Easter Egg Hunt at CrossWay

Last Saturday we had our third annual Easter Egg Hunt at CrossWay.  It was a blast!  We had about 60 kids and at least that many adults.  God answered our prayers for a break in the weather, and we had a beautiful sunny day with mild temperatures–right in between two chilly rainstorms.

In the sanctuary we had a lot of fun stuff for the kids to do: decorating cookies, a spoon walk (carrying an egg or marshmallow or something on a spoon in their mouths), face painting, some art stations, and the favorite: the ring toss.  That last one had a line so long you’d think they were waiting to get Thrasher’s fries on the boardwalk.

Carolyn shared the Easter story and did a great job.  She started by breaking an egg into a bowl, then asked for a volunteer.  She asked the volunteer if he would be surprised if she broke an egg on his head.  The first volunteer backed out but another jumped up to volunteer and Carolyn cracked the egg on his head.  Lo and behold, it was empty–surprise!  (At this point one little boy shouted: “Try another egg!”)  Carolyn compared the surprise of the empty egg to the surprise of Jesus’ empty tomb, and she explained how Jesus wants to be their forever friend and all they have to do is believe.  It was pretty cool.

Then we had the Easter egg hunt in two groups, one for the younger children and one for the older kids.  We hid a thousand eggs, and they found every single one!

It was a lot of fun for everyone, and it was great getting to spend time with people.

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Published in: on March 29, 2010 at 9:17 am  Leave a Comment  

Mrs. Hyde Goes to Crisfield

Today Carolyn and I saw some of the kids that she taught in kindergarten.  The one known on this blog as “Milton,” who’s now in third grade, said: “I still can’t believe Mrs. Hyde retired!”

Then there was a little girl who thought that our baby’s full name is “Laura Marie Mrs. Hyde.”

Kids rock.

Published in: on March 23, 2010 at 4:56 pm  Leave a Comment  

Laura Marie’s Baseball Card Collection

Laura Marie may be only 9 months old, but she’s already building her baseball card and autograph collection.

Her first baseball card was a 1991 Donruss card of former All-Star Bobby Bonilla.  I gave it to her to help her start her collection.  She promptly proceeded to bend it and chew it, as you can see below.  I sent Mr. Bonilla the card along with a note explaining its condition, and he sent it back signed for her.

With her card collection underway, I wrote to Carl Erskine, a former All-Star pitcher with the Brooklyn Dodgers.  I told him about Laura Marie, and he sent this card which he personalized for her:

Then there is Virgil Trucks, another former All-Star pitcher who is 92 years older than Laura Marie.  I sent him a picture of his youngest fan.  He sent her a baseball card and a postcard, both of them signed to her.  Mr. Trucks also wrote a note about how beautiful she is.  He suggested I might need a good bat to keep the boys away when they come calling on “this future Miss America.”

She’s off to a good start!

Published in: on March 19, 2010 at 1:58 pm  Leave a Comment  

The Final Four(-Year-Old)

Every year our whole family fills out brackets for the men’s NCAA basketball tournament.  After the first round, my four-year-old nephew, Kevin, is kicking butt and taking names!  He has a clear lead in the pool.  He even predicted 13th-seeded Murray State’s upset over #4 Vanderbilt, a buzzer beater. Uncanny.

Next year I’m consulting Kevin before making my picks.  Or maybe I’ll consult his baby brother.

Published in: on March 19, 2010 at 11:30 am  Leave a Comment  

Midway Praise

Last night at CrossWay Church we had our first Midway Praise.  It’s something we’re just starting to do every three months.  We had 20 people come out for some celebration, music, and focused prayer (and a short devotional, which is Christianese for sermonette).

It was great!  We started with four songs, then spent about 15 minutes praying in small groups for several specific topics.  We had one more song before a very brief message about Patrick, who I learned is the patron saint of Ireland, Nigeria, Montserrat, New York, Boston, engineers, and paralegals.  Seriously.  A lot of myth has sprung up around Patrick, legends about four-leaf clovers and snakes and green beer and Lucky Charms.  Or something like that.  But we do know some facts about his life.  He was born into a rich British family, was taken captive by raiders, and was sold into slavery in Ireland.  After spending a few years as a slave shepherd, he escaped and went back home, where he trained for the priesthood and returned to Ireland–the land of his captivity–as a missionary.  We read some verses (Romans 6:17-18,22-23; 1 Corinthians 9:19) about how Christ has freed us from captivity to sin, but rather than kicking back and being all mellow, like, “Whew, glad that’s over with!”, we’re actually to venture back out into the land of captivity to share with others the good news of freedom in Jesus Christ!

We prayed that God would transform us into a people on mission.  Then we sang four more songs and ate green food with green drinks (nope, no beer–I know you were wondering).

I’m already looking forward to the next Midway Praise: June 16!

Published in: on March 18, 2010 at 10:47 am  Leave a Comment  

Liking Jesus

In addition to funny moments, today’s Bible story at the Training Station also had a cute one….

Ms. Grace is getting ready to start telling the Easter story to the kids.  So after the Bible story today, she said, “Next week we’re going to talk about how some of the people didn’t like Jesus.”

One little boy immediately piped up: “I like Him!”

Published in: on March 17, 2010 at 10:21 am  Leave a Comment  

What the Gospels Didn’t Tell Us

This morning Ms. Grace was teaching the Bible story at the Training Station Preschool.  She had a little building constructed of cardboard and several toy figures set up in and around it.  The story was about the paralyzed man whose friends lowered him through the roof to get to Jesus, so Jesus could heal him.

While Grace was moving the figures around and telling the story, a piece of cardboard fell and knocked over one of the figures.  One of the more excitable little boys in the group shouted: “One guy got killed!”

Published in: on March 17, 2010 at 10:18 am  Comments (2)  

Upcoming Easter Series at CrossWay Church

What’s coming up at CrossWay:

Published in: on March 17, 2010 at 5:30 am  Leave a Comment  

Our First 12 Members

We held session 2 of the CrossWay Church membership class on Sunday afternoon.  We now have 12 members!  Our Constitution & By-Laws require completion of the class in order to be eligible for membership, so officially our only members are those who were able to make it both weeks (since this is the first time we’ve actually had the class).  We’ll have the class again soon for those who are interested but weren’t able to make it.

Hey, Jesus started with 12, so I’d say we’re in good company.

Published in: on March 16, 2010 at 11:07 am  Leave a Comment  

The Comfort of the Vine

Yesterday at CrossWay was the second week in a two-part series in the Book of Jonah.

We read Jonah 3:1-4:11 in which God teaches us an important truth that the prophet Jonah had trouble accepting: Souls are more important than our comfort.

Jonah didn’t give a rip about the 120,000 people in the city of Nineveh.  He actually pouted and got all whiny when they repented and turned to God!  Jonah was more concerned about the vine that God gave him to provide shade and relief from the hot sun.  When that withered and died, he really got upset.

It’s easy to get all judgmental on Jonah, but many of us have hearts that are much like Jonah’s.  We honestly don’t care too much about the spiritual condition of people around us, but when the car won’t start or our kids get sick, we’re all mad and stuff.

Let’s learn from Jonah and repent of our hardheartedness.  Let’s look through eyes that have an eternal perspective, and live by the truth that people are more important than our comfort.

Published in: on March 15, 2010 at 11:15 am  Leave a Comment  
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