A New Logo and T-shirts, too!

A few weeks ago, my friend, Amy asked me if I was "married to the logo". I told her that the little hands were important, but that they didn't have to be in a circle. About a week later she came back with an idea for a logo just for "Night Out!". Now... Mark 10:14 Ministries has a logo and Night Out! has a modified version.


The reason for the new logo? Amy made T-shirts for the volunteers! They are beautiful! They are bright yellow (easy to pick out in a crowd), with the Night Out! logo embroidered on the front left-hand side.


I feel so blessed that so many people have caught on to this ministry.It is wonderful to see the body of Christ in action.

Who's Plan is it Anyway?

Every 6 weeks, a local church in town schedules a Red Cross blood drive. I faithfully sign up each time, I figure that it is an easy way for me to give.Yesterday, as I made my plans and schedule for the day I added "give blood" to my schedule of things to do. My schedule was very full with many good plans.

I was so disappointed when I was turned down because my iron level was too low. What a waste, I thought, I had so many things that I needed to get done and here I wasted 30 minutes sitting and waiting to find out that I couldn't give blood. But as I thought about it, it wasn't a waste of time and I am so glad that I went...


While I sat waiting, I had the opportunity to visit with a Daddy of a little boy with Autism. He asked me which church Steve and I were going to. I told him, but then asked "why?" I knew that it was a bit more than him simply concerned about our family going to church. Then he asked if the church we were going to have a Sunday school class for children with special needs.

My heart was broken as I visited with this Daddy. This Dad shared with me his concern about his family and his want to go to church "as a family". As I stated earlier in this post, their little boy, who is 6 years old, has Autism. The family had been attending this church for many years, in fact, the Dad grew up in this church and his parents and some of his extended family also attended. The problem? The Children's program isn't set up for children who don't fit the "norm". The family was told that their precious little boy is a disruption to their program. They will allow him to attend, however, he must be accompanied by a parent at all times. The parents tried this for a few weeks, but it didn't seem to work well. They felt in the way in the classroom and they longed for a time that they could go their own class or go to worship.

The solution that this family came up with... Dad goes to early service. He takes older sister to Sunday school and attends the 1st service, while mom stays home with their son and gets him ready for the day. As soon as the 1st service is over, Dad drives home and trades places with Mom, while big sister stays in the Children's department awaiting the Children's church hour. Mom then goes to 2nd service, while Dad stays home.

This made me so sad... It also reminded me that Mark 10:14 Ministries needs to be more than just "Night Out!". This church, like so many, doesn't realize that they are giving the impression that children (and adults for that matter) with disabilities and special needs are rather a bother that the church and God doesn't want to deal with.

My prayer is that Mark 10:14 Ministries can be developed into a model of love and acceptance that other churches can use and develop. So... even though I was unable to give blood, I had the chance to listen, share, and pray with a Dad in need of encouragement.

And We're off and Growing!

My head is still spinning with disbelief! I can hardly believe how fast "Night Out!" has caught on! We already have families signed up for our next "Night Out!" , which is in a couple of weeks. People who have volunteered in the past are willing and ready to volunteer in the future and if it happens that they have other plans for that evening, they are very sad.

I just had someone tell me that they are very interested in getting a "Night Out!" program started at their church. She asked me if I could send her a copy of the manual for "Night Out!" my reply was, "sure, no problem..." there is one tiny, little problem... THERE ISN"T A MANUAL!! I have one in the works, so I guess I need to get at it and finish it. This is truly a "God-thing!". Already this has blown-up into so much more than I even imagined

Dreams into the Future

This past weekend, Steve and I and two of our children (Ben 14 and Alex 8) had the opportunity to attend Camp Prime-Time. http://www.campprimetime.org/ Camp Prime-Time is about an hour from Yakima, up on Clear Lake. It is devoted to serving families with special needs. Every weekend throughout the summer months, families who have children with disabilities and special needs come up to Camp Prime-Time to experience a weekend in the mountains. It is so relaxing and fun. There are activities to do, but for the most part, all the time is free time and it's up to the families to fill their time the way they choose. Groups of volunteers sign up to cook and serve meals to these families for the weekend. For a donation of $20.00 per family, these families with special needs children, have the ability to attend a family camp from Friday afternoon until Sunday noon.

