Last night I was cutting the hair of my friend Robyn's 4-year-old daughter. "Miss Jill, do you have children?" Leeann asked.

"No, I don't. And probably not for a few more years," was my response.

"But if you just pray to God, like Sarah and Hannah did, God will give you a baby."

I love the innocent thoughts of a child! I love Leeann's reminder of these women who sought God and were blessed with sons. Each weekend I see mother after mother who are raising children (some sought and prayed for, others a surprise that brought on prayer) and doing everything they can to bring their children up to be godly men and women. I so admire what these mothers do. So in honor of Mother's Day, I'd like to give a little shout-out to some moms in our church.

Molly Nemecek and her husband Jeff are raising three boys. That in itself deserves a round of applause! This week it was precious to watch the boys in their matching blue-camo fleece jackets. While I'm know there are times when Molly is exhausted by the energy, challenges, and tears of three boys under the age of 4, she still has a beautiful joy in loving her boys, and seeks with all her heart to see them become strong men who can be leaders in their families and the world.

Heidi Jensen blesses me each week with sweet encouragement. All the while, she and her husband have raised one of the fifth grade boys that I will HUGELY miss when he moves on to middle school. She has raised Halden to be respectful, polite, and a genuine servant. I don't blame Heidi at all for the tears that spring when she talks about her son growing up.

Erin Chung has brought her children to church on an average of 3.5 times a month! She has her three (6th grade, kindergarten, and 3-years-old) put together and in the building on time on a regular basis. Her kids are eager to enter their classes and excited to learn. It is a blessing to see the way she and her husband lead their family.

Wendy Rogers brings her boys faithfully as well. Her preschool and elementary aged sons have a joy and enthusiasm as they walk through the doors of their classes--completed take-home sheets in hand and memory verses ready to be recited. Once getting her kids in place, she greets and checks in the rest of our first-service elementary boys and girls.

These women are just a few of the many, many women I am honored and privileged to serve. I am thankful for them and hope that when I am blessed with my own children, I can be the kind of mom these women are--honest mothers who have their own struggles, but are blessing God in the way they parent their children.

Don't Forget the Heart

Amy and I are blessed to be staying in Linda's home while we're at the Conspire Conference. Being here is a gift. Not only is staying here part of what made it possible for us to attend this year, but it's also shown me so much about what to look at when I walk through the doors of Willow Creek, or any church for that matter. Linda moved here (to Illinois) eleven years ago when her granddaughter was born. Her daughter is on staff with Promiseland, and Linda has a small position in the ministry as well. She also volunteers as a small group leader, and takes people on tours of the church.
When Amy and I arrived at her home late Tuesday night, we were greeted with hugs and love. The next morning we were served a beautiful breakfast of cheerios, sliced strawberries, Pennsylvania Dutch cake, and coffee. As we told her about how we were looking forward to seeing Jared and Roni's reactions to the church, as well as the excitment over meeting some of our heroes in ministry, Linda was quick to tell us about what really matters--the heart. "It's not about the big building, or our programs. It's about what God is doing in people at Willow, and about how He works in people's hearts."
Then, during one of the breaks at the conference, I took Jared and Roni to meet our sweet hostess. Once again, she talked about what's so important is the heart. To recognize that it's not about the size or the number of people, but what God is doing in people.
So I started looking at the heart. I've always been impressed by the number of volunteers who give of their time to make the church work. But now it wasn't just how many of the them were around--it was the smile on their faces as you walked by. It was their eagerness to point you toward the closest restroom. It was the guy handing out candy to people as they waited in line to purchase books. It was the lady taking coffee orders and making a point to give you a genuine smile and eye contact. It was the couple we ate dinner with--the wife who came to know the Lord through a ministry of Willow, and now takes every chance she gets to tell her non-believeing friends about Jesus. None of these people are paid for what they're doing. None of them have incomes dependent on their friendliness or desire to help. Instead, they have beautiful hearts and a passoin to serve God and His people.
Linda has blessed me with more than a bed to sleep in. She's reminded me to look at the heart behind the people of a church.

I'm Conspiring...

