What an AWESOME day Sunday was as 5 children got baptized! And I think we have another one planning on it this upcoming Sunday. This is what the church is all about! AMAZING!!!!!!

Next Wednesday, July 16th we have an awesome opportunity to partner with Project 153 and to serve the homeless in downtown Columbia at Findlay Park.

We will be meeting at Dutch Fork at 6:00pm for pizza and prayer. All those going downtown are invited for this. We will be caravaning down to the park at 6:30pm.

If you want to meet downtown at Findlay Park, plan to meet at 7:15pm in the upper parking lot and we will meet to pray and move down to the area together as a group.

DF Kids have contributed the money through offering to provide the fried chicken dinner for this night and I couldn’t be more proud of them! We are strongly encouraging families to come out and serve together as this is an awesome opportunity to Demonstrate Love!!! All children attending need to have a parent or guardian with them for the evening.

So come on out, wear a DF shirt and get excited about this exciting night!!!

Junior week at Camp Edisto was AWESOME!!! We had 88 children attend that had a blast. Kim and I loved being deans for the week and had more fun than we had anticipated. God really blessed us with an awesome staff for the week. Thank you SOOOOOO much to all of you who helped in some way – thank you Tara, Wendy, Sherry, and Dr. Rice. It was GREAT and I’m already looking forward to next year!!!

If you want more information about our Mom’s Morning Out Program that is expanding into a 5 day Preschool next school year, you can go to Dutch Fork Preschool for details. We will be doing a 2 day a week summer program and then next year our 1-4 year olds can attend eith 2 day, 3 day, or 5 day. Check it out for our philosophy of education, fees, hours, and details.

I’ve been thinking about our plans for 2008 a bit lately. We have some big things this year for your family to look forward to:

* A HUGE Spring outreach event

* More events for you to invite your friends to – things like “Kids Night Out, Back to School Bash, Parties, etc.”

* Another Summer Slam event

* small groups on Sunday mornings to get closer to friends and learn more about God. You can ask the questions you’ve always wanted to ask with a leader who cares about you!

* Opportunities to serve in our community

* Large Group programs in The Clubhouse like you’ve never seen!

Stay tuned! You don’t want to miss this year!

I know I have left everyone hanging as far as this blog is concerned. I have been consumed with just getting done what needs to be done. I’m in a busy season and some things fall to the wayside – blogging has been one.

Anyways. Look forward to the posting of some SuperStart picures this week, information about our Mom’s Morning Out program, a sneak peek into 2008, and some awesome volunteers! I’m back!

I know. I have been slack about updating this thing, I’ve been busy gearing up for our Fall Festival and hiring two new teachers for our Mom’s Morning Out program. But enough excuses!

Look forward to some posts about our upcoming events…

The children had a goal in Children’s Church to bring in $100 in offering money buy Sept. 5th. If they did this, I told them I would color my hair pink. (What was I thinking!) Well, one of our elder’s children, not to mention any names… brought in a $100 bill the next week. Wow! So, I will have pink hair on Sept. 5th. The children brainstormed ways to use their tithe money and voted. The idea that received the most support and the destination of our tithe money is Project Pet, a cat and dog no kill shelter. Tell your kids how proud of them you are for working hard on a goal and for serving God with their tithe!

By the way, didn’t plan the date of the pink hair very well, it is 3 days before the first day of Mom’s Morning Out starts.