Your Giving Keeps On Giving

With Dr. Jeremy Peterman

A few weeks back you saw this little instrument when I took part in the traditional service Kid Talk. This is called a portative organ (from the Latin verb portare meaning "to carry"), and I bought it for my 40th birthday in June of 2020. An Italian organ builder/maintainer was bored at home (like most of us then...) and started building these and selling them online. I had been looking for one for a while and this one was cute and perfect. It is mostly diatonic--think of the white notes on a piano--except for the little lighter-colored button in the middle, which is actually a Bb key. The two keys with round dots are the C's. I mostly use it just to demonstrate to kids how organs originated during organ seminars, but occasionally I enjoy taking it into the narthex when no one is around and playing some medieval tunes with those acoustics that swim for days!

I am absolutely a tenor! It is common knowledge that “you cannot have too much tenor!” There are other attributes, but it’s a tenor thing and others just wouldn’t understand.

MOMS meetings resume on September 12 and 13, 2023. We minister to moms with children ages 0 to 18. 

Registration is now open and you can find more information and register at www.lacasadecristo.com/moms/. We have outstanding speakers to help you with your own faith, family and raising children. We hope you will join us.

Childcare for infants through age 5, known as MOPPETS, is available. We need volunteers to help Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, beginning in September. Please read the testimony below and prayerfully consider helping in this wonderful ministry. If you are interested or have questions, please contact Jody Goodvin at jgoodvin@lacasadecristo.com

I retired in February of 2015. I knew that I wanted to keep busy and also wanted to get more involved with La Casa. Since my grandsons were no longer little ones, I reached out to Kristen Cross about volunteering in the nursery. God’s little children are happy and care-free, bringing smiles to the face and certainly uplifting any mood. I have found such joy in rocking the infants or sitting on the floor playing with the toddlers. I have watched them grow and move on as they age out of the nursery. But the relationship doesn’t always end there. To this day, I am still "Grandma Marilyn" to some of the children that I cared for! It’s true...when I volunteer, I am getting more out of it than I think I give. Come and join in the fun!!! ~ Marilyn Harwell

Our summer with kids has been off to a great start! With many children joining us for Ignite Kids in June, we have enjoyed our time together as a large group learning all about God. Through games, crafts and object lessons we have explored stories in the Bible together.

We are excited for a fun-filled week of VBX July 10-14. In June we had our volunteer meeting to share all of the exciting adventures we will go on at VBX 2023, God Seas You. Pastor Matt helped lead our volunteers through all of the Bible stories in preparation to teach the kids in our community about God’s great love for them. The week will be filled with music, crafts, recreation and lots of laughter! This truly would not be possible without our amazing volunteers. Check out our theme song on lacasadecristo.com/vbx written by Ross Bridgeman.

How can you help? First, we ask that you pray for our week. Please pray for our volunteers and our kids to have a great week learning about God. For some, this may be the first time they hear about God and it is our prayer that what the children learn at VBX will prompt a lasting relationship with Him. Second, we are collecting peanut butter and jelly (plastic jars only) to help the Paradise Valley Community Food Bank. Our goal is to help teach our VBX kids the importance of helping those around us. You are welcome to join us by bringing in donations anytime between July 9 and 16.

Staci Medina, Director of Children's Ministry

Save the world...buy a placemat! Installment #2

The first reason a placemat can save the world is that it saves the mind. A child equates eating food with being taken care of. As a baby, a child cries to notify his/her caregiver(s) of a need. If that need is met regularly, the child realizes their needs will be met.

Eating food regularly communicates to the brain that there is plenty, and there

is no need to worry. It allows the child to move on to higher functions in the mind and more significant challenges as a little human.

Abraham Maslow, over a period of decades, starting around 1943, wanted to

understand what motivates humans. He proposed that human needs could be categorized in a hierarchy. This is what that looks like.

Maslow once stated the following, ”It is quite true that man lives by bread alone —

when there is no bread. But what happens to man's desires when there is plenty

of bread and when his belly is chronically filled? At once other (and "higher")

needs emerge and these, rather than physiological hungers, dominate the

organism. And when these in turn are satisfied, again new (and still "higher")

needs emerge and so on. This is what we mean by saying that the basic human

needs are organized into a hierarchy of relative prepotency."

Not only does sitting at the table and eating food together move you up to higher levels of thought in the brain, and give you the opportunity to fulfill the next need, it also feeds the mind with learning opportunities.

Researchers found that conversation at the table boosts vocabulary. Even more

than being read aloud to. In the study, they counted the number of rare words

used at the dinner table compared to those read aloud by someone. They found kids learned 1,000 rare words at the dinner table compared to 143 during reading sessions.

Other researchers reported a consistent association between family mealtime

and academic performance. Teens who eat family meals five to seven times a

week were twice as likely to get As in school compared to those who ate dinner

with their families fewer than two times a week.

So, if I haven’t convinced you yet to make eating at the table together an

important part of what you do, come back next month for the next installment

of "Save the world...buy a placemat."

Ryan Callahan, Director of High School Ministries

Desert Foothills Library (38443 N School House Rd., Cave Creek, AZ 85331) is hosting “Foothills Caring Corps @ the Movies” the last Monday of the month, which falls on July 31, from 12:30-2:30pm in the Arizona Room. A movie and snacks will be provided at no cost. If you are in need of transportation, reach out to Foothills Caring Corps at 480-488-1105 and let them know you need a ride to the movie. We do not have advanced knowledge of what movie will be shown. For additional details, please call Desert Foothills Library 480-488-2286.