Route 56 is a high energy, pre-youth group experience for 5th and 6th graders. Small groups, upbeat worship, crazy games and Biblical teaching are all incorporated to give students a better idea of God’s heart for the world and how they fit into the Body of Christ. The hope is that kids will take what they learn at Route 56 and share it with a world desperately needing to see God’s loving heart.
Last year Route 56 kids participated in several service projects including: Salvation Army bell ringing, Operation Christmas Child, Kids Against Hunger and clean-up projects around the church. You can read more about the projects below.
For questions regarding Route 56, please contact Corey Carey
Route 56 Service Projects
Project Ding-a-Ling
On November 19th, small groups rang bells for Salvation Army at twelve locations around the city. Groups asked shoppers who were dropping money into the red kettles the question, “What is the true meaning of Christmas to you?” If your family would like to ring bells for Salvation Army, visit their website or call 515.282.3599. Time slots are 2 hours long and various locations are available throughout the metro area.
Quotables from Project Ding-a-Ling
• Here is a short e-mail from a Route 56 small group volunteer about the night we rang the bells for Salvation Army:
Two different ladies tonight, when asked the true meaning of Christmas, said "I don't celebrate Christmas because of my religion" and "I'm Bosnian, we don't celebrate Christmas." A boy in my group came up to me and asked a great reflective question, something to the effect of, "What about those people, you know, who don't celebrate Christmas and stuff?" I knew what he was getting at and asked him, "What do you think?" He said, "I don't know, it's just weird how they don't know."
Operation Christmas Child
On October 22nd, Route 56 students wrapped 1200 boxes and filled 82 boxes for Operation Christmas Child. These boxes were distributed to AWANA, Sunday School, and Valley Church attenders. All the pre-wrapped boxes at the display encouraged many people to take part in Operation Christmas Child! Route 56 students also took boxes home that they filled using a portion of their own money. On November 12th, they shared with AWANA kids about their boxes and encouraged them to take part in Operation Christmas Child.
Quotables from Operation Christmas Child
• “After doing Kids Against Hunger and Operation Christmas Child, I realize how much I really have.” A fifth-grade girl
Project Day Lily
On November 5th, Route 56 students cut down day lily plants on the 30 parking lot beds. After having the project rescheduled twice due to rain and thunderstorms, God provided a 35 minute window with no rain or thunder and temperatures in the 40’s for students to accomplish this task.
Quotables from Project Day Lily
• One mom of a fifth-grade boy said, “He told me that he wanted to go cut day lilies at Route 56 instead of going to the David Crowder Band concert. I told him we’d be going to the concert since I already bought tickets. When the concert got cancelled; he was THRILLED! He told me, “We have so much fun when we’re serving at Route 56 that we don’t even know we’re serving.”
• “You know what’s so cool about this? We’re just 5th graders so we get to do this again next year!” A fifth-grade girl
• “I just feel good inside.” A fifth-grade boy
Cleaning Nursery Toys
On October 8th, Route 56 students cleaned 8 rooms of nursery toys, 12 sets of risers, and the glass of 15 sets entry doors and 13 classroom door windows. Within 45 minutes, students accomplished jobs that would take one person a total of 18 hours to complete (2 hours per nursery room, 1 hour for risers, and 1 hour for entry and classroom windows)!
Kids Against Hunger
On Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 the 5th and 6th grade kids from Route 56 left ValleyChurch on buses and headed to the Kids Against Hunger Warehouse to package meals. With joyful hearts and willing hands over ninety Route 56 kids packaged 12,960 meals in just under 45 minutes! What an encouraging thing to witness, seeing students truly learn what it means to be a part of the body of Christ! The kids have another packaging date scheduled for April 21st, 2010! For more information on how you and your family can participate with packaging meals on Saturdays, go to http://www.kidsagainsthungerdsm.org/.
Quotables from Kids Against Hunger
• “This was the most significant day of my life. That was the most significant thing I have done.” A fifth-grade girl
Other Quotables
• “He’s as excited about Route 56 as he is about sports.” A fifth-grade boy’s mom
• "I'm beginning to realize that serving is really about other people." A fifth-grade girl after eight weeks of Route 56 (It takes some people a lifetime to realize this!)
• “I just feel like Jesus is hugging me all over.” A sixth-grade girl after sharing her faith with second graders
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