11 Things you can do at Large Group Time

This post is co-authored by guest blogger Tiffany Kozsan. Tiffany serves as Sparks director at Sierra 
Bible Church in Reno. She is also part of the Northern California/Northern Nevada Ministry Team. Check out her kidmin blog at twofifteenbits.blogspot.com.

Large Group Time can be a challenge, especially if you’re like me and do most of them yourself. You
have to fill one-third of the Awana night each week with some combination of songs, activities, or stories
in a way that keeps the kids engaged, excited, and learning. The good news is that there are plenty of
ideas and resources available so you don’t have to plan each week from scratch. Here are 11 ideas to
add to your Large Group Time repertoire.

1. Teach a lesson written by Awana. Check the Awana catalogue for lessons specific to your age
range, along with Truthseeker lessons. (Tip: Plan for the lesson to be as many minutes long as
the age of the youngest child in your group. For example, 7-years-old equals 7 minutes.)

2. Host a Bible quiz competition.

3. Show YouTube videos.

4. Show Awana at Home Parent Kit videos.

5. Teach an object lesson. Check the Awana catalogue for general object lesson books. You can
also check out online resources, including kidmin blogs and Pinterest.

6. Play Bible story review games. (check Pinterest for some great ideas)

7. Review the Sparks Code or Truth & Training Questions.

8. Review the books of the Bible. There are many review songs or games to choose from, including
some from Awana.

9. Skype with a missionary that your church supports.

10. Hold a worship service. You can use worship CDs from Awana, online streaming services such
as YouTube, or a worship team.

11. Make announcements or pass out awards.

January 2016 Ministry Update

Hello Family and Friends,

I hope you all had a great Christmas with family celebrating the birth of our Savior. God has been keeping us busy. Here is what we've been doing.

• We had follow up meetings with Steve Denny from Children’s Heritage Foundation. As I reported in a previous update, Children’s Heritage Foundation has an orphanage and private school in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti.  Children’s Heritage Foundation has agreed to host a training for the leaders at this school on Feb 27th using the existing Haitian training team. I will go to Haiti and be part of this training team. Our goal for this training is two fold. One, to train the leaders at this school, but also to identify any indigenous pastors and leaders that we might partner with for future, larger scale trainings.
• As reported last quarter, I hosted a Native American intern from the Indian Bible College in Flagstaff, AZ. Freddy Toledo participated in a VBS at the Fort McDermitt Paiute Reservation in McDermitt, NV. I then went to McDermitt on Sunday, November 22nd and shared with the congregation how they can use Awana to reach the children on both the Paiute Reservation and the town of McDermitt with the gospel of Jesus Christ. As a result of the VBS, our meetings with the congregation and other outreaches, the Quinn River Baptist Church in McDermitt will start Awana this year. I will be training Quinn River on Jan 23rd.
• Awana has expanded our territory to include the entire state of NV, the Eastern Sierra of CA and Mohave County in Arizona. We have spent considerable time meeting with the pastors, Awana Commanders and other leaders of the clubs in Las Vegas. At one of our contacts with Canyon Ridge Christian Church in Las Vegas, I had the opportunity to share with them about the summer missions trip to Hawthorne with the teens of Summit Christian Church and other trips we’ve taken. As a result of this sharing, Canyon Ridge will be taking a group of middle school students to a mission trip to the Sho Low reservation in Arizona. They will be using Truthseekers to help start Awana clubs on the reservation. They also plan to take this same team to Nicaragua to do the same where they have pastor relationships.
• I had the opportunity to share with one of the elders at Washoe Valley Community Church how they might use Awana to reach the children of Washoe Valley with the love of Jesus. Please be praying for this church and the ministry there.
• I met with Pastor Ben Lin from Chinese Immanuel Church in Reno and shared with him how they can use Awana to disciple Chinese American children of Reno. According to Pastor Ben, there are approximately 10,000 Chinese American’s in Reno which provides tremendous opportunities for the gospel to move forward. Pastor Ben invited me to share with the entire congregation at Chinese Immanuel on Jan 17th and cast vision as to how God can use Awana at their church.
• I have spoken several times with Pastor Jim Copeland at White Mountain Bible Chapel in Benton, CA. Benton is a very small community approximately 30 miles north of Bishop, CA. I shared with pastor Jim how they can use Awana to reach the children in Benton and the Bishop Paiute Reservation. Pastor Jim has agreed to host an Awana club. We are pulling leaders together in Benton and will have a training for this club in Feb/ March 2016.
• I met with Pastor Tony Giff from City Baptist Church in Las Vegas, NV. City Baptist is a church plant and Pastor Tony is considering using Awana to reach the children, youth and families of North Las Vegas with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Please be praying for City Baptist.
• I met with Children’s Director Debbie Pagan from Iglesia de Dios. Iglesia is considering using Awana to reach out to the Hispanic Community of North Las Vegas.
• I periodically meet with pastors to encourage them in their ministry and to discuss aligning the mission of their church with the mission of Awana and find out how we can serve them better. This is a time I work as a “Children and Family Ministry Health Coach”. In this time period, I had approximately 12 pastor visits.

