Community Happenings

Our last few weeks of time with our Kids With A Vision have been so fun in a really simple and peaceful way.  The kids show up every week with enthusiasm and excitement to play (and play hard they do), hear stories about Jesus and exercise their generosity muscles.  We have been collecting books for The Shalimar Learning Center and have a very large collection growing.  They will be so blessed by these books for their library!

[the kids listening to Mrs. Phebus's bible story - they are spell bound by her!]

Beautiful things are growing here in our neighborhood.  It seems that everywhere I look I see community sprouting up, and there is even fruit of it in our children's lives.  I recently had the wonderful opportunity to attend a luncheon benefitting a charity called Women of Vision.  Women of Vision is a partner of World Vision and they help sponsor our KWAV's group.  The keynote speaker was Father Gregory Boyle, author of Tattoos on The Heart.  His talk was about "Kinship" and he told the most beautiful stories about his journey living amongst gangsters in the inner city.  He is an amazing man.  One of the MANY morsels that I took with me as I left his presence was that we have these opportunities to walk along side of others and remind them that "They are exactly who God thought of when He created them."  He referenced the line in the well-known Christmas song, "Oh Holy Night" that says, "and the soul felt its worth."

I look around me in this neighborhood and see moment after moment of kinship - hands reaching out and taking hold of a soul in need of reminding of its worth.

Here are some glimpses of what I see ...

...Families rallying around families in our neighborhood who have experienced huge losses this year.  Meals are being prepared with love and families are being held up by loving arms that tenderly care.

...One of our 3rd graders at our neighborhood school was recently diagnosed with cancer and in anticipation of his chemo treatment and subsequent hair loss, his fellow 3rd grade buddies have rallied around him and shaved their heads in solidarity with him.

...The young daughter of one of our teachers at our neighborhood school has also been diagnosed with a brain tumor and the students at our school have rallied around Piper by forming the "Piperazzi" and are selling all sorts of merchandise.  Families are rallying around Piper's parents by contributing support and throwing carnivals.

...We got to visit The Isaiah House and help with dinner preparation for the gals staying at the house that night.  The Isaiah House is a home that has been converted into a shelter for women and children who are homeless.  It is a beautiful home in the heart of Santa Ana that is run by beautiful people.  The kids had so much fun helping out and were begging to be allowed to come back soon.  Such a gift.

...I am mindful of the many moms who show up each week to help us pull off this thing called KWAV's.  We have a mom who faithfully shows up every week and without a peep has the entire field set up for soccer games that the kids come sprinting towards after school.  We have moms that drop off snack and moms who help us set up and tear down our activity room.  We have a community that is rallying together to dream bigger for our kids.  We are dreaming of soft hearts, compassionate souls, kids that look to be bucket fillers, and hearts that follow Jesus.  

[our soccer field : the calm before the storm]

And the soul feels its worth.

And yet, we know this is just a drop in the bucket of possibilities as a community.  I think about how we get these little tastes of walking out life with intention and eyes to see others on the fringes and the intention to reach out and pull them near.  I think about what it looks like to slow down and know our neighbors so that we may enter into their highs and lows.  I think about how we can walk down our streets while whispering prayers of hope and blessing for our neighbors.  Our dreams for our children are really dreams for ourselves - that we may ourselves be bucket fillers.  That we may love our neighbors as we would want to be loved and be ready to share God's hopeful whisper: "You are exactly who I was thinking of when I thought of you."

Weekly Recap

Last week we kicked off our weekly KWAV's meetings with our annual Easter Egg Hunt. It was a blast! The kids got to participate in relay races, a fun time of music, hearing the Easter story and a massive egg hunt. At the end of the egg hunt, we had a giant basket out for the kids to donate some of their eggs to The Shalimar Learning Center. It is always fun to see how the kids exercise this option. Some of the kids gave all their eggs. Some gave a few. But, everyone gave.

