Kidsserve-cedar run

My mom used to tell me how fast time flies once you become an adult. I never really related to that statement until I had kids. Honestly, right now, an year feels like just about how six months used to feel like before having kids. Perhaps I am too busy even noticing the passage of time or perhaps time really is shrinking right before my eyes!!! In any case, I typed all that to say that I cannot believe we just had our last meeting of the year. UNBELIEVABLE. What? we already had 7 KidsServe meetings this year?? We started our meeting by reflecting these past few months since October. Some of the favorite meetings the kids mentioned were the Christmas visit to the senior care living home, drawing pictures for others, etc. Someone mentioned her favorite was going to the fire station, although we had to remind her that was from last year. Good input though, we'll make a mental note of that. We reflected how we served our church with cleaning, overseas kids with Chris...

Have you ever experienced hunger on a daily basis? I don't mean that little hunger pang you feel right before meal time. I mean real hunger that robs you of energy, stamina and joy from your life. I am fortunate enough not to have that kind of experience, but I got a really good idea what it must be like from a documentary called "Living on One Dollar". It's an interesting story about a few brave American college students living in rural Guatemala with only $1 a day for two months. Highly recommend it! I wish we could have shown our kids the same documentary, but it admittedly is not a suitable kind for young children to watch, so instead we opted to teach our students about hunger issue through a video clip and a series of true or false questions. **disclaimer.. the kids are sitting close from the screen because our speaker system was not working and they needed to be close from the laptop...** We then demonstrated the world's unbala...

Hi KidsServe families! Every month as we get together, I never leave the meeting without feeling amazed by the amount of pure love our children can give to complete strangers. Once they are provided with info about those in need, and once they are given a task, they work at it with full passion and compassion, perhaps without even realizing how much love they have for others. The same goes to the parent/teenager volunteers. The meetings cannot happen without your full on support and love! This month, our kids have demonstrated yet again how much love they have in them. We had two things to focus this month of love: 1. Our sponsor child Aisha in Tanzania. We set out to write messages in a form of hand shape cut outs. Each child traced their own hands, wrote his/her name and wrote their favorite things in each finger. Aren't they sweet? Our hope is that Aisha will get a better feel of who she is loved by. The second focus of the day: A won...

Have you ever regretted wearing outfits without pockets? You know, not having a back pocket on your jeans or a cute pocket on your cute jacket.. Well, I DO. I still do regret not wearing an outfit with any pocket last Tuesday at KidsServe, as no pocket=no phone with me=no picture taken during the meeting.... sigh. So sorry folks, I have absolutely no photos for this meeting (gasp), and I know it is a travesty... but hey, at least I learned a lesson. (note to self) On KidsServe days, wear an outfit with at least one pocket! ahem. (repositioning myself) I do wish to inform you that we did have a phenomenal meeting as the kids learned about a rather mature content.. juvenile detention system. Special thanks to one most gracious and dedicated man of our church Mr. Kevin Kennedy. He was our inspiration in putting together this meeting as he brought wealth of information and shared with us his passion in sharing the love of Christ with the teenagers detained at a juvenile d...

Before Christmas 2016 becomes a distant memory, I wanted to recap how the children served this month. Christmas oh Christmas. Gifts, decorations, cookies, greeting cards etc... they all were put in place with good intention but at times the longer-than-normal to do list can put us in a hyper stressed mode! So this month, we wanted to refocus on what this season is all about: Celebration of Jesus's birth. Our pick was to share the celebration by caroling at a local senior care living facility near our church. Our children did a wonderful job caroling for the residents and two of our wonderful students read a book about Jesus's birth for the audience. Our children then handed out bags of coin-shaped chocolate to commemorate St. Nicholas. (Legend has it, Mr. Nicholas threw coins from the windows of houses in need) Due to privacy reasons, we cannot share the pictures of the residents, but I wish I could! There was so much joy and happiness oozing out of that room!...

Greetings! I cannot believe that this year is nearing its end and that means the season of giving is right around the corner! This month, we tied the almost-Christmas spirit with overseas mission. With the help of materials from Samaritan Purse (our favorite organization),  our students were introduced to a program called "Operation Christmas Child" via a few videos clips. A few things they learned: the boxes filled with gifts are sent out to children in over 100 countries around the world. Typically, about 11 million of them are distributed! The video showed children from all over the world showing the exact same reaction to the gifts handed out to them no  matter which country they are in: outburst of joy and excitement!! One of the significant aspects of this program is in the fact that along with the gifts, small booklets outlining God's teaching are also handed out in many cases. Children see and feel the love of God in a tangible way, but the parents and t...