• I speak to the children and leaders at clubs to share with them what God is doing in our ministry so that they might gain a “heart for missions”.  This is also a time where I can encourage the Awana leaders in their ministry. In this time period, I made 14 club visits.
• I spent a week in Pigeon Forge, TN with other approximately 100 Awana Missionaries for the “North American Missions Conference”. Every 2 years, Awana hosts this event to cast vision for the field staff, for us to hear from the leaders at Awana Headquarters and to receive the latest updates related to our ministry.
• I spent a week during Thanksgiving and 2 weeks over Christmas to spend time with family. WHAT A BLESSING to spend uninterrupted time focusing on my wife and family...I feel very much recharged.

 

That's it for now. Thanks again for your prayers and your support as we continue to bring the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ to the children of Nevada, California and Arizona.

until all children of the world know the love of Jesus

Jeff & Judy Gilpin
US Missionaries/ Pacific Southwest
jeffg@awana.org
Cell 530-412-1632
awananv.org
facebook; facebook.com/jgilpinx2

* If you'd like to contribute to our efforts to reach the children of NV, CA and AZ with the gospel of Jesus Christ, you can send donations to:
Jeff Gilpin
P.O. Box 697
Truckee, CA. 96160

** All checks need to be made payable to "Awana" with a note on the memo of the check "Gilpin Acct 319", or you can donate online at awana.org/missionaries/gilpin

Using the summer break to set up your Awana club for success

Homestretch Handbook Time Help

Join Kelly Bullis and I for this 30 minute Google Hangout video workshop on how to help your clubbers finish their handbooks. Topics will include:

1. Why children should start memorizing scripture at a young age.
2. Teaching your clubbers how to work in their handbooks.
3. Connecting with your clubbers away from club.
4. The best way to organize the room to keep your clubbers attention
5. How to motivate your clubbers to finish.

Thoughts, tips and testimonies on how to reach more clubber parents and ...

March 2015 Ministry Update

Hello Everyone, Hope you’re all doing well. God has been keeping us extremely busy these last few months. Here is what we’ve been doing…

• I had the opportunity to go to the Dominican Republic with Awana area director David Bailey in January. Awana Caribbean trained 70 churches last September, so I spent 4 days in Santo Domingo at 4 different follow up trainings helping these Awana leaders fine tune their ministries. Love Serves International, a pastor training network,  from Santo Domingo has asked Awana to train 1,800 churches in their church network how to use Awana to reach the children in the DR with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I also spoke at a "4-14 Pastors Conference" in Santiago, DR sponsored by One Child Matters, an international child sponsorship ministry. 60 new clubs were trained a week later.

• I met with Jessica Ernster from the Children’s Cabinet in Reno, NV. The Children’s Cabinet is a community organization that provides services to children and families such as runaway and homeless youth services, substance abuse,  gang programming and youth work experience counseling.  We spoke of using the new Awana “Trek Essentials” Bible Study for the teens who come to the Children’s Cabinet. The Children’s Cabinet has agreed to let us start a Trek club on their site. We have recruited a church and leader to lead this ministry and will start sometime in May. Please be praying as we begin this ministry as the Children’s Cabinet has branches in Reno, Elko and Las Vegas. This could be a great partnership to reach the “At Risk” teens in these towns.

• I had the opportunity to meet with Pastors George and Susan Moniz from New Hope Community Church in Tonopah, NV. I then was invited to preach at New Hope on “The Importance of Children’s Ministry” and provide vision for the members of New Hope that God is indeed calling them to reach the children of Tonopah with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pastors George and Susan plan to start an Awana club later this year and have begun to recruit leaders to help them with their ministry. Please be praying that the Lord will raise up leaders in Tonopah.

• I made a visit on a Sunday morning to First Southern Baptist Church in Hawthorne, NV to meet Pastor Mike Fontaine. I arrived an hour early for the “Coffee and donut fellowship”. A woman from the congregation arrived shortly after I did and asked me “who are you”. When I told her I was an Awana missionary, she replied “I have been praying for you to come here”. Quite startled, I asked her to explain. She said that Hawthorne needs a children’s and youth revival. I asked her if I could bring a team of teenagers from Summit Christian Church in Sparks to help run a 3 day Awana club to provide vision for the community and give the church body at FSBC hope that God wants to use them to reach the children in their community. She replied “That’s what I’ve been praying for”. So I have begun to make plans with Commanders Dan and Karla Harker and Trek and Journey Directors Larry and Kathy Gibbs to bring their teenagers to Hawthorne to do the same kind of missions trip to Hawthorne that we have done in Gabbs and Herlong the last 2 summers, with the ultimate aim of starting an Awana club in the fall.