One of the really cool things about this camp is that all the families there are living with some sort of "special need". Meal time "melt-downs" are common place and parents don't feel judged because everyone just understands...

Although is was fun and relaxing, I felt that one major camping component was missing... God! We were surrounded by God's beautiful handiwork and He, the creator of all wasn't mentioned! Maybe this is a blast from my upbringing, but camp doesn't seem like "camp" without a service or two and a sprinkling of classes.

But here's the rub... To be able to attend classes or listen to a speaker someone has to watch the children.

At Camp Prime-Time, parents are responsible for their own children 24/7. Here's my thought... Add Buddies!

I would love to see a family camp set up for families with special needs. (it is nice to not stick out like a sore thumb... with everyone having to deal with some sort of "special need", everyone seems "normal") But... if we could add buddies to the mix, that would give parents the ability to go classes and even visit with friends while their child is having fun and being watched. This could be a little tricky because the buddies (who would probably be teens) would need to have a counselor or someone (who is not there as a parent) who is keeping an eye on them. The buddy program would have to be organized. The buddies would have to be trained and have specific things to do besides some free time as well.

Children would stay in cabins with their families. Families would eat meals together, with the buddies either eating with the families or at a buddy table. There would be activities for families to do together and also activities for the kids to do with the buddies while the parents are in meetings or when they are visiting.

Well... that's the basic idea. Now all I have to do is find a camp and staff. Oh yeah... and money to do all of this might be a good idea as well. So now I shall pray...

Learning along the way...

When will I learn that God is in control?

The day started out rocky yesterday and seemed to be going downhill fast. First, the day started out with 14 special needs kids registered and only 4 volunteers signed up. Then, when I tried to print of some things needed for the night, I find that my computer and printer weren't communicating with each other... UGH! What a morning!

I quickly emailed Aubrey (who was being church secretary for the week) and she said that I could email her the necessary forms and she would print them off at the church. Which didn't "totally" work the way I wanted it to. She also informed me of a few people who said that they would be able to volunteer, along with a list of more "No's:"

Quickly my stress level was going from "high" to "super extreme high". I was pouring the coffee as fast as I could, but thought that maybe it would be a good time to bathe this whole project in prayer.

By 2:00pm, I was feeling a bit better. We had more volunteers and I was reminded that we were also going to be having dinner provided and that was all going well. I knew that we were going to have some kids that would benefit from a "quite room", so I picked up some toys (Mr. Potato Head, little people, etc...) from our house and took down to the church. I had a wonderful schedule planned for the evening and things were looking better.

By 5:00pm, Steve was at the church helping me set up and a few people started to come. The "schedule" said that at: 5:30pm the volunteers would get their assignments and we would have a time of prayer. Well... not everyone read my schedule. At 5:15pm families started to arrive. YIKES!! The first family to arrive was a "Spanish speaking only" family. Oh my... they were a new family and they had lots of questions. We scrambled quickly to find someone with more Spanish than i have(which isn't difficult, since I have none...) and between the two of us, we spoke to the family, answered their questions and helped them to fill out the registration form. While this was going on, more families arrived. Families were arriving faster than the volunteers. At one point, I did look around to find the quickest escape route, but decided that wouldn't be the best idea.

While I was helping out with new families, Aubrey was getting our "regulars" and our volunteers situated. Oh boy... I was so very thankful for Aubrey!.

By 6:15 all the volunteers and children had arrived. Quickly everyone was assigned a buddy and everyone seemed to be having a good time!

