Reignforest Blog

The first day of December has arrived and I have been meaning to tell you about a great way you can reach out to others this Christmas season. Check out this web site for a great idea: http://tsjphotography.com/blog/rack-download-edition/

Also I have been looking at a the tradition called The Jesse Tree. Asbury’s bookstore, The Dwelling Pace has a great book called  The Advent Jesse Tree: Devotions for children and adults to prepare for the coming of the Christ Child at Christmas by Dean Lambert Smith. I love the devotions for children which have some great questions. The devotions for adults are suitable for older elementary children. You can also find instructions to make the ornamnets for a Jesse Tree by googling Jesse Tree Ornaments.

This week during our Reign Forest Team Meeting we read a devotion called The Testimony and Prayer of Three Anonymous Children from an old devotion book of mine “He Was in the World” by John L. Bell. This devotion focused on the three children who Jesus touched, the boy who supplied the 5 loaves and 3 fish, the healing of Jairus’ daughter and the child who was blessed by Jesus. As we listened to the devotion we were given the opportunity to write down the names of children that were brought to mind. We then prayed for these children. It was a very meaningful devotion for me. I love this little book published by Wild Good Publications.
Today our children who attend our Mission Possible Ministry are making placemats for our prison ministry. Our older children will also be hearing from our friend Dr Danny Cartwright who has visited Ghana many times on mission trips. Ghana is our prayer focus for this month, so we will discover how we can pray for Ghana and her people.

Friday 21st October
Dress for the Mess
What a night we had. Lots of messy games and some very, very messy 5th and 6th graders! Sue and Cheryl had planned some really gross games and a great time was had by all. The night finished with all sorts of food stuffs including eggs and tomato ketchup poured by 2 very excited girls onto two terrified boys heads while I talked about how when we experience a mess in our life we need to ask the Lord to help us through the messy times. The Lord is faithful all the time and He will never let us down.
Here are some photos to give you some idea about the flavor of the evening!

Hello friends, what a great day it has been today. It started out with Chapel for our Weekday Ministry. I shared the Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs with the children. This is a great book for this time of year. Very suitable for preschoolers through Kindergarteners.

At our Children’s Ministry weekly team meeting we looked at 2 Kings 3: 9-20. Lets prepare well but allow God to work in all of our challenges.

This afternoon I meet with Rhonda Hamlin and Todd Shelton, Our Singles Ministry Leader. Rhonda will be leading Divorce Care 4 Kids. We have been praying for someone to lead this ministry for about a year now and I feel that God has lead Rhonda to us. She is an answer to prayer! Rhonda will be leading a DC4K class begining in January 2012. More details to come very soon. She will also be offering a Class entitled “Surviving the Holidays for children” on Thursday 10th November form 6:30-8:30 in conjunction with Divorce Care. We will be registering for this class hopefully next week.

We have a lot going on this next few months. I have added these below so if you plan on registering you can add the dates to your calendars.

See you tomorrow.

Julie Durling

Director of Children’s Ministry

Asbury UMC

• Friday 21st October 5pm-7pm Fellowship Hall- Dress for the Mess: Messy Games night for 5th and 6th graders. No need to register just come and join us.
• Saturday 29th October 8:30am-4pm Hope Basement – Created by God: Christian Sexuality for 5th and 6th graders and thier parents. Registration going on now. Forms at http://reignforest.asburyumcmadison.com/images/forms/registration%20general.pdf $5 fee.
• Saturday 5th November 2pm-5pm Five Points – Annual Mother Son Event  Register at http://reignforest.asburyumcmadison.com/events

I am very excited to begin blogging. Something I have been meaning to do for a very long time. As every day in the Reign Forest is so very different I thought you might find what we get up to interesting. (That is not the Julie “interesting” but the real sense of the word).
A few weeks ago the Reign Forest Staff met at my farm to begin developing Steps for Spiritual Formation for our children here at Asbury. We began our time together looking at the meaning of the word step, (log onto Wiktionary for some surprising meanings!) as well as examining what the Bible has to say about steps. Check out the following scriptures: 2 Kings 20:8-10, Job 23:10-12, Psalm 17:4-6, Proverbs 14:14-16, Proverbs 16:9, Proverbs 20:23-25, Ecclesiastes 5: 1-3, Jeremiah 10:22-24, 1 Peter 2:20-22.
We followed up by getting our creative juices going using Legos to create steps. We are a real creative bunch. Here are the structures we built.





