Dearly Beloved

Dearly Beloved, 

A few weeks ago, my one-year-old daughter had a pretty bad fall. She tripped over someone else’s Amazon package in the hallway and hit her head on their metal doorframe in our apartment building. I remember being so upset because it just felt unnecessary. If that package hadn’t been there, she wouldn’t have hurt herself. I’m sure all the parents out there can relate to this; watching your child get hurt is the worst feeling ever! (She’s totally okay now, so no worries!).

As I was reflecting on this incident, I just couldn’t get my mind off the Amazon package. “If it hadn't been there, she would’ve been fine!” It was, of course, nobody’s fault; it was just unfortunate. Sometimes, it’s necessary to put things in place to keep people safe, and other times, it’s necessary to take things out of the picture in order to keep people safe.

At CPC Kids, we’re striving to make these three things our priorities: Safety, Worship and the Word with safety being number one! We’ve learned that if things aren’t safe, it’s really difficult to teach kids how to worship and teach them about the Bible. And that is something we are committed to doing: showing kids how to worship Jesus, opening the Bible with them, and learning about God.

You may or may not have noticed, but we’ve introduced some new safety procedures in our kids areas: parents are not allowed into the classrooms, but only screened and scheduled volunteers are allowed in the classrooms, and you must have the matching security tag to pick up your child. While these things may feel like a big change, it’s really just our heart to create a safe environment for the children we’ve been entrusted with on a Sunday morning. Having a safe space gives us the freedom to teach kids about worship and read the Bible with them without being distracted by all the “what ifs".

We want to keep your kids safe & keep our volunteers safe. Just like the Amazon package, we want to make sure that nothing “unnecessary” happens so that we can focus on partnering with you to disciple your kids.

If you’re new to our church family and you have precious little ones, we’d love for you to drop them off in our nursery, found downstairs in the red zone! The nursery is for ages 0-23 months, and it’s a fairly new addition to the classrooms in the basement. We’d love to meet you and your babies! Additionally, we have a purple zone for ages 2-3 and a blue zone for ages 4-5! We can’t wait to see you and your littles on Sunday!

I’d love to share a win with you all. Since January, we’ve been singing a song in our preschool classes called “Talk to Jesus". The song is all about teaching preschool-aged children how to pray. The main message is that YOU can talk to Jesus every day and at any time! The kids have memorized this song; they sing along every single week and are so engaged in worship. Lifting their hands and always singing loud to Jesus. I share this because it has been such an encouragement to my heart knowing that kids, even toddlers, have the ability to worship Jesus and learn that He is always there for them.

Easter is coming soon! And we’re hoping to create a safe, fun, and Jesus-focused space that kids want to invite their friends to. So my invitation to you is: would you partner with us in ensuring the safety of CPC kids? Would you partner with us in praying for our CPC kids? Our hope is to create a space where kids can easily be invited in and no parent has to worry about their child while they are in our care.

Pastor Abi Markham