We have also had several new individual partners and are now at 89% of our needed monthly support! We just need a further $975 in committed monthly support and we are headed to Thailand! Praise God with us for His amazing provision, and please continue to pray that God will call the rest of our monthly financial partners by June 30th!
Our God is amazing and lavishly generous! Last week we experienced a little taste of God's indescribable generosity through an extremely generous couple: our O&P is now fully funded!
We have also had several new individual partners and are now at 89% of our needed monthly support! We just need a further $975 in committed monthly support and we are headed to Thailand! Praise God with us for His amazing provision, and please continue to pray that God will call the rest of our monthly financial partners by June 30th! You have the filters installed in the router. Your internet is on "safe search" mode. You make sure your kids only access the internet in a public room. Despite all these important safe guards, the truth is that someday (painfully too soon) all of us (children included) stumble across pornography.
It happened to a child in our family for the first time this week. It was late in the afternoon and our oldest daughter (age 8) was at the dining room table on a dictionary website looking up vocabulary words when all of the sudden she froze and started crying. I can't even begin to describe the terrible things that popped up on her screen - let's just say it was not mild but some of the most heinous things I've ever seen. It took us a while to calm her down. So where do we go from there? How can you help a child who accidentally stumbled across pornography? While nothing can take the terrible images out of their little heads, here are four steps you can take to help them. 1) Assure your child that they did the right thing by coming to you. In our home we have a rule that if anything inappropriate pops up on a screen that you immediately look away and call/scream for a parent (this should literally take 1 second). This ensures that 1) the child doesn't have to look at the pornography for one more second and 2) as the kids get older if we walk into a room and they claim it "just" popped up we can call the claim bogus because they would have called for us. Our kids know they will NEVER get in trouble for coming to us if they immediately call us because something popped up. In the above incident, we discovered Abbie had accidentally clicked on an unrelated ad and she felt terrible for "making" it come. We were able to assure her that it wasn't her fault, but that she should take special care to stay away from ads in the future. 2) Allow your child to cry and be upset. Pornography is not OK and it's good for our children to recognize that it's disturbing. We let our daughter cry and I held her. I didn't say, "Stop crying. It's no big deal." I said, "It's OK to cry sweetie. Those pictures were awful and terrible. No one should ever have to see those things." 3) Be with your child as they start using the internet again. Abbie did NOT want to get back on the computer after her incident. She was terrified of seeing terrible things again, but reality is she had to get back on to finish her dictionary assignment and in future days she'll have more research to do. As the old saying goes, "You have to get back on the horse that threw you," BUT she didn't have to get on that horse alone. I sat right beside her to ensure everything was going smoothly, so she felt comfortable in front of a screen again. She showed me the "innocent" ad boxes, and assured me she would never click one again. We navigated the internet together until she was comfortable. 4) If possible, figure out what went wrong so the incident doesn't occur again. Did your computer re-start recently and turn off your safe search? Did the filter on your router break? Double check that all of your safeties are working. Sometimes things get past safeties - that's just reality, but it's our job as parents to do our best to make sure they're in place. In our situation all the safeguards were working, but we still double checked them to make sure we were doing all we could. Despite all we do to protect our children, they may still see pornography, but we can let them know it's safe to come to us when they do. Here's a little message from us to you with an update on our timeline to Thailand! God is amazing and we praise Him for the incredible ways He's providing for our ministry! http://www.vrugginks.com/giving Today we had our neighborhood Easter Party - the kiddos learned about Jesus' death and resurrection, did a cross craft, ate cross cookies, and went on an Easter egg hunt! So grateful we had the privilege to reach out in this special way! :)
Here's a list of 8 simple, daily activities you can do with your children to walk them through the days leading up to Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. Each day there is a Scripture reading explaining what Jesus experienced on that specific day, and then there is a related activity to help the kiddos connect with that day's events. These activities are a beautiful way to help prepare children's hearts for Easter Sunday! Palm Sunday – Triumphal Entry
Today we will make Palm Branches and have a "Hosanna" song themed dance party. Read Zechariah 9:9 and Matthew 21:1-11
Monday – Cleansing of the Temple Today we will watch the "Greatest Bible Adventures - Easter Story" movie. Read Luke 19:41-44
Tuesday – Teaching in the Temple Today we will make Easter cookies and invite our neighbors to our church's Easter service to practice loving our neighbors as ourselves. Read Matthew 21:23-32; 22:34-40
Wednesday – Jesus Anointed at Bethany & Plot Against Jesus Today we will receive a bouquet of fresh spring flowers to remember the sweet smelling perfume of Mary who prepared Jesus’ body for burial. Read John 12:1-8
Thursday – Last Supper Tonight we will celebrate the Passover Meal and introduction of the Lord’s Supper. First, Dad and Mom will wash the children's feet. Second, we will eat a Passover “like” Meal of roast lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs, and as we eat each item we will talk about what the meal meant for the Israelites. We will then eat bread and drink grape juice, and as we eat each item we will talk about how Jesus transformed the symbolic Passover Meal into the symbolic Lord’s Supper. Read John 13:1-17
Good Friday - Crucifixion Tonight we will attend the Good Friday service at church. Read Matthew 27:11-61
Saturday - Tomb Today we will have a neighborhood Easter party to share the good news with our friends. Read Matthew 27:62-66
Easter Sunday - Resurrection Today we will make Resurrection Rolls for breakfast, receive Easter baskets, attend church, and go on an Easter egg hunt! Read Matthew 18:1-20
Hosanna dance party turned into a palm branch sword fight...life with boys. Yesterday our family had so much fun dyeing Easter eggs! We love our Vruggink holiday traditions! |
|