More information on Reign Forest’s Steps for Spiritual Growth will be coming in later blogs.

Good Morning Reign Foresters!

We have been having so much fun here in the Reign Forest that I have been almost too busy to blog about Mission Week.  But here it is::

I am so happy to say that mission week was a HUGE SUCCESS!  We had fantastic volunteers and very willing and eager children each day.  The week focused on our theme verse Acts 1:8

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

On Wednesday we had a missions day here at Asbury focusing on preparation and prayer.

 John Bailey the Director of Missions spoke with the children about missions here at Asbury and how Acts 1:8 relates to Mission Minded Kids.

For Asbury::
Jerusalem means any missions here in Madison Alabama
Judea means missions in the United States
Samaria missions are our Kairos or Homeless mission trips
Ends of the Earth are overseas missions

MISSION MINDED KIDS DAY 1
In preparation for Wednesday (our Jerusalem mission) when we were going to the nursing home, the children painted photo frames to be given to the residents.  In another rotation, the children went on a prayer walk around the Asbury Campus and learned about the power of prayer.

The children also packed nearly 300 food boxes for the homeless at The Downtown Rescue Mission! Our older kids, who participated in Dirty Feet, took the food boxes with them to the Downtown Rescue Mission.

Lastly, on Wednesday the children assembled 60 UMCOR health kits that will be distributed when the next natural disaster hits.  Because of the recent tornados, many of the children felt close to this mission.

MISSION MINDED KIDS DAY 2

Day 2 was so much fun! It was our field trip day and the children visited residents at Dublin Village Retirement home.  We played games, delivered place mats, and gave each resident a photo-frame decorated by the children the day before! You can read about this adventure in the Madison Record (if you don’t have a copy we have one here in the office!)

MISSION MINDED KIDS DAY 3

On Friday, the children returned to the church to hear all about Missions at Asbury.  We had missionaries representing each of our Jerusalem,  Judea, Samaria, Ends of the Earth partners.  This was an exciting day, because the children were able to see where they can serve in missions even at their young age!

Getting to be a part of mission week has been a huge blessing for me! I have loved getting to serve alongside the children and share my passion for missions with them.  The children’s joy and eagerness to serve was overwhelming; there are so many places that the children could have been (ie bed) but instead they chose to get up early each day and worship, serve, and fellowship together!

BIO: My name is Stephanie Cashin, I have attended Asbury for almost eight years now.   I graduate from Auburn University 6 August 2011 (only four short weeks away).  I am working towards an Interdisciplinary Degree combining both Human Development and Family Studies with Community and Civic Engagement.  I am interested in how children’s involvement in their community affects other aspects of their lives, specifically their motivation to finish high school.

Interning with with Children’s Ministry here at Asbury is a fantastic opportunity to learn about involving children in missions.  I am so excited to see God working in the children’s lives and my own.

LIKES:Running, reading, sending letters,coffee, hiking, anything Auburn

FAVORITE BIBLE VERSE: Isaiah 40:31

 But those who trust in the Lord
will receive new strength.
They will fly as high as eagles.
They will run and not get tired.
They will walk and not grow weak.

Stop by the office sometime for a great conversation! I can’t wait to meet all of you

I am a rising Freshman in college. I have gone to Asbury my WHOLE life! I am going to Jacksonville state University in the fall.

I am apparently funny, well people tell me I am. Zul Cornelio tells me I should say I am popular, but I’m not popular, I’m famous! Haha Not really!

I have been active in the choir since the youngest choir here. I am 18 years old, and I’m usually in a very happy mood! I’m very cool and helpful.

I’m not very artistic but I like trying. My favorite movie is UP! It is amazing and funny! I like drinking milk to keep my bones strong and my favorite color is green. I can drive. Even though the girls at Dirty Feet don’t believe I can! So that’s just a weeeeee bit about me! I am so respectful :p

Interns Chaz and Stephanie are so excited to begin blogging about our adventures here at Asbury this summer.