Dinner was a little late, but was wonderful! Burgers and hot dogs on the grill. Yummy! After dinner the kids did art projects, raced the remote control car, and then played outside. Buddies, special friends and sibs alike all had a wonderful time, smiles were seen on the faces of everyone. Time went by so quickly. Before we knew it, it was after 8:00pm and time to start thinking about cleaning up and getting ready for the snack and movie. By 8:30pm, everything had been cleaned up, and everyone was sitting in front of the T.V. with snack in hand, waiting for the arrival of parents.

About 8:45pm parents began to come. They all looked a bit rested and happy to see that their children had such a good time. This has been our best "Night Out!" so far. I am so thankful to all the wonderful volunteers (adults and teens).

Trust

"Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for me?"

Jeremiah 33:27

It sure is easy to have trust in someone or something when all is going well. Not so much when you can't see how something is going. Sometimes I have trouble allowing God to be the one in control. I want to take charge and make sure that all goes well and sometimes that is impossible.

This past March we launched "Night Out!" It has been so exciting to see God work in the lives of so many people; the children with special needs, the families, and the volunteers. People have stepped up to offer amazing things far beyond my wildest dreams. We have someone teaching art, someone preparing meals for EVERYONE!

Night Out! has also caught on with the families who have special needs kids. Our first Night Out! in March we had 4 kids with special needs (one of which was my child...), this month, we have 17 children with special needs signed up and more families interested.

So... where does the idea of "trust" come in? We need volunteers to be buddies!! At last count, we had 17 children with special needs (plus sibs) and 4 buddies!! YIKES!!! We have just a little over 24 hours to find more buddies!

I have really been struggling with this. I know that this is something Satan has been using... The little voice in my head says "see... your idea was stupid! no one wants to do this! Just be done." Sometimes it's hard to ignore. I get caught up in the lie and feel defeated and want to runaway. Then this morning, I met a mom who is new this month to our program. She was dropping off the family registration. She was so excited for this program. Her and her husband have been unable to go out to dinner for an evening for about 7 years because they can't find a sitter. They have a child with Autism and have been unable to find someone willing to watch their little boy for even a few hours.

So.. this IS an important endeavor. These families with special needs children ARE important to God... I have just got to trust that God WILL supply the needed workers.

Night Out! has Gone Electronic!

Parents and Volunteers and now sign up for Night Out! by going to www.yakimaec.com

Yakima Evangelical church now has a web-site. On the "events" tab, a parent can register for the next Night Out!, giving us a simple count of how many children will be attending. If a family is new to Mark 10:14 Ministries and Night Out!, they can go to the Mark 10:14 Ministries tab and fill out the family registration form right on-line. It is so easy and swift.

Volunteers, too can sign up for volunteering at each Night Out! using the "register for this event" tab under "EVENTS".

All this and Dinner, too!

"Now glory be to God! by his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinintely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen."

Ephesians 3:20-21

One of the main purposes (besides just being obedient to God) for doing Mark 10:14 Ministries and Night Out! was to be a blessing to families with special needs kids. I feel that with my insight of being a mom with a special needs child, I can "give" and minister to these families. My thought was, through this ministry, I could reach out and show God's mercy and love. NEVER once, did I think that it would be me who would be learning about God's grace and love through this ministry. But, over and over again, God has been showing me His love and kindness through the people who have graciously volunteered more than I could ever imagine.


We serve a snack during our Friday night "Night Out!" It's something that I think that we should do, but it's something that I leave to the last minute, so we have things like pretzels because that's quick and easy. I'm not much of an "organized - details" type person. I'm more of the "big picture" type. So, knowing that I want to serve a snack, and then actually getting it together, is a different story. But pretzels are good and they get the job done.


