Greetings from your Awana Commander at Sovereign Grace Bible Church. Opening night for our 2011/12 Awana ministry is fast approaching. Leadership of the clubs is in place, and our Awana meeting calendar defined. Leadership training (mostly free) will be available in August, September and October at various southern California locations.

Once again we will be offering a comprehensive Awana ministry with clubs for Cubbies, Sparks, Truth & Training, Trek and Journey, that’s pre-school through high school.

The 2011-12 Awana year will begin in our Fellowship Hall promptly at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday, September 8th at the church, located at 101 S. Pacific Coast Highway (SW corner of PCH & Emerald) in Redondo Beach. Enclosed is our meeting schedule and nightly themes for the year. We suggest posting the meeting and theme schedule in a prominent location in your home (like on the frig). Additional copies of the schedule are available in the Awana Office.

Once again this year all of our Journey Clubbers (high schoolers) will be participating in our Leader-In-Training (LIT) Program which includes spending part of many club meetings in service helping with leadership of the younger clubs. In order to earn the annual book completion award in Journey each clubber must receive some formal leadership training and then spend some time in a leadership position during the year. They can satisfy this requirement by completing one of the Awana Basic Training and Club Role training sessions offered locally at no cost to attendees, or taking this training at the Annual Leadership Training Conference in Burbank early in October.

We also hope to send many of our clubbers to regional camps and competition again this year. These include a 1-day Camp-A-Rama for 2nd grade Sparkies at Victory Ranch near Moreno Valley, Leadership Camp at Pine Summit in Big Bear and Bible Quiz and Awana Games competition events for our Truth & Training, Trek and Journey Clubbers. In 2010 our T&T Club team earned First Place in the Regional Awana Games competition at Los Angeles Baptist High School in North Hills.

Registration in our club requires an Awana Registration Form for your child (one form per family is sufficient) and a Medical Release Form for each child. Both can be downloaded from the list below. We encourage registration by mail as early as possible so we can have all the necessary resources during our opening night. Clubber annual dues, which cover expenses of the Awana ministry, are unchanged this year. Dues may be paid on a quarterly basis, so that only the first quarter’s dues are required with your registration.

We occupy a large church facility but our congregation is small. Nevertheless the church sponsors our Awana club as a service to families in the South Bay. Besides ministering to a number of 'unchurched' children, last year our club ministered to 75 children, serving 38 families who worshiped in 15 different churches. Therefore we must have parent participation in order to conduct a quality Awana ministry. When a family registers a child for our Awana ministry, we expect at least one parent to register with their child as a volunteer worker. This is the norm if the family has a church home. If the child does not have a church home, he or she is accepted as a community outreach ministry.

In order to provide a quality Awana ministry we need you to be part of our Awana ministry team. The registration form has a place for you as parent(s) to volunteer and indicate your preferred area of service. As registrations come in, we will assess the service needs and endeavor to place you in your preferred position. A Club Director will contact you to discuss specifically how you can help make Awana an effective Christian discipleship ministry for your child. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.

To help you be more comfortable and effective in the various Awana ministry positions, a free Basic Training course is offered by our regional Awana missionaries on Saturdays at various churches in the southern California. In addition, an always excellent annual Awana Leadership Training Conference is held in Burbank on October 1st. Early registration for this event will save you $5. Your Club Director or I can supply more specific information on these training opportunities.

I look forward to seeing you and working with you during our Awana ministry. If you have any questions, feel free to call me or my wife Karen, our Awana Administrator, at 310-546-2176 or email us at carlgebert@verizon.net

Carl Gebert, Awana Commander

2011-12 Meeting Schedule

Medical Release Form

Registration Form

Printable Registration Letter