Our meetings might be over for the summer but that doesn't mean we don't have some events scheduled for us to get together.
Start off the first week of summer with a playdate! Come join us at Warrior's Path this Friday, June 1 at 10:30 am to let the kids play. Bring a picnic lunch to enjoy as well.
Our last mission project this year is Queen for a Day for the ladies of Keystone Community. We get the awesome opportunity to be God's hands and feet to show love to these ladies. We will treat them to lunch, pampering, goodie bags, and items for them to "shop" through. If you can't attend, you can still help! You can drop off donations at the Touchpoint Center on Thursday from 4 pm to 6 pm or ask for Tim Kitts at the church office. We would like to build relationships with some ladies to hopefully invite them to join us for MOPS next year.
Lastly, we would like to get a group together for Living Proof Live with Beth Moore in Knoxville on August 10 and 11. The cost is $65.00 plus lodging. If you would like to join us, please email us at mops@tcbcmops.com by Monday, June 11 so we can make hotel reservations.
Hope to see you soon!
I don't know about you but my list of blogs I follow is getting longer and longer every day! There are so many great resources out there. Here are a few of our favorites we have stumbled on recently: 1. When You Rise - Variety of parent resources 2. Impress Your Kids - Great ways to find the teachable moments in every day 3. Our Family for His Glory - Lots of different resources from chores to prayer books 4. Toddler Approved - Tons of activities to do with your kids 5. Clean Mama - For my inner clean freakWhat about you? What blogs have you been reading? Are you a blogger? Comment below and share your blog favorites!
Our first year of MOPS ended on such a high note! Our meeting consisted of daisies, dainty finger foods, and lovely ladies. The Tea and Testimony was such a sweet time of sharing what God has done in our lives over the past year. Both morning and evening went over because there just wasn't enough time to share all He has done within our group. Announcements: - Registration has begun! The morning group has more than half of the MOPPETS spots full. Register soon so you don't miss out on your spot. You can mail in your registration, drop it off at the front desk, or drop it off in the box outside of the Preschool hall. - We have lots of summer events to help us keep in touch over the summer. We will have a playdate on Friday, June 1 at Warrior's Path at 10:30. There will be a Mommy and Me Bible Time on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month through the summer at 10:30 in the Children's Hall downstairs. - Our last mission project is Queen for a Day. Join us share God's love to the women who live in the Keystone Community on Saturday, June 2 at 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm. If you want to get involved, please email us mops@tcbcmop.com. - We would like to get a group together to Living Proof Live with Beth Moore on Friday, August 10 to Saturday, August 11 in Knoxville. Email us if you are interested in going. - Expecting moms are Ashley Stewart in June and Hillary Stewart in May. - Special thanks to all of those who served in leadership this year: Amy Carter, Courtney Duncan, Elissa Fields, Melissa Fleming, Regina Goguen, Allison Johnston, Suzanne Tremaine, Jennifer Tucker, and Callie Wagner. - Special thanks to our mentor moms: Dianne Crouse, Ann Gatton, Jennifer Laughrun, Gayle Mermilliod, and Pam Rankin.Pam Plucker did such a great job preparing such a great menu for our tea. She has done such an awesome job leading our Hospitality team which we are so grateful for. Kimberly Wilson, as Coordinator, has done a wonderful job helping our first year of MOPS to be a great success. She will be stepping down but will still be an active part of MOPS. Please personally thank Kimberly for all her time and work she has put in to making this year of MOPS beneficial for all of us. Speaker: Charlie Gatton is the Children's Pastor at Tri-Cities Baptist Church. He share with us how to share Christ with your children. In order to share Christ with our children, we must first understand how to Christ ourselves. It is a simple process which can be explained using the ABCs. First, there is A for Admit. It is necessary that you admit that you are a sinner. Romans 3:23 says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." He or she must be sorry for our sins and turn away from sinning. Secondly, there is B for Believe. A person must believe that Jesus is God's Son and God sent Jesus to pay the penalty for our sin. John 3:16 says, "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Lastly, there is C for Confess. A person must confess his or her faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Romans 10:9 says, "If you confess with your mouth and believe in you heart, that God has raised Him from your dead, you will be saved." There is no special prayer in order to make God the Boss of your life. It is as easy A, B, C! Many people wonder what age can your child accept Christ. There is no magical age but it is when they understand. If you talk to them and can talk to them out about, they aren't ready. When you can't talk them out of it, you know the Holy Spirit is at work. Consider your child's environment they want to make a decision. Make sure they aren't doing it because others around them are. How do you know their decision is sincere? There has to be a life chance and attitude change. When can you start telling your child about Christ? You can begin when they are in the womb! Use teachable moments through your daily life. Model prayer and actions