Orange Conference 2018

Last week, while Kris and my parents held down the fort, I spent 5 days in Atlanta with the kids & student ministry teams from all 5 of our campuses at the annual Orange Conference.  It was an incredible week of team bonding, growth, learning, encouragement and exhortation to keep pressing on!  I can't even explain how awesome the week was...here is a little video clip that encompasses a bit of the energy.

I did not get a ton of pictures, but here are a handful...

Our Queen Creek Team...

Getting settled into the 1st main session...

Here we go!

Sun Valley Kids/Students Teams, representing all 5 SV campuses...

When it rained outside, and everyone had to be inside during transitions, it got CRAZY crowded.  There were approximately 8,000 people registered...

 Photo opp with Kellen, who is one of the guys in our 456 teaching videos...

With my roomies for the week...new friends!

She Said YES!

Caleb's Baptism

Kids' Choir

A couple times a year, the elementary aged kids have the opportunity to participate in the kids' choir at church.  Meredith LOVES this kind of thing, and takes it very seriously!  Today, the kids sang this song.

Psalm 33:11

 Psalm 33:11 - 

The plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.

Representin'

 This year should be a fun one!  For the 1st (and only time), we've got a kiddo in every AWANA club.

 1st Year Puggle...

 1st Year Cubbie...

 2nd Year Spark...

1st Year T&T...

Represent.

We Love Our Church

 

 This weekend our church celebrated its 30th anniversary!  This morning's service was God-honoring and reminiscent.  And we all got new shirts (and cake pops, yum!) as a fun bonus!  

After lots of years, memories, friends, and familiarity at our former church, the transition to this new one a year and a half ago was not super easy for me (although everyone else in the fam was just fine!).  But the Lord showed His faithfulness (like He always does) to me in so many ways and He brought me to a place of true thankfulness for our new church home.  It's a warm and safe place where His Word is foundational, His name is worshiped, and His people are loving and compassionate.  We feel cared for and our kids are cared for.   Everything there is done with such intentionality and thought.  We have learned and grown and made new and wonderful friends.  I'm so excited to continue living life with people there, and I am beyond grateful for the children's and youth ministries in place that will help us in guiding our kiddos to love Jesus and to be more like Him.  While we haven't been there for much of its 30 year existence, we have been there long enough to know that we really do love our church!

AWANA 2014

AWANA started tonight!  This year, both Kris and I are serving (I'm still in Puggles and Kris is in Kinder) so it's a Johnson Family event every Wednesday night....even Norah gets to go this year.

So, here are our AWANA "clubbers" for the 2014-2015 school year.  Caleb is in his last year (sniff sniff) of Sparks, and he super pumped to start on Book 3.  Meredith is in her 1st year of Sparks after 2 years as a Cubby....she is super pumped to be a "big kid" like her big brother.  Shane is in his last year of Puggles (good thing because his shirt is getting pretty snug) and I am already lamenting the fact that I only have one more year to call him my "Snuggle Puggle" or our "Puggle Monster". And sweet Norah girl gets to be loved on by some amazing and caring nursery teachers every Wednesday night.

These pictures make me chuckle.

Kids' Choir

 C and M were in the kids' choir this weekend at church.

They did a great job singing at all 3 services.  We all love the songs they sang, and they're regulars around our home. :)   

 Song #1 - Counting on God (Phillips, Craig & Dean)

Song # 2 - Our God (Chris Tomlin)

We love seeing our littles learning to worship God in this way.  At one point during one of the services, Caleb actually closed his eyes and just lifted his hands for a few moments while he was singing, forgoing the hand movements the other kiddos were doing.  So thankful for a church that is partnering with us in raising our kids to love Jesus.

AWANA 2013

 Last night was the kiddos' first night at AWANA for this year.  And I am actually volunteering in the Puggles class, so it was my first night as well. ;)

Poor Caleb is struggling with pretty bad allergy symptoms right now...you probably can see his red & blotchy & chapped face.  Poor buddy.

 Caleb is in his 2nd year of Sparks.  This boy loooves AWANA.  He's a superstar verse-memorizer, and loves seeing friends.  Two of the boys on his team go to school with him.

 Meredith is in her 2nd year of Cubbies.  Her favorite parts of last night were playing games in the gym (something with bean bags & bowling pins) and coloring.

 And sweet ShanerBug is in Puggles!  He has been so excited for this.  When we got his t-shirt at the church bookstore last weekend, he carried it around saying "I love my blue Puggles shirt, I so excited for Puggles" repeatedly!

Slowly but surely we are all getting settled in at our new church.  It's been a hard transition (mostly for me).  After being so comfortable in a place for 12+ years, a sudden change is shocking to the system.  But, God has been so faithful in so many ways.  One of the major reasons that we decided to find a different church was in the hopes that there would be some overlap with our church friends and the kids' school friends and our local community friends.  We really wanted to be a part of a church that was more "local".  This new church is not small by any standards, so we knew that even though it's in our city, there was no guarantee that any overlap would occur!  Amazingly though, we have met several families whose kids go to the same elementary school that Caleb does...even more specifically, there are 3 boys at church IN first grade at the same school as Caleb....and 1 of those boys (who is on Caleb's AWANA team) is in the same class.  Thankful that God gives us little (and big) glimpses of His faithfulness in the midst of change.