This week we started off our time with a "Jump Over The River" competition. This has very quickly become a KWAV's favorite. The kids are wild about this game. I cannot believe how far these kids can jump. (Just in case you are wondering what this game looks like - it is so easy and so fun for the kids. You simply need two jump ropes or two ropes to use. You place the ropes parallel to each other about 2 feet apart and the kids all line up and one at a time will jump the "river" between the two ropes. After all the kids have gone you make the river wider by moving one of the ropes. The kids continue to jump and are eliminated when one of their feet touch any part of the rope. The last one to jump the river is the winner!)

We learned about a few parables that Jesus taught. The main focus was on the parable of the Talents, and we spent quite a bit of time talking about what it looks like to use our talents for good. It was really a treat to hear the kids identify what they know they are good at and how they can use that to be a blessing.

We also kicked off a new tradition in our time together. We have a giant jar called "The Blessing Jar". And, in this jar are many slips of paper with little missions to bless others in our community. Some examples:

Write your neighbors a note on their driveway with chalk telling them why you love them.

Bake a treat and deliver it to someone you know needs a boost.

Leave coins taped to the vending machine.

Make dinner for someone who could use it.

Sweep a neighbors porch.

You get the picture. This week the chosen mission is:

"Play with children who are younger than you. Encourage them!"

So, all our KWAV's kids have been sent out on this mission for the week. They are going to practice exercising generosity by being extra patient with the "littles" in their lives. These could be neighbors, younger siblings, or a child they meet at the park.

And, here's the twist - we are commissioning all the parents to act as spies - be on the look out for kids on a mission. Snap a photo if you can, and please share it with us!

We have gotten very fancy and set up a FACEBOOK Page to help make this super easy! You can simply share the photo of your child in action on our KWAV's Facebook page.

We have already spied our sweet first grade Megan lovingly playing with our KWAV's mascot and preschooler Ella for two hours while their older brothers were playing baseball. We love seeing love in action!

Important details for the upcoming months

We are excited to announce that after our Spring Break we will be moving back to an every week KWAV's meeting time.

We will have our 2nd Annual Easter Egg Hunt on Wednesday, April 4th! The kids had so much fun last year scouring the green belt and then they got to share some of their eggs in a basket that was donated to The Shalimar Learning Center. Save the date for our hunt this year and be sure to invite friends to join in the fun. We will be at the Phase 2 Clubhouse on April 4th from 1:30-2:40.

We will not meet on April 11th due to Spring Break.

From April 18th on we will be meeting weekly! We look forward to many fun weeks with these amazing kids.

Lastly, we have had lots of email inquiries from people all over the country asking about KWAV's and whether they can follow our format and do their own group.

Our answer: HECK YES!

Go for it.

We will be cheering you on. Feel free to borrow anything we have done, and tweak it for your own community. We have learned so much from this experience of living missionally with the kids and families in our neighborhood.

We have seen that God works through daily conversations in line at pick up and drop off. He works as we stand at the park. He works at swim meets. He works as we watch kids razor in front of our yard. He uses our front porches as chapels. He allows our messy lives to somehow declare the glory of the Lord and we are convinced that He often does His best work outside of the walls of church.

December Happenings

Happy December!

We wanted to give an update on the happenings for this month for our KWAV's kids.

We were planning on launching our first KWAV's family picnic this month, but we have multiple conflicts for that day so we are going to launch that in January and have some other fun stuff planned for this month:

• This Sunday our very own Donna Phebus will be walking in the "WALK FOR AIDS ORPHANS/WALK FOR CLEAN WATER" event here in the Port Streets. This is sponsored by World Vision and Women of Vision, and it is a really great family service opportunity. Grab your family and walk with these gals through the Port Streets in solidarity with orphans and people in need of clean water.

WALK FOR AIDS ORPHANS

WALK for CLEAN WATER

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4^TH

2:00 P.M.

