by Becky Areekul

My journey with LBCSD nursery started when I was a junior in college. At that time I was a new member in the church, and I was looking for a ministry in order to serve and grow spiritually. With my very limited experience caring for young children I thought that joining the nursery ministry would be a great place to start learning this womanly trait. I realized that if I served in the nursery I would not only learn about children, but I would also have opportunities to build relationships with the moms at our church.

After the first few times of being scheduled in the nursery I was struck with great surprise. I didn’t realize how exhausting it was to spend two to three hours with 15 kids! For the first three months serving in nursery I remember going home immediately after Sunday School and passing out for at least two hours. Moreover, my initial perception that children are always perfectly cute and sweet was shattered by the reality of sin. To this day I see willfully sinful attitudes in the kids as they rebel against authority. This was the most humbling aspect of this ministry. Not only was I seeing rebellion and poor attitudes in these kids, but I also saw my own depravity in its most natural form. The only difference between my sin and their sin was my sophisticated tactics of hiding it or concealing it behind a mask of piety.

Serving in the nursery has provided me with a greater understanding of the weight of responsibility that we have to pass on the greatness of God to the next generation (Psalm 78:4). During my six years of service I’ve witnessed most of the kids grow and mature with godly teaching and discipline. By God’s grace I’ve been able to witness the fruits of godly parenting and the effects of raising children in the church body. I believe the greatest spiritual growth I gained through this ministry is learning how to love each child as individuals, to allow them to be the person God has created them to be, but also to temper that with teaching them about God and His righteousness. When I joined this ministry I sought to learn what it takes to love and care for children and to build relationships with the moms; I can now say with certainty that God has definitely grown me in these areas.

In addition to spiritual lessons I’ve also experienced many funny moments with the kids. Most of those times involve some kind of poo incident. The greatest lesson was learning that I should be absolutely certain that the child is finished with their pooing efforts before I attempt to change their diaper. My most memorable incident was trying to change one the young ones and not realizing they were not finished; as I was wiping them I had diarrhea squirt all over my smock and arm. Now when we have new nursery staff I try to teach them all the tricks and things to watch out for, especially when changing a poopy diaper.

As my service in the nursery at LBCSD is coming to an end (Ted and I will be moving to San Jose to join the church plant after our wedding), to our nursery staff I would encourage all of you to love the children as Christ loves the little ones. Ask God to reveal to you the significance of passing on the greatness of Him to the next generation and pray for wisdom to do it accurately. I would also encourage the staff to really get to know the moms that serve with us and also the parents who drop off their kids. We are so blessed to have many older, godly women in the church; use this time to practice the Titus 2 principle and learn as much as you can from these women. Lastly serve and love the kids as an act of worship to God! It’s been such a privilege to serve in the LBCSD nursery.

by Abram Kim

I pray everyone enjoyed the songs and the skit that the Sparklers (preschool) and Sonlight (elementary) ministry kids performed this Resurrection Sunday. Every year the kids have some kind of performance. Usually it’s a simple song with body worship. But this year, I was hoping to step up the standard for our Children’s Ministry so I suggested to the staff a skit that portrays the gospel message, particularly highlighting the cross and the resurrection. We agreed, and what was produced was what you saw Resurrection Sunday.

The staff and the children took the past several Sundays to practice for this performance. It was challenging to work with the kids on this, but it was also a great opportunity to talk with the kids about the content of what they were practicing for, the cross and the resurrection. We hope that all we do in the Children’s Ministry would be centered on the core and essential aspects of the gospel. This is the message they need to hear, understand, and we pray would believe (place their complete faith in).

Special acknowledgements: Thanks to Tim Paik for the screenplay and music. Thanks to Keith and Kristyn Getty for those wonderful songs of the cross and resurrection morning. Thanks to Emily Kuo, Stephanie McAdams, and Grace Yi for costumes and props. Thanks to the LBC sound team for their help during the performance. Thanks to the parents for allowing the Sonlight and Sparklers staff to work with their children. Thanks of course to the Sonlight and Sparklers children for their participation. Great job boys and girls!

by Abram Kim

We are more halfway through the school year, which means Sonlight is more than halfway through the year too. It has certainly been an exciting year so far, and we are looking forward to what God has in store for our ministry for the remainder of the year!