I'm not really sure where to start except to say that there's a smile on my face! The Conspire Conference has been more than I even imagined it could be! Amy Dolan was welcoming everyone during one of the main sessions on Wednesday, and made the comment that God had a plan for each of us to be here. There is no way I can deny that fact. I have pages and pages of notes from the main sessions yesterday and the break out sessions today... the best part, though, is that I have so many golden nuggets of practical ways to go back and implement positive change in my ministry. From Christine Yount-Jones asking us where we're at in our storm--seeing it on the horizon, going through the intense waves, resting after a period of exhaustion, or feeling like things are pretty good. To a WONDERFUL worship time with Jon Klinepeter (I must add, our team purchased 6 copies of his CD--we've helped build a house in Indonesia!). Then the reminder of how much more we need to be doing for our fourth and fifth graders wrapped up with some wonderful hope for what's going on at Disney... The main sessions were so refreshing!
Today in the break outs I walked away ready to go evaluate the kid-friendliness of our environment. And not only can I evaluate, I now also know how to DO! And then I was challenged and inspired in so many ways on methods for communicating with and supporting parents. And finally, it became clear that it's not too hard to do more for our fourth and fifth graders!
But above all, what I've loved the most, is the team that does the Children's Ministries for Promiseland. They have shown so much honesty, vulnerability and modesty in the way they've shared what's going on in their ministry. But not only that, it's always inspiring to see the standard of excellence they've set for themselves, as well as the level of professionalism in the work they do.
I feel connected... I feel inspired... what do you know, I've conspired!

What's Really Necessary

So I'm sitting here, typing one handed while holding a bobby pin with super glue on it, waiting for it to bond to a jack that's stuck in my head phone port. Yeah, it was one of those Sundays. Today was one of the few days of the year where we had several video clips to support the lesson. First the normal sound booth computer couldn't get on the internet. So I figured out how to hook my laptop up to the projector (patted myself on the back... I'm slowly becoming a sound booth pro). Then the input on the sound cord was partially broken. But if you jiggled it just right, the sound came through! Unfortunately, I wiggled it too much during one of the video clips. Thus my superglue situation. So between services, Tim (our media/technology guy) and I spend about 20 minutes setting up his laptop and then improvising--some cables were too short, one was super long, but the screen turned purple, and finally, we found a solution! We still had a couple of glitches during second service, but at least we always had sound!

I was introducing the slow worship song for the kids, and stopped to think about the words... "You're all I need, You're all I need, You're all I need, in this world." While working electronics are helpful, they aren't what I need. While a lack of stress would be nice, it isn't what I need. All I need on Sunday mornings, as well as any other day of the week, is Jesus.

Is This Thing On?

I feel like I've been going through the motions of Children's Ministries but not really feeling the heart behind it. Going into Easter weekend, my prayer was that it wouldn't be my biggest work weekend of the year, but instead, that I'd get to actually enjoy and feel that it was Easter. I had the joy of teaching the elementary kids Saturday night. I loved the way our curriculum wrote out the lesson. The kids were attentive, and I really felt like the message was communicated. After telling kids how they can accept Christ as their forever friend, I invited to the kids to come talk to me or another teacher afterwards if they wanted to know more about making that step. Later, two fifth grade girls approached me. "We want to do what you were talking about!" Both these girls have been at our church for quite some time. I was surprised they'd never asked Jesus in their hearts. So I verified that they hadn't done it before. "No, we haven't, that's why we want to now!" So I talked about what it meant, asked if they believed Jesus died for them, etc. and then lead them through the prayer. I was on the verge of tears at what a blessing this was! We chatted about how we're now sisters in Christ. I told them I was three when I first asked Jesus in my heart. One of them slipped and said, "So was I!"

Both the girls had accepted Christ before. One was even baptized. Why lie? Because they thought it would be fun to spend some one-on-one time with me. I love that they wanted that time... but really? Lie about asking Jesus in your heart?

Sunday went smoothly. I was disappointed by how many families weren't there because of Spring break. And while I loved being in "big church" for one service and watching a wonderful large group teacher during the other, I didn't really feel Easter.

