TFT: The Sugar Creek Gang
July 19, 2026
Everyday Discipleship Cards
Tiny Theologians recently highlighted one of their resources for families to guide their discipleship conversations in their home. Everyday Discipleship Questions to Help Families Grow Together is a set of 100 cards designed to help families cultivate faith-filled conversations wherever they are! Each card features questions for meaningful engagement with God’s word. These cards can be used with children of any age, as each question is thoughtfully reworded for specific age ranges, allowing parents to contextualize the conversation for their unique family. These cards would be great to use around the dinner table, on the drive to school, or at bedtime. Pick up your set today!(opens in new tab)
Fall Retreat is Coming Soon!
Our fall retreat is coming up in just three months on October 16-18! We want you there! Next Sunday in church you will hear more about this great opportunity for your family to get away with the LEFC family and enjoy fellowship, teaching, and more. Registration will open on Sunday and an early bird discount will be available. Block off that weekend on your calendar to join us!
Family Bible Week Recap Video
Have you had a chance to see the Family Bible Week recap video? Check it out(opens in new tab)! Thank you to Joe Quick for helping us to preserve our shared memories!
Tiny Theologians: NEW Biblical Languages Workbook!
One of our favorite companies, Tiny Theologians, is launching a brand new workbook, Tiny Biblical Languages! According to Tiny Theologians, “this workbook invites kids to discover the beauty of God’s Word through the original languages of Scripture. With fun, hands on activities, children will explore Hebrew and Greek while learning how God faithfully preserved His Word for us today.” Your child can practice writing Greek and Hebrew letters and even learn how the Bible as written, translated, and preserved. What a fun opportunity!
This workbook launches tomorrow, and we think this could make a great resource for your child in the preteen or young teenage years. Check it out!(opens in new tab)
This Week’s Challenge: Iron Sharpens Iron
In this week’s Family Friday email(opens in new tab), Child Discipleship highlighted the importance of accountability. Referencing Proverbs 27:17, they encouraged readers to have accountability in their lives in areas that they could improve or are falling short of the Lord’s commands. We can teach our children a picture of the importance of this by giving them responsibilities and expecting (and encouraging!) them to follow through. As followers of Jesus, we are also held responsible for living a Christ-honoring life.
This week’s challenge is to examine your life and determine where you may be falling short. Is there an area of sin that you have not yet addressed? Has your Bible been collecting dust, unopened? Have you been struggling with obeying King Jesus in a certain area? After time in prayer and reflection identifying what it is that you might need encouragement and accountability working through, share with your kids (if appropriate) what that is. Ask them to hold you accountable, ask you how you’re doing, and encourage you. If not appropriate to address with your child, find a trusted friend or leader to share with and ask them to serve in that role instead. Ask your child as well what area they might need to work on (let them answer!) and commit to encouraging them as well. We are hopeful that great fruit might come from iron sharpening iron in your home!
“Jesus the Teacher” Kids Bible Class Devotional
(opens in new tab)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 “The Lord of the Sabbath” (Volume 8: Unit 23: Session 3, and the devotional can be found at this link.(opens in new tab)
Visit the Family Ministries page(opens in new tab) 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 classic set of stories for summer reading for the budding bookworm in your home.
(opens in new tab)Do you have a voracious reader who has graduated to chapter books and is always on the lookout for something good to gobble up? Make sure to check to the church library for hidden treasures that can be easily overlooked such as The Sugar Creek Gang series by Paul Hutchens.(opens in new tab)
In the very first story, The Swamp Robber(opens in new tab), the first chapter ends, “I never dreamed to many things could happen all in one day, or that before I’d get back home again Roy and I would have been scared almost to death, or that this was going to be the beginning of the most exciting week of my whole life.” With an opening like that, you can guess that it’s probably going to be great!
Hutchens wrote the 36 Sugar Creek Gang stories in the 1940’s and 1950’s.(opens in new tab) They chronicle the adventures of a group of boys with nicknames like “Little Jim,” “Poetry,” “Circus,” and “Dragonfly,” who are friends in rural Indiana. They spend a lot of time outdoors–fishing, swimming, and having fun. Along the way, the boys run into trouble, make decisions (some good, some bad), and learn important life lessons as followers of Jesus Christ.
In The Swamp Robber, the gang discovers a mysterious map and a strange disguise hidden in the woods, and by the end of the end of the story they encounter a robber and save the victim of a black widow spider bite. Every book is a page-turner in the tradition of “The Hardy Boys” and “Nancy Drew” but with a distinctly Christian message.
Over three million of these books have been sold, and they’ve been popular with several generations. Your young reader might be the next one to eat them up, especially if he’s a boy.
Maybe your kid isn’t much of a reader right now but loves to listen to a good yarn. You could read these books to them. Also, in the 1970’s Moody Radio produced audio-drama versions that are now available to download and play for free(opens in new tab), and there are a collection of video versions made in the early 2000’s, some of which are available on YouTube(opens in new tab).
We hope your family eats it right up!
Jordyn Skacel, Director of Family Ministry
Matt Mitchell, Pastor