The Deep Sea Dispatch - Friday Edition

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, 

baptizing them in the name of  

the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 

and teaching them to obey everything 

I have commanded you.   

And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age" 

~Matthew 28:19, 20

Today was full of messages--first Pastor Rod and Pastor Rich taught us about willingly going where God sends us.  In doing so, we learned that Pastor Rich's calling is definitely that of ministering to a congregation because Pastor Rod does not think he would be a very successful coffee shop barista--please note, he would be absolutely willing and efficient, just not too successful by Pastor Rod's standards.  (And for those of you who don't know, Pastor Rod is fairly fond of his coffee.)

Pastor Rich reminded us that when God sends us to do a job, it is important to do the job in the biggest and best way we can, because we should always do our best for Him.

At the close of this week, a big thanks to all our pastors from those of us on the cabinet.  We appreciate you so much for the time you take to join us each day and lead our group services.  Our church is so blessed to have passionate pastors who get as excited as you do about our Vacation Bible School--it's a pleasure to have you with us!

We would like to remind you that everyone is invited to worship with us at our south campus location for VBS Celebration Sunday:

Sunday, July 31

Worship begins at 10:00am at Timothy's South Campus--Children please arrive at 9:30

301 SE Wyatt Rd, Blue Springs

Kids, don't forget to wear your VBS t-shirt.  Parents, if it's your first time visiting our church, the service is contemporary and feel free to dress as you like--some of our families dress in Sunday best, but many dress casually.  We'll be happy to have you and want you to be comfortable!

We will also have a slideshow highlighting some of our favorite moments from the week.  We hope you will be able to join us. 

**Please note that we will not be in the same building where we have been for VBS this week.  We will be at our location on 301 SE Wyatt Rd --click on the address for a map if you're unsure of the directions.

Miss Kaylee and the Cabin Fever Band spent their last day with the children preparing them for the celebration on Sunday singing their favorite songs from the week.  Thank you to all our musical talent that joined us this week and for all their efforts this summer to make this week so amazing for the kids.  

Our snack team's Friday tradition is trail mix and they did not disappoint!  Ask your munchkin which snack favorites they chose for their trail mix today--there sure was an assortment of treats!  Thank you to Miss Harley and Miss Jessica for organizing such a dedicated team of volunteers and for creating a fun menu for the children.  You are a blessing to us!

Today's craft was a huge hit!  The children played in the sand and made some beautiful sand art reflecting their faith.  Many thanks to Miss Viv and her crafty creators for managing all the glue, sand, glitter, markers and more with all the children.  We all know that is not a task for the weak.  God has certainly STRENGTHENED you in a special way and we are so grateful!

There was a lot of fun going on in storytelling today...the hokey pokey, maps, Scripture, disciples, a sorcerer.  All of these things come together, though--in a message to teach us about how God SENDS us, of course!  Ask your child to tell you the story in their own words and be sure to have them explain all the great costumes our storytelling team created.  We want to take a moment to thank Miss Angela & Miss Denise for all their work to bring our theme to life in dramatic fashion.

Though we had to say goodbye to our sweet whale today, he delighted in his last meal.  He was overflowing with donations for Hillcrest Transitional Housing.  It was amazing and we cannot thank everyone enough for their generosity!  Miss Rebekah & Miss Tram waded through the items and got them ready for the pick up and everyone helped load them up for Hillcrest after closing.  Thank you to everyone who helped us load things into the truck--it made the work so much easier!

Miss Dawn got a little extra help, as well, cleaning out our treasure chest for the final count today.  This sweet little guy helped her sort change and bills for counting the final numbers for Our Redeemer Lutheran Church.  Our hope was to make it to $1,000 and as they were pulling the treasure, it was looking pretty hopeful!

At our closing we made the final announcement at the total, in full was an INCREDIBLE:

$1,280

The joy on the faces of the children when the total was announced was a beautiful moment.  Thank you to everyone who made this possible.  We are excited about what this will mean for the work of Our Redeemer.  

