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Children’s CornerCome Join Us for Community VBS! http://egypt.group.com/LearnMore.aspx The Grove Community Church and St. Mary’s Anglican Church are partnering to bring Sunnyside a fun filled week of learning, playing and growing! August 3rd-6th from 5-8pm And, the best part. . . It’s FREE! Check out this video to get a hint of the fun we’ll be having! ________________________________________________________ Click the below link to check out a slideshow of The Grove kids! If link doesn’t work, cut and paste the below into your browser. http://s135.photobucket.com/albums/q152/Bergen561/Grove%20Kids%20in%20the%20Spring/?action=view¤t=c0977bf4.pbw ________________________________________________________ The below testimony was shared during the Sunrise Easter Service by our Children’s Pastor, Melissa Bergen. Check it out and keep your eye out for names of a few of our Grove kids!
A few months back I was asked to share my Cardboard testimony at the Grove (visit http://thegrovechurch.net/ and scroll down to see the video). At first I told Melissa Ens, the organizer of the event “No.” I had plenty of reasons why. . . Sunday mornings are busy, my work week was too busy. I just didn’t want to do it. Plus, I didn’t want to share my story, be vulnerable, be open with folks! But, I wasn’t at rest with my “No” to Melissa. A few days later, I called Melissa and said “I changed my mind.” The next few days, I couldn’t sleep, I was worried, fretting, I just couldn’t decide what to share. I really didn’t want to be vulnerable. Moments before writing out my cardboard testimony it came to me. . . 11 words that summed up what I had been dealing with all week. . . my cardboard testimony said “Vulnerability freaks me out and I just told you all that.” When I was asked to share my testimony this morning, I kept thinking about what I struggled thru the week before the cardboard testimonies. I didn’t want to experience that stress about sharing again! I didn’t want to struggle with being open with people. So, I started praying right away! I have heard many testimonies from my Grove family members over the past few months and have been so touched by them. . . if they could share their stories, be open and vulnerable about who they were and are now, then why can’t I? As I prayed and journaled about finding calmness and strength to share I heard “You live your testimony. Share why you do what you do. . . that’s who you are!” So, here’s a bit of my story. I grew up in a small town an hour and half south of Fresno. My family went to church two or three times a week. I attended Sunday School, small group gatherings, Wednesday night events, youth group, retreats, Christmas and Easter performances. . . we did them all. My social life beyond my family was my church family. Then, when I started college in the Fall of 2000, I decided to make choices that drew me away from God. I didn’t actively stay involved with my Christian peers. I built relationships with people who didn’t care about my faith, so I didn’t either. After growing up going to church 2 or 3 times a week, between 2000-2002, I probably attended church a dozen times. My family noticed a change in me. My language, my actions, my priorities,my values- were not at all what they had raised me to be. I remember being given an ultimatum by my parents, they forcibly, lovingly, prayerfully told me that I needed to either transfer to Fresno Pacific University, a Christian college, to finish my education and or be completely cut off from my parents help and I’d have to move out of their house. Though my Dad doesn’t seem to remember it this strongly- I sure do! I transferred to Fresno Pacific and I remember literally grimacing as I threw stuff into boxes and bags. I ignored my Dad the whole drive to campus on moving day. I was one Unhappy young woman. One of the first assignments I had to write that Fall was a paper on who I thought Jesus was. I still remember exactly what I said “Jesus is just a nice guy. Nothing more. Not a Savior, not a Messiah. Not my God.” After two years of separating myself from God, I was in a place where I was being forced to communicate who I thought God was for a grade, to pass a class! To pass this class, I actually had to think and write out and defend where I was spiritually. The professor didn’t mind if I wasn’t a Christian. I still had to do the reading and the assignments. I remember a few weeks into the semester, reading Philip Yancey’s “The Jesus I Never Knew” for the same class. It talked about believing everything about the Bible, or nothing at all. Yancey challenged me to really think about Truth. I was challenged to think about Jesus beyond the flannelgraph character I knew. I needed to decide if I wanted to embrace this new Jesus I was learning about- this Jesus who challenged politics, cultural and religious practice. I chose to commit my life to Christ. As a new Christian, claiming my faith as my own, how should I grow? I joined a Bible study called Community Bible Study with some folks from my home church. I remember sitting in a lecture time thinking “Wow, I really messed myself up. How am I going to fix what I broke with God?” As I started doing my homework, I kept coming across verses that I knew from all those Sundays spent in church. . .they felt familiar, like those childhood friends you don’t see for years and years and then when you see each other again, it’s like no time has passed. God felt familiar even though I had turned away. I know how important laying a foundation is! The foundation I had built growing up in church had brought me back to faith as I was in college! I see that we are laying a foundation with these Grove kids! We are doing what Proverbs 22:6 tells us to do. . . we are “training a child up in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it.” This is why the work I do at the Grove is so exciting for me. So, when I hear kids Kindergarten thru high school quote me the Bible verses they are memorizing, my heart fills up! Those verses will be a part of their lives as they grow up and are challenged by what the world throws at them! As I watch them build a foundation, I am challenged to grow as well! Their authenticity and vulnerability show me that I can be real and open too! A couple Sundays a go, I was teaching the 3rd-6th grade class and we were talking about the woman who was caught sinning and Jesus told the crowd “Whoever has no sin, cast the first stone.” We were talking about how the woman’s lies were damaging to those around her. Her sin affected more than just her. To bring it to the kids level, I said “Sometimes I lie to my Mom. I don’t always tell her the whole truth.” Well, Cody piped up “Well, then how do we know you’re not lying to us?” “Cody, you’re absolutely right! See how even a little lie to my Mom affects how you think of me?” Sure does make me think twice about what I say, knowing that kids are watching! I want to be worth watching. And, then there’s the conversation I was having at youth group with Chris. “I just earned $60 Melissa!” “Cool! So, after you give 10% to the church, what are you going to do with the other $54?” “What do you mean? I earned $60 and I am going to put $60 towards a new game.” “Well, Chris, God gave you that job and I know it’s difficult, and you want to keep the entire $60, but God asks us to give 10% of what we make back to the church.” On days I don’t feel like writing that check, or the months when I feel that money could be better used elsewhere- my conversation with Chris runs thru my head. 10% goes to God first. I want to be like that. Faithful to give. And, then, there’s precious Acesalley, she’s teaching me generosity! During her very first month attending the Grove, she faithfully brought in coins to support Team 58:12, a new team doing the Father’s work heading to T*rkey. She was asked to be generous and she responded with joy! I want to be like that! Or little Jordin, he was so excited to practice the handbell number before Christmas and his energy spread. On Christmas Eve, he brought half a dozen people to come watch him! Half a dozen people who don’t normally attend church showed up to see what Jordin was so excited about! I want to be like that. I saw the twinkle in Brandon’s eyes during Urban Mission Fresno last Fall. He loved learning, serving, sharing and growing. . . he couldn’t get enough of what God was doing that weekend! I want to be that real with others as I serve. I want to love what I am doing and have it be contagious! And, then there’s Ryan. He was hanging out in the Grove office the other day with his Mom and his siblings, and guess what he was doing? Studying his memory verses! He had a sheet of all the verses they’ve been working on in his Sunday School class and he was studying them. They had been tucked in his pocket for easy access. I NEED to be like that! Having verses ready at a moment’s notice, having God’s Word in my heart and pocket! My story started as a kid, just like the Grove kids. I was their age, soaking in all the Sunday school lessons and Bible verses. Having that foundation to come back to made all the difference for me. And, now, being a part of laying the spiritual foundation for the Grove kids thrills me to no end, especially as I am continually challenged by them!
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