The Family Table

Dear LEFC Families,

Fall is almost upon us, and soon the leaves will be changing, the evenings turning crisp, fall sports in full swing, and students settled into their school routines. It’s an exciting time of year! That holds true here at LEFC, too. Take a minute to pencil (or type!) all that we have coming up into your calendar!

LEFC Harvest Party: Save the Date!

Save the date now for an upcoming Harvest Party on October 25th. We’ll gather together to enjoy fall-themed activities together on a cozy autumn evening. You can look forward to some quality time with your own family and with other families here at LEFC!

See You at the Pole

Join West Branch’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes for a time of prayer at the school’s flagpole! Students will meet at 7:15am on Wednesday, September 24th. Parents, be sure your students are up and able to make it to the school on time to pray. We encourage you to come pray with your students for their school and classmates, as well. Adults are asked to park at Gethsemane, walk to the flagpole, and join the kids as they pray for their school.

LEFC Fall Retreat: Don’t Miss Out on a Great Weekend!

Our Fall Retreat is coming up in one month! Join us at Seven Mountains Scout Camp for the weekend of September 19th-21st. Last year, parents and families enjoyed quality time together in a beautiful wooded setting at the lodge. We’ll have faith-building teaching, delicious food, lots of fun and fellowship with games, puzzles, activities, and rich conversation, a campfire, and more! Your whole family is invited to attend, as there will be activities and breakouts for everyone. Housing is family-friendly for your convenience. The cost to attend is $50 for couples and families and $25 for an individual. Check out the video of last year’s retreat, and put it on your calendar! Register here to bring your family for a great weekend! Only available to come for part of the weekend? That’s fine, too! Just note on your registration when you’ll be arriving and/or departing.

Keep an Eye Out for Our Upcoming Events

Along with our upcoming Fall Retreat and Harvest Party, we wanted to let you know about some upcoming events we’re planning! November 15th, we’ll have a Friendsgiving themed Mom’s Night Out with a guest speaker. Then, join us on December 7th after church for a Christmas Party to kick off the Christmas season and celebrate the beginning of Advent. Both events are free! More information will be coming soon. Watch The Family Table, the bulletin, the Lanse Link, or Facebook for details.

Child Registration Forms

With the new school year upon us, we are updating our Child Registration Forms. These forms help us to care for your child well when under the supervision of our staff and volunteers and provide crucial information in case of an emergency. If you have not already filled this out, we ask that you do so and return it to Jordyn Skacel in a timely manner so that we have necessary information on file. We need one completed for each child who is participating in nursery through grade 6, and we ask that youth group participants submit one as well. If your child attended Family Bible Week, we do not need another one submitted. You can quickly fill it out  online, find it in your church mailbox, or ask Jordyn Skacel or Jenni English to get you a copy. Thank you for your help in this area!

“The Kingdom Divided” 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 “The Kingdom Divided” (Volume 5: Unit 13: Session 1), 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…

Have you ever felt stuck in a rut in your prayer time? Do you often say “I’ll be praying for you!” and forget to actually pray? Get distracted and lose your train of thought? The Bible tells us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thes 5:17), but many of us log far too few minutes in prayer. I (Jordyn) feel that way. There is so much I want to pray for, but it seems that I often forget what those things were, get sidetracked or distracted, or even don’t stop, slow down, and pray often enough throughout the day. Prayer is vital in our walk with the Lord, but we often let it slide as if it’s an optional idea, not the crucial mountain-moving discipline that it is.

That’s where a prayer app, like Echo, can help! Echo allows you to add prayer items to your list, whether it’s something you want to keep in there permanently, like your kids or your spouse, or something temporary, like an illness or your kid’s test coming up. Then, when you pray, the app will individually prompt you with each of these items so you don’t miss any and can focus on one at a time. You can add things like “confession”, “thanksgiving” or “adoration” to the list so that you’re not forgetting these important aspects of prayer as well, as I can be prone to doing. Don’t forget to pray for people in your life that you want to put their faith in Jesus, too. If you’re unfamiliar with talking to God as a regular habit or aren’t sure what to pray for, the app also provides prompts to help launch your prayer times.

Maybe the challenge for you (and me!) is that you just don’t stop and pray enough. Well, the app also lets you set prayer reminders to prompt you to pray throughout the day. You could consider setting reminders to pray for time-specific requests, like setting a reminder to pray for your athlete to be a light to their team during their practice, praying for your nervous child on your commute after daycare drop-off, or even praying for your spouse during an important work meeting.

Better yet, encourage your teen to download the app to their own phone to build a habit of prayer and help them brainstorm things they’d like to add to their list. It’s a great idea to ask your children how you can pray for them, too, and add those requests.

I love that apps like this are an always-accessible place to organize my prayer requests, whether short-term like a medical issue or permanent like my kids. My hope is that it would be a useful tool to spur you on to deeper communion with God as well. Download the app in the Apple app store or Google Play.

We hope our families eat it right up!

Jordyn Skacel, Director of Family Ministry
Matt Mitchell, Pastor