We are discovering a variety of skills are appealing to both parents and kids with the Wesley Chapel Academy. Even though some of the boys who signed up for sewing basics were concerned there wouldn’t be other boys, we found there were an equal number of boys to girls at the third Wesley Chapel Academy class.

Ordering Sewing School: 21 Sewing Projects Kids Will Love To Make with kid-friendly graphics from Amazon, we chose two projects we thought the kids could accomplish in the time frame of 6-7:30 with tutor introductions at the beginning, a small break mid-way for a story about the sick woman healed by the power of even the touch of the fabric of Jesus’ cloak, and certificates with summer fun registration information attached.

Supplies included: 2 needles per student, scrap fabric for the pillow, batting for stuffing the pillow, 2 small sewing kits with small spools of thread, crayons/chalk for outlining patterns, large 2-hole buttons, dark colored felt (the darker colors make for a stiffer fabric), scissors, paper bags for carrying finished projects or storing unfinished projects, ice water in the large dispenser with small cups for the water-story break.

6:05-6:15 Introductions and housekeeping

6:15-6:45 Station #1

6:45-6:55 Water and story break

6:55-7:25 Station #2

7:25-7:30 Certificates earned and class photo

Two seamstresses in the church (Titus 2 women!) and two young people who could take instruction AND keep the littles on task along with keeping their needles threaded/knotted (we did have some 1st & 2nd graders) were wonderful tutors. They spoke, they displayed, then encouraged the students to keep trying to do it themselves.

One brother and sister team drove over an hour to attend the class. They heard about the class through our registration tool Eventbrite. Twenty registered, fifteen attended, three students were new faces!

The next Wesley Chapel Academy is next month and we’re breaking out the power tools!

“When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”” Mark 5:27-28

Tossing out the photos onto the table, the workshop participants were invited to choose a photo that best represented ‘How well is your soul?’.  At each table everyone shared their photo and why they chose it. I had no idea that the community had suffered through a suicide at the local high school and two had just been diagnosed with the terrible-awful. We prayed with. We prayed over. We prayer through. Then we were able to carry on the scheduled training having addressed the many elephants in the room and the heavy baggage most of us didn’t even know about.

Tossing photos onto the floor, the children were invited to choose a photo that best represented sadness. Photos were chosen that were black and white, a colorful clown, and others. They were asked to show the photo each one chose and why it made them feel sad. Then I began teaching about how Jesus might have felt when praying in the Garden of Gethsemane as he kept coming back to ask his friends to “watch and pray, watch and pray”. Bringing scripture to a heart and mind ready with a visual image made for a swift application of the Jesus moment as best a 1st grader could understand.

Third through fifth graders chose from a group of photos one picture that represented ‘waiting’. After sharing each photo chosen and why it represented waiting with the great silliness and laughter that only comes from third-fifth graders, we began to learn how long David waited and persevered in God’s big adventure for him from being a shepherd boy to king of Israel. God has a big adventure for each of them and it’ll be worth the wait. Spiritual conversations began as soon as we searched the scriptures in 2 Samuel when we each brought our idea of waiting to the table.

A colleague from Discipleship Ministries shared The Visual Faith Project with me a few months ago. I ordered the kid pack of images and another pack of images. There are several to choose from on the website.  I’ve been playing with the images in the settings above and I don’t even know what I’m doing. What I do know is I’ve already found several ways to use them to begin spiritual conversations with adults and children.

Images provide vocabulary, prompt memories, initiate conversation, and allow connection quickly in a small group. So we’ve set up a training sponsored by North Georgia’s CEF team for using images and The Visual Faith Project.

We are wired for imagery. Exploring scripture through the use of images creates a connection in our biology and our souls that allows us to experience God’s Word in new and transformative ways. Rev. Dr. Scott Hughes, Director of Adult Ministries of United Methodist Discipleship team will lead training to use these and other images for faith formation.  Will you join me?  I stand in wonder for how I can be better equipped when I know what I’m actually doing. I’m always looking for new tools in my toolbox to be a better teacher, a better coach, and a better disciple. Aren’t you? Register here.

“Ears that hear and eyes that see – the LORD has made them both.” Proverbs 20:12

Palm Sunday is one of only a few Sundays I can wear a dress or skirt to church because coming off the floor after the Children’s Moment in anything other than pants can easily turn ugly. So when a service has so much going on and a Sunday is so big there isn’t time for a Children’s Moment, I wear a dress or skirt and work the room.

