Friends Alive Brookside CRC

Friend's Alive had a Christmas party with a reading of the Christmas story. We discussed how we have hope because of the birth of Jesus. We decorated Christmas cookies, had a sock exchange and played some Christmas Bingo. It was a fun-filled evening! We would love to have more friends join us January 8 as we kick off 2024! We meet from 6:30 - 8:00 at Brookside CRC.

Friends are friends forever! Celebrating the ways in which each one of us is a part of our Creator’s great creation. Its Fall Fest Time and Guess Who? (That’s where awesome costumes come in handy!) and of course… fall BINGO!

Friends Alive at Brookside has started their new season with bowling and then a couple weeks later we enjoyed pizza and games. We are so excited to be with our friends and new friends have joined us. We hope more will join us as we focus on being a friend and how to be a good friend. We all have Jesus as our friend and we can show the love of Jesus to our friends. Please join us October 2 from 6:30 - 8:00 at Brookside CRC.

Friend's Alive had their last get together for the season. We welcomed B26 Gathering Place to Brookside. We opened with devotions and talked about who we are and having the fruit in our life like love, joy, peace, hope, kindness and goodness. We also talked about being ourselves, the very unique special person God made us to be. God always thinks of us as chosen, beloved and dearly loved! We enjoyed some pizza and then played some games with our friends. The parents had some time to connect with each other, learn about resources for their children and hear more about B26 Gathering Place. It was a very fun evening and we are so thankful for everyone who joined us!

He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!! Friend's Alive celebrated Easter by reading the Easter story and opening Easter eggs with scripture and an item that represented a part of the story. We gathered at a table just like the disciples did at the Last Supper with Jesus. We had bread and herbs and then celebrated the resurrection of Jesus with Easter cupcakes and cookies. We did an Easter word search and ended our evening with Bingo.

We hope you can join us May 1 for our end of the year celebration when we will have a cookout, games and lots of fun at Brookside CRC!

Friend's Alive celebrated that we are unique, beautiful, strong and God's masterpiece. We shared some of our favorite things and discussed how it's important to be yourself. All of us used our creativity to decorate banners for the staff of Brookside. For our snack we decorated cookies with colorful frosting and lots of sprinkles!

We hope you can join us April 10 at 6:30 for our next gathering at Brookside Christian Reformed Church.

Friend's Alive spent an evening focusing on the Fruits of the Spirit. We had a scavenger hunt looking for pictures of fruit, devotions, enjoyed an assortment of fruit and some other goodies and played a competitive balloon game.

We hope you can join us next month on February 6 at 6:30. We are bringing out all the colors with activities, food and fun. Wear a bright colored t-shirt and join our friends and make a new friend!

Friend's Alive had some Christmas fun singing Christmas songs, reading the Christmas story, having a Christmas sock exchange, decorating Christmas cookies and enjoying some other treats and of course an exciting game of Christmas Bingo. What a fun evening and a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas while spending time with friends.

Friend's Alive spent an evening sharing what we are thankful for along with a Thanksgiving scavenger hunt, snacks and games. Everyone had so many things they were thankful for and we are thankful for all our friends and volunteers who are part of Friend's Alive. We wish everyone a blessed Thanksgiving! We hope you can join us December 5 as we have a Christmas themed evening.

Friend's Alive had a fun fall festival with devotions, a mummy wrap, snacks and a fall themed Bingo! Thank you to all our friends who joined us for this fall celebration. We hope you can join us November 7 where our theme will be thankfulness.

September 19 we kicked off our first night of Friend's Alive for this season. We all enjoyed some pizza and then had fun playing outdoor and indoor games. Thanks to all our friends who came and our volunteers. A special thank you to Nicole Davis for joining us in our opening devotions.

We had a fun night of bowling at Spectrum Lanes with friends! Thanks to everyone who came out to bowl and cheer each other on!

Thanks to everyone for coming out for game night at Baker Books! It was so fun! Special thanks to Baker Books for hosting us!

Don't forget to RSVP for August 29 for Spectrum bowling - [email protected]

Here are the dates for our upcoming year

September 19
October 10
November 7
December 5
January 9
February 6
March 6
April 10
May 1

Coming events:
July 18: Meet at Baker Books for a game night (bring $$$ for food and if you want to buy something) 6:30-8:00
August 29: Bowling at Spectrum Lanes ….$10 bowling & pizza
6:30-8:00 RSVP’s are needed to bowl… since the lanes are reserved. ([email protected])

AND….

Good news! All of you who made the great bookmarks…we raised $120 for Ukrainian refugees and we sent those $$$ to World Renew! Thanks everyone!
We also hope the bookmarks will encourage others!

