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New Day Light™ Calendar Helps You Focus Your Family on God's Word

Hey leaders,

Do you find that it's suddenly the second week of November?! I'm amazed to realize that it's been three months since I wrote you about Billy Graham's regret and challenged us all to put discipling our own kids first...always first.

So how has it been going in that category? I know you all have invested hundreds of thousands of hours (cumulatively) in Awana ministries this fall -- and how we thank God for your commitment! How about things at home?

If life still seems a little too crazy-busy to seize opportunities at home, here's a simple idea to help you orient your daily family life around God and His Word. It's called the Day Light™ Calendar -- new from our Awana at Home™ resource line under the HomeBase ministry.

It's pretty simple:

1. Download the PDF file and print out the information page (page 1)
2. Print out the calendar page (either page 2, 3 OR 4) that features Bible verses in your preferred Scripture version: KJV, NIV or NKJV
3. Use the calendar for a daily suggestion or encouragement toward family spiritual life...which means, by the way, that you may have to do something. Let's be people of action at home as well as "out there"! 
4. Invest a few moments of family time each day memorizing the weekly verse together. The color coding will guide you toward what portions should be memorized by different age family members.
5. Choose to talk about the things of God with your family -- the calendar is simply a starting place for you.

Look for a new Day Light™ Calendar each month on the HomeBase page -- and let us know what you think!

Inside Info: We've been reviewing concept art for the revised T&T Book Four here in the past couple of weeks. Also, the audio production begins this week on the Sparks WingRunner™ handbook CD for next year. Exciting stuff!!

Bump Those Sparkies Up to "First Class"!

Hey leaders,

Great idea in from a leader in Texas.

When a Sparkie passes two sections, they get to go to a separate room -- the "first class section" -- and watch an In-flight Movie. How cool is that?

Got some great club tips? Share them, either by posted reply here or over on the Awana Forums.

Inside Info: Today we reviewed cover concepts for next year's Who Do I Need to Know from the Bible? large-group lesson book that will go along with the Sparks WingRunner™ handbook. (The lessons themselves are coming along nicely, too.)

Speaking of WingRunner™, you're not going to believe how great the art is looking for that book. I peeked over the illustrator's shoulder this morning.

Where's Sparky?!

No, Sparky has not vanished. Fear not!

"Where's Sparky?!" is a fun way for your Sparkies to connect with other Sparks clubs around the U.S., pray for them, and share news and prayer requests from your club. Check it out!

Also, we'd love to hear how you like the Sparks update. (Post a comment or send us a note: sparks(at)awana(dot)org) Many of you have reached out to us with encouraging compliments about the update -- thank you! A few have shared concerns that we've done our best to answer. In every case, we pray that God will use the update for His glory!

I do have to share one anecdote. A lady approached me at an Awana Ministry Conference this fall and told me that she never can work on her son's Sparks verses with him. Concerned, I asked why not.

Turns out he loves the handbook CD so much and listens to it so often that he already has verses memorized before she can get to them!!

What Do Sparkies Like in the Awana Store?

Thanks to reader Amy for the question about fresh ideas to put in her Sparks store. I posted the question, along with some initial product ideas, over at the Sparks Forum to give Amy's question maximum visibility with her peers out there in Sparks-land.

Amy, hopes this helps.

Mother's Tears and Father's Prayers

"The more of parental teaching the better; ministers and Sabbath school teachers were never meant to be substitutes for mother's tears and father's prayers."  -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Great quote for parents, right? But what does it mean for Awana leaders and other church-based ministry workers?

I know we'd all agree that we're not a substitute for parents. In fact, I think we'd all agree that the more parental participation we can have in our Awana ministries, the better!

But I hear from so many who say, "I just can't get the parents interested/involved/engaged." That's a hard place to be, no doubt. Probably the kind of place that we can only pray our way out of...

While prayer is the most powerful tool you have for connecting with parents, we are very excited about how the new HomeBase Director role might also help. Why a HomeBase director? We believe that the HomeBase ministry can and must be as important in your overall Awana ministry as is Sparks, or T&T, or any other program that has one or more directors.

We're piloting a great new training/equipping kit for the HomeBase Director, featuring lots of helpful information as well as digital and video resources to help you get HomeBase started. You won't find this kit in our catalog this year; you can only get it by signing up with us. (This is so we can interact with you regarding how the kit is or isn't helping you. Once you sign up, you'll be able to order the kit on your Awana account just like any other product.)

