Jym Shorts

Jym's Shorts - July 8, 2021

by Mary Veal on July 08, 2021

This week, Jym Shorts is brought to us by Mary Veal, our Director for Children's Ministry.
Hi friends! Summer has always been a highlight of my year because there’s so much going on in children’s ministry.  I’m excited to share with you two of the most recent events. In the third week of June, we had 62 elementary kids and around 30 volunteers participate in Music Camp. They learned an entire musical in just one short week. Besides the drama kids having to memorize their lines, we also had a small group learn how to sign a song and another group learned a special dance to a song. The musical was called “Back to the Beginning” by Christy and Daniel Semsen. The story of the musical was some kids finding a time machine and traveling to different time periods, ultimately going all the way back to the Garden of Eden. At each stop, they learned a different truth about God addressing questions like, “Where is God when I’m hurting?” “Is God even real?” I encouraged the kids to study creation more in-depth at home and to create something in relation to what they learned. They were very creative coming up with shoebox dioramas, clay objects, colorful timelines, stories in their own words and one person even created their own video of the seven days of creation.
Besides having fun and looking incredibly cute, it’s my desire that the words of the songs and the truths that they learn get embedded in their minds as they are forming their world views. In a culture where it’s most popular for everyone to determine their own truth, it’s important for our kids to have God’s truths tucked away and to know what they believe and why.  
The last week of June we hosted SpringHill Day Camp for the first time. SpringHill is a Christian organization that started in 1969. They create experiences that enable young people to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ through His message of grace, hope, and love. Everything they do focuses on teaching these messages to kids through faith and fun. Each day they had a different Bible lesson and then had time for the kids to discuss it more in their small group- “We are created special by God,” “Sin separates us from God,” “Jesus brings us back to God,” “We can share the Good News.” As you can imagine this lead to very meaningful and life-changing conversations. The theme verse was Hebrews 12:1-2.
They also had plenty of fun including tie-dye making, a rock climbing wall, bungee trampoline, paintball, blow-up obstacle course, and lots of water games. SpringHill brought their own staff, but LifePoint also had seven of our high school students donate their time by volunteering the entire week. This was a great outreach for our church that, Lord willing, will continue next year.  
What’s next for our kids? Vacation Bible School, July 19-23. Last year we were blessed to have an adapted version, but this year we plan to be back to normal. I encourage you to invite your friends who aren’t attending church since the gospel will be clearly presented more than once. They can easily register here. 
I continue to feel so blessed that God allows me to partner with the families at LP and in the community. I’ll close with a quote by Roger Fields that I feel says perfectly how I feel. “My calling is to reach boys and girls for God. It is too serious to be taken lightly, too urgent to be postponed, too vital to be ignored, too relevant to be overlooked, too significant to be trivialized, too eternal to be fleeting, and too passionate to be quenched. I minister to children.” 
Thank you for allowing me to serve and invest in our children!
- Mary
About the Author
Mary Veal

Mary has been our Children’s Director since March 2008. Mary’s goal is to partner with parents to instill Biblical truths. She has a passion to help children connect with their teachers as they learn how to worship the Lord in every aspect of their lives. Mary met her husband Jeff on a blind date, and they were married in 1990. She received her elementary education degree from Anderson University and taught for five years before staying at home to start their family. They have three children, Nicole, Chad, and Christina. Mary enjoys cooking/baking, spending time with family/friends, and traveling.

We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord. Psalm 78:4

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