First Meeting Recap

Hey Mamas,

Thanks to everyone who helped make our first meeting a success. We had about 46 mamas in attendance. It was my first MOPS meeting ever but it was great to have veterans back and lots of new faces as well. Our theme this year is “A Beautiful Mess: Embrace Your Story.” I think all of us can relate to this theme. Our theme verse is “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ehesians 2:10. We have a great line up planned this year and I’m super excited for us to share our messes and embrace our stories together.

To start our meeting out, our Coordinator, Jenn Downing, opened us up in prayer and announced new babies, pregnancies and adoptions, birthdays, and visitors. Congrats to the new moms and the plehtora of pregnant moms in the group. (There really must be something in the water! ;)) I hope all the new visitors enojoyed the fellowship.

Tanya Curtis spoke about Explore God. Tanya and Joel Caldwell will be hosting an Explore God meeting on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month when MOPS is not meeting. The group will gather at the church office in the same room MOPS meets. Explore God is a casual conversation for everyone to discuss and explore some very common spiritual questions and curiosities. If you need more information or plan to attend, contact Tanya Curtis at tcurtis@cihq.org or Joel Caldwell at ajcaldwell99@yahoo.com. You can also visit exploregod.com to see what it’s all about. I’m really excited about this group.

Dena Johnson, who is one of our mentor moms, brought us our first “Mentor Moment” of the year. She told us that God takes our messes and makes them beautiful. She encouraged us to share our messes and joys with each other. Dena reminded us that it’s ok to come as you are, with or without make up, dressed up or dressed down, with take out or a home cooked meal, it doesn't matter. Just come and enjoy yourself and let yourself be part of the community. Thanks, Dena, for that great reminder.

We watched a funny video, "Never Leave a Baby with Spaghetti O’s." Please tell me I'm not the only one who relates to this. It's pretty accurate of what the baby, the kitchen, and I look like after lunch at my house.

We had a fun craft where we decorated coffee mugs with permanent markers to refelct the beautiful messes in our life. Don't forget to bake it in the oven for the marker to set. We also played a game where we each wrote down 5 facts about ourself and drew lines to each other when we had something in common. It was fun to learn about the mamas at our table even if I did learn there are way too many Aggies in the group! ;)

Our next meeting will be September 23. It’s “Bring a Friend” night. I hear this is always a fun night. There will be drawings and prizes for the person who brings the most friends and for the friends who attend as well. It will be the Purple table's week to bring snacks. Below are a few pictures from our first meeting. I hope everyone enjoys their beautiful messes over the next couple weeks. Looking forward to seeing all you mamas at our next meeting.