Prayer Walk - Teaching our kids

Often when we come to church and our kids go one way and moms and dads go another. Seldom are we together to learn what it means to “shadow God and heal the world.” We believe kids learn best through example and know that parents are actually the most important influence in a kid’s spiritual life, so here is a great opportunity for you and your kids to be together.

Sunday, May 15 - 1-4 pm. You can come any time between these hours to walk. My family and I will be at Queens school at 1p to walk, if anyone wants to join us. Drop me a line if you plan to join me and my family at 1p. (lori.tate@westwinds.org )

What do you do on a prayer walk? Families are asked to come and prayer as you walk around the designated blocks. I would suggest as you walk, that you simply notice the neighborhood. You can say aloud for your kids to hear (not shouting!), “God, I pray that there is laughter and love in this home.” “Thank you God for a safe place to live,” “We pray for people who are sick or hurting, help them know that you love them God,” “God, please keep the kids safe in this neighborhood.” etc.

WHERE: Our “city block” is Morrell (south); West St. (east); Franklin (north); and Higby (west). You can walk around the perimeter “city block” as well as along the internal streets. You can park along the road or perhaps at Queens school/church. This walk will be approximately 15-25 minutes, depending upon how fast you walk! When you are done walking, you leave.

WHY:This prayer walk is a great way for a family to participate in helping “heal the world and shadow God.” Jesus cares about Jackson and our prayers make a difference.

WILL this be weird? No, only if you dress up weird and run down the street acting weird. There will be no large signs/banners or drums beating! If you act weird, I may not acknowledge that I know you! Just kidding!

Final QUESTIONS? contact me at lori.tate@westwinds.org. OR watch FB -
“westwinds kids journey” for more details.

Ganton Center

When I asked my elderly parents to watch the kids one day, I was hesistant to tell my 9-year-old the news. How many little kids like to hang out with old people, not a cool 40 or 50-year-old grandma but an old 80+ grandpa? Much to my surprise and joy, when I told Jeff he was going to spend the night at my mom and dad's, he immediately asked, "Can I tell Allie (his little sister) the good news?"

Going to the Ganton Care Center has made a difference in my kids' lives. Old people are individuals with whom they can have relationships. Grandma Ruth, Grandpa Vern and Mike, all of these people enjoy and look forward to seeing the kids. This is one small but impactful way kids can make a difference.

Allie posing with Grandma Doris, the winner of the Pretty Pretty Princess game.

The second Tuesday of each month wwKids visit the grandmas and grandpas at the Ganton Care Center. We play games, sometimes they play with us and sometimes they just enjoy watching the kids. Unfortunately our visit was canceled today due to illness at the center. We'll try again next month!

Little Kids with Big Hearts

The other day about 25-30 kids and parents got together to make t-shirts. These t-shirts are going to a Jamaican orphanage with our student journey team June 13. All this happened because a Westwinds’ 7 year old kid wanted to do something for the little kids in Jamaica.

This quick last minute Beyond 1000 outreach was a huge success. Not because we have beautiful shirts to send (some are kind of ugly, oh well) but because a little guy named Austin is learning that he can make a difference in his church and in the world. Little kids know that they don’t have to be grown up to serve God, they can do it right now!

Adoption Themes

Seven themes of adoption:
Loss Rejection Grief Race Control Identify Intimacy

Research shows that regardless of how old your child was when you adopted, these 7 themes will emerge at some time.

My friend Cindy (Dr. Cindy Koenigsknecht) shared different approaches of parenting adopted kids. The information was so helpful and insightful into my own parenting journey of Allie. Conversations that I need to initiate with Allie so she knows she can talk about her “China Momma.”

I left the meeting with several concrete ways I can be more aware of Allie’s “triggers.” I feel like I can better respond in ways that will touch some of her core needs. That’s pretty impressive, coming from an introverted processer that needs at least 2 hours to 5 days to sort through information!

For more info about parenting an adopted child, check out "Adoption Parenting: Creating a Toolbox, Building Connections"

Fifth Sunday

March has 5 Sundays. Some fifth Sundays the kids go into Fusion to experience worship with their parents. Sometimes we do special projects like making blankets for shut-ins or this time we
are making prayer beads and cards to be given to the grandma's and grandpa's in Jackson's nursing homes.

It is a great project for the kids! We talk about serving and giving to others.