Thanks to everyone coming out to make our summer barbecue at Millennium Park a fun event! Loved those crazy hats, great food, prizes, and Michigan Therapy Dogs! Those beautiful dogs topped the event!!! Have a blessed summer. Stay tuned for more dates. You all were a blessing!

Thanks to everyone at Friends Alive yesterday. Here are a few creative bookmarks that the participants made yesterday…they will be selling them on June 20 at the Beyond 26/Friends Alive barbecue. Proceeds will be going to support refugees from Ukraine.

Brookside Friends Alive is meeting on Monday, May 16 6:30-8:00 pm!
Come on out and enjoy spring!
WHAT’s UP??
Spring Celebration/games/snacks/craft/movie

If possible Please RSVP to ([email protected])

Brookside Friends Alive is meeting on Monday, May 16 6:30-8:00 pm!
Come on out and enjoy spring!
WHAT’s UP?? Spring Celebration
games/snacks/craft/movie

Please RSVP to ([email protected])

Celebrating National Down Syndrome Day and the way God has made each person uniquely beautiful in His eyes!

B26 Gathering Place @ Brookside Friends Alive meets again on April 18, from 6:30-8:00 pm at Brookside! This ministry is for individuals with special needs along with family and friends are always welcome!
WHAT’s UP?? Easter Celebration & games! If you have any questions or just want to help out or be there...contact Ellie Van Keulen ([email protected])

REMINDER!!!

Brookside Friends Alive is Coming Back!
WHEN: March 21, from 6:30-8:00 pm!
PLACE: Brookside CRC church on the main floor
WHAT’s UP?? Pizza and game night with families welcome!

AND: We are teaming up with Beyond26 (find out more) to start up this fun/fellowship/gathering time together.
SO: Our new name is B26 Gathering Place @ Brookside Friends Alive

Please RSVP to ([email protected] or 616-240-4148).
LOVE TO SEE YOU!! Come on and make new friends &/or help out!

Hello, everyone! It's been so long since we have seen many of you!
Guess what is coming to Brookside again? Friends Alive!
We have something new! We are teaming up with Beyond26 to reach out to more people. So you might see us being called something like this:
B26 Gathering Place @ Brookside Friends Alive...you can shorten that to Friends Alive or whatever you want to call it! 😉
We really hope that as people are starting to resume their "normal" lives in spite of Covid, that we are able to get started again. We know that too many people need to have the fellowship of others and have missed out on gathering together. Here are the specifics:
Place: Brookside Church (on the main lobby level...enter on north or south side)
Date: March 21 (future dates: April 18, May 16)
Time: 6:30-8:00 PM
What will we be doing?
WELCOME NIGHT: bring a friend &/or family members, pizza, getting to know you time, spring-time BINGO (yes it will be spring then believe it or not), games
Please RSVP with # of people to [email protected] or call/text to 616-240-4148

--
"Putting Faith to Work...Shoulder to Shoulder"

Ellie Van Keulen
[email protected]
www.beyondtwentysix.org

"Putting Faith to Work" We find employment and volunteer positions for individuals with disabilities, ages eighteen and up.

Friends Alive Prayer Requests

See you 6:30 tomorrow (Monday November 13) at Brookside in the upper room! What are you thankful for???

Our next gathering is 2 weeks from today, November 13, 6:30 at Brookside. We will be playing games and discussing things we are thankful for. Hope to see you there!

We had such a great night! Here’s a few pics of the fun we had!

It's that time of year again!!! OCTOBER 9 is our first gathering with parents. Here is our schedule for the year:
Friends Alive
“Friends Alive” is a ministry of Brookside. Its goal is to serve Christ by involving Young Adults with special needs in activities with peers so that they can fully experience the love of Jesus Christ and actively participate in the community of Brookside Church

2017-2018
Upcoming Events & Dates
Monday’s 6:30-8:00

October 9 (Church) Family Night with Pizza **Families Welcome
October 23 (DeMots) Fun Fall Fest (Costumes Welcome)
November 13 (Church) Thanksgiving
November 27 (Krosschells) Football Theme
December 11 (Church) Christmas Party (cookie exchange)
**January 13 (Calvin College) Calvin vs Trine Basketball Game 3:00pm
January 22 (Church). Game System Night
February 5 (Specturm Lanes) Bowling
February 19 (Church) Valentine Theme (Spa night)
March 3? (Saturday) Connections Banquet
March 19 (Church) Green Theme
April 9 (Kroc Center) Swimming
April 23 (Church) Spring Theme
May (Whitecaps) Take me out to the Ballgame!

UPDATED September 2017 **ACTIVITIES MAY CHANGE

Isaac McGee is playing softball again tomorrow (Monday June 19) 6:30 diamond 1 at the Christian Reformed Rec Center. Come cheer him on!!