Family Connection 06.07.2012

Family Connection
06.07.2012
“Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother
spoke up, ‘Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but
how far will they go among so many?’
Jesus said, ‘Have the people sit down.’
There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about
five thousand of them. Jesus then took
the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as
they wanted. He did the same with the
fish. When they had all had enough to
eat, he said to the disciples, ‘Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.’ So they gathered them and filled twelve
baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had
eaten.”-John 8:8-13
Last April my son Josh and I had an opportunity to travel
to Uganda, Africa to visit some friends who are missionaries. They have a specific ministry to orphan
children who have HIV/AIDS. All of these
children have lost parents to this dreaded disease and in order to come to Cherish
they have to be hopeless and on death’s door.
Each of these children are fed, clothed, housed, given proper medical
treatment but most importantly they are loved.
It is estimated that there are 1.2 million people in Uganda who have
HIV/AIDS but these children are Cherish are cared for and God is doing a
miracle. Cherish cannot care for every
person in Uganda who is sick, but they can care for the children they have been
given; they can use what they have and leave the rest up to God.
Like the disciples in the above passage we may be
overwhelmed with the need and our apparent lack of resources. After all, Jesus wanted the disciples to feed
thousands of people and they only had enough food for a small lunch. The amazing thing is what this boy was
willing to do. Even though it seems like
he was the only one who had food, he was willing to give it to Jesus. It was though he said, “Jesus, I’m not sure
what you can do with my small lunch, but here you go!” This boy gave what he had to Jesus, and Jesus
did a miracle with it.
Many times children may not feel that they can do much
for God because they are so small. Well,
one of the things we can do as parents is to help the children in our lives
understand that we can give God what we have and then let Him do the rest. The boy in our passage wasn’t expected to do
a miracle, he couldn’t; he just gave what he had and Jesus did the rest.
This week we are going to start asking the children to go
through their closets at home and bring extra clothes, toys, shoes, etc. to
give to people in need. We will take
care of the distribution; we are just asking children to do what they can to
help others. This might be a great way
of you to interact with the children in your life and help them start to make a
difference for others.
This weekend in Elementary we are talking about John
6:1-14 the boy who gave his lunch to
Jesus. You can watch the lesson if you
follow this link: http://youtu.be/YrTL7XtsuZE
In Early Childhood we will be spending
the month talking about creation and God’s creation station. This week we will be looking at “God made sky
and water” from Genesis 1:6-8.

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to walk with
you and your family as we learn how to follow Jesus together.
Walking by your side,
Brett Humphrey
Pastor H

Family Connection 05.24.2012

Family Connection
05.24.2012
“Be like the Son of Man.
He did not come to be served.
Instead, He came to serve others.
He came to give His life as the price for setting many people free.’”-Matthew
20:28
When we adopted our daughter Sofie from China in December
2006, she was 7 years old and didn’t know any English (that was okay though
because we didn’t know any Chinese either).
She is amazing and before long she was able to speak well enough so we
could communicate. It was pretty amazing
actually to see how quickly she learned.
One of the first things she started saying to us was, “do you need
help?” It was always heartwarming to
hear her say those words, “do you need help?”
Not only was she learning to speak English, she was learning one of the
values we have in the Humphrey house; the value of serving others.
Jesus thought this was pretty important! Not only did He say the words in Matthew
20:28, He also demonstrated the need to serve others when He washed the
disciples’ feet in John 13. Paul goes to
great lengths in Philippians 2 to communicate how important serving is and how
we should serve if we want to be like Jesus.
My favorite verse is Philippians 2:5 (if you ask me, I will show you the
motions I do with the verse) and I try to live it out as best I can. If we are followers of Jesus, serving is a
pretty big deal.
This is one of the core values we will teach the children
in this ministry as they are with us each week.
Because we are trying to help children become more like Jesus we will
provide opportunities to serve at home and at church. We also have opportunities for adults to
serve as well. What better way to teach
your children about following Jesus by modeling service to them. The wonderful thing about serving in
Children’s Ministry is you have the opportunity to serve where your children
can see you and they will feel special because dad and mom are serving in their
ministry area. I want to share with you
a short message Susan Cable shared with our current small group leaders in the
K-4th program. This will give
you an idea on what serving in this ministry can mean to children and families:
This
week I was asked about the expectations we have for the Trail Guides; what we
expect them to accomplish each weekend. I replied that building relationships
with the kids by showing them the unconditional love, grace, and acceptance of
Jesus is our goal. The activities are really a way for you to interact with
your kids and for them to interact with each other. Do I consider it a “win” if
they are able to recite the month’s memory verse and retell the week’s Bible
story to their parents? Of course. But an even bigger “win” is a child running
down the hall to give their Trail Guide a hug or a high five. Or relating a
story about how they put the monthly virtue or memory verse into action at
school or at home. Or bringing a friend to church because it’s so much fun and
they feel accepted and cared for here. If they stick around church long enough,
they will hear those memory verses and Bible stories over and over again. The
key is making them want to stick around. And when they are in their teen years
and making the decision of whether to follow Christ on their own, it won’t be
the verses and stories that nudge them in the right direction. It will be the
relationships they have built and the memories of those adults who brought
God’s love to life that seal the deal. At Sun Valley, we are about life change
and legacy – and that includes children’s ministry.
If I can be blunt…we need you! We need you to serve and make an eternal
impact in the lives of children and families.
I would ask you to take a free fall of faith and join this
ministry. Pray with your family and ask
God to help you step out and serve in this ministry. Please send me an email, bhumphrey@sunvalleycc.com , tweet
@humphrey_brett or message me on Facebook on the Sun Valley Kids page and I
will get you the information on how you can start serving.
This weekend in Elementary we are talking about Matthew
22:34-40 and how we can use our love to
make a difference. You can watch the
lesson if you follow this link: http://youtu.be/Ho-vLSm-Hto
In Early Childhood we will be teaching
the children the concept of It won’t always be
easy
to
do the right thing by looking at Daniel and the Lions Daniel 6:1-28

