Do you know a young person who would be impacted by a Christ-centered magazine. If so, go to Real Magazine’s website and sign that kid up for a free subscription to the Real Magazine. It looks like a great tool to use to connect Tweens to Christ who you may know, but are not plugged into your church.

My wife and I are in the process of adopting a child from Bulgaria. The international adoption process is one that is typically lengthy and most definitely expensive. As we searched around for help with our adoption expenses, we came across a wonderful organization called Katelyn’s Fund. Katelyn’s Fund has been a great blessing to our family and I wanted to share it with you so you could pass along to any families in your ministry (or yourself) who may be going through the expensive adoption process.

Here’s a note from Sheila, one of Katelyn’s Fund’s co-founders, about their current work:

Our biggest goal is to help build His kingdom through touching the lives of His precious children who are many times left behind.  We know the financial aspect is huge for many families and count it a blessing that we can be a part of that journey. We see intervening in a spiritual sense a huge task that we do not take lightly. We also have monthly support meetings with speakers and family fun nights to let families know we are walking beside them and have had shared experiences. We are praying about other aspects of orphan care and what that looks like but now we are adhering to the mission of meeting the needs of families and children – financially, emotionally, and spiritually.

Through this, I’ve compiled a list of Adoption Grants/Scholarships and Adoption Loans. I hope these informal lists could be helpful to some families you know. If you’d like to see a little more about my family’s adoption, you can see all the incredible stuff my wife has written about at the Johnson Scoop Blog.

Adoption scholarship info

Adoption loans

Those of us in CM are really good at picking great worship DVD’s for our ministries. Sometimes, it’s just impossible to get a live person or band to lead in worship. But if you do have that person, you have a great opportunity to lead kids in deep worship. Mr. Dan has that passion and wants to equip others to lead creative worship for kids. Right now he only has 4 videos up on his You Tube Channel, but I hope he’ll do more. Here’s a sample:

I know this post won’t be helpful to everyone. If you like video editing, then check out Stock Footage for Free sponsored by Footage Firm. They have some nice loops, time lapse shots, and footage of a variety of settings. The loops are good for backgrounds to song lyrics. The other footage could be used in a variety of children’s ministry settings. Make a countdown with some of them that goes along with the theme you are teaching. Play the sunset scene while you read Job 38 to the kids. Loop a snow scene for an impromptu Christmas skit with kids on stage. Get creative!

For some good editing tips and tricks, check out the Childrens Ministry Tech blog.

Here’s the deal. Many of you have low budgets. Times are tough. You’d really like those three new dry erase boards for your elementary class rooms, but you feel like chalk will still have to do for now. Well, I suggest you let you parents, volunteers, and the congregation know what you need through WantsThis. This is essentially a “wish list” website that allows you to load online shopping finds into a sharable list. I think this could be a great tool for garnering resources from people in your ministry. Often people really feel good about buying “things” rather than just giving extra money. You can see some of great features here.

Rice Bowls is one of the most creative missions ideas I have seen in a long time. I have previously blogged about another (almost) free missions opportunity through Voice of the Martyrs called Prisoner Alert. You can also get free Action Packs from VOM, however, you have to pay the shipping fees.

Rice Bowls, is truly a “free” missions opportunity for your kids and families. Here’s the deal:

1. You request a certain number of “Rice Bowls.” They ship them to you free of charge. These rice bowls are plastic banks in which kids can deposit coins and bills.
2. You promote what you are doing by using promotional materials from their website and provide dates and guidelines for your people.
3. Collect the bowls full of currency.
4. Break them open using a creative means of your choice (we found hammers and “multi-tool” saws to be effective)!
5. Deposit all the money and send Rice Bowls a check.

We did this as our VBS missions emphasis this year and raised over $1700 for Rice Bowls. The kids really got into it!

I posted on this very helpful Bible study website before, when it was called The Greek Study Bible. However, it has changed names and is full of many improved features. I thought it definitely deserved a repost.

Great Treasures is a colossal effort by a guy named John Simon who has developed a healthy appetite for the Greek Language. Great Treasures, however is so much more than just a Greek tool. It features:

• Side by side translation comparisons
• Ability to place your own notes in connection with a particular text
• Word studies
• Concordance of user-selected words
• Accurate definitions of Greek biblical vocabulary (in English, of course!)

Is this a tool for kids? No. Is it a tool for those who teach kids? YES!

I firmly believe that in order to communicate God’s Word to kids we must go even deeper on our own than the general message we want kids to hear. This resource helps you do that. Let this be a tool to help change you spiritually so that your teachings and messages to kids will be an overflow of what God is doing in your life. Do not neglect this tool! It is incredible!!!!!