Being creative during author night event at New Hope Presbyterian Church.
Community Outreach
It’s always heartwarming to see a church extend an arm of love and friendship into the community. It’s even more so when directed at children. New Hope Presbyterian Church in China Grove, NC has been hosting a number of programs for children the past year to show the love of Christ in a tangible way.
This outreach program started last year as a result of inviting children to Vacation Bible School. Victoria Byers, daughter of Pastor James Byers began going door to door in the community inviting children to come. With the church providing transportation as needed, the Vacation Bible School had such a great turn out, it grew into much more. Now, every Wednesday night there are activities for the children to do with different themes such as being a star for the week, a pine car derby (ending with a race), ice cream night and the most recent, book night with local authors.
Joy Roy, a member of the church and friend of mine, invited Marty Hartman and I, as local authors, to share our books and give tips on writing. Marty’s children’s book, The Adventures of Wally the Wheelchair teaches children about being happy with who they were made to be. My books also teach life lessons such as listening to your mom in Tired of My Bath.
The night of the presentations the children were divided into four groups with each group going to a different station. Marty and I were two of the stations, while making book marks and choosing a free book were the other two stations.
The children seemed to enjoy the planned activities, with some of the older children even asking questions about writing and publishing. At the end of the event, everyone was treated to an ice cream sundae. Joy says in addition to the themes each week, any child having a birthday that month is also treated to a cupcake.
After the event I had a chance to talk to Marty. He said he was impressed with the diversity of the children for such a small town as China Grove and was quite happy he could make use of the four years of Spanish he took in high school. He thought it was great a church such as New Hope is providing a place for children to have fun and fellowship each week. Joy said during the school year the children even get help with their homework. Wouldn’t it be awesome if more churches were providing programs such as this?
Congratulations, New Hope Presbyterian Church! For your efforts in reaching out to families in your community, you are my favorite place of the week. To learn more about New Hope and their programs, check out their website.
Do you know of a church in your community that is making a difference? Leave a comment, message on Facebook or email dicysm@yahoo.com.
Thanks,
Dicy
