A landmark day for kids and youth at St. Thomas

Wow. Rarely have I come home from church so exhausted, even after a ten-hour day. But it was a great day. 

As parishioners gathered for a 9:15 forum on Christian Life in Palestine, our childcare opened -- and it stayed open for nearly four hours. With Erica Flores joining Danielle Smoot, we now have two paid childcare providers and are able to offer childcare every week during the Sunday forum.

One thing that really made my day was seeing the Junior Choristers, Senior Choristers and Youth Ensemble in action. But here's the amazing thing: despite the fact that 18 kids were busy singing with the Choristers yesterday, we had above-average attendance in Sunday school at the same time!

As usual, we had a spirited group of acolytes -- coincidentally, this week, they were all middle school boys. Back in the sacristy before church, they held a countdown and watched the clock until it struck 10:10:10 a.m. on 10/10/10. 

On other weeks, our middle school Seekers have been busily writing questions and wonderings all over their church programs. We'll gather all our Seekers' weekly questions and go over them at our next get-together in November. But this week, it seems all our Seekers were busy as acolytes, singers, lectors, and instrumentalists. Everyone was so busy creating the liturgy that not a single question got written down! Actually, come to think of it, that's pretty neat.

After church the parishioners gathered in the Great Hall for the first "enrichment gathering," an informational session for the entire congregation about the plans for the new Life Center. We crammed 13 young kids into the childcare room while 16 kids in grades 3-5 met in the Choir Room for Kids' Club. (Why the Choir Room? Because there was so much going on, there was literally no other place they could go.) And some kids even opted to attend the enrichment gathering (along with older youth) instead of Kids' Club. 

The Kids' Club ate lunch and then disbursed funds. Remember the Vacation Bible Camp coin drive? After the kids had given over $500 to Episcopal Relief and Development's Gifts for Life program, another $284.50 came in. So now the kids got their chance to give that away, too.

The kids talked about the money they receive from chores, pet-sitting, grandparents, etc. What do we do with the money? Save it all? Spend it all? How about sharing some, saving some, and spending some? Since the kids will be major beneficiaries of the new Life Center (most of these kids will be in youth group by the time it is completed), I encouraged them to make their own pledge to the capital stewardship campaign.

Finally, we went outside and posed with our Treasure Garden, the garden the Vacation Bible Camp kids planted in July. Look at it now! Anybody want some vegetables?

I gathered with the high school youth in the afternoon to discuss the direction of the group and to brainstorm ideas for service projects and fellowship. On November 5-6, the parish will hold a 24-hour prayer vigil in support of the Life Center project. Our youth in grades 6-12 will be the anchors for that event, pulling a corporate all-nighter to keep the prayers going.

As the youth group dispersed at 6:00 p.m., Danielle and Erica were back to offer childcare again, this time for the Palestinian Women's Potluck and Panel Discussion. What a busy day, and a landmark week for kids and youth at St. Thomas! And I don't know about you, but I'm having a ball.