Don't forget that next year, VBS is for ages 4-5th Grade and 6th Graders are able to begin serving as volunteers.  This little guy is so excited to join a Pre-K class and follow in his big sister's footsteps he can't stand it!  He posed for a picture for me today just to get a little bit of the excitement!  Shout out to our own Miss Aimee and Miss Angie (Mrs. Mundt to our TLS crew) who created our decorations for the week and their team of helpers who assisted them in transforming the church into the deep sea!
 

So, what are you doing in the next couple of weeks?  We've enjoyed seeing everyone every day and we'd like to see you more often:

  

*As you're making room for new school clothes and things, we want to let you know that our School Ministry is having a Rummage Sale!  Donations can be made for the sale beginning this Sunday, 7/31 through 8/3, 7am-7pm at the north campus in the Family Life Center (No TVs, mattresses, child car seats or carriers accepted).  Then come back and join us for some shopping August 4-6 from 8am-6pm on Thursday and Friday and 8am-noon on Saturday. The committee is also still seeking some volunteers--if you are available, please contact Debbie Johnson at 847.7784.

*What are you doing on Friday, August 12?  JourneyMen is hosting a FREE family movie night and we'd love for you to come.  You can register online anytime.  Childcare is available for those who preregister only.  

 

   *  For our youth volunteers--our Youth Group meets most Wednesday nights at our north campus.  We would love to have you join us for faith and fun.  Check out our website for information and upcoming events or ask one of our youth! 

 

Here's a final moment at VBS we'd like to share.  We're going to miss all of you so much!  Please don't be strangers--revisit our early posts from this week to see how you might come see us throughout the year and make plans to be with us for next year's Vacation Bible School!  

God Bless You as HE SENDS YOU!

Thank you to our families who brought their 320 children to be with us, thank you to all our volunteers, our teachers, assistants and donors.  Thank you to our Timothy staff who worked around our week-long event.  And thank you to our congregation for your prayers and support.

One final thank you before we go--on behalf of our 2016 VBS Cabinet, a HUGE THANK YOU to Dawn Twenter and Becky Blatt for their leadership of all things VBS in the Deep Sea this year. Their support and love of Jesus makes this program a joy to be a part of and we love you both so much!

God's blessings on your weekend--we hope to see you Sunday!

The Deep Sea Dispatch - Thursday Edition

"This is how God showed his love among us:  
He sent his one and only Son into the world
that we might live through him" 

~1 John 4:9

How does God feel about us?  GOD LOVE US!  But what does God's love look like?  Can we even begin to imagine how big God's love for us stretches?  Probably not in our wildest dreams, but Pastor Rod and Pastor Rich talked to us about how we can love one another while we are here, on earth.  And this week, during VBS, we can also love our neighbors by continuing to raise our donations for our missions project for  Our Redeemer Lutheran Church.  Love means being unselfish and taking care of others.  Throughout the morning, we talked about God's gift of love, His son Jesus, sent just for us to save us from sin.  Wow--that's some kind of love!

As always, music was a popular time during VBS today.  The band was taking requests again, which the children enjoyed--proven by the screams, giggles and loud belly laughing coming from the sanctuary during all the classes!  One of the classes had a great time putting the band to the test by requesting some popular animated movie theme songs and stumped Mr. Alex so much he had to look up some lyrics--that doesn't happen very often, so a big "high-five" to the kiddo that was able to pull that off!

If you haven't made plans for Sunday, we want to remind you that your families are invited to worship with us at our south campus location for VBS Celebration Sunday:

Sunday, July 31

Worship begins at 10:00am at Timothy's South Campus--Children please arrive at 9:30

301 SW Wyatt Road, Blue Springs

Children are encouraged to wear their VBS shirts so when Miss Kaylee gives them the signal during worship, they can help her sing some of the songs we've learned this week in music!  We will also have a slideshow highlighting some of our favorite moments from the week.  We hope you will be able to join us. We still have CDs available at the yellow submarine in the lobby, so if you'd like to purchase one to practice songs at home just stop by before or after VBS!