for your child. Read from children's Bibles and endless resources to share Christ with your child. Look for the desire to please the Lord such as going to church, reading the Bible, and telling you when they have done something wrong. Little ones are literal thinkers so we must watch our wording, such as asking Jesus into our heart. Instead use terminology such as make God the Boss of your life. To explain sin, use an illustration of a rotten egg in a cake or grape juice on a white garment. Sin ruins us even if it is only a small amount. To explain love, use an illustration of a sibling taking our punishment. To explain Jesus serving as our penalty, use an illustration of basketball and needing a substitute. Focus on communicating facts not concepts because they are concrete thinkers. It is important for your children to understand the concept of the Holy Spirit so they don't confuse prompting with doubting their salvation. Discipling is important once they have made the decision so they can grow in their relationship with Christ. Some resources: Big Truths for Little Kids by Susan Hunt and Richie Hunt Jesus Wants All of Me by Phil A. Smouse Let the Little Children Come Devotion: Kimberly shared with us that our story is always changing. Some might think that a testimony is how they were saved and the story stops there. But our testimony is ever changing as we are growing in our walk with Christ. Kimberly shared how God has been at work in her family. Through her painful story, she shared how God had prepared her for her crisis and walked along side of her through her time of trouble. She shared how God may have walked her through this time to help her share her story with others. As discussion groups, we shared our stories how God has been at work in our lives. It was so encouraging to hear stories of personal growth with a lot of stories involving MOPS. If you have a story to share, please let us know.
Registration has officially begun and is open to everyone to join us. This past year we have filled all our spots in the MOPPETS childcare in the morning so these spots will go quickly. We have added that moms help serve at least one time during the semester in order to expand and make a few more spots available so we can include more moms. We hope you will join us! our first year has been awesome and we plan for next year to be even better! There are scholarships or payment plan options available. If you are thinking about joining, please email us if you have any questions at mops@tcbcmops.com. Next year we are adding Moms Next which is for school aged children. As our children enter school, new challenges and issues come up. Moms Next allows an authentic community to share with each other during this stage of mothering. It is also a great opportunity to invite friends from the community to learn about Jesus in a comfortable setting. We are excited to widen our circle of moms to all moms! Soon we plan on sharing some of the topics we have planned for next year. Until then you can see what topics and speakers we had this year on our calendar page. Also you can read our meeting recaps on the blog to check out a brief review of each meeting. We would love to have you join us!
You are invited to a
Tea and Testimony
to celebrate our MOPS year
On Thursday, May 10th
At 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm
or on Friday, May 11th
at 9:30 am to 11:30 am
Get out your special hats
and dress up for our special tea.
Please RSVP by Thursday, May 3rd
Can you believe it is almost the end of our MOPS year? It sure has blown by as we enjoyed getting to know one another. Our April meeting was a little different because of the different breakouts we had to explore several interests such as self defense, zumba, children's literature, and in the kitchen. Here are our announcements from our meeting:- Birthdays: Leslie Fletcher and Rosanna Gibson- Expecting moms: Laura Eskind, Rosanna Gibson, and Ashley Sherrill - Registration has officially begun! Sign up now to get the early bird pricing of $45 for the year. Invite friends in your circle of influence to come join us for MOPS next year. If you know someone with a school aged child, invite them to join us for MomsNext. - There are leadership positions available if you are interested in serving as a hospitality member, a discussion group leader, or a care group leader. Email mops@tcbcmops.com if you are interested in serving with us next year. - Our next Mother's Night Out is on Thursday, April 26 at 7 pm. We will get together for Chocolate and a Movie. We will have a great excuse for a chick flick! We will work on postcards inviting friends to join us next year for MOPS. Devotion: Heather shared the devotion this month on prayer. We face daily dilemmas with our children and Nehemiah offers a great glimpse of what we can do when faced with problems. Through the entire book of Nehemiah you can see how he was faced with a problem and immediately approached the throne in prayer. Before he went to any other source, he went to his heavenly Father. We too can approach God with our problems. Not only do we have the priviledge to pray for our children, we have the privilege for praying for the ladies in our group. We can pray for the ladies, their children, their marriages, and their specific prayer requests. By praying for each other, we are fulfilling the work of the church. Heather challenged us to pray for our discussion groups. We ended by sharing our requests with one another. The Tea and Testimony will be a great time to get together to share what God has done in our lives this year. We will have some girlie food with time of celebration! Can't wait to see you there!
