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Washcloth Bunnies: A Simple Silly Service Idea

April 6, 2020 Kimmy

These are kinda silly but that’s okay… hear me out. My sweet girls and I had a blast making these (and a few frustrating moments too) and we decided to give them to our homeless friends for Easter to let them know that we love them and are praying for them!

Here’s why… our homeless friends need a reason to smile and giggle too, especially in these really hard days! Think about it, we at least can quarantine our families in our comfortable safe home during this terrible outbreak. Our friends often times aren’t given that luxury and many are already suffering with terrible health, depression, and other things that will make them more susceptible to this terrible disease. It’s truly heartbreaking. It’s also taking a simple thing like a washcloth, which they often need, and hopefully meeting a small need and bringing a smile to their face, even if for just a minute. Easter can also be a really hard day for our homeless friends. Holidays are reminders of the broken relationships that all of them struggle with and loneliness is so visible on these days.

Washcloth bunnies are super simple to make and require just a couple items that you probably have on hand already. There are tons of Pinterest links on how to make them but the one over at Smart School House was my fave!

As you make them with your little one, take a minute and pray for the homeless in your community!! Pray that they will be wise and take the best precautions that they can. Pray for their health. Pray for wisdom and direction. Pray that they will experience God at work through this time.

If you’re local and looking for a place that you can give your incredible creations to, Refuge, is a ministry of First Baptist Spartanburg, and they are passing out biscuits and other needed items on Sunday morning (using social distancing and no contact). You can drop them off at FBS security desk or send me a message and I can work with you to figure out a great way to get them to Refuge.

This is a service project or mission moment that may not seem to be “deep” or meet a huge physical or spiritual need, but sometimes putting a smile on someone’s face and saying “you were prayed for and loved today” in a silly simple way is just as important! And sometimes our little ones will remember way more about creating washcloth bunnies and praying for our friends too… We even named a few of ours!

Be sure to snap a pic and tag us over on Instagram and let us see your fun little creations!

Blog, Mission Ideas

A Neighborhood PrayerWalk

March 30, 2020March 30, 2020 Kimmy

This is a hard and difficult season and now more than ever, we can lead our little ones to love Jesus and love others in the midst of this season.

One of those ways we can do that is to prayerwalk our neighborhoods, if you are able. Prayer walking is simply “walking with purpose”, focusing our prayers and being intentional as we walk and talk to the Father. Many of us still have limited freedom to get out and walk around our neighborhoods, so let’s do that with purpose and with safety in mind. Let’s pray for our neighbors, for their physical and spiritual health. Let’s pray for our cities, for small businesses, for homeless and elderly. Let’s make every use of our time and be intentional with our prayers to a Father who loves us deeply and is ever present. Let’s not miss out on chatting with God and hearing from Him during this season.

I’m so thankful for my friendship with Kayla over at Baby Devotions! She recently created a great toddler friendly printable with us and there is even aSpanish version! To download a complete copy of our Neighborhood Prayer Walk printable, click here.

How are you praying for your neighborhood during these days?

Is there a day this week that you can grab the little ones and head out and spend time praying together?

Blog

Prayer Meal Idea: Boston

March 6, 2020March 6, 2020 Kimmy

One of our favorite cities in the US is Boston. It’s such a beautiful city filled with kind people, rich history, and yummy food. But for us, it’s super special because it’s where we went on one of our first family mission trips and where I began to dream and pray about On Mission Moms. It was here in this city that I realized what a blessing and opportunity that serving with my little one could be and how she opened the doors to more conversations and friendships that I wouldn’t otherwise have had.

We went up to the Boston area in partnership with a really cool church plant, Encounter Church located in Dedham. Our purpose was to help this new church (at the time) love their city. We spent the first day picking up trash off of a field where the city would be hosting a town festival later that weekend. As the morning progressed, my sweet 15 month old grew weary of “picking” up trash and so we headed to the little playground at the edge of the field to play. It was there that we met a sweet grandmother who I was able to befriend and invite to church the following Sunday. If my sweet girl had not been with us, we wouldn’t have had any reason to be at the playground and possibly wouldn’t have met that sweet grandmother. Isn’t it neat that God uses our little ones too!

As we get close to St. Patrick’s Day, I often think about Boston and so I decided to spend some time praying for our friends at Encounter Church, who are thriving nearly 5 years later! (How do I have a six year old now?!?!) We also want to pray for that city rich in beauty, history and knowledge to experience Jesus in a fresh powerful way. As we pray for this beautiful city and her people, we are looking forward to enjoying two yummy Boston staples: Clam Chowder and Boston Cream Pie. There are all kinds of food ideas as well as how to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day over on our Pinterest Page if you want to join along with us this month!

