Children's Newsletter - Winter 2024
Children's Ministry
Rachel Torrens
When the Children’s Ministry volunteers began planning in October, we did not know what form our Christmas program would take nor the circumstances that would soon challenge us. We gathered to share our ideas, and prayed. Each of us set to work with our various tasks: teaching poems, helping with music, and crafting a stage production. Slowly but clearly our theme emerged: Jesus was sent to a cradle to ultimately hang on a cross.
Many believers, not only children, see Jesus' birth as heaven's greatest gift to earth. However, Jesus' death and resurrection gives sinners help and forgiveness, and believers hope. These too are indescribable gifts: eternal life and union with God! We wanted our precious children to understand that while we celebrate and rejoice over the birth of Jesus during the Christmas season, we must also remember that Jesus came as an infant to grow into a man who would ultimately be crucified on the cross to forgive us our sins, and be raised to life to give us new and eternal life in Him.
As many in our Springton Lake congregation know, Joni Mindrebo, our dear sister-in-Christ and Children's Ministry director, fell ill at the outset of our Christmas program preparations. We labored happily to bring her vision to fruition. She desired for our SLPC children to see Christ's cradle and His cross as intertwined, and to grasp how both are necessary for God's beautiful redemption plan for all mankind.