Kids Quest Online

“I thought we were getting portable buildings?”
“When are the portable buildings coming?”

These are two of the poplar questions being asked at Kids Quest Check-in. They’re great questions. Yes, we are still getting portable buildings, but we’re still waiting on the city of Austin for permits. Honestly, we’re doing everything we can do. Please pray that whatever needs to happen will happen soon.

The truth is that we really needed the portables in August to handle the huge numbers of kids we’ve been having these last several weeks. There is no doubt that we’ll need them for sure in January as it is another time o high attendance at Gateway. At this point in time, it looks like we could have them by mid to late November, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

In the mean time our rooms are getting very tight. We have room caps and strict volunteer to child ratios that we keep for each room. Unfortunately we’ve seen a few weeks now where many of our rooms are shutting down. This is happening even more so in the classrooms for children under two year old as well as in the Cottage (our room for 4 year olds through kindergarten. Like I said in a pervious post, the youngest rooms are the fullest at the 9:30 service. To ensure that your child gets into the right class, arriving a little earlier will help make sure that happens.

I just wanted to send all our paretns an update on our portable spaces as well as helpul hints for checking your kids in these next several weeks.

This Sunday we are beginning a new curriculum in our elementary program. I’ll talk more about it in a future post. However, here are some things you can look forward to.

As I wrote in my last post, we have some Family Time devotional tools that we’re looking to offer in October. These tools sync up with what the kids are learning each Sunday. I’ll talk more about that a little later this month. However, there is something your child will be given this Sunday that you may really appreciate. It’s the weekly take-home cards specific to this curriculum.

I know, this won’t be the first time you’ve gotten a piece of paper with Bible verses on it and such. This is different. These are designed specifically to help equip kids to keep growing during the week (with as much parental help as they need) as well as give parents a good idea of what they’ve been learning.

The first tool is the Refrigerator Door card. What do I do with it? I’m not even going to answer that question. It’s loaded with all the information you as a parent need. Below this paragraph is a link to download this week’s card. As you can see, it display’s this month’s virtue which is Responsibility. This will stay the same every weekend this month. However, the bottom line (beside the virtue) will change each week. This week the bottom line is: “When I trust God, I become someone who can be trusted.” Below that is the memory verse for the month. That’s right… month. A pet peeve of mine is curriculum that introduce a new memory verse every week. I believe that kids have the capacity to memorize a verse every week, but more often than not, the kids forget last week’s verse within a week or two. With this curriculum, we drill down into that one verse each and every week. My hope is that this passage is “branded” on our hearts by the end of the month. In addition to all these things, there is a definition of responsibility, the reference for the Bible story we learned that week and some questions you can use to start a discussion at home. How great is that? No more wondering what your kids really did learn. Click the link below to see the Refrigerator Door card.

Refrigerator Door Card

The next file is the God Time Cards. These cards are for your kids to continue what they learned this week. Want to see your kid really grow in specific areas? Help them complete their God Time cards. This isn’t a silly word search or fill in the missing letter “busy work” activity. This is a serious tool to get God’s principles down into the heart of your child. There are four cards, one a day for four days. Pretty simple really. Each week your child will get another set for God Time cards. Click the link below to see this week’s God Time cards.

God Time Cards

I might need your help. The curriculum we are using has a Family Devotional piece that helps include parents and families in the spiritual training process. I talk to a lot of parents on a regular basis who say that they need help and can use good resources to equip and train their kids spiritually. So, we’re going to try something out. For the month of September, we’re covering the virtue of “responsibility” in our elementary services. With this month I have five “Family Time” devotional packs. Basically it’s a toolbox to spiritually lead kids that correlates with what they’re learning on the weekends. In the kit is a “Drive Time” CD, as well as Meal Time cards, Bed Time activities and Morning Time notes. Basically it follow the verse from Deuteronomy 6:7 that says we are to impress “God’s law upon our kids… to talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

I have a few families that are piloting this tool during the month of September before I decide whether we’ll make it available or all families. here’s the deal though. I have a few families of younger elementary aged kids doing this, but I really would like to find a family that has a 4th or 5th grade boy and a family with a 4th or 5th grade girl to pilot the Family Time tools. I really want to test the relevance for multiple ages.

So, if you have a 4th or 5th grade boys or girls and you want to test out this great paretning resource, please contact me or leave a coment on this post. I’ll work out the details to getting a pack to you this weekend. For everyone else, if all goes well, we’ll be making them available for the month of October.

Just a quick update on what is going on in Kids Quest right now.

We’re feeling the strain of heavy attendance and not enough space. I visited the portables that we’re placing on the property. I’ll just say it. They’re portables. However, we’ve got a pretty amazing plan on how they’ll be transformed into an amazing destination for several of our Early Childhood kids. We’re painting the exteriors to match the color scheme we have going on at Gateway, but the inside is going to be where we’re going to have the most fun. Again, we’re waiting on city permits and other things outside of our control. Please pray that things will start to move a little faster than molasses… otherwise I might pull my hair out.

Early Childhood is going strong and steady while our Director (Sarah Echelberger) enjoys a few more months at home with her new baby. Karen Craxton and Heather McLellon have been leading this ministry and have been doing an incredible job. There are literally hundreds of volunteer spots to fill and never quite enough people to fill the spots. It involves constant emails, phone calls and endless recruiting. I know they’ll be glad to get Sarah back in a few weeks.

Elementary has seen a major overhaul. We’ve completely re-tasked about 90% of our existing volunteers and brough in dozens of new people. So far, so good. Myself and Jen Clitheroe have been working like crazy to get small groups and their leaders in place where Kat Barrilleaux has focused on developing our teaching and production teams. I am in the process of searching for our next Elementary Director. The search is very slow going as I’m really holding out for the best (and being very, very picky). I’m looking for someone with several years of experience running an elementary program of at least a couple hundred kids. There just aren’t that many qualified people out there.

Since we are still waiting on the portables and other things, we’re looking at launching the 12:30 service for kids who are here for two services a little later this month. I’ve got to get a few more people on that team and secure a location, but I think that could happen really soon.

I think that this is about it. Let me know if you have any questions. I’ll be sure to keep everyone up to date as things progress.

We had another big win these past two week. It’s not #2 because it’s any less important, actually it’s probably even more significant.

For the past 6 months or so the Middle School program that met at the 12:30 service hovered at about 30-35 students. Chad Swanzy and his team have been hard at work all summer in building up for a huge Fall launch. We worked together to set up 5th grad previews all summer to capture the rising 5th graders. At the begining of the summer, we all believed that the middle school attendance could literally triple.

Although we averaged only 15-17 5th graders on our preview Sundays, we all felt that we could see a significant leap in our attendance. Then August 24th came around. There were over 90 middle school kids in attendance! Just in one weekend we watched the attendance triple. It’s a very exciting atmosphere that has been created and quality of programming is off the charts. It’s fun, it’s relevant and most importantly… these kids are breaking out into small groups. They’re connecting with each other and leaders who are modeling their faith.

What’s next? I know that the Uprising team believes they can hit 150 before the end of the Fall. I think I believe it! IF you have a middle school child who has not yet checked out the Uprising, they need to do so now. It’s not what it was a few months ago!