Jesus Loves the Littles
If You’re Happy and You Know It…
Kids make me happy… and so does seeing the joy in our very own infant and pre-kindergarten kiddos of CrossRoads Kids. Week after week, Sunday after Sunday, I see precious kiddos that want to know God Made Them, God Loves Them, and Jesus wants to be their friend forever! Friends and family are important to pre-k children, so to have Jesus as their Best Friend forever it can be the beginning of them learning who Jesus really is. He is our Risen Lord and Saviour!
On Sundays, you may have seen families bringing their precious littles to us for care and learning about Jesus. Infants and pre-k children embark on our wonderful “serves” ready to engage with them. Being a “serve” is also known as being a volunteer and we could not function without our 200+ willing serves we have each month! Marcia Bowler heads up the morning serves on Sunday and Jaqi Tiechroeb oversees the 6pm serves in infant care and pre-k. Being a part of CrossRoads Kids is usually the first step for young families. We see many of our teen serves grow up into young adults who serve, get married and then, when they have their children, it comes around full circle! So, thank you serves!! Sunday morning is a highlight in the life of a child. I hear often that parents are dragged to church by their children… this makes us so happy!
We are privileged to have a wonderful curriculum provider called “Orange”. We are also privileged to have a team of curriculum prep stars that prepare all the craft and games needed for an entire month in advance! They gather under the supervision of Jaqi Tiechroeb - a team of about 6 to 10! They cut, fold, and color examples for the teachers and children of Crossroads Kids. Sundays are full of fun and consist of class arrival activities, worship, Bible Story, and crafts then home time. You can imagine the work that goes into prep for (how many kids)! Thank you curriculum prep team… You Rock!
I want to say we have some awesome young families at CrossRoads! I enjoy seeing their faces light up when they come into their children’s areas. I enjoy the people traffic jams by the big slide and all the community that is experienced Sunday after Sunday there. If you want to see REAL joy and excitement just come to the slide and pre-k play area after any given service!
And part of that joy comes from the mouth of babes. We have several babies and toddlers under the age of 30 months! CrossRoads’ infant care is a sweet haven for many of our hardworking and exhausted parents. Babies can be dropped off as early as a couple of weeks old, although the trend to keep young babies with mom is very evident at CrossRoads and we rarely get babies before the age of 6 months. Cuddling, playing, reading and full engagement happens in our Cuddlers and Cruisers Rooms.
For our pre-k kiddos, there are many events throughout the year that can be experienced as a family. But a highlight for me is our Faith at Home event. This happens just once throughout the year for the 3 and 4 year olds and I enjoy sharing with the families exactly what we do in Pre-K as well as discuss a topic to help build our faith. Parents get to have discussion around the tables with other families and then take home a hands-on DIY to continue to share faith at home within the family.
Some other activities our Early Childhood families can engage in throughout the year are Baby Dedication, Meet & Greet Pickles and Ice Cream, Daddy Daughter Date Night and Sock Wars. We also enjoy having training events for our hard working serves that catch us up on protocol as well as allow us to share a meal and have fellowship together. No matter the event, all must follow the same guidelines: Is everyone Welcome? Do they encourage loving each other deeply? Are we making sure children are getting our very best?
All of this happened before Covid-19. We have seen the challenge this is for our young families and especially their children. We are continuing to connect weekly with online worship, curriculum and other fun challenges. I have heard story after story from parents that are just so excited to spend more time as a family. The days of schedule, schedule, and schedule are over! I have also heard stories of Dads’ getting promotions during this difficult time which is a miracle for some of our families. But we also have Dads’ and Moms’ losing their jobs and often finding this a very stressful time financially and mentally. Amidst all of this, I am also hearing stories where God is working in families where unsaved family members are now turning to the Lord and miracles of children being healed by Jesus! Praise God!
We look forward during this time and offer that we really do not have many answers. But we do know who is in control! God is so good, He is so faithful and He will never leave us. We will hold on to His promises and we will look forward to a time we can all meet together again.
To end on a “fun note” Marcia, Jaqi and myself were able to travel around and take “porch pictures” of some of our families! This was a very joy-filled day… seeing our families and hearing from them, some of the positive outcomes of this time within their families and some of the struggles they are dealing with as well. To see more, visit our Facebook page or the CrossRoads Church Facebook page for the full post.
We continue to pray, support and engage with our young families and their children the best we can during these difficult days.
Thankfully,
