5th Graders are Ready to MOVE UP!

At this time of year, our 5th Graders are anxious to promote up to Middle School, both at school and at church. We love our 5th graders, and I've known MANY of them since they were babies, so it's always bittersweet to see them graduate. Fortunately, I still get to see them around church, and many of them continue serving in Children's Ministries as helpers. I am proud of the loving, kind, servants they've become. Especially this group. We took a few of them to a concert a few weeks ago. For some of them, it was there first "concert" experience. We saw "Mercy Me," "The David Crowder Band," and a few more. It was at the Long Beach Arena, (I was glad it was close to home) and we had a great time.

Look at These Sweet Kids!

Look at our sweet 1st & 2nd graders working hard learning their memory verses in Sunday School! Every week they review and say all this past year's verses to their teachers to earn "Disciple Dollars!" Our teachers and our kids are so amazing!

A Wintery - Wacky Time!!!

Last night, (Feb. 17) was a very special Family Fun night at 1BL! Every 7 weeks we gather parents and kids together for a time of fun, laughter, learning, and celebrating. Last night was one of those nights. In honor of the Winter Olympics, we hosted our very own "Wacky Winter Family Olympics." Families were divided into 3 teams (Germany, Canada and Russia) and we played "hockey" built "snowmen" and through thousands and thousands of snowballs at each other! (And the Fellowship Hall doesn't look any worse for wear today I might add!) Take a look at some of the fun we had!
Making a Family Flag together!
I know it may not look like it from this picture, but here we are "building snowmen!" Each team had a snowman to fatten up using as many balloons as possible. Our good natured snowmen, KC, Shelly, and Pastor Brent!

Lily grabbing up some snowballs to throw at an opposing team!




This is where one of the teams almost got disqualified :)










"I don't remember Ice Hockey ever being this messy before!"
At the end of the evening, each child received a MEDAL for their excellent participation!

Thanks everyone for coming out and "going for the gold!" We hope you all had a great time. See you next Wednesday at our "regularly scheduled Kid U Program!"

Bible Sunday for First Graders

If you weren't here with us this past Sunday (November 15) you missed a very special day! It was Bible Sunday for our 1st Graders! At 1BL, we love the Word of God and we Love our kids, and so we look forward each year to the very special day when we can put the precious Word in the hands of our Precious kids! First Grade is the year that typically kids are learning to READ and what better book to read that the BIBLE? Pastor Brent believes strongly in this as well, and so as a special gift from our church to our kids, we are thrilled to present them with their very own copy of the NIV Adventure Bible.

Here's a peek:

Psalm 119:12-17 is my prayer for you my sweet friends:"Blessed Lord, teach me your rules. I have recited your lawes, and rejoiced in them more than in riches. I will meditate upon them and give them my full respect. I will delight in them and not forget them. Bless me with life so that I can continue to obey you. Open my eyes to see wonderful things in your Word."

More Fall Festival Pictures

Here are some more fantastic pictures taken on the night of Fall Festival! I love seeing faces of those I know and many I don't know! It lets me know we are doing a great job of inviting our friends and neighbors and reaching out into our community! Thanks again everyone for your faithfulness!

Fantastic Fall Festival Fun!

Here are a few photos from last weekend's Fall Festival! 1600 people (at least!) enjoyed a beautiful October California evening, complete with great food, games, 2 huge bouncers, great music, and lots of candy! Here's Lilly the Cat!

Here's Jillian and Hudson! I can't tell if Jillian is taking candy away from Hudson or giving him Candy! I'm sure it's the later :)

Looks like little Carlie was pooped out... good thing grandpa was there to give her a place to crash while mom and dad were working at a booth!!

Part of the Gilbert Family having fun... check out those tats on Lisa... wow, Lisa, I had no idea!!!

And of course our amazing band! Great job guys!

Thanks everyone for making our 19th Annual Fall Festival such a huge success! We hope to see many of those who came to "visit" come back again soon to see us on Sunday morning!

What God wants us to Learn From Penguins

Today I had the fun privilege of speaking to our elementary school chapel (Lakewood Christian School K through 5th). I always get to do chapel at LCS the week right before Fall Festival so I can pump up FF to the kids. It's not a good week for me to plan a chapel, so I try to start very early in September to start planning what I'm going to talk about. Over the years, I usually do some kind of character quality that I think is important for the kids to think about as they begin their school year, like sharing, or lying/ honesty, or friendship, or something like that. This year, I decided to talk about PENGUINS! Penguins? In October? Yes, Penguins..... we can learn a lot from penguins... so here you go... Here is my chapel talk for today.