PORT STREETS CLUBHOUSE

1900 Port Carlow Place

Newport Beach

Hosted by World Vision/Orange County Women of Vision

• Next Wednesday, December 7th, will be our monthly KWAV's meeting at the Phase 2 Clubhouse from 1:30 - 2:40. We are going to have a great time with the kids, and plan on spending some time practicing some Christmas Carols with them so that we can do a little neighborhood caroling!!!

• Mark your calendars for our FIRST ANNUAL KWAV's FAMILIES NEIGHBORHOOD CHRISTMAS CAROLING! Come in your warm and cozy clothes and bring a flashlight as we head out together and bless our neighborhood with some Christmas cheer. December 21st @ 6 PM. We will email the meet up location closer to the date! Feel free to invite other families along - it's definitely the more the merrier.

We look forward to seeing your kiddos on Wednesday!

Today's Recap

We are rescheduling our November Blessings Bags service project to December. Stay tuned for updates!

Upcoming Serve Opportunity: walk to support AIDS/orphans

On Sunday, December 4th, Orange County Women of Vision/World Vision are hosting a walk to support AIDS Orphans as well as clean water development in our World Vision sponsored projects in KENYA.

We will gather at the Port Streets (Newport Hills) Clubhouse at 2:00. We will be walking 6000 Steps for the 6000 Children orphaned every day by the still prevalent AIDS pandemic. We will be provided water as a reminder of the great need for access to clean, sustainable water resources there.

It will be a fundraiser as well for these projects. More information will be forthcoming.

We hope you can join us!

Welcome Back!

We hope that your Fall is off to a fantastic start as we all are getting back into our Fall routines.

We wanted to send out an update regarding our Kids With A Vision endeavors this year. We are really excited to dive back into life with you all!

Here is our plan for the year:

• We have decided to hold our KWAV's meeting with the kiddos once a month on the first Wednesday of every month. We will kick this off on November 2nd at 1:30 PM at the Phase 2 Clubhouse. We will meet the first Wednesday of each month at the Phase 2 Clubhouse from 1:30-2:40.

• We will send out an email sign up for parent volunteers in the upcoming weeks. But, save the dates! Kids in kinder - 3rd grade are welcome to join us and 4th - 6th graders are welcome to attend as Jr. Counselors!

• We have also planned a couple of KWAV's field trips for families to participate in!
• Sunday, November 6th @ 2:30 PM :: Help us assemble Blessing Bags for the Homeless | Andersen elementary lunch tables

This is a great opportunity to serve alongside your kids in a practical way. We will have all the supplies needed to assemble the blessing bags - Come with your kids and lets put blessing bags together.

Here is the time frame:

-2:30-3:30 - assemble blessing bags at Andersen picnic tables

-3:30 - 4:30 - load up in cars and caravan to The Santa Ana Civic Center where we can deliver them to people in need

-5 PM - meet at St Pepperoni's for pizza dinner with our KWAV's peeps!!!

*** We will also be collecting blankets and used jackets (all sizes) to hand out to the homeless.

We ask that you RSVP to this event and also that each family participating would donate $20 towards the blessings bags. (You can RSVP via email or leave a comment here letting us know you are coming)

• Thursday, December 15th :: "A Night in Bethlehem" at Liberty Baptist Church | 6-8 PM

This is a great opportunity to experience the nativity scene in real life! Your kids will be stoked.

• Family Dinner/Picnic at Bonita Canyon Sports Park - the first Saturday of every month : 3 PM until its too dark to play. :)

We thought it would be fun to start a tradition of eating together and playing alongside our kids. Come join us as we hang and enjoy dinner together. We will be at the sports park by the tennis courts. This is an open invitation to anyone who wants to join us. The more the merrier!

Please feel free to share KWAV's info with any new families you think may be interested in joining in.

As always, we will be updating this KWAV's blog with information, so continue to check it for updates and news.

We look forward to a great year of exploring how we can be a blessing in our community and beyond!