During the April's Night Out!, one of the volunteers had told me that she wanted to help me out with the snacks. I thought that was wonderful! It would be nice to have someone help out with this task. Today, after church, she approached me about the snack time for Night Out!. She said that she had really been praying about it and felt that a "snack" at 8:30 wasn't enough. She felt that with "Night Out!" starting at 6pm (and wanting the volunteers there at 5:30pm), we really needed to serve dinner and then a small snack around 8:30. So... SHE OFFERED TO MAKE THE DINNER AND THE SNACK!!! WOW!!! I reminded her of my budget for "Night Out!" (which is ZERO) and she simply explained to me that she felt that this was the direction God was leading her. That she could use her gifts and talents to bless the volunteers and kids by purchasing and preparing a meal for "Night Out!" God is so good!

I am very excited about telling families that dinner is now served! What a blessing this will be.

New Families and the News Crew, too

Last night was "Night Out!".

It caught us a bit off guard, because it has only been 3 weeks since out last "Night Out!". Last month, Good Friday fell on the 2nd Friday, so we pushed "Night Out!" to the 3rd Friday for April. Now we are back on schedule, the 2nd Friday of the month.

With the new brochures out and more and more "word of mouth", more families are hearing about "Night Out!". Last night we had four new families, which totalled 9 new kids! That was just awesome. We had a total of 16 kids last night (12 with special needs and 4 were sibs and volunteer's kids).

We were a bit low on volunteers last night. We didn't have enough to have one-on-one buddies for all the children, but it seemed to work okay because the fellowship hall, where we meet, is such a great room. We already have plans to be more aggressive in our push for volunteers next month.

One really exciting thing that happened last night was having KIMA- Action News come out to do a story on "Night Out!". The reporter said the story can be viewed on their website www.kimatv.com. It was a very short segment, but it did get the word out to more people, and that is what we wanted.

All in all, it was a wonderful night! God is so good! I am so glad that we have this opportunity to reach out to families with God's love.

Brochures...

The brochures are finally done and we have been handing them out for about a week now. Early this week, it was pointed out to me that my email address on the brochures was wrong. No wonder I wasn't getting any response!! Email address fixed and back to printing off brochures to hand out.

We decided to go with the color brochures because they looked so much sharper. The black and white ones just didn't look "professional". The problem with the color brochures is that we don't have a color copier at the church. To make the brochures (in color), we have to print them off the computer one by one. It is so time consuming and costly, too. But since the colored brochures look so much better than the black & white it's really the only way to go.

This morning I received an email from Children's Village, it said that they were out of brochures for "Night Out!" and wanted more... "50 would be a good amount..." Oh my goodness!! Making 50 brochures all at one time!! Yikes!

Time for a new plan! With brochure in hand, I went off to get quotes from different printing places. I was really going on faith since I have a budget of ZERO for brochures and promotions. I went to a few places and was getting quotes like $100 and $89.40. One place even offered a 10% discount. I was told that I could get a much better price if I was to go black & white. But if we went with black & white, I could do them myself.

I went to one more place and received the answer to my prayer! When the office manager took one look at the brochure and found out what we were doing for families with special needs kids, she said that she wanted to help out. She offered to do 150 brochures for us and she would pay the cost of printing!!! Thanks Sue!! Thank you God for answered prayer!!

How Do We Measure Success?

Last night was our second "NIGHT OUT!"

I have real mixed emotions on how the night went. People have asked me "How did it go?" " Was it a success??" I'm not sure... I guess it all depends on how we look at the word or the idea of success. I decided to look it up and found:

Success –1. the achievement of something planned or attempted. 2. Impressive achievement, especially the attainment if fame, wealth, or power 3. Something that turns out as planned or intended.

Okay... I'm still not sure! Was the night a success?

Last night, we had 16 volunteers (adults and teens) that came out to help with out NIGHT OUT! That was so wonderful to see, and many of the people who came were new this month. I count that as a success!

Besides Alex, we only had 2 other children with special needs. I lean towards seeing that as a failure. But is only having 2 kids a failure? Those 2 kids came had a WONDERFUL time. With the kids of the volunteer's, there was a total of 10 children for the evening. They played with the boxes, painted, played with the puppets and seemed to have a great time. The kids having a great, fun time, that was what we planned!... SUCCESS!!