I know this is not the normal time of year that we learn about penguins or talk about penguins, but because I love penguins so much, I thought it would be fun to do a whole chapel based on penguins… and THEN I heard that Mr. Kell wrote a song about penguins… well then that sealed the deal! I knew it was meant to be!
Did you know that there are about 20 different kinds of penguins?
1. Chinstrap Penguins
2. Emperor Penguins (those are the biggest ones!)
3. Fairy Penguins (those are the smallest ones)
4. King Penguins
5. Rockhopper Penguins
And a bunch more!
There’s even one called the Macaroni Penguin… (my favorite, because of his funny yellow bushy eyebrows!)

So let me tell you a little bit about Penguins and why I think they are one of God’s most amazing creatures and why they always remind me of how much God loves me….
You see, none of us are the same, are we!? Just as there are 20 different kinds of penguins, there are way more than 20 different kinds of kids! Some of us are tall like the emperor penguin and some of us are teeny tiny like the fairy penguin. The fairy penguin is less than 3 pounds….. that’s less than HALF of what all of you weighed when you were born. Some penguins have feathers on their head, and some of them have little red marks on their eyes or on their beaks, just like some of us have freckles all over their bodies, or ears that stick out, or feet that are pointed inward instead of outward.

There are a lot of things that Penguins aren't very good at; or they CAN'T DO....They walk funny, and they waddle, and their wings are so short they can’t even fly; they can’t use their arms to crack open their food like a monkey or a bear; they can’t fight off other penguins in the wild with their sharp teeth or lightening fast speed like a cougar or a jaguar or a lion. You know there are a lot of things that I can’t do either that I wish I could do…
*I can’t fly
*can’t play the flute
*can’t jump the pole vault
*can’t swim to Catalina and back...
Are there some things you CAN'T DO? Of course there are! But God doesn't want us to focus on those things or worry about those things.

CAN DO: But there are so many amazing things that penguins CAN DO: God made them so unique and so special and unlike any other creature.
Did you know that some of them can eat snow when they can’t find fish or kreel to eat; that because of their white bellies, they are almost totally camoflauged in the water, so that a predator below them looking up at them can’t tell that it’s a penguin… He just thinks it’s the reflective surface of the water. God not only created them, He protects them every day, just like He protects us. He doesn’t just make us and throw us out there, He keeps on taking care of us every day, every moment.

The large emperor penguins (4 ft. tall!) can stay under water and swim for almost 22 minutes… I don’t think any of us can do that, BUT there are amazing things that we can do that no one else can do. We can sing & worship and give praise to the Lord Jesus. We can pray for our friends who don’t know him and talk to our friends about Jesus and tell our friends how much God loves them.

Penguin Moms and Dads are known for their unique teamwork and cooperation with each other. After mom lays a baby penguin EGG, Dad holds the egg on top of his feet for many months while MOM goes out and looks for FOOD, food for mom, dad and the baby. Mom could just go off by herself and leave and say, You know it’s way too far to go look for food. I’m way too tired. I think I’ll just eat these shrimp over hear on this tropical island and forget about dad and jr. way back over there in “snowy ville”…. And I’m so tired of swimming. But mom always comes back. God created penguin moms and dads to be a TEAM. To cooperate with each other. While moms are out swimming and looking for food, the DADS are huddled together trying to keep warm in the middle of a snowstorm. You’d think they’d want to go sit down somewhere and watch a football game and eat some pretzels, but they can’t. They huddle together and protect each other, and when dad gets really cold and thinks he can’t go on anymore, then the uncles and aunts and grandpa’s trade places with him and make sure he’s doing ok. They know they have an important job to do… to help JR. survive and stay inside that egg until he’s ready to be born. He is totally dedicated and committed to the task God made him for. He knows his purpose in life. He knows why he is designed the way he is designed.
YOU and ME:
Do you know why you are made the way you are made? Do you know why you are good at math and maybe not so good at playing a musical instrument? Or why you are super great at playing soccer, but not so good at spelling? We can’t all be great at everything. God didn’t design us that way. But we can learn some important lessons from our friends the penguins. We need each other. We need to cooperate together and take care of each other. And we need to do what WE’RE good at while someone else does what they’re good at. Just like the mom and dad penguins do their individual unique jobs, with the purpose in mind of helping that baby penguin come into the world.
What’s the purpose God made us for?
Psalm 78:4 says that we are to tell the next generation the praises of the Lord and about his strength and His wondrous works. That’s your job. That’s why God put you here on this earth. To keep the message of his glory and power and strength going and going and going. If you weren’t here on this earth, then there would be certain people who would never hear about the Lord Jesus. This generation, like people MY AGE will wear out and fizzle out and die, and the message of Jesus would STOP unless YOU, the next generation, keeps the message going. If you know the purpose God made you for, and you know the gifts and strengths He gave you, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to swim away with the message? Or are you going to “cooperate” with the other people around you to make sure the message keeps going?
God never intended for you to spread his message all alone. He wants you to be a part of the team; just like the mom and dad and aunt and uncle penguins all live together to make sure those baby penguins get born! You were made on purpose!