Celebrating kids and neighbors

Aug. 28, 2025

By Rev. Rick King

Today and next Thursday, I’m pausing the series, “Things to remember as the merger unfolds,” to cover some vital news on the Children’s Ministry front at FHC. Next week I’m on vacation. I’ll resume the series on Sept. 4.

First of all, parents of infants through preschool-age children: We have a new nursery attendant!

Julie Harrington has over 30 years of experience in early child care at A Child’s View in St. Paul and The Learning Garden in Maplewood. Julie is one of those people whose calling is caring for children, especially the very youngest. She’s held positions such as lead infant teacher and has managed assistant teachers in these licensed child care centers.

Julie is current in infant and child first aid and CPR. In addition to annual background checks as a child care teacher, she’s passed our staff-required background check through MinistrySafe. She is semi-retired, but works three mornings a week at a child care center, and just can’t get enough of caring for, teaching and loving young children!
Come introduce your infant, toddler or preschooler to Julie some Sunday soon. Her hours are 10 a.m. to noon every Sunday, starting this Sunday, Aug. 24.

Also this week: Pastor Riz and I joined many adult volunteers and over 20 kids from kindergarten through fourth grade for “Who Is My Neighbor?” a weeklong day camp at FHC exploring how we’re all connected—neighbors in this world which we can make more welcoming, compassionate, and beautiful.

We built community, shared, and learned about neighborliness in the way the late Fred Rogers conceived of it when he started “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” decades ago. Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister whose “congregation” was the large TV audience of kids who tuned in every day to learn that each person is special, and worthy of love and care.

Come to Sunday’s big camp celebration at 10:30, where the kids will show all we did this week and how life can change by realizing how many neighbors we have and how we can be neighborly!

Yes, we will sing “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” the show’s theme song, because the Fred Rogers estate gave us permission for one-time use of the song on Sunday. When Patti Holmes explained what we’re about and what we’re doing with a limited budget, they waived the royalty fee!

However, copyright laws being what they are, we can sing it in person and on the livestream, but it cannot be stored digitally—which means if you have people who want to watch the livestream, please ask them to watch it in real time this Sunday at 10:30 a.m., because they won’t be able to watch it later.

How do YOU experience neighborliness in your life?