The parents of these two children were able to get much needed respite. That was what we were attempting to do!.... SUCCESS!!

Okay then... the evening was basically a success.

I keep reminding myself that it's not just a numbers game...

Although we would love to have more kids than we can count, we need to remember the worth and importance of each and every one of these kids. If we are able to reach one family, love on one child, and gift one family with 3 hours of respite, that is huge!

We have three weeks until our next NIGHT OUT! I plan to be much more aggressive with getting the word out. Not to make the event more "successful", in that it is bigger, and more impressive, but more "successful" in that it is reaching and blessing more families.

It's More than Just Respite

Since the beginning of Mark 10:14 Ministries, I have been focusing on "Night Out!". There are probably many reasons for that...

• Night Out is FUN
• As an event, it's a tangible expression of love
• As a parent of a child with special needs, I know first hand how difficult it is to find respite

But this past Sunday, I was reminded as to why Mark 10:14 Ministries as started in the first place. Mark 10:14 Ministries was started so that families with special needs children could come to church and feel welcome. The goal is to see families dealing with special needs as a "normal" part of the church body, not a "special" one, that we don't know how to "deal with"...

This past Sunday was Easter. Easter Sunday is such a busy, busy day at church. There is so much excitement as we celebrate Christ's resurrection . Along with all the excitement comes visitors, and this Sunday we had many. One of the visitors that came with his family, was a 9 year old young man with Autism. Oh my goodness... we were not ready. I wanted to be ready... I wanted to greet this young man and his family with love and assurance that we had a place for him during Sunday school that he would be able to feel God's love. Instead, I'm afraid that I looked like a deer in headlights when I was approached regarding Sunday school for this young man. What I had been praying for... families with special needs kids to come to our church... was now actually happening and I froze.

Scrambling around, I decided I would be his buddy for Sunday school. What an blessing that was for me! As I sat next to this young man, I knew that he was very uncomfortable, but it was time for the Sunday school to start. The Bible lesson was so very important. It was Easter Sunday!! The teacher was talking about the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior! I wanted him to hear this. I wanted all the children in the class to hear. I tried to calm him down by rubbing his back... (Wrong!! that just made him more squirmy, so I stopped that) As the teacher talked about the nails that were pounded into Jesus' hand, my new little friend looked down at his own hands and said "owe!" With tears in my eyes, I took his chubby little hands in mine and made little circles with my finger in his palms. I whispered "owie is right... it did hurt! But Jesus died on the cross and rose again because He loves you" Quietly he looked at his hands and said in a hushed voice "Jesus loves me". Wow! That's what it's all about!

Even though the idea of Jesus' love did get across to him, the class situation was way too uncomfortable. The buddy system is a wonderful addition, but isn't always the best approach for all children. For this little guy, there was simply too much going on:

• He had never been to our church before, so that was new.
• The classroom was full of strangers (except for his brother)
• It was Easter Sunday, so everyone was a bit excited
• It was very uncomfortable sitting on those hard chairs

As we develop Mark 10:14 Ministries at our church, I hope that we are able to come up with a room that is set aside for children with special needs. It's not that I want to exclude these children and put them in a room by themselves, but sometimes the regular classroom can be too overwhelming. Having a "safe haven" that is more low-keyed and geared to the individual child's needs rather than teaching a lesson to the whole class is something I hope that we can have in the near future.

Less Than a Month Until the Next "Night Out!"

Twenty-four days to be exact.

We already have five kids registered for our April 17th "Night Out!" Word is getting out and there has been many inquires about "Night Out!".There are people asking how to get involved and how to register.

Yesterday at church, 3 couples approached me and said "count us in for helping April" Wow! This is so exciting!!

Planning Ahead...

Evaluation forms are back with positive remarks! The parents I have talked to had wonderful things to say about the evening. We really were a blessing to these families.


There are a few things that we need to tweak, but for the most part, things will remain the same. We are planning to have more children next month, so we will untilize more of the church.

