Master Plan

I had a hard time sleeping last night. We had our second meeting with the architect who's helping us develop a master plan for our church's building and property and I'm pretty excited about some of the things he presented to us. He gave us some amazing ideas about how to solve some of our existing problems with our building.

I love looking into the future at what can be if we trust God to get us there. It's definitely going to take a miracle to pull off any building plans, but the God I know is a God of miracles.

Summer Ministries

I remember when our church used to, pretty much, take the summer off. We did Vacation Bible School for kids and camp for youth and that was about it. That’s not the case anymore. Summer still has a relaxed feel to it, but we are plugged in to a lot more ministry than we used to be between June and Sept.

Summer is also a time when we are getting ready for our Spring and Winter events, projects, and ministries. Staff and leaders are meeting and planning and beginning to talk about some of the things that will be coming up in the months ahead.

Between what we are doing now and what we are planning for the Fall, things can get a little confusing. So let me see if I can clear up some of the confusion that I’ve heard of. Hopefully I won’t muddy the waters further. Please read the entire article.

Sports Camp – We are in the middle of sports camp this week and we’ve had around 50 kids attend. A large number of those kids don’t attend church at FCBC and many don’t attend church at all. Several years ago we made the decision to do sports camp rather than VBS because we felt it would be a better tool for reaching unchurched kids and presenting the Gospel. Sports Camp has helped us reach that purpose AND it’s been a great way to disciple kids who have already made a commitment to Christ.

Kenya Trip – We have an ongoing partnership with Nairobi Gospel Centre in Kenya. Our partnership includes training local pastors and leaders as well as helping NGC with anorphan care initiative. The team that is leaving next week will be training pastors in two areas: sports camp and basic children’s ministry.

The sports camp training will take place in Nairobi and Mombasa. The team will be working with Uncharted Waters (they do our own sports camp) to train several hundred pastors to lead a sports camp in their own communities. The children’s ministry training will take place in Nairobi. The team will be using training material produced by Kids At Heart Ministries to teach around 100 children’s pastors some basic skills for children’s ministries. We’ve led two similar trainings in the past.

We will also be providing NGC with one of the best resources we have – our Children’s Pastor.Elise will be staying an extra week in Nairobi to coach their team as they lead a Vacation Bible School. This is something they have asked us to do and we are pleased to support them.

Dominican Republic Trip – This was a last minute opportunity that we decided to go for.It’s a construction trip to help finish the third floor of a school. A couple from our church went to the DR earlier this year to distribute Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. This is NOT an OCC shoebox trip. We will be taking another one of those in March.

The church that our team worked through has been building a third floor for their school and the trip this summer will help the church finish the project. The trip is Aug 7-14 and is relatively inexpensive. If you have a current passport and want to participate, let me know.

Back Packs for FACETS – We launched this ministry this past Sunday. For the next couple of weeks we will be collecting financial donations and school supplies for FACETS. We will also be helping FACETS with their Back to School Parties for the children of low-income families in Fairfax County. At the parties, the kids, with the help of adults, will pack their new backpacks with the school supplies they will need for their particular grade. If you have questions about this ministry, post a comment.

Water Wars/Operation Christmas Child Prep – On August 22 we will be having our annual “Water Wars.” Simply put, it’s a big water gun fight between our kids and adults. It’s a great family event and a wonderful opportunity to invite friends and neighbors who are looking for a church that knows how to have fun.

This year we are combining this event with some ministry preparation for Operation Christmas Child. The team will be getting info out soon about what kind of prep work we will be doing.We are NOT collecting ANYTHING for Operation Christmas Child at this point. We are simply doing some early prep work. So join us early for the OCC ministry prep. Or join us later for food and fun.

As I said, our summers are not what they used to be. It’s exciting that we can be a church that is able to slow down, relax, and get some rest in the summer while at the same time doing some great ministry in our own community and oversees.

'Homeless' Documents America's Forgotten Kids

Here's a link to a video that one of our ministry leaders posted on Facebook. Our church is gearing up for an annual ministry we do to help kids from low income families get ready for school. Basically we collect school supplies and backpacks and then throw a back to school party for the kids. At the party, adults get to help the kids pack the supplies they will need for their specific grade. A lot of the kids we meet are considered homeless; most of them live in hotels.

The video is a promo for an HBO documentary that airs tonight (July 26). I actually have a free subscription to HBO for the next month so I will be able to catch it. The documentary profiles the homeless kids and families of Orange County, CA, BUT these kids and families are in all of our cities and towns.

I've been to Orange County and have friends who live there. It's basically Fairfax County with palm trees. We have some of the very same problems as they do when it comes to homeless families.

Here are some stats from the video that were hard to hear:

• 40% of those who are homeless in America are families.
• 1 in 50 kids in America are homeless.
• The average age of the homeless in America is 9 years old.

I'm thankful for groups like FACETS in Fairfax County to help us help homeless families. I'm thankful we have a church that cares enough to get involved. I'm thankful we have people leading some of our ministries to the homeless who understand the need, some of them first hand.

If you live in Fairfax County, get involved with one of the many organizations, non-profits, churches and ministries who are working to solve this problem. If you live somewhere else, look for a place to plug in; if there's not a place, create one.

'Homeless' Documents America's Forgotten Kids

Pray and Play Retreat

Our staff is heading down to Lake Gaston, NC tomorrow for our annual Pray and Play Retreat. We take our entire staff plus their families and for four days we play and pray together.

There will be lots of boating, tubing, skiing, card games, kayaking, movies plus some great group devotions and concentrated pray.

I haven't made the commitment yet, but I'm thinking about completely unplugging for the four days.