The Family Table

Challenge 2026: Registration Deadline Approaching!

Challenge is a biennial youth conference hosted by our national denomination, the EFCA. Teens from around the country will gather to worship, learn, serve, and have a blast in Kansas City, MO this July 13-17. Registration is now open for all students grades 6 and up, including seniors. The registration deadline is quickly approaching! Talk to Cody or Holly Crumrine if interested. The registration deadline has been extended to March 22nd! Register via this link.

 

Little Letters- a Newsletter from Tiny Theologians

One of our favorite ministries is Tiny Theologians, as they create fantastic resources for families. We recommend you check out their website if you haven’t already. One of their resources is a free newsletter, Little Letters. This newsletter was born because Amy, the mom behind Tiny Theologians, wanted to share more encouragement with her audience. We think you might find her letters encouraging as well. Join their email list to receive Little Letters and more straight to your inbox for free!

Egg Your Yard

Support our Challenge students! Friends and family of LEFC can wake up to their own personal egg hunt on Easter morning for a suggested donation of $50 for 100 eggs or $75 for 150 eggs. Deliveries will be made the evening of April 4th, rain or shine. Reservations and payment due March 28th. You can register online with this link or by filling out a registration form on the table in the church lobby.

LEFC Family Worship Spotify Playlist: New Link!

Did you know we have a Spotify playlist of the songs we sing in church on Sundays? This playlist was created as a resource for families to use in their homes, for personal worship time, in the car, and on the go. Due to recent staff changes in our office, the playlist now has a new link! Check it out here.

WinterCON

Praise God for the seven students from LEFC and the West Branch area who attended WinterCON this weekend in the Poconos with the EFCA Allegheny District! Continue to pray for these students as they apply what they have learned and take steps closer to Jesus. The date for next year’s conference has already been announced, March 5-7, 2027. Keep that date in mind if your child will be in grades 6-12 next year.

Egg Hunt at the Ark Park 2026

This year’s Egg Hunt at the Ark Park is Saturday, April 4th at 10:00am! We are currently accepting donations of candy for the eggs along with prizes. We also have a sign up sheet to volunteer during the hunt. Consider ways that you might be able to help welcome the community to our church campus to hear the Good News of Easter and enjoy a fun morning together. Drop any donations under the table in the foyer!

This Week’s Challenge: Egg Hunt Invitations

Our Egg Hunt at the Ark Park is just a few weeks away! We’re excited to offer the community and LEFC families a fun morning on our campus. But more than that, we’re excited about the kids, parents, and families who will hear the gospel, some for the first time. This week’s challenge is to personally invite a family you know to the hunt, especially someone who is not a follower of Jesus. This is a small step you can do to play a part in introducing them to the Savior! Flyers are available in the foyer for use, and a Facebook event is active.

“Jesus Was Dedicated” Kids Bible Class Devotional

You have free access to a family devotional based on the curriculum our kids are studying each week in KBC! It’s called “The Gospel Project at Home.” Today’s Bible Study is “Jesus Was Dedicated” (Volume 7: Unit 19: Session 2), and the devotional can be found at this link.

Visit the Family Ministries page on our website for information about how to access The Gospel Project at Home for the first time.

And for Dessert…

Our recommendation for family discipleship this week is a brand new children’s book that encourages  girls that–whatever they are like and whatever they like to do–they are special and needed.

In It’s Good to Be a Girl, mother-daughter authors Jen & Zoe Oshman along with illustrator Hsulynn Pang have teamed up to create a joyful celebration of girlhood in God’s good design which sweetly and strongly counters the current confusion about gender that plagues our culture.

Every page dances with goodness, potential, and love. The Oshmans beautifully bypass pigeon-holing stereotypes and focus on what the Bible centers on when it comes to womanhood, and the refrain sings it out:

“Let’s thank our God, rejoice and twirl,
Because it’s good to be a girl!”

The publishers describe It’s Good to be A Girl this way:

“This beautifully illustrated book celebrates that God made girls in his image and explores all the wonderful things he designed them to be and to do.

Girls aged 3-7 will learn that they are good and necessary, how God calls different women to do different things, and how trusting in Jesus is the key to help us love and serve others wherever we are.

Follow along as a little girl learns from her mother all about real women from the Bible and later history. Together they imagine lots of different ways in which we can reflect God’s character and help those around us today, whether that’s through being a mom or a missionary, a truck driver or a teacher!

Young girls will learn that they have been carefully designed by God and that whatever they do in life, they can reflect who God is by following Jesus.”

I (Pastor Matt) appreciated how the book’s creators showed how girls can grow to reflect the image of God as they follow Jesus in a multiplicity of ways by showing and telling the stories of Eve, Deborah, Esther, Mary and Martha, Fanny Crosby, Harriet Tubman, and many more real and diverse women.

– It’s Good to Be A Girl is available in the church library for check out.
– Learn more and download free extras at The Good Book Company

I hope it gets read many many many times!

May the Lord bless your kids (both boys and girls!) as they learn how God has gifted them for serving Him.

Jordyn Skacel, Director of Family Ministry
Matt Mitchell, Pastor