God is so good!

Last night was our first ever "Night Out!" It was awesome!!

I am at a loss of words to describe the evening. It was totally, without a doubt, a "God thing"! The whole night was busy and fun. Huge smiles were on every one's face. Everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time. It felt so good to be a blessing to those families.

We had a total of 10 children for the evening. I thought that was great for our first time. Five of the ten had special needs. The other five were either siblings or children of the volunteers. It was fantastic. All the children played other and interacted with the teen and adult volunteers. All the children with special needs had a one-on-one buddy, so where ever the child went, the buddy was right there.

The main highlight of the evening for the kids were the boxes. Amy, our wonderful activities director, brought packing boxes of various sizes. What a hit! The kids loved them. They spent much of the evening building, knocking them down and rebuilding again, and again.

In the Arts and Crafts area, lead by Jamie, the children made beautiful pictures using shaving cream and tempera paint. Shaving cream was sprayed onto a large cookie sheet. The children then squished the shaving cream around in the tray. Paint was added and they continued squishing the paint and shaving cream around with their fingers until they came up with their masterpiece. They were beautiful!

In the middle of the evening, Cloa engaged all the children with her storytelling. All the children were mesmerized. After a quit time of stories, some of the children acted out stories of their own.

I am so very thankful for all the wonderful volunteers that came out for our very first event.





The whole experience was incredible! It was such a treat to watch everyone interact with each other.

One More Day!

I know that "Night Out!"must be a good idea, because today has been so difficult. I am starting to get a cold and am running out of energy. It is like Satan is sitting on my shoulder, whispering in my ear "Quit while your ahead". I can't listen to that!! It was God that put the ideas in my heart and my head, and it is God that I must listen to for direction.

There is so much that has to be done! I am really getting nervous. We have 4 children signed up so far. I have talked to a few more families, but haven't gotten a commitment. I hope that we have enough volunteers.

My prayer is that "Night Out!" and Mark 10:14 Ministries will be a blessing... I pray that it will be a blessing to the children, the families and somehow even be a blessing to the volunteers.

Two Days and Counting!...

Sounds like a trend.

So far, we have 3 kids with special needs for "Night Out!" this coming Friday. There are still a few moms who haven't gotten back to me yet, so I am still waiting.

This afternoon will be filled with making lists and checking to make sure that we have all the necessary items to make this evening a good experience for everyone involved.

Three Days and Counting!

Oh my goodness... three days to the big event! I really never dreamed that 8 months ago when I began telling people of my the desires of my heart, that they would actually come to fruition. God is so good!

The big event? Our very first "Night Out!"

I feel like I should have started this blog months ago, but I didn't... so I will start where I am and explain as I go.

"Night Out!" is for families who have a child with disabilities or any special need. One night a month (usually the 2nd Friday) parents can bring their child with special needs (and siblings up to 12 years old) to the church for an evening of fun activities, crafts and snacks. The children with special needs will have a trained one-on-one buddy and the siblings will be in groups of 4 - 6 with a team leader. While all this is happening, the parents have the option of going out on a "date" and doing whatever they want for approximately 3 hours (as long as they stay in town), or if they wish, they may stay on campus and be treated to coffee, dessert and fellowship with other adults. All this is free of charge! All we ask is that parents fill out a registration form and sign up one week in advance to the next "Night Out!", so that we have enough workers.

Well... Friday, March 13th marks our first "Night Out!". It is more of a trial-run. I am getting very nervous. There is so much that still needs to be done. I need to just keep going and not allow Satan to destroy all of this by planting doubt in my head.

This morning I have parents to contact... I am personally inviting 5 families for our first event. We are asking them to try out the evening and then fill out an evaluation form (which my wonderful husband is making for me... he is so good at things like that). Then... if we have enough positive remarks, we will open it up to the public next month.

My plan for this blog is to keep an account of this wonderful and exciting adventure. I feel so honored and blessed at God put all of this on my heart