This month's meeting is going to be fun with the You Pick 2 electives. I'm looking forward to checking out what our special guests have planned for us. In the evening, we will be having Zumba, In the Kitchen with Pam, and Pediatric Questions with Melanie. In the morning, we will have having Self-Defense, Children's Literature, Skin Care, and In the Kitchen with Pam. It should be a great time to enjoy ourselves! At the meeting, we will start our registration for next year. If you are interested in printing out your registration form ahead of time, you can download it from the Registration page. Have you done your Spring cleaning? Our mission project this month can help you this spring! One way to help your spring cleaning is to bring any expired coupons you might have to give to military families. They can use them up to 6 months after the expiration date so if you have any please bring them to the meeting so we can send them off. Another way to help your cleaning is to bring any lightly used small toys to give to children who mission teams will visit this summer. Lastly, on Friday we will have a Stay and Play Playdate after the morning meeting. We will have a picnic around 11:45 and then play with chalk, bubbles, and on the playground. You may bring a picnic lunch or we will order pizza for all those who have prepaid. The price for pizza is $5.00 per family that will be due at the beginning of the meeting so we know how many to order. What are you most looking forward to this meeting?
"He is not here; He has risen!" Luke 24:6 Are your little ones getting excited as Easter is approaching? It is exciting to see little ones learn about Jesus and get excited about Easter morning to say "He has risen!" Hopefully the March newsletter gave you some good ideas of how to point your kids to the cross this Easter but here are a more links as promised.1. Make your own Resurrection eggs. Preschool Resurrection eggs Toddler Resurrection Eggs2. Make a cross painting by forming a cross with masking tape on a white piece of paper. Let the child paint on the paper then remove the tape to reveal a beautiful cross.3. Mark each family member's hand with a heart and their name written on their palm to remember Jesus' sacrifice throughout the day. 4. Make a Resurrection garden with rocks, plants, moss, and leaves to create a garden with a tomb.5. Have rocks in the Easter basket to symbolize our sins. 6. Share time as a family and have a special Easter devotion. Here is a good start!If you don't have a place to worship on Sunday, we would love to have you join us at Tri-Cities Baptist Church. There are four services to choose from: 7:45 AM, 9:00 AM, 10:15 AM, and 11:30 AM. What is your family doing to celebrate Easter?
This year of MOPS has flown by! It is hard to believe that we are already starting registration for next year. The theme for next year is Plunge - Love each other as if your life depended on it. The theme will be centered around relationships and community. We would like to see our group grow in a bigger sense of community as we focus on our relationships. We plan on having more activities as a discussion group and adding a care group leader to each group. There are exciting things coming soon to help build community. The cost for 2012/2013 is $50.00, with a $5.00 discount if you pay by August 1, 2012. We will start registration for current members on April 12, 2012 at the evening meeting. Then we will open registration to the community on May 1. Please register as soon as possible because spots in MOPPETS will fill up quickly, especially in the morning. Our Registration page now has our 2012/2013 information so you can download your form and bring it to the next meeting. We will have some available at the meeting as well. There are a few things that are different for next year:1. MomsNext - This is a mom's group for school-aged children (yes, school-aged as in through high school). We have heard several moms say they wish they could join our group but their children are already in elementary school. Now these moms can join our group! The MomsNext discussion groups will join our evening sessions and hopefully we can glean from their wisdom as well. We will be offering childcare for birth to 5th grade in the evening only. In the morning we will still only offer childcare for birth to kindergarten. 2. Moms Serving in MOPPETS - Currently our morning group is full to capacity due to the lack of MOPPETS leaders. In order for our group to grow, we are asking each mom registered to serve in MOPPETS once during the year. We will probably rotate on a schedule similar to our hosting schedule so you can serve alongside your discussion group. We appreciate your willingness to serve so we can expand our group to include more moms, especially ones that may not know Christ. As part of our registration process, each mom will need to fill out a Volunteer Form for a background check. These will be given to the Director of Preschool Ministries to conduct the background checks and we will not be holding your information such as ss# on file. We plan to still have volunteer leaders so there will still be consistency in each classroom for your children. If you have any questions regarding this, please email the coordinators. If you know someone who would be interested in MomsNext, please pass along the word! If you are interested in a leadership position next year such as a discussion group leader, please let us know as well.
