FrogSpot Kids

Hey kids,

Have you ever noticed that holding strong to your faith can sometime be difficult when you’re the only kid your age in your town or school who shares your faith? That was the reason why Uncle Steve came up with the idea of the Rural Adventist Youth Rally. The North Platte Seventh-day Adventist Church graciously offered it’s building as the facility for this event. Their pastor, Larry Milliken gave this report: Despite the rain and ice, we had an excellent youth rally here in the North Platte Church. Pastors Mike Larson from the McCook District and Steve Severance from the Valentine District and I combined our talents along with several lay people to give 18 or 19 young people ages 10 to 15 a spiritual high weekend. The theme was “Pathway to Greatness.” The rally included excellent devotional messages and challenges by Mike Larson, rousing singing led by Pastor Severance and Lonnie Oltmanns, the evening meal of pizza put together by the young people themselves, mixing games, a sleepover, and activities at the Recreation Center. When asked if they would like to do this again, one young person said, “Ya! next week.” One young lady accepted Christ for the first time and others made re-commitments to Him.”

Of course my favorite part was song service. But then that’s always my favorite! The kids wanted to sing so much that Uncle Steve finally just had to put me back on my stand and tell the kids they’d have to wait till the next worship time to sing more!

Sing-ya soon!

–Mr. Guiteeair (the guitar)

What do you get when you take 220 people, rousing music, bubblegum, and an inspiring talk and put it all in the high school auditorium on a Wednesday night? Why, the Valentine Area Youth Rally, “Meth: They Call It Ice”, of course! The Second Wind Band kicked the evening off in high gear with a rousing song service. Youth Pastor Mike Maroney then led some victims—oh, I mean volunteers— in an interesting bubblegum game. After some more music we heard, “Let me tell you what meth did to my family.” Immediately Dr. Mary Holley had the full attention of the youth. “Meth killed my brother!” She went on to explain how meth works and how it deceives you into thinking that you can control it while the whole time it’s enslaving you. She also emphasized Jesus’ power over addiction and appealed to kids to accept Him, instead of harmful substances, to fill the empty place in their lives, only Jesus can give you victory. As the talk drew to an end, 10% of the audience responded to her call to accept Jesus! 

All this happened on Wednesday, November 7, all the area churches were encouraged to combine their youth groups for this special presentation. We expected 100 people to come but had about 220 folks packed the house. Dr. Mary Holley is from MAMA (Mothers Against Methamphetamine). Thanks to all the churches that combined their youth groups for this groundbreaking event sponsored by the Valentine Area Ministerial Association! This event was coordinated by Pastors Steve Severance, Seventh-day Adventist with the help of pastors Bruce Beebout, Second Wind; and Mike Maroney, Assembly of God and the NCNCAPP board.

Here are some composite photos of this event:

From Kid’s Ministry

From Kid’s Ministry

We have a couple of great events planned for this fall and winter. Hope you can join one or more of them.

• October 3, 2007: LOGOS Parent meeting/Registration. 6:30 pm, at United Methodist Church in Valentine, NE. LOGOS is a interdenominational mid-week kid’s ministry for grades k-12. For more contact me or just come to the parent meeting.
• October 17, 2007, LOGOS begins. Times and locations vary by age so contact (Uncle) Pastor Steve to find out when and where you’re grade level is meeting.
• November 7, 2007: Valentine Area Youth Rally (for grades 6-12). 7:00 PM Valentine Rural High-school auditorium, Valentine, NE. The guest speaker will be Dr. Mary Holley of Mothers Against Meth (MAMA). Her talk is: “Crystal Meth: They Call It Ice”. She’ll be joined by the Second Wind Band.
• December 1-2, 2007: Rural Adventist Youth Rally, (ages 10-15) at the North Platte Seventh-day Adventist Church, North Platte, NE. Begins at 3:30 pm on Sabbath (Saturday) and lasts till 5:00 pm on Sunday. This will be an over-night-er at the church so bring a sleeping bag and change of clothes. Also bring $2.50 for admission to the indoor rec. center and pool.
• December 9, 2007 6:30 pm: 3rd annual Cookie Decorating (all ages of kids) at Uncle Steve and Heather’s house, Valentine, NE. We’ll decorate cookies for the residents of the Pineview Nursing Home. They will be delivered on the 11th during the monthly birthday party hosted by my home church in Valentine. This is always one of the Highlights of the Christmas season for our church and community kids. I know you’ll have a blast!
• December 19, 2007: LOGOS Christmas Program. At the United Methodist Church, 7:00 PM. This program is put together by the kids in LOGOS (grades k-12) for the parents and community members to enjoy. Normally the High-school kids do most of the program but this year my elementary kids have taken the leading parts. They are really excited! I know it will be great.
• December 13, 20, 2007: I’ll be preaching first person sermons, in a dramatic fashion during the regular 11:00 am and 3:00 pm worship hours at the Seventh-day Adventist churches in Valentine and Springview Respectively. On the 13th I will portray Joseph, Jesus’ Earthly Father (Title: The Answer). On the 20th I will be one of the wisemen (Title: Following the Star).

