Purpose Statement

MOPS Purpose Statement: MOPS International exists to encourage, equip and develop every mother of preschoolers to realize her potential as a woman, mother and leader in the name of Jesus Christ.

Friday, May 01, 2009

Summary of May 1: Intro to Growth Topic


Today we started on the new topic of GROWTH.

The overall theme for MOPS this year is "The Adventure of Mothering" and within that theme is the areas of Identity, Growth, Relationships, Help, Perspective and Hope.

We watched a section of the DVD related to Growth and had discussion time centred around these questions - questions like "How have you changed since becoming a mum", "what have you learned about yourself", "what new skills and interests" etc.

We did a fun activity of finishing off the sentence "You Know You're a Mum When ...." and our mentor Julie awarded prizes for the best from each table.

Each table was given a handout with some statements already on the page such as:

You know you're a mum when:
  • You count the sprinkles on each kid's cupcake to make sure they're equal
  • You have time to shave only one leg at a time
  • You hide in the bathroom to be alone
  • Your child throws up and you catch it
  • Someone else's kid throws up at a party and you are able to keep eating
  • You have mastered the art of placing large quantities of pancakes and eggs on a plate without anything touching
  • Your child insists that you read Once Upon a Potty out loud in a public place ...and you do
  • You pay for a babysitter because you haven't been out with your husband in ages and then spend half the night talking about and checking on the kids
  • You hope tomato sauce is a vegetable because its the only one your child eats
  • You find youself cutting your husbands sandwich into unusla shapoes
  • You fast-fwd through the scene when the hunter shoots Bambi's mother
  • You cant bear to give away baby clothes - its so final
  • You hear your mothers voice coming out of your mouth when you say "Not in your good clothes!"
Then it was over to each table to come up with as many as possible of their own.

Here are some of the responses that were generated .

You know you're a mum when:
  • It's 3 o'clock and you haven't had lunch
  • You are wearing a pasta necklace - at the plaza
  • You get excited over dry undies (the kids not ours!)
  • Your handbag is full of kids toys
  • You can discuss poos and wees with other mums over morning tea
  • You find scraps of chewed up food behind the lounge
  • You put a dirty nappy in your handbag
  • You find yourself singing along to your kids favourite TV programs
  • You know where every toilet is in town
  • You make sure everyone else is wearing shoes but then you get to your destination and realise you are not wearing any
  • You arrive at your daughters dance concert after spending half an hour on her makeup only to forget to have done yours
  • You eat their half chewed spat out food because there's nowhere else to put it
  • When having a poo in peace becomes a luxury
  • When you're halfway through grocery shopping and your child says " I need to do a poo!"
  • When they cling to your leg like a leech
  • When you never get a warm dinner/meal
  • When the chocolate in the fridge never lasts long enough
  • When you skip the lolly and chip aisle when shopping
  • When you decide you want to go out somewhere and it takes over an hour to get everything organised
  • When you find yourself eating dinner at 5.30
  • When you find yourself singling along and knowing all the words to The Wiggles
  • When you have replaced your handbag with a nappy bag
  • When you are joined by little people in the toilet
  • When all your children are immaculately dressed but you find yourself wearing sippers
  • When your CD collection int he car consists of Wiggles and Hi 5
  • When you can no longer wear white, black or in fact any block color that doesn't hide the stains
  • When you hear yourself saying "when I was young"
  • When kids shoes are on the wrong feet and its not notices for the whole day and all you think is it's good they could still walk
  • When you don't care what your kids have to eat for a main meal as long as they are full and not complaining
  • When your pantry is always stocked with spaghetti and baked beans
  • When your kids make mud pies with their own urine because they couldn't turn on the tap and all you can think is "how creative!"
  • When you wake up and think your bed-hair is totally acceptable for the day
  • When "consistency" is a word you admire but can not relate to
  • You already know your bum looks big in a certain outfit without even having to ask
  • You come to the realisation that coffee is meant ot be drunk cold
  • You know any moment that your child could yell out that the person over there is fat (and embarrass you)
  • You have to actually go to a Wiggle concert - and pay full price
  • You call your children by their siblings names

Lots of creative responses there and I am sure you can see a couple of themes forming around bodily functions, food and drink, shopping dramas, music we are forced to listen to and clothes/shoes. Kinda sums up a lot of mothering .....but then again I am sure we wouldn't have it any other way! After all "You know you are a mum when ....your heart melts at the first I LOVE YOU MUMMY".