Our March meeting was very informative and we all left with something to challenge us to use at home with our kids. Announcements: - Birthdays: - Congratulations to Shawnda Hensiek on the birth of her son, Judson. - Congratulations to Stephanie Arbaugh on the birth of her son, Estin. - Congratulations to expecting moms: Pam Plucker, Ashley Stewart, Hillary Stewart, and Laura Wilson. - Registration for next year will begin at the April meeting. We will be placing the registration form on the website by April 1. We will also have them available at the meeting. We will be adding to our group, MomsNext which is for mothers of school aged children. MomsNext will be joining our group in the evenings starting next year. We will offer childcare for birth through 5th grade for the evening only. - There is a Parent Connect on Friday, March 23rd. Register at impactyourlife.net for childcare. - Join us for a Mother's Night Out on Friday, March 30 at 7:00 pm in room B/C. At our Crop, Craft, and Coffee bring any unfinished project and a dessert to share for a good time with friends. Please RSVP by Friday, Monday 23. - Our Easter playdate will be on Monday, April 2 at 6:30 pm in the Children's Hallway. We will decorate Easter eggs and participate in Resurrection eggs. Please RSVP by Monday, March 26. Devotion: Kimberly shared an encouraging word to remind us that investing in the spiritual growth of our children is preparing for a bright tomorrow for our children. Titus 2:1-8 instructs the "older" generation to invest into the younger generation. As parents, we are the mentors to invest into our children. Deuteronomy 6:5-9 instructs us as parents to raise adults who love the Lord with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their strength. We need to be intentional in our daily lives to use every moment to share Christ with our children by teaching scripture and grace. How can we make our home a mission field while juggling all our tasks? It is impossible to complete this task all in our own strength. Through a constant, growing relationship with Jesus, through His Word, through constant prayer, and through fellowship with other Christian mothers, the Lord will equip us to raise adults who love the Lord with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their strength. Speaker:Amber Freeman in the evening on Early Learning - The first 3 years of life are the most valuable years. There is so many things their little minds learn and it supports their brain development for the rest of their lives. There are 4 main categories that are going on as they develop:- Language and Communication: It is important to watch our child to see how they communicate. Read, read, read! Paint a picture of the day and help them understand what to expect. Interact and talk about what you do together to build upon their language. - Thinking Skills: Encourage your child to explore which might mean putting away the items you do not want them to explore. Continuous routines are the best thing for brain connections. Use those moments for playful learning moments. Children learn best from activities that interest them. Become an observer of your child and find ways to use their interest to learn. When are you reading to your child, ask questions to build on brain connections. - Self-Control: Help your child learn words to understand what they are feeling. They are still trying to figure out how to act and in the process of learning what is acceptable. Sometimes we forget this in the moment and we need to step back so we can calm down before reacting. We play a role as they are learning and can help them learn self-control. - Self-Confidence: Comment on what your child does well. There should be 3 positives before a negative. Give your child a chance to do some things on their own. Encourage your child to keep trying and help them work through it. She said that a great source of information is Zero to Three.Mary Thane in the morning on Kindergarten Readiness - She discussed many skills we can prepare our children for kindergarten. The most important skill to get them ready to learn is gross and fine motor skills. Some of these skills are hop on one foot, balance on a beam, balancing on one foot with eyes closed, using scissors, holding a pencil in a correct grip, and pinching clothespins. It is also important that their needs are met before they can begin to make brain connections to learn. Personal skills are also important because the teacher can not take care of all these needs like you can as a mom with a classroom full of children. Some personal skills are zipping, snapping, tying, blowing their own nose, and washing their hands. It is important to reinforce good behavior while stressing good and bad choices. Children understand rules and consequences so teach your children these and be consistent. Practice following directions including 3 step directions using language such as first, then, and later. What can you do to prepare your child for the first day of school? Pick out toys and books about the first day of school to help your child learn what to expect. Play like it is the first of school and go through what the day might be like. Help teach your child what they might expect such as practicing balancing a lunch tray and opening up a milk. Most children see school as a socialization moment so use the opportunity to tell them about the friends they will meet. A source she recommended was See the World Through My Eyes for understanding the emotions of our children and how we can help them.
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