It’s on the Sundays I wear a dress, we typically have lots of guests because the choir is singing, the youth are playing, the puppets are puppeting, the children are signing, the services are combined and there’s usually a lunch or meal to follow the service. Lunch after church is a guarantee that it’s a big Sunday. It’s a big Sunday with critical mass and I work the room.

Waving to people I know, but giving face-time to all the little people and their people is priority #1. Keeping aware for who is watching me, I head in their direction with hands to shake, side hugs ready, and high fives moving into position.

By the time I reach the food line, the kitchen team is usually packing up or dishing out seconds, but it gives me a chance to linger saying, “Thanks!” to each one on the other side of serving spoon. I notice the tables full with friends already made. I notice the tables with one or two sitting and lots of empty chairs. I head in that direction and sit-a-spell to ask, “How you doin?” and let them know the next KidMin thing that’s coming up that I’m excited about. “Hey! Did you know that we ….?” This is foot marketing….and I’ve learned these conversations are investments for KidMin champions.

This last big Sunday a new family was sitting by themselves, so I asked if I could join them and engaged in fabulous conversation with the oldest a 3rd grader, the kindergartner who told me all the family news in typical middle child fashion, and their just-turned-three-year-old little brother. It was Dad’s first time on campus and Mom had been coming for the last month with the oldest. Within the last month, they’d gotten an email, a postcard, and a handwritten letter from me. Now we get some table life. By the end of the meal, which I didn’t eat because big Sundays are not for eating, we were laughing and making plans for tea in the next two weeks.

This next Sunday is a big Sunday, too…Resurrection Sunday! I’ll be back to wearing pants and pouring out hot chocolate at the sunrise service. Did you know that you can fill a huge coffee canister with hot chocolate from RaceTrac or QuickTrip for around $1.50?

Hospitality should be at it’s best on big Sundays. How do you do big Sundays?

“We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth.” 3 John 1:8

According to HGTV.com, a house can be whipped into shape for guests in less than an hour if we have a plan. “Focus your efforts where they’re really going to show,” advises interior designer Paula Jhung.

Start in the foyer by decluttering. Your entrance should look inviting with fresh flowers, rid of spider webs, and debris. It’s the entrance that gives folks a first impression of who you are, how you take care of things, and will our guests want to linger there. “You want to make sure that you get things clean that are closer to eye-level,” she adds. ‘Dust horizontal surfaces, check the floor for dust bunnies, then move on to the bathrooms.’

“Ironically, this area — not the kitchen or the living room — is where you want to be the most fastidious,” says Jhung. “People are in there with blaring light, with no one else around and they can see everything,” she says. Focus instead on the things most people will actually use — the toilet, mirror, sink and counter. Spray bleach/whitening cleaner in, around, and on the front of the toilet AND the sink especially if your facilities are a tad…how do I say this….aged. Remembering that eyes go up and then down, sweep the dust away from the intake vents and for goodness sake, put some clean smelling (not fruity) air fresheners behind the doors in every bathroom in the house. Wipe down the doorknobs, and make sure it’s stocked with napkins, toilet paper, and have a place for a lady to put down or hang up her purse.

I remember cleaning Baby Girl’s room all night long while she slept.  The mess didn’t bother her, but it made me nuts. I was sick and tired of her bedroom being the topic of every conversation. Honestly, it was more like a monologue….me fussing, her listening. Though she felt she had done her part, it was not up to Mama’s code. Since it was bothering only me, I served her and me by taking it on. I love this girl like nobody’s business, so I put on the headphones of my Walkman (now I’ve dated myself!) and cleaned all around her while she slept. Everything but the vacuuming.  The next morning, she was delighted to do the vacuuming and my brain was no longer distracted by the hot mess of a middle schooler’s bedroom. We certainly had better things to talk about and now I could.

This Sunday is Palm Sunday with little people parading with palm branches and our music department presenting an Easter program followed by Resurrection Sunday and all that goes along with that. Company’s coming! Yesterday, I picked up a slew of fresh rain air fresheners at Dollar Tree and Publix had bleach cleaners on sale at three for five dollars. Wearing the gloves of hospitality, I spent some time this morning getting ‘our house’ ready for company.

Yes, there may be a custodian, but I put on fresh eyes, rubber gloves, and instead of wishing someone else would ‘take care of that’, I did what it took to make ‘our home’ ready for guests and company….up to Mama’s code.

“Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.” 1 Peter 4:9