If you have wandered into the Sonlight room at some point this year, you may have wondered why the room is decorated with question marks, footprints, and fingerprints. We are not giving a tribute to the Joker or Sherlock Holmes. We have been trying to figure out the greatest mystery of all time. It involves the most famous Person at our church (we talk about Him like every week). It is the greatest story ever told, starting at the Fall and culminating at Calvary.

This year’s curriculum by Children Desiring God is called “In the Beginning… Jesus.” It has been a great blessing. If you have ever wondered how the cool stories of the Old Testament relate to the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, you would benefit from this year’s curriculum. Though you may not be able to join us, you should certainly ask the staff and children what they are learning each week! The big question we have been asking is: why did Jesus of Nazareth have to die on the cross?

We started where the Bible starts, in Genesis 1:1 with creation. We have worked through all the familiar yet fascinating stories in Genesis like Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, and the patriarchs. We talked about the miraculous showings of God’s power in Exodus through Deuteronomy, specifically about the salvation of a chosen nation over slavery, the requirement of blood to atone for sins, the institution of the Levitical priests, and the building of the Tabernacle. We have now discussed the book of Judges, seeing evermore clearly the cyclical pattern of Israel’s sin, God’s judgment, Israel’s repentance, and God’s grace in showing grace, relenting of His judgment and renewing His covenant. We will be wrapping up the OT in the coming weeks, talking about David’s kingdom, Solomon’s kingdom, and the warnings of the prophets. With the OT as our context then, we will use the remaining weeks of the curriculum to study Jesus in order to help us solve the mystery of why Jesus had to die.

In Sonlight, as in any other ministry at our church, the emphasis is on teaching, preaching, and modeling the gospel. There is no other message that can save eternal souls from the eternal wrath we all deserve. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the most important news we need to share week in and week out. As Sonlight staff, we want to be committed to continue to keep the gospel central in all we do, especially in what we teach. Therefore, the goal of Sonlight isn’t to to get a confession of faith from the children, but for them to love God more than anything else (cf. John 21:15-17). This starts with knowing and understanding the whole gospel message, of course; as with the adult ministries, teaching is always central. At the same time, we don’t want to assume faith upon people just because they assent to a set of facts and ideas. We want to see genuine fruit before confirming someone as a true believer. Jesus said that was a good test so we’ll follow His advice (see Matthew 13, among other similar passages).

Please pray for our staff! The church has entrusted us with some of the most precious souls at our church. We, the staff, take this responsibility extremely seriously, and we need all of your prayers to grow in our knowledge and ability to minister to the Sonlight kids. Pray for the kids that they would understand and personalize the messages of Scripture. Pray for the parents of these kids, as the primary care givers, as they rear these young ones in the fear of the Lord.

by Josh Liu

It’s been about four months since the start of Lighthouse Kids’ Club for the 2010-2011 academic year, and we are already halfway through the curriculum! For this term, we have the great joy and privilege of going through the attributes of God. So far, we’ve covered God’s holiness, eternality, creator-ship, sovereignty, kingship, provision, faithfulness, unchangingness, wisdom, goodness, and attentiveness.

It’s been humbling and encouraging to witness the increase in these kids’ cognitive and spiritual capacity to hear the Word of God. Still, many have not genuinely confessed Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. We will endeavor to continue sharing the gospel and the character of God every week.

To that end, the LKC staff has been joyfully serving every week. The LKC staff includes Chris Tang, Daniel Yee, Danny Kim, Peter Park, Jennifer Shih, Lily Han, Melody Yu, and Vicky Williams. As a physically young staff, we are all constantly challenged to develop a firm biblical philosophy of children’s ministry, and how to apply that in our unique context. For example, to continue teaching the Word of God, the kids are divided into small groups based on age. Each small group is made up of two to three kids and one or two staff leaders. It’s been an enormous blessing having many willing servants be small group leaders. This allows us to tailor our ministry to meet the specific needs of individuals.

