375 Chick-fil-A chicken sandwiches, nearly 100 volunteers, 65 moms and dads, 6 churches, 5 buses full of kids, 2 separate programs and countless hours of preparation. This is just a taste of everything that went into the Happy Birthday Jesus Party. For the party we did things differently - we added a program for middle school. So while the elementary children watched the FBC Kingdom Kidz musical Joy Story, the middle schoolers participated in a fun, engaging youth service!
Over the years we have noticed an increase in middle school attendees (many have grown up with SFS) and decided to prepare a totally separate program for them in hopes of developing relationships with them and sharing the Gospel. The program consisted of unique group games (basketball, giant jenga and connect four), worship music and a Gospel presentation followed by small group discussion.
God blessed this year’s Christmas party - like He always does! He provided an abundance of volunteers from various churches including Kernan Boulevard Baptist, Fruit Cove Baptist, Solomon’s Porches, Southpoint Baptist, FBC Middleburg, and FBC Jax. The Harvest Dance School came and performed for the elementary children and we had help from First Baptist Academy’s Honor Society. We prayed for more volunteers and God answered our prayer!
Christmas 2018 was special for many reasons. Not only was the Happy Birthday Jesus Party a huge success, but in the summer 2018 newsletter, we mentioned receiving a donation of 70 stockings stuffed with goodies from Faye Rambo’s Sunday School class. This December we were able to distribute them at our sites - the kiddo’s faces lit up when they received one. God continues to bless this ministry and we look forward to the next Christmas season!
Save the Date: Join us next year December 7, 2019!