Pray today about starting HomeBase as a part of your church's Awana ministry. We would love to hear if/how our new kit helps you connect with parents in the critical task of discipling children.

Live Online Forum with Larry Fowler -- September 10

Interested in how churches and parents can more effectively train children and youth to know and follow Christ?

Of course you are -- you're an Awana leader!!

Larry Fowler, author of the new book Raising a Modern-Day Joseph, will be online to offer wisdom and ideas during a live online forum from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (Central Time) on Wednesday, September 10.

The forum will take place at the Modern-Day Joseph Connection Message Board. (If you haven't already, you will need to sign up free of charge to be a member of Awana Forums in order to submit questions to Larry.)

It's my privilege to interact with Larry in my role here at Awana HQ -- don't miss your chance to do so as well!!

Are You Headed for Billy Graham's Regret?

Billy Graham was once asked if he had any regrets. He responded that, among other things, he wished he had spent more time with his family. He didn't say he wished he could have held more crusades each year, or that he regretted not spending more time imparting spiritual counsel to world leaders.

He regretted not spending more time with his family. 

I have a question for you. Do you find yourself zooming at the light-speed of daily life toward Billy Graham's regret? Of course not intentionally ... one of Larry Fowler's main points in Raising a Modern-day Joseph is that the crises we find ourselves in within our families and churches are unintended crises.

But nonetheless do you find yourself there -- with a demanding work life and a packed personal calendar and too many meaningful church ministry opportunities that you are "just the person" to fill?

Need a Reason to Work in Awana Again This Year?

Hey leaders,

I took a summer break from blogging; did anyone notice?

Hopefully your summer break has been great! As another ministry year approaches, are you in search of a reason to work in Awana again?

Maybe not. Maybe you've been counting down the days until Awana starts since your Awards Night a couple of months back...praise the Lord! But if you are in need of some motivation, check out the recently released Awana Alumni Study.

Now if that doesn't light your fire, your wood's wet!

BTW, you may also find the study to be a helpful leader recruiting tool as you begin another year. For that matter, you may know people in other churches that would be encouraged by this and the rest of our Modern-day Joseph initiative.

At the end of the day, we all know that God does these amazing things in kids' lives. But how generous of Him to allow us a part in it!

Inside Info: Believe it or not, I've just been handed concept art for the cover of the Sparks WingRunner™ handbook for next year. In the meantime, I hope you're as excited about the new Sparks for this year as we are. (Incidentally, I heard last week that nearly 20,000 HangGlider™ handbooks have already been shipped to churches for use this fall. Our prayers go out with each one.)

Extreme Handbook Makover

Hey leaders,

Whether you serve in Truth & Training, have a child in T&T, sing in the choir next to a T&T leader, or just want to be an all-around informed Awana person...you need to know the scoop about the updated T&T Book Three!

• It will be available in the upcoming 2008-09 Awana Ministry Catalog.
• It will include all the same great content improvements introduced this year in Book One and Book Two: revised section requirements, parent pages, and much more.
• It will feature an entirely new look and feel: new layout style, new binding, and new character artwork. (See what we mean.) 
• "Hey, what's with the characters?" If you clicked the link above, you might have noticed that the T&T characters have "aged" a bit. In the same way that many of your 5th graders are beginning to hit those growth spurts, we've grown the T&T characters up a bit for Book Three and (next year) for Book Four.

So, you probably are on board with the content changes implemented in T&T this year. (We've heard very positive feedback on that across the board.) But you may be wondering, "Why the look-and-feel change?"

We want T&T for 5th graders to feel like they're "arrived" at a destination with this handbook, something different than what the younger T&T clubbers use. Hopefully this will serve as a motivation and retention tool for T&T clubs. Ultimately, we want to help T&T leaders and parents to challenge kids at this critical life stage that knowing, loving and serving Jesus Christ is THE ultimate adventure in life. 

Did You See The New Sparks Brochure?

Check your mailbox at the church! Ask the secretary! 

Awana mailed a brochure about the Sparks update to all churches recently. The brochure points you to lots of online information about the Sparks update as well as a downloadable handout for parents about the exciting improvements coming for Sparks. It's gonna be great!

When Clubbers Teach YOU

Hey leaders,

Last night at club we had a visitor and I was working through the Start Zone with him. As I was commenting that his age (9) was right in between the ages of two of my own children, he volunteered that his birthday was coming up on the 10th of the month.

