Summer Transitions

Hey Parents,

Now that school's out, it's time to think about group transitions.  If you have a child that will be moving to a new group (Preschool/age 4-K, Kids Church/1st-6th grade, Youth Group/6th-12 grade), here's all the info and dates you need to know:

• If your child completed Kindergarten and is moving to 1st grade in the Fall, he or she will begin attending our Kids Church on Sunday, July 4.

• If your child completed 5th grade and is moving to 6th grade in the Fall, he or she can begin attending Youth Group in September.  There will be a BBQ in late August to welcome them and introduce them to the other kids.  At Horizons, we consider 6th grade to be a major transition year, and we realize that not all 6th graders make that transition at the same speed.  So, although 6th graders are welcome to be a part of the Youth Group, they are also welcome to remain in the Kids Church.  They can attend either group, or both, based on their comfort level.

• If your child completed 6th grade and is moving to 7th grade in the Fall, he or she can attend Kids Church through the end of August.  Once September begins, they will participate in our Adult Worship service on Sunday mornings.  Beginning in July, your child may start volunteering to be a part of our Ministry Teams.  There are many ways for them to get involved, and many kids have found great fulfillment by joining the Nursery or Preschool teams.

If you have any questions about your child's transition, feel free to contact me by email or at the church office (540-288-0018).

Thanks so much for letting me and my team serve you and your family.

- Pastor Jim

Bad Days

We are starting a new series in Kids Church (1st-6th grade) this week.  We are going to be talking about people in the New Testament whose terrible days were made great by God.

Through this series, the kids are going to learn that God takes care of us, saves us, expects action from us, and is not limited by what we consider possible.

Our new Kids Church series begins this Sunday, June 21.

Encourage the Discouraged

This past Sunday in Kids Church (1st-6th grades), we continued our series called "Imagine". We are learning about Joshua's imaginative leadership and discovering the Promise, Protection, Pathway, Picture and Power that God  provides His people.

This is a video series, brought to us by Kidmo. We try to use video lessons a few times throughout the year to keep things fresh and to give us time to plan creative elements for our live stuff.

This week, the kids learned that God wants us to encourage the discouraged. We learned that it is important to know that God makes pathways for us, and that we need to share that knowledge with our discouraged friends.

In our small groups, we discussed the following questions:

• Why do you think grownups get discouraged?  We talked about things that discourage adults, and that kids can use their imaginations to encourage them.
• Being discouraged is a sign that we've forgotten something.  What is it?  We looked at Psalm 32:8 and talked about what it means to say, "God will make a pathway".
• How can you use your imagination to help you trust God in difficult situations?  The kids were reminded that "It will be okay when God leads the way."  As a group, the kids developed plans for encouraging their discouraged friends.