Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.” – Psalm 127:3

The Children and Family Ministry has had a vibrant and impactful year, full of growth, learning, and community engagement. Our mission remains; families are the faith center of their home and we are here to help nurture the spiritual growth of children and families, equipping them to live out their faith in their daily lives. As I look back over this whole year, we couldn’t have had such a successful year without THIS congregation’s support, love and encouragement!  God truly has blessed this ministry.

Key Accomplishments
Children’s Programing:

• Nursery:  We are blessed with amazing nursery staff (Kelly Ellison, Ellie Jensen & Maggie Gatschet) who shares God’s love with our littlest ones.  They provide a loving and nurturing environment for our babies to grow and learn about Jesus during both worship services.  We have an average attendance of 3-7 children on a regular basis.
• Kids Klub:
  • I have the honor and privilege to work with 6 kid min leaders who help with writing curriculum, planning crafts, games, and snacks, help with check in and many many other responsibilities.
  • We have a total of 40 children registered for Kids Klub with an average attendance of 20, with our highest being 30 children.  We have had many new visitors and look forward to continuing to grow!
  • I have SO loved having our youth kids step up this year to lead, teach, and share their faith with our younger students.  The love they share is invaluable.
• Baptisms:  This year we had 4 infant baptisms and 1 adult baptism.
• Backpack Blessing: We handed out 80 tags to kids, admin staff, teachers, and daycare staff.
• First Communion: 5 students made their First Communion on Maundy Thursday followed by a cake reception.
• Family Christmas Program: We had 40 children participate in this year’s Christmas Program.  What a special service with our special guest Santa Claus!​​

Family Ministry Special Events:
Community Building Events

• Soup & Chili Challenge Plus!  This year we added dessert to our challenge.  We had 8 entries for each category! Our 4th/5th grade class helped with making and serving hot dogs and chips. Congratulations to Sue Gearica (soup winner) Rich Bothmann (chili winner) and Emily Baugh (dessert winner).  A great time was had by all!!
• Ash Wednesday Dinner. We had 85 people participate dinner.  We provided chicken dinner and our congregation supplied sides and desserts. 
• Serving Opportunity – Provided 3 opportunities to serve as a family of faith at Feed my Starving Children.

Community Outreach

• Easter Egg Hunt – We had 156 adults, 122 children and the Easter Bunny join us for our 4th annual Easter Egg Hunt on Easter Sunday.
• Post VBS Pool Party:  We partnered with Lord of Glory Lutheran Church (who we also partner with for VBS decorations) and rented Grayslake Aquatic Center for a late evening swim!  Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate and it was quite chilly, but kids surely don’t care!  We still had 75 people participate in an end of Summer bash!
• Trunk or Treat Fall Fest:  We had a beautiful day for our 2nd Trunk or Treat Fest.  We had 26 trunks participate in decorating their cars and handed out candy.  We offered hotdogs, chips, desserts, hot chocolate, hot cider, water, popcorn, campfire s’mores, craft, scavenger hunt and each family received a pumpkin to take home.  We had 691 people on our grounds along with the Gurnee Fire Department and Warren Township brought 2 trucks that the kids could take pictures and climb on.  God is so so good!  A very special congratulations to Cassie Slavik who won our people’s choice award.
• Donuts with Santa:  This year we took the chance to change our Meet Santa event from a weekday to a Saturday morning.  We had 108 adults and 118 children walk through our doors to meet Santa, have donuts, snacks and hot chocolate.  We had crafts, the choir sang Christmas carols, and had minute to win it games.  A special thank you to Todd Stickney for being Santa, and Gurnee Donuts for giving us a break on the donuts.

• Vacation Bible School (VBS):  This year’s theme was Scuba.  I just loved this theme.  It was so vibrant and this building was transformed into an underwater adventure.  
  • 20 people served as our leadership team.
  • In addition we had 38 adult volunteers, 30 youth, and 18 youth that were friends of our youth or came as participants, but do not attend Joy!
  • We had 130 children participate in this year’s VBS.  Over two-thirds were part of the surrounding area and this year’s VBS was free thanks to our church!
  • Had 165 people attend our Thursday evening Scuba Celebration.  We sang, had snacks, crafts and games.  A great time was had by all.
  • This years’ mission project was PADS.  Our goal was 500 items to be brought in to make baskets for transitional housing and $2,000, to purchase needed items for our PADS sights.  
  • We SURPASSED that goal with 850 non perishable items brought in and raised $3,000 to support our ministry partner.

Challenges and Lessons Learned

• Volunteer Recruitment: Difficulty in maintaining a steady pool of servants for Kids Klub and larger events.  I am super excited for the 2025 goal initiatives where we as a church will build our servant pool.
• Post-COVID Engagement: Attendance continues to fluctuate due to families very busy schedules. We continue to offer various opportunities to help engage families and have opportunities to grow their faith.
• Budget: We had challenges of keeping to our budget due to the huge number of people that attended our outreach events, and high costs of supplies and curriculum.

Facility Improvements

• A huge thank you to Maggie Gatschet for her help with designing and installing our beautiful, vibrant, welcoming hallways to Kids Klub.  I just love the magnet board!
• We invested in new equipment for classrooms for our Elementary students.  New tables and chairs were purchased for 2 of our classrooms.
• A special thank you to Jimmy Finkle for donating materials and painting one of our classrooms.

​This year has been a testament to God’s faithfulness and the commitment of our church family to minister to children and families. As we look to the future, we are excited to continue building a vibrant, welcoming ministry that reflects Christ’s love and equips the next generation to follow Him.

Our little ones bring so much joy and light into the world. Let us continue to nurture their hearts with love, guide their steps with care, and fill their days with laughter and learning. Every smile, every question, and every hug is a reminder of the incredible blessing children are to our lives.

Thank you to all who have supported the Children and Family Ministry this year.
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Your prayers, time, and resources make this work possible!
Cheryl O'Neill
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