them serve at either other churches or local ministries. The kids absolutely loved it and this continued up to 2012! One year later in 2001 I began doing ventriloquism as part of our programs and it truthfully added a nice touch to our ministry and outreaches. Grandpa Lou was a hit along with Sonkist, Shelton the Shark amongst many others that were added through the years, 

     Stay tuned next week as I share about what our Kids in Missions ministry accomplished in the 2000's! 

 

KIDS IN MISSIONS.....25 YEARS!!! PART ONE (HOW IT ALL BEGAN)

     A few months ago in one of my blogs, I wrote about an experience I had on a week long missions trip I went to that was to Mexico City in February 1994. During that trip, it was there that God began stirring inside of me an idea. I could not shake this idea all week long and could not wait to get home to begin working on it. My idea was simple! If teens ages 15 - 18 could go on a week long missions trip and serve God by doing dramas and clown ministry, why couldn't young kids ages 10 - 12 do the same thing? The purpose of my attending that trip was in hopes of bringing the concept of Sidewalk Sunday School to Long Island. I dreamed of raising funds to purchase a box truck that would convert into a stage that we could bring to local parks. That idea never panned out but another idea was brewing inside of me. 

     When I got home I started working on some ideas. One idea I tried was the concept of Backyard Bible Clubs that a few parents at my church hosted. It would be for an entire week and would be at various homes. I recruited a few kids and volunteers to do Clown Ministry at each "Home base." It seemed like a good idea at the time but it only lasted one summer and the vision for it never caught on. My responsibilities at the church were beginning to increase and I still wanted to develop some type of missions program for kids. In the Fall of 1995, I attended a Children's Ministry Conference in Orlando, Florida sponsored by Charisma Life. During that conference there was a demonstration of a Sidewalk Sunday School at a trailer park in Orlando. A few leaders from Metro Ministries from Brooklyn, NY did the demonstration in front of a group of kids. I was mesmerized and wanted so badly to bring this amazing method back to Long Island. Let's just say I spent the next 10 years trying to convince our Trustee Board it was a great thing to purchase a vehicle to do this great ministry as an outreach to the kids of Long Island. All I heard was the answer "NO." Little did I know at the time that God had other plans for our children's ministry besides buying a Sidewalk Sunday School Box truck. In October of that year, I began to think strongly about developing a missions class just for kids. I really believed many of the kids in our children's ministry needed to be challenged. I also knew that many of the kids I had at that time who were between the ages of 10-12 were very mature in their faith. I didn't know when to start it, how to start it and what it would exactly look like so I wrote down some goals. What did we want to accomplish? I then met with our Missions Pastor at a local diner and presented my idea to him. He was thrilled and loved it. I then decided to begin this class in January. My Missions Pastor recommended that I present this idea to our Missions Board. I was a member of this Board. The first words out of my mouth were "I know this sounds like a crazy idea, but I am developing a class on missions for kids in grades 4-6." The Missions Board loved this idea too! 

     So I had a lot of work cut out for me. I had to recruit not only kids to take this class but also workers. Right after Thanksgiving of 1995 I tried to look for curriculum but could not find anything at all, It was then that I had to do Plan B...use a college textbook I had. The book I used was called "Introduction to Global Missions" and I had to simplify the book so these preteen aged kids could understand it. Right before Christmas, I sent a letter out to kids in our church who I felt were spiritually mature and invited them to take the class. I didn't want just any kids, I wanted kids there who wanted to be taking this class. I didn't want kids there who had parents forcing them to take this class. I called the class "Kids Mission Bridge" which was a takeoff of the "Mission Bridge" program that was taught by the missions organization "Youth with a Mission." The mistake I made was that I did not have a sign up for the class. I told the kids they would learn all about missions and that we would be doing puppet ministry, clown ministry and drama. The class was slated to start on Sunday, January 14, 1996 during the Sunday school hour in the "C" building. Over the Christmas break I did receive a few phone calls from parents and had no clue what type of turnout I would get. On January 7, 1996 Long Island had a major snowstorm. We got well over 2 feet of snow that blanketed our area. I wasn't sure how that would affect church attendance one week later. On January 14, 1996...25 years ago on a Sunday morning I was ready to begin this program. I seriously expected maybe 6 or 7 kids in the class but boy was I surprised. I will never forget after the 8:30 am service that morning walking into the "C" building. There was a huge line going down the hallway. When I walked down the hallway, I had kids and parents asking me where the missions class was! We did not get 7 kids but 18!! I was in shock and so blessed to see these kids excited about taking this class!

     Well this blog is longer than I thought so I will write part 2 next week about our outreaches and how I developed the curriculum. Have a blessed week friends!!                    

 

IT'S TIME FOR US TO BE STRONG!!

 

     As I write this blog to begin 2021, my heart truly breaks for our country. I am not in any way trying to write any political post. You all know how I feel about politics. I've posted the reasons in a previous blog! This blog will not be a long one but an important one to begin our new year. All I want to say is it's time for us to be strong. When I say "Be strong", I am not referring to working out in a gym or striving to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's not about looking buff or being pumped up. It's about being strong mentally and spiritually. Ephesians 6:10 tells us to "Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might." I believe in this coming year we are going to see who are the real Christians and who are the fake ones. I also believe it is going to be a year of testing for everyone. I will even be bold enough to say that very soon I believe churches will be meeting in homes soon and many churches will be folding because of finances. Because of this my friends, I believe we will all need to be strong and not allow all of the problems we see day in and day out affect us. We will see in this coming year who is a strong Christian and who is a weak one. I am not afraid of the coronavirus. I am not afraid of what shape our government is in. I am not worried about our economy. I know that God is in control but I also know I need to do my part. I need to be strong! I can only be strong when I read my bible every day and when I pray. I need to pray for my leaders and ask God to help and guide them. I might not agree with everything they do, but it is my responsibility to pray for them. So my challenge to all of us in this new year is simple.....BE STRONG!!

HAVE A BLESSED WEEK AND NEW YEAR!!