If you have any other "You Know You're a Mum" statements please add them via the COMMENTS section under this post. We would love to hear them.

As todays meeting was close to Mothers Day our Creative Activity for today was based around Pampering with DYI Manicures/Nail deco


Morning Tea: Decadence - lots of lovely decadent foods including a chocolate fountain (thanks Nat S) with strawberries and lolly bananas and marshmellows for dunking in the chocolate. Delicious!

Posted by Michele @ The Hills are Alive at 4:38 PM Labels: ,

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Theme Scripture

Psalm 139

1 You have searched me, LORD, and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand — when I awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Annual MOPS Participation Fee

The annual MOPS Participation Fee of $10 assists MOPS Australia in covering the cost of training for Regional Coordinators to help other MOPS groups to develop around Australia. It also allows more MOPS group leaders around Australia to access regional training.

This will go a long way to helping MOPS Australia bring MOPS to more Mums around Australia.

When you register for MOPS each year, you will be handed an Annual Participation Fee form, and we ask that if you are able to pay this $10 participation fee, please do so before the end of April 2011.

The payment options are...
1. Direct Debit to MOPS Australia bank account
2. Credit card
3. Cheque payable to MOPS Australia
4. Cash to MOPS@MBC front desk

Thank you, from the MOPS@MBC team.

How did MOPS begin?

It was a Tuesday morning, at about 9.30. They each had faced spilled cereal, tangled hair, and a few had even been forced to change their outfits due to a last-minute baby throw-up on a shoulder or lap. They had driven, or pushed strollers, to the church and had dropped their little ones off in the creche. They had made it!

And now they sat, knees almost touching, in the circle of children's chairs from the Sunday school room. Hands held hot cups of tea and biscuits in utter freedom because this treat did not have to be shared with a child's sticky fingers. Mouths moved in eager, uninterrupted conversation. Eyes sparkled with enthusiasm. Hearts stirred with understanding. Needs were met.

That morning in 1973, was the first morning of MOPS, or Mothers of Preschoolers. Little was it known that from this small beginning in a church in Colorado, USA, the seeds of the MOPS concept and format had been planted. The needs of the women were met even then, through the opportunity for friendship, creative outlet and spiritual emphasis. MOPS International now charters approximately 2,500 MOPS groups in churches in the United States and 13 other countries throughout the world.

How did MOPS begin in Australia?

How did MOPS begin in Australia?

Nineteen years later and thousands of kilometres away, the same mutual need for sharing was realised by a group of mums with children under school age in Melbourne. After reading about the MOPS concept in the US, leaders introduced the program to the Clayton Church of Christ Fellowship in early 1990 and MOPS was born in Australia. From this small beginning, the seeds for future growth were planted, resulting in the formation of an affiliated body to support the ever-increasing number of Australian groups and the mums they served.

Since its formation in June 2000, MOPS Australia, Inc has grown rapidly and there are currently over 100 groups throughout Australia. In the last year alone, 35 new groups have commenced, with groups starting up regularly throughout different Christian denominations. Groups now meet in every state and territory in Australia, with an estimated ministry to approximately 2500 mums and 3000 children.

How did MOPS begin at MBC?

A Brief History of MOPS at MBC by Karen Askey-Doran (COordinator of MOPS til 2008 and currently Regional Coordinator).

In 1999, the leader of MBC’s women’s ministry caught the vision of MOPS. At that time I was a new Mum with little inclination to help; I was interested but not convicted!

Roughly a year later another meeting was held to generate interest. At this time I had another little baby girl, a 16-month-old toddler and, although I was unaware of it, Post Natal Depression. And once again people were interested but not compelled to lead.