If you’re curious, I would encourage you to ask the staff about how to lead a small group for children. I believe it takes wisdom and creativity to communicate the truth of God’s Word to a child, to challenge them with appropriate application, and effectively illustrate main points.

As we desire minister to the parents, we plan to begin emailing 1-page summary sheets (beginning February) detailing the lesson and small group discussion/activities to further support parents’ discipleship of their children. We hope in all this to create a caring environment that allows kids to have fun while being ministered to by the Word of God.

by Stephanie McAdams

I have had the privilege of helping the elementary children of Lighthouse participate in our annual LBC Christmas Concert for the past few years. If you have ever attended one of these concerts, you would have a hard time forgetting the youngest performers of the night. Arrayed in costumes appropriate for Luke 2:8-14 or matching scarves and jingle bell bracelets, all you may see are smiling faces and perfected hand motions (just kidding, we are thankful when they all just start and end together with no one falling off the stage!). If you are curious about what happens behind the scenes of our performances, read on!

As a Sonlight (Sunday children’s ministry) staff, we desire to use any opportunity to share God’s character and Word with these children, emphasizing Jesus Christ. Every Sunday, through messages, small group discussion times, side conversations, and even game times, we believe that the children can learn what it means to be a true Christian from what they see and hear. So planning, practicing, and performing for the concert is no different! If lengthening the Christmas Concert or seeing cute kids on stage for pure entertainment were the only reasons for the children to participate in the concert, I would hesitate to organize a performance. But every year, without fail, God has shown me that He can use this precious time to exalt and exult His precious Son and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Planning

As our annual Fall Festival (Halloween alternative) came to a close, I began to think of how the children could contribute to the Christmas Concert. In the past, we’ve acted biblical passages, sang songs with and without hand motions, made a video, you name it! This year, we decided to sing “Hope Has Come” by Sovereign Grace Music with hand motions. I spent some time listening to the song on repeat every day and reading the song lyrics whenever I had a moment here and there. I tried to think of hand motions that would help the kids focus on and remember the meaning of the lyrics. Ask my husband, and he’ll testify to hearing me sing and do the hand motions in the car, during dinner, while trying to go to sleep, etc…I’m sure it stuck in his head, too.

Practicing

We spent about four weeks preparing for our performance. With the help of all the staff, we devoted the last 30 minutes of each Sunday to teaching the song and hand motions through repetition. It’s truly amazing how quickly kids can pick up tunes, lyrics, and hand motions… might I say even twice as fast as us adults?! We tried to explain each line of the lyrics, explaining big words like “alleluia”, how “Christ” is synonymous with “hope”, and to also tell them how each hand motion helps us understand the words and message of the song better. My husband also taped me doing the hand motions to the song at our home, put it on Youtube (it’s not there anymore; sorry friends), and asked the parents to play it for their kids throughout the weeks to promote practice at home and hopefully discussion about the song lyrics within the families. As the performance day approached, some of the children expressed fear and other negative attitudes. This was a great opportunity to share with them multiple times that we are not performing to receive praise, glory, and attention from the audience. We want to help the audience focus on the lyrics of the song, praising Christ for coming to be our Lord and Savior!

Performing

For me, the actual performance is the least important aspect of it all. Of course I would love it if they projected their voices, got all the hand motions right, smiled with big eyes even though the bright lights were shining down on them, and caused everyone in the audience to clap along and chuckle at how cute they are… but I told them that even if they mess up really bad, it is completely okay because the most important thing is that they are thinking about the words they are singing and considering who Christ is and what He did for them. The dress rehearsal the night before the concert was (and has always been) a “controlled chaos” as the kids get to practice on stage for the first time with the homemade fleece scarves and jingle bell bracelets. But this helps the kids familiarize themselves with the stage and to not have stage fright! Then came the actual performance. With the help of the staff, we got the kids in costume, prayed for our performance, and quietly (well, as quietly as you can with over 20 jingle bells on wrists) walked on stage to perform. As usual, I squatted in front of them to help them with the hand motions in case they all forgot (who knows, it could happen). They did a great job! I couldn’t help but smile a lot as I watched them sing about Christ while praying in my heart that one day they would all come to submit their lives to Christ and truly worship Him. As soon as they finished, we went straight to our Sonlight room and had a birthday party for Jesus! One of the teachers explained why Jesus’ birthday is most important because though He is God, He chose to come down to earth as a man and die for our sins, but since He rose from the dead He still lives today!