• I had the opportunity to go to San Francisco and meet with some of the staff at San Francisco City Impact. City Impact is an inner city ministry in the “Tenderloin” district of San Francisco.  City Impact ministers to the spiritual as well as physical needs of the residents of the Tenderloin through a church, a private school and a rescue mission. Their staff shared with us the tremendous challenges of ministry; dealing the extreme poverty and depravity of the Tenderloin. We spoke to them about partnering with us to use the new Awana “Truthseekers” program to reach the children of the Tenderloin with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  I mentioned to them about Pathfinders, another inner city ministry in Reno, NV and suggested they make a trip to Reno to give them a picture of how they can use Truthseekers to reach the children in the Tenderloin. They are sending 3 staff to Reno on April 17th. Please be in prayer for these meetings.

• I made a “Discovery” trip to Wells, Elko and Owhyee, NV and made some great contacts with the pastors in these towns. I’ll be following up with these pastors later this spring to see if there are common areas where we can partner together to reach the children in their towns.

• I have been working to develop a strategy to partner with the Hispanic churches in Nevada and California to reach more Hispanic children in our area. There are over 4 million Hispanic children in CA and NV; we currently are reaching about 4-5,000 of those children through Hispanic churches.  I have been traveling to meet with the pastors of existing Hispanic Awana clubs in CA and NV to listen, understand and connect with these pastors. We’re trying to share a vision that just as they use Awana to reach the children and families of their communities, they can use Awana to expand the influence of their church and reach the children and families of their region. They can do this by hosting a “4-14 Pastors Forum” and inviting the pastors in their region to hear about the importance of children’s ministry and how these churches can use Awana to share the gospel with the children and families in their own communities.  We’ll be building and strengthening these Hispanic pastor relationships, then asking them to host these forums sometime later this year, ultimately to train new Awana clubs at the end of 2015/ early 2016. Be praying for this ministry.

• I was blessed to travel to the Indian Bible College in Flagstaff, AZ to meet with the staff there and interview a potential Native American intern to serve in Northern Nevada this summer. There is a tremendous need to reach the Native American peoples with the gospel. We’d like to use this intern program to help us reach these Native Americans on the reservations of Nevada as well as raise up a generation of young Native American Christian leaders and help them reach their own people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m very excited about this opportunity!
   

That’s it for now. Thanks again for your prayers and your encouragement as we continue to chase God where He is working to reach the children of Nevada and California with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Awana Dominican Republic   New Hope Assembly of God Tonopah, NV Hiking with Ryan Spent an afternoon hiking with Ryan at Boca Reservoir in Truckee.

4-14 Pastors Forum in Santiago, DR What a blessing to share about the importance of children's ministry to the pastors in Santiago   First Southern Baptist Church  Hawthorne, NV. I've been told this was actually the first Southern Baptist church in all of Nevada Breakfast with Jack Breakfast with Jack in Winnemucca, NV. Blessed to have a great family!!

January 2015 Ministry Update

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with family celebrating the birth of our Savior.

I also wanted to say “Thank you” for your prayers and your support for our ministry in 2014. We had the opportunity to train 10 new Awana clubs in 2014, taking the total number of clubs using Awana in Northern Nevada to 25.

We are starting to gear up for 2015 and are excited to see where God will be taking us….

• I was in Wells, NV last weekend to present to Pastor Robin Stork and the Wells Baptist Church how they might use Awana to reach the children in Wells with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Wells is a very small town in Northeast Nevada on Hwy 80. Please be praying for this ministry.

• I will be heading to Tonopah the first week of February to meet with Pastor George and Susan Moniz at the New Hope Assembly in Tonopah to discuss using Awana in Tonopah.

• I have a meeting with the Children’s Cabinet in Reno, NV at the end of January to discuss using Awana to reach the “At Risk” teens in Reno with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Children’s Cabinet is a community organization that provides services to children and families such as runaway and homeless youth services, substance abuse and gang programming and youth work experience counseling.  Please be praying for these meetings.

• I will be going to the Dominican Republic from Jan 18-25. I’ll be working with Awana Caribbean Director David Bailey to help connect the churches in Nevada with the churches in the Dominican Republic through the AwanaGo and Awana Reach-a-child programs.  Awana trained 70 churches in the Dominican last September and I’ll have the opportunity to help with additional training as well as having the opportunity to speak with pastors in the Dominican who are considering using Awana about the value of children’s ministry at a “4-14 Conference”.  I’ll also be looking for opportunities to send short term missions teams from Nevada to the Caribbean through Youth Missions International (YMI). Be praying that God will use me for His purpose in the Caribbean.

• I also have connections with pastors in Ely, Jackpot, Paradise Valley, Hawthorne, McDermitt, Silverpeak, South Lake Tahoe, Incline Village, and Reno. I’ll be working in 2015 to meet with these pastors and others to share with them how they can use the ministry of Awana to reach the children and families in their communities.

That’s it for now. Thanks again for your prayers and support as we continue to bring the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ to the children, youth and families of Nevada and California.