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If you’ve ever seen the parade of four-passenger buggies traveling
through the Children’s Ministry Building on Sunday mornings, you
know there’s a need for more classroom space. The young preschool division,
infants to 2-year-olds, is the most rapidly growing children’s area at
Prestonwood. It has the ministry burgeoning at the seams, overflowing
first-floor rooms and bumping older toddlers to the floor above.
Three new nurseries, built just months ago, are already at capacity on
Sunday mornings, when the Children’s Ministry serves a large percentage
of the 4,000 children who pass through each weekend. And special-needs
children, who currently meet in the Elementary Education Building,
would greatly benefit from rooms with individual restrooms.
Most noticeable during the 11:00 a.m. Sunday services, the need for
space will be answered with a new children’s wing that Sondra Saunders,
Minister of Preschool and Children, said could easily serve another 700.
The extension would provide more first-floor space, perhaps also allowing
for a second-floor room designed exclusively for preschoolers. Much
like KidZone and RoofTop Kids, the area would feature a stage and creative
programming during Bible Fellowship and special events.
“We have always set goals here
and tried to be realistic with them,”
Sondra said. “And yet, whatever
we have projected, it’s always gone
further….And that’s the way it has
been since day one.”
Having served as a children’s
minister for 27 years, Sondra knows
if a church doesn’t provide space, it
will lack growth. She said a building alone won’t do, though; there must
be strategies to reach not only the children, but the entire family.
The process includes setting goals, deciding on ministries and promotion,
committing to follow-up with people, and making every effort to
impact lives. Ultimately, of course, the purpose is to “see more people
come to Christ.”
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One Family’s Story
Children’s Ministry blesses members through prayer and service
Prestonwood member Shauna Lopez will never forget the love of
Prestonwood Children’s Ministry. When she discovered her newborn
would need surgery due to intestinal malrotation, she immediately called
fellow Tim’s Tots teacher Michelle Ward and Kindergarten Coordinator
Debbie Burwell. The women spread the prayer request, and within 24
hours, scores of people were praying for little Joseph and the Lopez family.
Given the severity of the situation and the evidence surgeons had witnessed
on film, it was surprising when a doctor emerged from the procedure
with good news.
“I went in, and there is nothing wrong with your son,” he said.
Still overwhelmed by the miracle, Shauna has come to believe “it was
nothing but prayer.”
After the answered prayer, the Prestonwood family showered Shauna,
her husband, Abel, and their three boys with phone calls, hospital visits
and meals. Shauna said she’s thankful for “such a solid body of believers.”
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