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to walk with
you and your family as we learn how to follow Jesus together.
Walking by your side,
Brett Humphrey
Pastor H

Family Connection 05.10.2012

Family Connection
05.10.2012
“Children, obey your parents as believers in the
Lord. Obey them because it’s the right
thing to do. Scripture says, ‘Honor your
father and mother.’ That is the first
commandment with a promise. ‘Then things
will go well with you. You will live a
long time on the earth.’”-Ephesians 6:1-3
Ephesians 6:1 was the first verse we had our children
memorize when they were younger. Sure,
we wanted our children to obey us but my wife Jennifer and I knew that if we
didn’t help our children learn how to respect and obey us as their earthly
parents; they would have a very difficult time coming to respect and obey their
Heavenly Father. It’s nice when our
children obey us, but these verses go deeper than our children picking up their
clothes when we ask them to.
Even though this Family Connection is for everyone, I
want to talk to dads for a moment. You
know that this Sunday is Mother’s Day.
Even though we should make sure our children honor their moms every day
of the year, we have a special opportunity to help them honor their moms on
Sunday. The best way our children can
learn to honor is by our modeling. If
your children are very young, you will really have to help them make mom feel
special. Dads, I want to encourage you
to go for it! Not only will it be
beneficial in the short term, you will also help your children learn how to
respect their mom the way God wants them to.
Please understand I’m not buying into the advertisers’
concept of Mother’s Day (I’m not advocating buying a car or jewelry or
something else you can’t afford) but rather to do something to help mom feel
special. If you’re not sure what that
could be, you might consider asking mom what would make her feel special and
then trying to make that happen.
This weekend in Elementary we are talking about Ephesians
4:29 and how we can use our words to make a difference. What a
wonderful opportunity to have the children practice this by honoring mom (by
the way we will have a special treat for moms this weekend in children’s
ministry). You can watch the lesson if
you follow this link: http://youtu.be/IgeQiR0bngw
In Early Childhood we will be teaching the children the
concept of God wants me to forgive and how Joseph forgave his brothers Genesis
42:1-6; 45:1-46:7.
I also want to give you a couple of other resources to
help you as parents connect with your children so you can teach them how to
follow Jesus. If you are a smart phone
user, please look into the ParentCue app from the Re-Think group. This app will provide opportunities for you to
talk about the things of God with your children as you go throughout your days. There is content for both elementary and
preschool children. I have also started
to tweet and will send out helpful hints on how to teach your children along
the way. You can find me at
@humphrey_brett
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to walk with
you and your family as we learn how to follow Jesus together.
Walking by your side,
Brett Humphrey
Pastor H

Family Connection 04.30.2012

Family Connection

04.30.2012

“When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of Him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.”-John 12:9-11

When you were a child did you ever tell a lie? And then, in order to cover up that lie you told an even bigger one? I did. When I was starting 7^th grade my parents were going through marriage issues and we moved hundreds of miles away to start over. I lost all of my friends and extended family and moved to a completely different area and went to a new school. This school was about 60 miles away from my home and I had to commute daily. I was scared to go to this school so I decided that I would tell everyone that I knew Karate (just so they wouldn’t mess with me). Not only did I tell people I knew Karate, I told them I was a brown belt and then used the knowledge I had gained from watching old Kung-Fu movies to establish my claim. I’m not sure if people really believed me but they never challenged me either. Unfortunately for the three years I went to that school, I lived a lie.

Looking back on that lie may not really seem like a big deal but that did define a part of my life. Not only did I live a lie by claiming to know something I didn’t, I had to invent bigger lies to continue to prove my claim. I never let people get too close because I had to keep up the pretense. This is just one thing I wish I could go back and change, but I cannot.

It is amazing the lengths we will go to in avoiding the truth. Just take a look at the above passage. The religious leaders would rather plot the death of two innocent men (Jesus and Lazarus) than admit that Jesus was in fact who He said He was and came to save us. The leaders were more concerned with the lie they believed about God and the box they had put Him in than to see the truth in front of them. Before I am too hard on these leaders, I must remember my years of lying.

So what do we do with this now? It is important to help the children in our lives know the truth about God and His ways. The best way to do that is by talking about Him with the children in our lives and looking into His Word together. This week we will be looking at the passage found in Matthew 25:14-30 in the elementary ministry. As we focus on Responsibility this month we will be looking at how God can teach us His ways with the gifts He has given us. Responsibility is showing you can be trusted with what is expected of you.

I also want to give you a couple of other resources to help you as parents connect with your children so you can teach them how to follow Jesus. If you are a smart phone user, please look into the ParentCue app from the Re-Think group. This app will provide opportunities for you to talk about the things of God with your children as you go throughout your days. There is content for both elementary and preschool children. I have also started to tweet and will send out helpful hints on how to teach your children along the way. You can find me at @humphrey_brett

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to walk with you and your family as we learn how to follow Jesus together.

Walking by your side,

Brett Humphrey

Pastor H