To find out more about any of these events or to get directions just contact us and ask!

I’m looking forward to seeing you!

–Uncle Steve

Story Time at Ark-La-Tex Campmeeting: From Kid’s Ministry

Ark-La-Tex Campmeeting was a blast! We traveled 1,000 miles one way from Valentine, Nebraska to Jefferson, TX to lead the junior division for a bunch of wonderful kids. We transformed the chapel of Jefferson Academy into a super secret science lab where “Dr. N” had the juniors help with his top secret project–the Simon LX 2007! Access to the lab was controlled with a high-tech system, created especially for this event, complete with real badges (available for free to churches here).

The kids formed research teams that found Bible answers to life questions through scientific experiments such as black light, codes, micro-print, presser sensitivity and, of course, the Simon LX 2007 machine.

Of course it was not all scientific research we also had great singing (a campmeeting must) memory verse games, a water fight to end all water fights and the ever popular story time!

Simon LX 2007 also transported a roman soldier (played by Dr. Dick Stenbakken) from the 1st century AD to our lab where he explained how his armor is like the armor of God. after successfully transporting him back we set to making our own roman armor made to scale from authentic patterns (we used poster board instead of metal though).

The kids really loved the program and we have been invited back next year (we haven’t accepted yet, we’ll see).
Here’s some picts!

Scientific Discovery at Ark-La-Tex Campmeeting: From Kid’s Ministry

More Story Time at Ark-La-Tex Campmeeting: From Kid’s Ministry

Memory Verse Learning at Ark-La-Tex Campmeeting: From Kid’s Ministry

T. J. Trying On a Roman Soldier Helmet at Ark-La-Tex Campmeeting: From Kid’s Ministry

Simon LX 2007 at Ark-La-Tex Campmeeting: From Kid’s Ministry

Simon LX 2007’s Control Panel at Ark-La-Tex Campmeeting: From Kid’s Ministry

First Hand Account of the Crucifixion Told by the Crucifying Centurionat Ark-La-Tex Campmeeting: From Kid’s Ministry

This year we expanded science camp to be a whole week! This meant that we had the opportunity to show the many kids from other denominations and the non-Christian ones how to really celebrate Sabbath. It took some thought to come up with a Sabbath appropriate program that all the kids, even the ones who had never experienced Sabbath before, would enjoy. But it worked really well.

Water fight at Science Camp From Kid’s Ministry

My theme for the whole week was the Ten Commandments. The kids loved “The Perfect Ten” our theme song! We talked about important things about all 10 commandments; such as guys not being rats and girls not being cheese (Commandment # 7), how Jesus said that hating your brother is like murdering (6th Commandment), and The Ignored Birthday Party (4th Commandment). Don’t let anyone tell you that kids and teens can’t personalize deep, challenging Biblical concepts. They did and loved it!

Of course there were awesome scientific activities and presentations throughout the week (I don’t know where they find all that top notch stuff!), a huge water fight, good food (the kids even liked it!), swimming in the lake, and just plain fun. This year we partnered with the Assembly of God Camp to expand the activities we could offer. They had someone offer to bring horses up for their camp but since their camp is right in the middle of town they didn’t have any place to house them so we offered our facility! We got to use their horses and go carts and they got to use our pastures, lake and barn!

Water fight at Science Camp From Kid’s Ministry

All in all it was a great week! The best part for me, though, came later when the mom of one of the kids told me that her son had been thinking about some of my talks and had been seeking to apply them into his life with God’s help. She said she could see a change in him. In children’s ministry you don’t always hear these kinds of results right away (even though they happen all the time) so its encouraging when you do!

Have a great summer!

–Uncle Steve

Uncle Steve about to be secretly ambushed during a water fight at Science Camp. Don’t worry, I got him back From Kid’s Ministry