But then, on Tuesday, I heard a wonderful story. One of our kindergarten boys comes from a sad home. His grandma loves him dearly and brings him each week to both services. I guess on the way home from church, he couldn't stop talking about the Easter story. He told his mom and grandma all about what Jesus did for him, how much Jesus loves him, and through the entire story, he was full of joy. Grandma said that they've been trying to get him to understand Christ's sacrifice, but it didn't click until this week. He's a changed person.

And yesterday, I got a sweet picture (the purple one in this post) from the mom of one of our 4-year-olds. Her daughter wanted to write out the Easter story. Mom helped spell the words, but Maile chose exactly what was said. If you can't read it, it says, "Do you know that Jesus was dead on the cross and 2 other cosses? Then Jesus was out of the cave and the big rock rolled away. Then Jesus visited His friends before He was in Heaven with God."

While I felt like Saturday and Sunday were spent tapping a microphone, asking, "Is this thing on?" Easter came on Tuesday and Thursday for me. Jesus died for my sins and rose again. It's the reason for all I do. An unresponsive audience doesn't change the story. He is risen, He is risen indeed!

The Tip of the Sword

Our team spent last Friday in and out of workshops at the North West Christian Education Conference. (As a side note... it really made me look forward to the Promiseland conference!) One of the work shops I went to was on becoming a volunteer champion. Craig Miles, the speaker, made a great point about recruiting--we should recruit not because of a need, but because it gives people an opportunity to further the Kingdom of God. Give the people in your church the chance to say, "I teamed up with God today."
To help make his point on the importance of volunteers, he showed a clip from the movie, Pearl Harbor. A crew of soldiers was preparing for what, most likely, would be a fatal mission. Two of the soldiers were talking about why they're going, and one said, "We're the tip of the sword." The scene then cuts to the officers, one of which says something like, "We may not win this battle, but I know we'll win the war. Because there's nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer."
God is the warrior, and the volunteers serving in our ministries are the tip of the sword. While yes, God's power is stronger than a volunteer, but what can be stronger than God using the heart of a volunteer? Hoping to express to our church that volunteers aren't there purely to fill a need, I asked some of our elementary leaders what satisfaction they get from serving. Their answers were wonderful (and you won't see that they only do it to fill a need). Here is some of what they wrote:

"I have seen God use me by being a familiar face—someone who is genuinely interested in the kids. They bless me MUCH more than I bless them. I get hugs, reminders of biblical principles, tugs at the heart when we sing, and I see kids of all ages standing and worshiping God without reservation."

“After trying various ‘jobs’ in Children’s Ministries, I finally found my gifting as a large group leader. God has taught me so much. I love connecting with the kids and teachers as we serve together. God gives us great moments when a child is touched by the Truth, or a teacher is convicted by something that is taught.”

“I was outside my comfort zone when I started teaching in Grow Zone, but God allowed me to be an effective leader from the start because the lessons were easy to teach—even for a simple person like me. God allowing me to play a part in a child’s spiritual growth is not only satisfying, but spiritually grows me as well. I’m closer to Christ because of it.”

“I did not feel capable when I first volunteered. I brought only my love for children and my love for our Lord. The possibility of making a difference in one life draws me back. Being recognized by the children and being their friend for that one hour each week is rewarding in and of itself.”

“I know I’m in the will of God, I’m serving His body, and that’s a joy. I’ve seen several from my first fifth grade class, now juniors in high school, come back and teach! More than ever, kids need God’s truth preparing them to be young men and women of God.”

Our volunteers are ordinary people being used for extraordinary purposes. I'm blessed to serve alongside them.

A Touching Moment

We were short handed in Grow Zone tonight, so we decided not to do small groups. Instead, after the large group lesson, Jared (our Grow Zone Director) lead the kids through the questions from the stage. I was out of the room when they started this time. My return was met by 40 kids on and around the stage, crowded close to Jared. Never have I seen this many kids, in such a setting, so attentive. The large group actually became small. The older kids had their Bibles in hand and were looking up verses. The litter ones were watching the Bible search. I love how even when we are weak, short-handed vessels, God works.