Relevant Daniel

So will our study of the life of Daniel be relevant to us today? Well, answer this — have you ever felt a tension between worldly success and christian faithfulness? Do secular academics and christian doctrine naturally conflict? Do you have difficulty reconciling “getting ahead” in a secular world with being a christian? All this and more in our study of Daniel!

Kickoff Sunday (August 30th)

This Sunday marks the beginning of the new sunday school year for all classes at Blacknall.  In order to facilitate/encourage people to try classes, all of the classes will meet at the beginning of the Sunday School hour (around 9:45 to 10:00, depending on when the early service ends) in the FELLOWSHIP HALL.  Each class will then give a brief two minute blurb about itself and then everyone, new and old, will disperse to the various classes. 

If you have been involved in our class before, I hope you will make a special effort to attend this Sunday and be ON TIME.  This is naturally when new folks try classes, and we want to give them a good idea of who we are and what our class is like.

Of final note, remember that when we recess from the fellowship hall we will be going to our new room for the year, the MUSIC ROOM, which is just up from the nursery.

See you Sunday!

August Schedule

First, thanks to everyone for supporting the parenting class and allowing other folks to “invade” over the summer.  I have heard nothing but positives about it and think it was a strong success.

 

We will take a short break as the “academic” year ends, meaning we will not have class the next two Sundays (August 16th and 23rd).  Then, on the 30th, we will kick off the “new” year.  Actually the 30th will be a kickoff for all the Sunday school classes, and we should prepare to have visitors and/or new attendees that day.  POTENTIAL VISITORS — this will be a great day to try the class!!  The Adult Ed committee is organizing a promotional event; more on that later.

 

While I have enjoyed having a class with a broader cross-section of the church, I am also excited about getting our “core” group back together where we can have lots of face time, discussion, and of course the weekly bagels!

 

See you soon,

Mark

Class camping

Ice-Cream Social Event

Hopefully you all have seen or heard about the ice-cream social that will be going on at church tomorrow night (Sunday night).  It was recommended that this event serve as our second July activity for our class.  I know that the Bartkovich family is planning to attend, so this gives us the opportunity to bid them farewell and good luck on this exciting next chapter – in addition to enjoying yummy ice-cream together.

Here are the event details and a link to the official church announcement.

When: Sunday, July 26, 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Who: you and your whole family
What: Old-Fashioned Ice Cream Social
Where: Blacknall Fellowship Hall
Why: For class and members to bond and to wish the Bartkoviches farewell

Other information to note:
We will make homemade ice cream together and then share in some super sundae building. Bring your favorite ice cream toppings to share in our fabulous sundae bar.  Prizes might be involved for the most creative topping, most popular topping, best family-created sundae, etc.  Ice cream ingredients will be provided, along with lots of napkins!  If you have an ice cream maker, electric or hand-crank, that we could use, please contact Beth Solie. (286-5586, bsolie@blacknall.org)

Podcasts and schedule

First, we WILL have class next week on July 5th.

As for podcasts — if you miss a class and would like to hear a podcast of it, please email me and I will send you the audio file. My email is mrcommodore yahoo dot com. We are trying to podcast each class.

Tips from Parenting Class

Here are some of the tips I remember from this morning — great class!  In no particular order:

1)  To preserve adult time, have a babysitting co-op where you and two or three other couples take turns dropping off your children with one of the couples so the others can have date nights.

2)  Similarly, if your kids are old enough, send them for sleepovers.  This is particularly good in that it allows for sleeping in late/recharge time.

3)  To teach empathy, take moments when your child is hurt and point out that you would hope they would never inflict that on someone else.

4)  Instead of just requiring one child to apologize to another, have them ask “are you OK/can I do anything” first, again as an empathy-building exercise.

5)  Have the child verbalize exactly why they are sorry for their behavior, as a way of making them “own” it — even if you have to provide the words.

6)  Model foregiveness and being sorry by asking for foregiveness of your spouse and of the child.

Other things people remember? Add to the comments section.

Kevin Update

As most everyone knows, Kevin is still in the hospital from his heart “episode” (not a heart attack, but I don’t know what else to call it), and lots of people are certainly interested in sending on their support/helping out in any way possible.  In order to make sure Kevin and the family are not overwhelmed, I believe all questions about visitation, etc should go through Amy Rowell as sort of a clearinghouse.

Also, I know that Cherie Wardle is coordinating meals for both those by Kevin’s side at the hospital as well as family that is in town and staying at the house.  I believe the needs and numbers for these meals varies by the day, so what might be very useful would be to send Cherie an email saying that you are willing to be “on call” to bring a meal to one of those two locations, on some short notice.  If you need Cherie’s email, you can look it up on www.blacknall.org/bold or you can email me.  — Mark Hayes

Taping Class

A request has been made to tape the parenting unit over the summer so that people can listen if they miss class.  I’ve heard at least one person express concern that this might cause a “cooling” effect on conversation.  What does everyone think?

Parenting Unit officially moved to Fellowship Hall

Sorry this took so long to nail down — the class will meet in the fellowship hall over the summer to accomodate what I’m sure will be large numbers for the parenting/child rearing class.  The fellowship hall, if you don’t know, is the large room by the kitchen.