Tomorrow is Friday!  

Don't forget to bring your sharpie markers to participate in the annual tradition of signing each others' VBS t-shirts!  

Snack today was an annual favorite with a spin on our deep sea theme - Crispy Catch! Everyone enjoyed a delicious crispy treat (ocean sand) and got to spread blue frosting (water) on top and sprinkle fish on the frosting as an extra treat!  As you can imagine the children loved them, but also...a few adults during their break.  Thumbs up, snack team!

God's love for us was made perfect in His son, Jesus.  So it's only right that our craft for today be a cross.  Miss Viv's team helped everyone make a simple cross that could be individually decorated with shells and gems to represent the deep sea theme.  They all turned out so beautifully!

Storytelling literally shared a story today as part of their time with the children.  Kind of ironic, don't you think?  But really great, because they read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.  If you haven't read this book, you should--great stuff about the work of selfless love in our hearts.  Which...seamlessly relates to God's unending love for us, as shown in 1 John 4:9.  These kids are really impressive at applying their Scripture lessons, aren't they?

Oh my...our spiffy whale...you should have seen that guy!  Oh, wait, we have a picture here somewhere...  Yes, here it is:

He cleaned up pretty well with all your help and a little help from our teacher, Cory, and preschooler, Nora, don't you think?  Hillcrest Transitional Housing will be grateful, too! Our whale is already a little sad knowing tomorrow is the last day of VBS.  So, he doesn't want to be picky.  He's asked that everyone just bring anything they'd like from this week's list and fill him back up.  If you need to remember what's on the list, please check on the missions page using the link.

Earlier this week, we set a goal of raising $1,ooo for Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Kansas City and we are SO close--just over $125 shy of the total.  In fact, if every person who registered for VBS brought in just $0.40 tomorrow, we would be able to meet the goal!  Today the girls brought in $146.25 and the boys, not liking second place the last two days, brought in a crazy $205.23.  But the grand total win still slightly belongs to our girls:

Girls - $438.62

Boys - $433.77

Thank you for your generosity this week.  The goal is within sight and we're so excited!

 

It is easy to see during VBS that Lutheran Missouri Synod churches are dedicated to children's ministry, but did you also know that our schools are a crucial part of our commitment based on a rich heritage of educational foundation?  In fact, historically one of the criteria for joining and retaining membership in the synod was that churches establish Christian education for their children (Marrs, 2012).  

Education is an important part of our ministry at Timothy Lutheran, as well.  We provide Christ-centered education through our fully-accredited Early Childhood Center and K-8 Elementary Programs.  

Our early childhood center offers full-time child care for infants through preschool age children, as well as part-time preschool programs.  Please visit our website for more information.  

One of our Kindergarten classes introducing Elementary school to our PreK classes at the ECC

Our K-8 Elementary School offers academic excellence combined with a Christ-centered environment preparing students for successful futures.  In addition to our full-time traditional program, we also offer a homeschool program two days a week in which students can join our traditional students for special enrichment classes such as language, physical education and music.  For more information about our elementary programs, please visit our website.  

If you have any additional questions about our Timothy Lutheran schools, call us or make an appointment to visit our facilities.  We look forward to partnering with your family for your children's Christian education. 

Marrs, L.  (2012, September 14) Our History:  We Teach.  Retrieved from https://blogs.lcms.org/2012/our-history-we-teach. 

 

We can't believe tomorrow is our last day of Vacation Bible School with all of you!  But, we have so many great things planned and we cannot wait to see your smiling faces in the morning!  I wonder where we'll journey next?

 God's blessings on your family time tonight!  See you bright and early for our last morning together!