We are looking for volunteers to help us spread the love of Christ to our community at this year’s Family Fun Fest. We need help with set-up, children’s games, the prayer tent, tear down and more. This is one of our biggest outreach events of the year as we come together with families served by the Bolingbrook Christian Health Center for a fun day that includes tacos, games, sno-cones, climbing wall, trackless train and more. Please make plans to attend from 4 to 7 p.m. Aug. 14 at New Song Church, 151 E. Briarcliff Road. Please sign up online or contact Cheryl Lynn Cain if you can help: cherylcain@gmail.com.

As part of the fest, we also are collecting $10 Walmart gift cards to help provide school supplies to children in need in our community. You can place any cards in the offering basket to be included in new backpacks to be distributed to families  served by the Bolingbrook Christian Health Center.

Please fill on the following info if you would like to volunteer or sign-up for any upcoming events at The Sanctuary:

Whether you’re there for the games, the tacos or a shot at a pastor in the dunk tank, you won’t want to miss this year’s Family Fun Fest from 4 to 7 p.m. on Aug. 14. Join us for this annual partnership event with the Bolingbrook Christian Health Center, where we get to have food and fun with many of the people in our community that are served by this wonderful ministry.

Because The Sanctuary is “hosting” this event, we’d like to see as many people as possible get involved in some way to make it a meaningful day for both our church community and the community at large. See if you can be part of one (or all!) of the four P’s!

Party: This is someone who makes the party happen by volunteering at the event itself from games to sno-cones to dunk tank to the list goes on! Check the volunteer sign-up at the Welcome Table and pick where you want to make the party happen!

Partner: We also are providing new back-to-school backpacks and gift cards for school supplies for select families served by the clinic. We are looking to collect Walmart gift cards to include in each of the 100 backpacks. (The backpacks have already been donated.) If you are interested in participating in this way, just drop your gift card in the offering basket and it will make its way to the Justice and Compassion team for the backpack drive.

Pray: For the first time, we will be offering prayer at the Family Fun Fest! Many people who visit the Bolingbrook Christian Health Center have burdens and illnesses that are crippling to their families. We are looking for a few people who would be willing to pray with individuals and lift up their needs to the One who can meet them. This sign-up will also be at the Welcome Table.

Play: Just come and enjoy the event! Meet some people you’ve never met, play some games you might have never played, and put a face on this wonderful ministry right here in our community.

Looking forward to once again extending the love and grace of God to the community and around us!

Kids compete in the sack race at Family Fun Fest.

Thank you to everyone at The Sanctuary for all your hard work in making Sunday a wonderful day for so many people.  I am blessed and amazed to work alongside such talented, generous people. The weather was just incredible. God granted us a gorgeous day. And every time I turned around, people seemed to be having a great time.

I wanted to share with you a few things I observed, as well as hear YOUR stories and experiences. I encourage you to share some of those on the blog this week. Just leave your story in the comments section below or send me a personal e-mail.

Fun in the game tent.

Thank you so much to everyone who worked so hard in the game tent. You did an AMAZING job with what turned out to be the heart of the fun fest. I loved that children were given a place to interact. Thanks to the Crossfire crew for manning all the team games.

While Pastor Ronn was preaching, one person from the clinic noticed that a patient of hers was talking with her family and then actually stepped away from her conversation and walked over to hear better what Ronn was saying. This woman happened to be someone who Ronn prayed for in the hospital at Christmas time. These are the types of life-changing relational connections we were hoping for!

Bingo!

I walked by the Spanish Bingo table and saw children from The Sanctuary sitting alongside children from the health clinic, trying to figure out the pictures in Spanish. Talk about equipping our children to leave safety for adventure!

And we managed to match up everyone’s name with their back-to-school supplies. Thank you to our volunteers who tirelessly set up a great system and blessed SO many kids. Many thanks as well to each and everyone who filled those packs and for the generous donations of so many.

We were able to provide school supplies for 180 children.

So thank you all. I could spend another few pages delineating how each person made this event special. But just know that this ministry is alive and well because of you. May you be filled as you pour out, may you be blessed as you bless others and may the love and peace of God sustain you this week.

Please tell us how you were blessed by Family Fun Fest. Was it harder or easier than you thought to leave safety for adventure? How did God meet you when you were lost in translation? What did you learn when you took the leap? We would love to hear your stories!

Peace!
Cheryl Lynn

(Please visit our Facebook page for more photos:  http://facebook.com/cometothesanctuary)

Volunteers from The Sanctuary have been daydreaming about sno cones, dunk tanks, Andy’s custard and backpacks lately. Lots and lots of backpacks.

They are working hard behind the scenes to make preparations for Family Fun Fest on Aug. 15. This community get-together is a great chance to live out the four core values of The Sanctuary’s vision of “Building Homes of Faith”.

We are:

• Leaving safety for adventure,
• Leaving greed for generosity,
• Leaving comfort for compassion,
• And leaving isolation for community.

The Family Fun Fest IS about getting together with family and friends and having a great time while we eat a meal together, enjoy live music and maybe even dunk a pastor? or worship leader? But the heart of the festival is so much more than that.

We are hoping to build relationships with other families from within our community. We will be gathering with people served by the Bolingbrook Christian Health Center, which is partnering with The Sanctuary to put together this event.

We also are reaching out by providing backpacks filled with school supplies to families in need. About 200 school children have signed up to receive backpacks.

We would love to have you join in on the fun. You now can sign up online to help put this event together. Just fill in the form below if you would like to help. Even if you aren’t able to volunteer, we would love to see you there!

Family Fun Fest is 4 to 7 p.m. Aug. 15 on the grounds of New Song Church.

Volunteer to serve at Family Fun Fest!

The Sanctuary, along with New Song Church, will be sponsoring Family Fun Fest from 4-7 p.m. Aug. 15. Families from both churches will have a chance to get to know families from Bolingbrook Christian Health Center during the event, which will include live music, games and food!

In a few weeks, people will gather with sno-cones, cotton candy, lots of games and yes, even a dunk tank.  But the adventure will not be in any of those things.  The adventure will be when we leave our comfort zones and meet someone new.

As we continue to partner with the Bolingbrook Christian Health Center and their patients, we realize that it’s not our events or our checks that will bring life as much as being in relationship. And we see that in our own relationship with God. It’s not His gifts as much as His presence that changes who we are.

So come out and have a great time on the 15th. Enjoy the games, the crafts, and each other. But if you are really in for adventure, start a conversation with someone you don’t know. Because even if there is a language barrier, an age barrier, or a cultural barrier, this is where God can bridge the gap with His love and His presence.

Cheryl Lynn Cain

Director of Justice and Compassion Ministries