In 2005 Holly, caught the vision of MOPS and began to sow the seeds of interest throughout the young Mums in our church. Robyn Robertson came to our first meeting and inspired us into action…the seeds Holly planted took hold!

People came slowly at first to fill the positions, it seemed there were a lot of blanks for a long time! Holly was going to be our Coordinator and when she filled out the charter she realised that a Mother of Preschoolers should really fill that role…. So she called me! Very graciously, Holly took a side step into a Mentoring role (very appropriate really).

God was moving in our midst, we had been blessed with an inspired team of 15 Mops Leaders and 9 Moppets Leaders, each one having a testimony about how God had lead them to this ministry!

I suspect that God has big plans for our group. I still feel very inadequate sometimes but I do trust God and I want to serve him and to reach out to Mums who are hurting, to support them. I want to encourage, you know, to build up… to make a difference in people’s lives, especially my children’s!

I know I’m not alone… In Romans 8:28 it says “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” He planned for my girls, my twins, my battle with PND. He planned for MOPS - at this time - in our church! The door has literally been flung open!

What happens at a MOPS meeting?

When a mum enters a MOPS meeting, she is greeted by a friendly face and escorted to MOPPETS, where her children enjoy their special part of the MOPS program. In MOPPETS, children from infancy through to school age experience a caring environment while they learn, sing, play and make crafts.

Once her children are settled, the MOPS mum joins a program tailor-made to meet her needs. She can grab something to eat and not have to share it! She can finish a sentence and not have to speak in words of two syllables!

The program typically begins with a brief lesson taught by an older mum who's been through the challenging years of mothering and who can share from her experience and from the truths taught in the Bible. Then the women move into small discussion groups where there are no "wrong answers" and each mum is free to share her joys and struggles with other mums who truly understand her feelings. In these moments, long-lasting friendships are often made on the common ground of finally being understood.

From here, the women participate in a craft or other creative activity. For mums who are often frustrated by the impossibility of completing anything in their unpredictable days, this activity is deeply satisfying. It provides a sense of accomplishment and growth for many mums.

Because mums of preschoolers themselves lead MOPS, the program also offers women a chance to develop their leadership skills and other talents. It takes organisation, creativity, and management skills to run a MOPS program successfully.

By the time they finish the MOPS meeting and pick up their children, the mums feel refreshed and better able to mother. MOPS helps them recognise that mums have needs too! And when they take the time to meet those needs, they find they are more effective in meeting the needs of their families.

Meeting the needs of Mothers of Preschoolers

The MOPS program is dedicated to meeting the needs of mothers of preschoolers. These needs have been identified by Elisa Morgan and Carol Kuykendall in their book, What Every Mum Needs:


The need for Identity: Sometimes I'm not sure who I am

The need for Growth: Sometimes I long to develop who I am

The need for Relationship: Sometimes I long to be understood

The need for Help: Sometimes I need to share the load

The need for Perspective: Sometimes I lose my focus

The need for Hope: Sometimes I wonder if there's more to life


Here's How Some Mums Describe MOPS

"MOPS means that I am able to share the joys and frustrations and insecurities of being a mum. Our meetings provide the opportunity to hear someone else say, "I was up all night," or "They're driving me crazy!"

MOPS mum, Perth

"As a single mum, this is the first group I've felt accepted in for who I am."

MOPS mum, Canberra

'On my first day at MOPS, I knew my life had changed forever! The women made me feel so relaxed. I had a peace I hadn't felt for a long time. They were so caring, pleasant, helpful…the list goes on! I just want to say, "Thank you MOPS!" If it weren't for MOPS, I wouldn't be where I am today.'

MOPS mum, Melbourne

'When I first started MOPS, I was very, very lonely. MOPS gave me a chance to get out of the house which I was grateful for. The talks were very informative. I found out a lot through these talks. My problems seemed to become smaller. When I first started at MOPS, I thought I was a Christian. I wasn't. Through MOPS I can now say, 'I am a Christian.' MOPS to me is not only Mothers of Pre Schoolers, but My Own Private Salvation!'

MOPS mum, Canberra