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.