Today at NewSpring we celebrated Parents’ Day in Adventure Avenue, giving the parents of our preschool dept a chance to participate with their kids in the Adventure Avenue Theater.  Lots of parents commented on how much they enjoyed it.  I met one little boy with his mom & dad in tow and he was saying, “Come on, I will show you where I learn about Jesus and, Dad, don’t forget to sing the songs with me!”  How cool is that?  A dad came up to me as I was leaving and told me how much he appreciated the ministry for kids at NewSpring.  He continued by saying it (KidzWorld) was what brought them to NewSpring, and now they feel there is something for all ages of the family.  He said “This church has given our family new hope and a place to call home.”  Setting environments is what we do at NewSpring and it so awesome to see the whole family enjoy them.  To all those of you who help us set the environments…thank you.

Another little project we are excited about is the chance to minister to families all over Wichita and the surrounding areas.  Dale and the crew is making us a portable puppet stage to take to neighborhoods and parks for puppet shows.  It is going to be great to have a tool to present the message of God’s love and His desire to have a relationship with everyone.  At the end of May we are heading south of Andover to have a our first block party.  We are taking our inflatables and puppet stage and plan to have a blast with the folks there.  I am excited about it and I ask you to pray for us as we try this for the first time.  We hope to offer this in different backyards throughout the area!  We are looking for hosts to invite neighborhood kids and we will provide the program with includes puppets, music and snowcones!  More to come on that exciting opportunity. 

Another thing we are excited about is the possibility of hosting birthday parties for our kids in the community in our Route 252 and Adventure Avenue Theater.  Starting June 2, if you go to our website you will be able to sign up to schedule your party.  A variety of packages will be offered.  One package even includes a custom puppet show for the birthday boy or girl.  This will be open not only to NewSpringers but also the community.  What an awesome way to get people come in and check out our awesome kids’ environments. 

Someone asked me, “Why are you killing yourself and your wife with all this new stuff for kids?”  First of all, we are not killing ourselves–Karla & Darrel are the ones being sacrificed! Just kidding!  Our KidzWorld staff knows for a fact that only 25% of kids in the Wichita area go to church on a regular basis, so that is why we do what we do.