Our first family dinner is coming up!
We are having a catered Fried chicken dinner for our first 2024 family church dinner and it will be held on Saturday March the 9th at 5:00. This will be a catered dinner by DK’s market’s famous fried chicken and all the fixins! We will begin taking reservations for this dinner this Sunday, Nelleke will be taking names and numbers. So mark your calendars for Saturday March 9th. Our mission for this dinner will be Sleep in Heavenly Peace. It’s a nationwide not for profit organization that originated in Idaho ten years ago and they build beds for children ages 3-17. We will be accepting financial donations and/or new sheets, blankets, and pillows. Here is a link to a short video of this organization’s work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcbLNOQEnUQ
Gary Watson and I attended the Leadership meeting last night at the Esic worship center. This is a group that meets about every three months that is represented by the three groups that are using the Esic worship center facility, PCF, GST, and Esic Church. Tammy Smart is planning a Esic Worship Center Newsletter that will let everyone know of all the upcoming events with the various groups. It will be sent by email. If you would like to receive this newsletter just send an email to Tammy at Ebaptistchurch@outlook.com requesting to be put on the list.
This Sunday will be here before you know it and I am looking forward to seeing you, my brothers and sisters in Jesus. Find a new face this Sunday and introduce yourself and welcome them into our amazing joyful family! Make sure our new people know about the blog, if you get their name and email and get it to me I’ll get them signed up.
I am including Robins message again because we want to make sure everyone understands the importance of keeping the children’s Sunday School area a sacred space for the children and the parents or grandparents only. Let’s make our gathering area in the cafeteria, not in the child care area!
From Robin our Sunday School Director:
I wanted to share a few updates regarding the growth of our nursery/sunday school. Can you believe that we have had 22 individual kids ranging from age 13 years old down to babies attend our Sunday School/Nursery this past year? As I reflected on each one of those kids, my heart was happy to know that we were able to make an impact on their life, even if it was only for a one time attendance, or if they are regular attendees. I love each one of them and want them to always feel they are special to this church family, because they are!
The great news is we are growing. With growth, we are planning to make a few changes. Our long term goal is to have two separate Sunday School classes to better meet the needs of the various age groups that are represented in our growing family. Currently, our older children are buddies to our younger kids, and that sometimes works. 🙂 We also have Glory, who has been a great help in the past couple of months. We still need individuals to volunteer. Ideally, we would love to have enough volunteers that we could rotate out every 6 weeks, allowing each of you to only commit to one time every six weeks. I will remain a constant in the nursery and continue to serve, as it is a joy and an honor for me to do so. If we can get 5 more volunteers that are willing to commit to one Sunday every 6 weeks, that would get us to a place where we can start making our goals a reality. Please come see me if you think this would be something you want to be a part of.
In addition, because we are growing, we are going to make a few structure changes to help with the safety of our children. First, we are going to ask that only parents, grandparents, or guardians are allowed in the Nursery to drop off and pick up their children. Also, because a couple of the little ones have run out of the class a few times without a parent or under my supervision, we are going to start locking the 2 side doors, and only have the “half door” unlocked so that they cannot leave until their parents pick them up, or if we are making our weekly “field trip” to get snacks. It will put a better structure in place and will give me peace of mind knowing the kids are being properly cared for and accounted for while they are at church! While Jesus left the 99 for the 1, we can’t do that for our kids. (ha)
Thank you for continuing to pray for our kids and the young families in our church. It means everything.
Love,
Robin Hlava
See you Sunday! Love, pastor kent
- Praise Community Fellowship, A Joyful church with No Walls! 10:30 am Sundays at Esic Church located at 1000 University Drive Edwardsville. God’s Truth with Love and Compassion. Praise Community Fellowship Church is a 100% volunteer Church. We have no salaries or paid positions. Come be part of a Joyful Christian Family. Have questions? Call Pastor Kent @ 618-334-3575. Or Board President. Gary Watson @ 409-781-6510
