Is Independence Day a Civic or Religious Holiday?

Is July 4th (Independence Day) a civic holiday or is it a religious holiday? Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter are generally recognized as Christian holidays as they celebrate God’s goodness to our country, Jesus birth, death and resurrection respectively. But what about the 4th, a civic or religious holiday? I would argue that Independence Day is a religious holiday.

Why you ask? Many think of the 4th as a celebration of the adoption of the Declaration of the Independence and the birth our nation. That’s true, but not the whole story.  The key to understanding the birth of our nation is in the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence;

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The founders of our nation believed that our rights as people came from God, not from any man, monarchy or government, and as long as we held onto that truth; that our rights do come from God, then no man could take them away. After living under the tyrannical British monarchy, they understood first hand the sinful nature of man, so they deliberately wrote in our country’s founding document, that we are a free people not because our government says we’re free, but because God created us as free people and no one can take that away. Truly something to celebrate!

So this year as we all spend time with families, engage in July 4th activities, eat hot dogs and watch fireworks, remember...that you live in the only country in history that guarantees and celebrates your God given right to freedom...don’t ever forget.

Reviving Your Small Group Time!

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