Too Much White?

An Art Article by Susie

My fourteen year old friend Hannah contends that even though it is all white outside it must not be colorless, as white is all colors combined. Well, ask a scientist about that. But as far as I am concerned anything white makes a good background and a huge temptation for me to go get the paints. A plain white shirt? Let’s spatter paint! White dish towels? Find the tie dyes! Too much white snow? Get out the food coloring, make it into art! Too many white walls? We got the Adventure Club kids together with some oil crayons and bright water colors. Then Susie added some of her dyed goose feathers and voilá! The church sanctuary walls have some color and cheer!

Another project Adventure club kids did recently was clay/dough made from white flour and white salt. We rolled and cut out various shapes then baked them. The kids colored them with Sharpies. I LOVE Sharpies! We added a colorful ribbon and some dragon’s blood. (really!) Ask the kids about dragon’s blood.

But Adventure Club art projects just were not quite enough to satisfy my art hungry soul, thus Girls Art Club was created in February. This is a group of girls between the ages of 9 and 14, and any moms or other women who might like to join the fun. We are meeting once a month after church on Sunday. There may be a small fee charged per person doing the project to help cover costs of materials. If this group seems to fit your interests please join us! The next one will be meeting on May 5th. Please call or email me, Susie Newman, (see church directory) beforehand so I can be sure to have enough materials ready.

Fair warning: if you are seen in plain white around the church, watch out for Susie and those Sharpies!

Adventure Club Update

In 2007, Brooke Shannon and an array of energetic volunteers created an exciting new ministry at New Life Covenant called Adventure Club. Adventure Club is a children’s program that meets at the church on Wednesday evening, focused on kids age 4 through 6th grade.

The past Sunday at the Semi-Annual Meeting Brooke shared some of what’s happening in the Adventure Club this year.

The Mission of Adventure Club is to introduce, inspire, encourage and support the commitment, growth and further development of the children in our church and community to Jesus Christ. Essentially the goal is to be a positive spiritual influence for these young people in a loving, safe environment. Whereas schools and many organizations offer sports and other activities that young people can participate in, Adventure Club recognizes the importance of spiritual formation in the lives of our youth.

To date, the program this fall has been averaging 26 kids a week, and owes much to the 20 or so volunteers whose dedication makes the program possible.

At the end of her brief update Brooke shared how last week there was a special moment that showed how the Adventure Club was indeed helping to imprint Bible truths inside the kids' hearts. Her small group was gathered and it was time for them to do their memory verse. Before we began, one of the girls rattled off a verse. I said it was last week’s verse and she said, “It’s been stuck in my head all week.”

Even the crafts have been formative. The pictures here are from two projects. The one showing the man was originally a bunch of puzzle pieces. The children made designs, put their names on them and did creative things with them. Then the pieces were all assembled. The finished "puzzle" was a man made up of each of the children and adults who designed their own piece, showing how we are all "one body" in Christ.

If you know someone with children who want to be part of an exciting adventure, the Adventure Club meets on Wednesday nights for part of the fall and and again from January to April. Check the bulletin for details.