Kids LAKE

Many of you have already heard about this or visited the site. .but, I thought I would share in more detail here! We've created a NEW website. It's
www.KidsLAKE.org

Kids LAKE: Kids Loving As Kingdom Examples was started after I heard and was inspired by some amazing kids at our church. You see, our church recently completed a very cool campaign to raise money for Heifer, an organization that gives cows to needy villages across the world. This was a Children's Ministry push where kids and parents were encouraged to donate. 2 of my friends' kids really encouraged me. My friend, Abby's kids (Madeleine and Jack) are only 6 and 7 years old. This didn't stop them one bit! They collected tangerines and oranges off their grandpa's trees and sold them for $1 a dozen! They also made it their mission to find every penny ever dropped on the ground and then collected and donated that change! My friend, Theresa's kids (Lauren and Kaitlyn) also did cool projects. Kaitlyn made and sold cinnamon rolls before and after Sunday school one morning at church! Lauren was stressing to find "her thing", so Theresa and Lauren sat down and brainstormed the ways that God had gifted Lauren. They come up with helping with kids. So, Lauren spent the day with a neighbor lady helping her with her toddlers. At the end of the day, this lady gave Lauren and few dollars. Isn't that cool? Both of my friends helped their kids find what worked for them. They helped their kids DO SOMETHING to make a difference. You better believe that those kids cared WAY more about the Heifer project than if their mom or dad had just handed them offering on the way into church.

This got me thinking about 2 concepts. #1: Kids CAN make a difference. The Bible is very clear about other's not looking down on you because you are young, but "set and example for the believers in faith and truth". Concept #2: Living out our faith in EVERY arena. This is from Deut. where God talks about walking around with scripture. . .talking about truth while you sit, while you work, while you walk, etc. So, KIDS LAKE was born!

This site was designed for KIDS who want to make a difference. It was also designed with parents and teachers in mind. We will present a NEW opportunity every month for KIDS to raise money for. These opportunities will always be "kid attainable" with increments in the under $15 range. For example: this month we are raising money for tuition $10 and uniforms $7. Both amounts that a typical kid could earn, raise or save for. This way, kids can feasilbly see, "I earned/raised/saved $10 and a kid in Uganda can go to school". Kids are so visual and learn well with object lessons that we wanted to make the results concrete. For parents and teachers, we will also present "KidsLake for Parents / Teachers" each month. This post will give helpful ideas and links so that parents/teachers can capitalize on what is getting the kids excited. Let' use this opportunity and sneak some learning in! So, while working on a project for a school in Uganda. . you can study geography (where is Uganda), History (of Uganda), Creative Writing (What would it be like to not be able to go to school?), health (malnutrition in the 3rd world), Math (earnings/savings during the project) or Bible (what God's word says about helping others). For older kids, they could even discuss economics, statistics and the list goes on!

The fun thing is that every month there will be a new project. So, a family, class or even homeschool group could make it a fun thing to log on to www.kidslake.org every month and have something new to study and learn about while growing their perspectives on themselves and their passion for this world and really make a difference at the same time!

The KidsLAKE blog will be run mostly by kids too! Sarah and Taylor are 2 amazing girls (ages 13 and 14) and they will run this blog. They will post the challenge for kids. They'll do small devotionals for kids participating in the project and will "feature" a new kid every few days as kids write in and tell us their stories of creative things they are doing and what they are learning in the process. We'll also post about fundraisers to keep in your prayers as we learn about them (i.e. The Smith Kids in GA are doing a garage sale on Sat. keep them in your prayers). I hope that this will be another way that keeps kids interested and connects them to other kids across the world that are joining with them to make a difference!

I'm super excited about this opportunity. I got an email this morning from a teacher who plans on implementing this with her class and proposing it to the whole school! So, if you could help by spreading the word, we'd be delighted! Tell your homeschool group, your church or your school about www.kidslake.org Thanks!