In my opinion, the biggest challenge of this whole process is the fact that most of the children are not Christians. We do not want them to think they are just because they are singing and doing hand motions to a song about Christ. In reality, we hope that the opposite would happen- that as they listen to the song lyrics, they might consider God’s character, what sin is, how they each are slaves to sin, and why they would need hope – specifically, Christ. We also can’t force them to be joyful as they practice and perform because it must come from a heart that has been saved and loves Christ.

I’ll end with a memory following one of our Sunday practices that made me smile: After finishing practice, we let the kids just hang out and play some games while waiting for the parents. One of the kindergartners was just walking around the room, doing the hand motions and mouthing the lyrics as she observed some boys playing a ball game. This same girl later told me that she had been practicing the song in her shower. I prayed at that moment that she would one day be a true worshiper of Christ.

by Mike Hasegawa

This may sound a bit strange, but my service in the preschool ministry traces back to Rick Holland’s DTR series. “What!?” you might say. Well, read on.

Like many college students, it took me a while to stop “church hopping” and commit to a local church. For me, this was during my sophomore year at UCSD. At the time, I had been listening to Rick Holland’s dating series. These sermons were helpful in learning who God wanted me to be, and the kind of woman I should be looking for. But more than thinking I was ready to date, the Holy Spirit convicted me that I needed to develop relationships with older “Pauls” in the faith who would challenge me with the truth, and younger “Timothys” that I could encourage to better follow Christ.

At the time I was going to a church in El Cajon, but it was difficult to cultivate these discipleship relationships since I didn’t have a car. Given this newfound conviction, I began asking friends where they were going to church. One of them, Tia Han (former LBC member), had nothing but good things to say about Lighthouse so I decided to give it a try.

I was hooked after just one service. On that Sunday, before Pastor Patrick gave the offering prayer he said, “Here at Lighthouse, all the other parts of our worship service such as praise-time or meet-and-greet have a set time (e.g. 15 minutes). But the main part of our worship service is the preaching of God’s Word. So we don’t really have a time limit on that; we just let Pastor John go!”

On a side note, not much has changed since then.

Besides the solid preaching, the main reason I settled on Lighthouse was due to the opportunities I had to get to know the older, godly men at church. I am thankful that God gives both the desire to learn, and to serve Him by ministering to others.

The preschool ministry is the first ministry that God allowed me to be a part of. Although I still enjoy being challenged by the older men at church, I am thankful that God has allowed me to invest in the next generation by teaching them about our awesome God and His glorious gospel.

The preschool ministry exists for two main reasons. The first is that God has called parents and the church to pass on the greatness of God to the next generation (Ps. 78:4-7). The preschool staff seeks to accomplish this by making every lesson about the person of God, and the gospel. We are using the Children Desiring God curriculum which is great because it covers the entire OT and NT. The second is that the preschool ministry exists as a help to the preschool parents. By teaching from God’s Word, we seek to give the parents more opportunities to discuss God’s Word with their children during the week.

The preschool staff hopes to help the children develop a good foundational understanding of God, the gospel, and their sinfulness so that one day, God-willing, they will be able to turn to Him to be saved.

If you ever walk down the hall and hear screaming and laughter, please make sure to poke in your head and say, “Hi!” to these precious members of our church!

Editor’s Note: To find the (in)famous “Rick Holland’s DTR Series” (complete with commentary on “sturdy Czech women” which caused drama with my fiancee!), please click here and then type “relationship series” (without the quotes) into the search box.

by David Ahn

It seems the holidays come sooner every year, so don’t forget to be planning your costume for next year’s Fall Festival! On Sunday, October 31st, the Children’s Ministry hosted an event, but it definitely wasn’t just for the children. It ends up being a spectacle every year, where LBC-ers of all ages gather together for a memorable night of fellowship in the form of candy, games, and costumes.