So I did the standard leader line, "Hey, that's great, you're turning 10, got big plans?" kind of thing. It was at that point that the almost 10-year-old clubber said something that this late-30something leader had never heard:

Clubber: "Yeah, it's my golden birthday."

Me: (Huh?) "Your golden birthday? What do you mean?"

Clubber: "My golden birthday...I'm turning 10 on March 10th."

Me: "Oh, I get it. Interesting, I never heard of this golden birthday idea before. Well, that's too bad because I missed my golden birthday when I turned 25."

(At this point, the rest of the handbook group -- which obviously had tuned in to the conversation -- jumped me all at once.)

LIT: "You've never heard of that? You've seriously never heard of golden birthday?!"

Other clubber: "Everyone's heard of that!"

Visiting clubber: (obviously gaining confidence) "Yeah, everyone's heard of that!"

So, I learned something last night at club! Here's my question: what have you learned from your clubbers? Of course, you learn a lot about them and their lives, but I mean "general knowledge" kind of stuff that you had no idea of before the kid mentioned it to you.

Who knows...I'll probably learn some more new things from your comments.

Inside Info: February and March are killer months here at HQ as we are cranking on all the products you'll see in your catalog in June. Pray for us! Just this week:

• I've seen the layout of the updated T&T Book Three
• I've heard the review copy of the Sparks HangGlider™ handbook CD
• I've reviewed rough animation for the Sparks In-flight Movie DVD
• I've seen layouts on the Sparks Frequent Flyer extra-credit cards

Only 6,574...

“There are only 6,574 days between a child’s birth and their eighteenth birthday. Don’t waste a single one.”

HT: Compassion blog

Return of the Missing Menus

Hey leaders,

The new Awana web site looks great, doesn't it? Lots of work went into it, more than I could probably ever understand even if someone explained it to me. 

One brief impact of the new site design was the loss of menus on the Cubbies, Sparks and T&T resource pages that contained lots of reference information for leaders. We got a few e-mails in from folks asking "What happened?" and inquired with our hard-working web team.

They did their magic, and we are now pleased to report that the menus are back on the pages, now off to the right instead of up at the top. Let us know if you don't see something there you'd expect to see.

A couple of the items within those menus that we got specific inquiries about recently were labels for special-needs Sparkies' books and also a few resources we like to call "extra extra-credit materials."

Inside Info: Hey, each of your churches should've recently received a postcard about High Power Soccer sports ministry for your church in summer 2008. The card invited you to request a free catalog and promotional DVD. Let me tell you...I've seen the DVD and it gives you a great feel for High Power Soccer in "real life."

In fact, we've recently received a wonderful testimony about an entire family that was saved as the result of a church's use of High Power Soccer in its community.

A Brand New Day at Awana

Hey leaders,

Quick post to ask you ... what do you think of the new Awana look? What about the new branding approach? This has been in the works for awhile, and with it we are praying that we present ourselves more clearly than we ever have before.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Inside Info: January 25th was a big day for Awana. We launched our Project Joseph initiative at a special event at the Children's Pastors Conference in Orlando, Florida. Read more about Project Joseph, including a bold new advertising campaign and a brand new study of the long-term impact of Awana in the lives of our alumni.

Sugar in Club: Fun Tradition or Health Concern?

Hey leaders,

Received this message from Ruby, a recent visitor to RBGY:

In this day we talk about keeping our clubbers healthy and blessed. My suggestion is we need to give our clubber healthy snacks, not sugar. I understand that has been part of Awana for a long time, but through prayer I have asked the Lord to reveal to me what He wants me to do and that is to work with our Awana club to the best of my ability. I am a Sparks leader and sugar only makes our clubbers hyper. Please pray about this too as I have and let's make our clubbers heathy.

I agree with Ruby's basic point. Kids today consume so much sugar; it's no wonder childhood obesity is on the rise. We can do a little something about that when we choose healthier snacks.

So are you with Ruby and me on this one, or do you think we need to get a clue? Leave a comment and let us know!

Inside Info: Get published in the next Awana Ministry Catalog! Our 2008-09 edition will have testimonies from Awana leaders, helpers, parents and clubbers. Do you have a brief story about a favorite item from the catalog that has helped you and your church? E-mail your testimony to stories(at)awana(dot)org by January 28. Include your name, church name, location and your association with Awana (leader, parent, etc.).