God never expects us to be immune to pain, to pretend it isn’t happening, to fake happiness when we are grieving. He gave us tears to shed. He made us with the full capacity to feel the physical and invisible pains of the human experience. He made us human.

Happy Thanksgiving from Children & Family Ministry! Read on for some ideas for this Thanksgiving. 

I am sure, dear reader, that you have your own memories of moments or days like this. Perhaps you are having one today: Your efforts are in vain, your sacrifices feel for naught, nothing is going right, and your worth seems bundled up into a tiny, barely perceptible knot somewhere in your aching chest.

Here’s something else about this Church we’re a part of: Kelly and I can’t provide all the water those seeds need. Our parents water them. Our siblings. And our friends, our brothers and sisters in Christ—those who are younger, older, those with many kids and those with none, those who long to be married, those who long for children. They (you) water as well. You are instruments of grace in my girls’ lives. They need you. I need you.

And then it’s up to God to give the growth.

The Children and Family Ministry of Iron Works Church is undergoing its own renewal and refreshment. Read on to learn more about what is happening over the coming months.