Boston Prayer Meal Idea:

Boston Clam Chowder in a Bread Bowl

Salad

Boston Cream Pie for dessert

Prayer Points:

Pray for Encounter Church and the work that they are doing in the Dedham area, a suburb of Boston. Pray for continued relationship building with their neighbors and for favor with the city.
Pray for the city of Boston and those who call her home. Pray that those far from God would be drawn to Him by His spirit and the testimony of our fellow brothers and sisters who love and serve Him.
Pray that as the city celebrates St. Patricks Day in the coming days, they will learn the real story of St. Patrick and his heart for many to know God. For a funny version of St. Patrick’s story, be sure to watch this Veggie Tales video with your kiddos!

Blog

Celebrating a New Year and a New Culture

January 22, 2020January 22, 2020 Kimmy

Up until about a year and a half ago, we never really celebrated Chinese New Year. Honestly, I didn’t really even know when it was or why it was different than when the rest of the world celebrated a new year. That was until I met our Chinese student that we have had the privilege of welcoming through a local program and partnership called Friendship Families. I’ve shared before how we have had the best time getting to know her and are so honored to get to be her “friendship family”. We’ve learned about a culture that is not our own. We’ve gotten to eat foods and I’ve learned to make foods that are a little different than what we were used to. Who gets to have dumplings at their Thanksgiving dinner?!? They were amazing by the way!! We’ve gotten to enjoy sweet surprises and gifts from her home and family. We’ve been way more blessed than I feel like we’ve blessed her. Isn’t that how God works!?

Our eyes and our hearts have been opened to love not only her, but her culture and her home. But it’s taken intentionality on our part. I’ll be honest, Chinese New Year was just another day on the calendar, but not anymore for our family. As we are gearing up to celebrate Chinese New Year with her in just a few short days (January 25th), we still have lots to learn about this day and this beautiful country and culture, and we are learning and loving in several ways:

1. By reading books together. We have loved the ones that we got from our local library! Books like Runaway Wok have made us giggle and also pause to see how they decorate, give gifts, dress, and so much more. A New Years Reunion has opened our eyes to what life is like for a working family in that country and how they celebrate the holiday. For a list of other great books to read together and learn about Chinese New Year, be sure to check out our Pinterest page.

2. By seeking out resources and ideas online. Sunny over at Spot of Sunshine has done an amazing job of sharing resources like books, crafts and activities, traditions, and recipes from a personal perspective. Also Kayla over at Baby Devotions has been sharing great ideas each Wednesday with #worldlovewednesday as the holiday draws near. If you’re not following those two ladies, you are missing out! Instagram and Pinterest are filled with so many fun filled ideas to do with our little ones to teach them about a different and new culture!

3. By Spending time with our student! There is no better teacher than a Chinese friend! Ask questions, listen, watch, invite them into your home, learn from them! If you don’t have a student you can learn from, there are other ways to learn! Stop by and order food from your local Chinese restaurant, chat with the waitresses, get to know them and become their friend. We have the world right here in our backyard and we have so much to learn not just about the Chinese culture but also about countries and cultures and peoples from all around the world. You’ll be better for it, I promise!

The more we expose our little ones to other cultures and countries and people, the more it becomes natural to them and to us to want to love and pray for those cultures and peoples. And it’s oh so fun to celebrate! Really, who doesn’t love getting some fresh dollar bills in a beautiful red envelope and enjoying yummy Chinese food!

What are ways that you and your little ones have been learning about a new culture or new country? Share your ideas so we can learn from one another!

Happy New Year to our sweet friends!

Blog, Mission Ideas

Christmas Card Fun

December 16, 2019December 16, 2019 Kimmy

I love checking the mail this time of year!! And I love seeing the sweet pics of friends near and far coming in! It’s always fun opening the cards with the girls and watching them rush to hang up the card on our board. At the end of the Christmas season, I just can’t make myself throw those sweet cards away though!!

A friend shared with me several years ago that she keeps the cards, puts them on a ring, puts the stack near their kitchen table and each week their family prays for a different family card!

This is brilliant for a couple reasons!

Your family or friend is prayed for! What’s more important than praying for our friends and family!?! You never know what they may be facing that week when you pick up their card! After you pray, text them or better yet write them a quick note to tell them that you prayed and see how God works!
Our little ones are focusing on others and learning what it means to pray for others! One thing I’ve been noticing when my girls pray, is that it often times centers around them and about what they want or need. So I’m always looking for ways to help them focus on others through prayer and that takes being intentional.

So what do you do with those super cute and fun Christmas cards? How can we be intentional with the families that we love and treasure and receive a Christmas card from each year.