The Fall Festival serves as an alternative to Halloween, selecting its best traditions, leaving out its more questionable aspects, and infusing genuine fellowship and an appreciation for the common bond that we share through the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of the first highlights of the evening are the decorations, where members of the church take time throughout the days leading up to the event to transform the church to fit a theme. In past years, the church has been transformed into Candyland, a Dr. Seuss-like world, and even intergalactic space. Behind the scenes of the decorations, the great effort and teamwork required to make these themes come alive always serves as an excellent service opportunity for church members. If you haven’t participated in the planning for Fall Festival in the past, I’d highly recommend joining in the future, as I consider it one of the hidden gems of service opportunities at our church.

On the night of the event, there are multiple booths and activities taking place throughout the church building. These stations typically include carnival-like activities (eg. Balloon Popping), video games (Nintendo Wii), and crafts/activities (eg. Face Painting). Meanwhile, there is a steady flow of delicious foods and snacks, and handfuls of candy are distributed as prizes for participating in the various booths.

Later in the evening is my personal favorite: the costume contest! The format changes from year to year, but there typically are costumes handed out from judges for a wide-ranging list of categories. In the past, the categories have included Best Individual, Best Duo, Best Group, and Best Under Budget. The judges also try to segregate the prizes by age range as well, to ensure that the adults and children have equal opportunity to win. In past years, the quality of costumes have been refreshingly high, so I would highly suggest coming dressed to impress. Many a newcomer has come out to Fall Festival to feel shamefully underdressed. Some guidelines for costumes, however: please keep the costumes appropriate (no scandalous, cross-dressing, or horrifying outfits). This leads to more creative costumes, less nightmares for the children, and less embarrassing photos being posted on Facebook.

Also, don’t forget that there is a new tradition that was started at this year’s Fall Festival. There was a pumpkin-carving (and mini-pumpkin decorating) contest, so break out your carving knives and your clever ideas for next year. Knowing the creativity and joyful execution that our church members have, I look forward to being as wowed in the years to come as I was this year.

by Abram Kim

LBC’s Sonlight Elementary Ministry is set to resume on October 3rd. The staff is excited and looking forward to a new year to teach the children of our church God’s holy truth. Children Desiring God has provided faithful curricula the past two years, so we will continue with them again this year. Our curriculum this year is called “In the Beginning…Jesus.” We will walk through the Bible to see how it is all about God’s plan from the beginning to save sinners through the death and resurrection of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We will see how God’s plan from the beginning had the cross in mind. We will learn how Adam, Abraham, Moses, the Levitical priesthood, King David, and others from the Old Testament point to the main character of the Bible (and all of history), the Lord Jesus Christ. At this stage in their development, we want to impress to the kids the reality of God, the truthfulness of Scripture, and the seriousness of our sinful state. We look forward to using the curriculum as a tool to teach the Bible and plant the seeds onto, we pray, good soil that will one day bear fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold, even a hundredfold.

As it was announced on Sunday, starting this fall Sonlight will be dismissed during first hour at the start of the “big” message. The additional Sunday School time will, we pray, provide greater opportunities to instill the lessons from the curriculum into the hearts and minds of the young ones in Sonlight. Each week our staff will prepare for an age-appropriate lesson based on the curriculum. Our time together for 1st and 2nd hours will also include singing songs, small group discussions, snacks, and an activity.

We are experiencing a lot of turnover this year in terms of our staff. Two left this past summer for the San Jose Church Plant (Cindy Chu and David Jung) and two have moved on for graduate school opportunities (Kristen Yee and Susan Kim). However, we are excited for all the new staff that will be joining us in the fall! Our new staff this year are: Catherine Lee, James Lim, Jane Liou, Josh Liu, Ryan McAdams, Tim Paik, Dennis Su, and Grace Yi. Our returning staff are: David Ahn, Abram Kim, Daniel (Diddy) Kim, Emily Kuo, Josh Lee, and Stephanie McAdams.

If you have any questions about Sonlight, please feel free to talk to me anytime.