Entermissions 2012

This past weekend was our church's annual missions conference. It's one of our favorite events. Extravagant food. Extravagant love. Extravagant giving... all for missions. All for the sake of the Gospel!

During the Friday night session, Chuck, Evan, and I taught the 4 & 5 year old class. We had a great time with the kids while their parents attended the Prayer for the Nations. Afterwards, their were classrooms set up to skype with some of our "Far Flung Families."

While these families are "far flung" they have "gatekeepers" who keep our Body informed of their prayer needs and updates.  Throughout the church lobby these gatekeepers set up display boards with photos, prayer requests, and items to represent the region they are serving in.

The worship center is transformed into a fun environment for our International Dinner and Auction for the Nations. This year the food tables were set up in a different building so it offered more seating space in the worship center. We were thankful for that since there are always a ton of folks there. I mean really, who would want to miss it?

Because it was too difficult to juggle plates with a camera, I never got a picture of the spread of international food... and you should be impressed that I tried some new things. I didn't say I "liked" them but I did attempt:)

The younger children enjoyed the kids tent which offered a variety of fun things for them to engage in while the eating/auctions were taking place... face painting, decorating African masks, writing letters or drawing pictures to be sent to far flung families (kids), etc.

The auctions proved to be as exciting as always! Lines of baskets and various items were on display for the silent auction and the live auction was comical and raised alot of money! Over $18,000 generously given!

Even the infamous sweater-vest, worn and preached in by our very own Larry Trotter was available for bidding:) LT is known for rockin' the sweater-vest!

In an effort to promote a spirit of generous giving within our children, we gave them a set amount of money to bid with during the auctions. The idea was for them to bid on things that they could give away or share with someone. Since Natalie loves to help bake, she bid on and won this...

She and I are going to bake cupcakes to share with families in our neighborhood.

I got this fun basket and will be sharing the contents with my friend, Claire!

Evan won 10 bowling passes to share, we won a birthday party package at Young's Gymnastics, and Noah bought 4 digital audio players to be used by missionaries in North Africa. These players are solar-powered and can hold up to 10 hours of messaging. The intent is that these would be used for Bible-storying. The missionary requesting these was Noah's group leader during Runner's Camp a few years ago... Noah was excited that he personally knew this missionary and wanted to help him out:)

The kids also helped pack 10,000 meals on Sunday for Stop Huger Now. We are so thankful for how North Wake Church leads us to think more deeply about missions and our part in The Story!