We use parent participation on these weeks, so we need you!

Loving our Neighbor

Dear WWKids --
Thank you so much for your generous donation of blankets for the ladies at the Jackson Friendly Home.
We are so grateful for these acts of kindness from fine people like you. It makes our resident feel special and loved.
Sincerely,
Cindy Zimmerman

Our Stories

Our Story
For our kids engaging "God moments" look something like this:
it’s being kind to their friends at school;
it’s inviting a new kid to play on their team;
it’s helping a classmate who is struggling;
it’s encouraging a team mate on the soccer field;
it’s making blankets for grandmas;
it’s helping your school start a recycling program;
it’s complementing an opponent on a good shot;
it’s choosing to be kind to a brother or sister;
it’s giving their own money to lifestraws so other kids can have clean water;
it’s playing games with elderly folks;
it’s cleaning toys to give to other kids;
it's helping get food to kids who have nothing to eat;
it’s inviting a friend to church.

This is how our kids lives are being transformed as they participate in God’s Kingdom work!

Gleaners Food Bank - Detroit, Michigan

Did you know that one in eight Michigan families will need emergency food assistance this year? That means Westwinds probably has about 100 families that will need help. Maybe it is someone who sat next to you at Fusion, or maybe you are that person.

Gleaners Community Food Bank, located in Detroit distributes food for 392,000 meals every week to more than 430 partner agencies in six southeastern Michigan counties. On Saturday, January 31, over 30 WWKids and families traveled to participate in Gleaners’ Kids Helping Kids program. We put together 180 snack bags filled with “kid approved” food. These bags will find their way into local school systems, providing snacks to a whole lot of hungry kids.

At Westwinds our kids know that following Jesus is not just about an hour on Sunday mornings. They are learning that following Jesus is about loving and serving their neighbor, and that looks like playing games with the elderly at Ganton Care Center, cleaning toys for the Priceless Toy Store, making blankets for grandmas and helping pack snack bags for a classroom of kids!

We have AWESOME kids at Westwinds!
For more info about Gleaners check out www.gcfb.org

At WW on Cxmas Eve we took a special offering for lifestraws.com. Check out the video to find out more about it.

After a Fusion I was talking to one of our moms. She and her three kids have been attending WW for almost a year. It's been a very tough year for this mom and her kids, but they faithful show up and have gotten the kids involved.

When her little boy, age 6 or 7, heard about the special offering for the lifestraws, he wanted to give all his money- almost $100 - to help these other little kids who did not have clean drinking water!

What a BIG heart on a little guy. His mom was so proud of him and said that was the greatest gift she could have ever hoped for. In the midst of his own family challenges he is thinking about others.

. . . . our mission for WWKids to help our kids to daily respond to God's invitation to be part of their life.

Thanks

WWKids -

We here at Countryside Ganton Care Center want to thank you so much for coming and spending time with us. Our residents enjoy you coming! Thank you for being flexible; things can get a little hectic!! We appreciate the difference you make!

Many Blessings, Martha, Emily, Sandy, Joanne, Michelle &

all the grandmas and grandpas at Ganton

Our Kenya pen pals

WWKids - thank you so much for your recent donation to the Heshima Children's Center! We are just re-opening this month in a new slum call Ngando. Please pray as we try to locate the "hidden children" with disabilities. We want to honor them at Heshima! 

With your donation we've been able to 

    - paint our small 3 room center

    - hire a teacher

    - put curtains on the windows

     - buy kitchen supplies to feed the children!

Much love - Tracey Hagman

Caring for the World @ WW

Westwinds is seeing green in more ways than one. In May of 08 we ditched paper cups with plastic lids and cardboard sleeves for ceramic mugs, stopped purchasing plastic creamer containers and began having local businesses help with donations of organic fair-trade coffee. Because of these steps, we have seen some very exciting results.

We have halted nearly 8000 gallons of garbage from being dumped into
our landfill (about the size of one of those large fuel tankers you see going down the road).

We have saved over $1,500.00 in cups, lids, sleeves, coffee and creamers.

We are hearing many individual stories about how the steps we are
taking at the church are influencing people¹s recycling and conservation habits at home.

Moms, Dads and kids - How are you making a difference in caring for our world? Do you use both sides of your paper? Do you leave the water running while you brush your teeth or do you turn it off? Every little bit helps. Let us know what you're doing!