The Explorers Group

For the last couple of years I (Ben) have been the coordinator of the Childrens Church program for 1st through 5th graders at church. Together, Christina and I have started a ministry called the Explorers, which is a student leadership group within the Childrens Church group. This group has been meeting about twice a month for over a year, and it's better than ever!

The purpose of the Explorers is to train new students for future ministry by instilling teamwork and leadership skills. All of our meetings include a game, such as Ultimate Frisbee, that lends itself to discussion of teamwork or leadership during snack time. During the meetings we also work on a supplement to the Childrens Church lesson for the following day: perhaps a skit, a poster, a puppet play, or leading a small group activity. In addition to this, each Explorer has a personal responsibility to help the Childrens Church program run smoothly, such as taking attendance, distributing Bibles, cleaning up the supplies, running the CD player, or anything else that the teachers need to be done.

It has been very encouraging to see the growth in these students during the past year. They have grown closer as a group and seem to have a healthy level of respect for us and for each other. They take their weekly responsibilities seriously and do them without having to be asked. Finally, they have come to really take ownership in the activities that we do. For example, in our most recent meeting, we were going to do a puppet play. Even though Christina had thought of a great premise for the play, three of the Explorers immediately had suggestions for the premise of the play, as well as several ideas to make it funny throughout the play.

Although we borrowed the idea for the Explorers from another church, we have developed it significantly. We have recorded the steps that we took in order to get the ministry started and kept records of the activities from each meeting. If you would be interested in starting a similar ministry at your church, you can contact us for advice on starting up a group. Please e-mail us at bcmalan@yahoo.com.

We found a house!

This past weekend we went to visit the church near Indianapolis where I'll be working, and then we looked at several houses. Toward the end of the day we found one that has exactly what we've been looking for! It has plenty of space and is in a great location. It was also at a much lower price than we could have possibly found in Chicago (about a third of the price it would have cost for a similar home in a similar area). With all these things in mind, we signed the papers to say that we are committed to buying it and we will be able to close in the summer and then move in.

Even before we got married, we knew that one of our goals for marriage would be to own our own home, and it's great to realize that it's going to happen sooner than we had expected. Having our house picked out and our mortgage finalized will give us a lot less to think about. Now we just need to start figuring out our priority list for what to buy when we move in.

"Close Friends and Family"

Today we got to be part of a surprise party for Matt Pilditch, whose family we have become very close to in the three years that we've been at the church. The party itself was great (with good people and good food), but it was even more special knowing that only "close friends and family" were invited to attend.

As we look toward moving, we're also looking back at the relationships that we've built. We're excited to see the friendships we have made and we already look forward to coming back to visit our friends from church.

House Hunting

We're about to take a step that we've been looking forward to since getting married: buying a house! We've been looking at homes via pictures, and next weekend (April 20th) we'll go and visit them in person. We are excited and nervous at the same time, since this is our first time at doing all of this. The decisions and paperwork at times can seem overwhelming, but we have gotten great advice from friends and family that has really helped to make all of these decisions seem not has complicated. Also for those who don't know we will be buying a home in Indiana, since Ben just recently accepted a position as a Children's Ministry Director. The church we will be attending is called the Chinese Community Church of Indianapolis. We are both excited about this new journey we are about to embark upon and trust that God will direct our steps the entire way. He has already been working in remarkable ways preparing us for this move, so we look forward to what He has in store for us in this new community. Soo... right now we are excited and sad. Excited to move forward towards what God has planned for our lives, but sad to leave our friends and church family in the Chicagoland area. Everyone here will be greatly missed. We will post more after the Big Search to keep you posted.