Other prayer concerns are deeper and more personal.  Prayers for sick Grandmothers, prayers for a friend who’s parents are getting divorced, or prayers for dad who is out of work.

I am often thrilled to read the request of students whose request is related to the message I taught that evening.  It is very rewarding to see that they have processed the talk and are ready to ask for God’s help in applying what they have learned.

Each week we receive the cards and pray for that student’s needs and concerns.  However, there are times when we feel called to respond to the prayer cards with more than a prayer.  Sometimes we feel called to minister to our student’s needs with both prayer and action (not that prayer isn’t action… it is!).

One such ministry is Divorce Care for Teens which will begin it’s second season on Tuesday, January 19th.  DC4T meets weekly and is lead by Tiffany Nottingham, Cyndi Schoon and Norm Vugteveen.  There is NO CHARGE for participating in DC4T.  Weekly meetings are on Tuesday evenings from 6:30 – 8:30 PM.  For more information or to register contact Tiffany Nottingham at 219-322-6400 ext. 303.

Divorce Care for Teens (DC4T)
Beginning Tuesday, Jan 19th
6:30 – 8:30 PM
Contact: Tiffany Nottingham
219-322-6400 ext. 303

And although I go each year with “supporting the kids” as my primary motivation, I always find myself caught off guard by God’s love and grace.  This year was no exception.  What’s even funnier about being caught off guard by God is that I knew what was coming because I helped co-write the play “Nicholas and the Nativity” with my wife Tami Hair.

Nicholas and the Nativity was born out of a desire to “keep it simple” this year.  In other years, the children’s Christmas program included a dozen half working wireless mics and lead characters standing at center stage  slapping their forheads trying to remember their complicated lines. This year we hoped to stay away from complicated scripts and stage pieces.  So we decided to write a children’s Christmas musical play.  Our moto was “keep it simple” and our challenge was making it fun as well as thought provoking.

So after a few days my wife Tami shared her thoughts, “What if one side of the stage is a scene with a modern family, while the other side of the stage is the manger?”  She later added “The children’s chior could stand in the middle and we could go back and forth somehow having the manger scene parallel what the family is reading from the bible and discussing.”  We set the idea aside while we fixed dinner and finished helping the kids with homework and then after tucking our youngest two in bed, we began collecting our best ideas.  What finally emerged was a rough draft script about a little boy named Nicholas (Nick) who discovers the nativity under his Christmas tree.  Nicholas struggles to see how his modern Christmas experiences fit into the manger scene.  Nick’s father and mother try to explain but quickly realize they would do well to share the story straight from the Bible.  In the end, Nicholas “puts all the pieces together” and embraces the true and deeper meaning of Christmas.  My wife and I had goose bumps as we wrote out the idea that Nick would cross over from his side of the stage (family room scene) to the other side of the stage (manger scene) and kneel at the manger/throne.  We hoped that many in the audience would do the same in their hearts.

Thank you to eveyone who helped this children’s musical-play come to life.  I hope you all have a Merry Christmas.  I hope you will all find yourselves caught off guard by God’s amazing grace and love this Christmas.

Grace and Peace,

Todd E. Hair