Krochet Kids intl. welcomes the Grace Fellowship community to attend our fourth annual gala - GALA NO. 4 - on May 31st @ 7:30 p.m. Come and join us for a night of celebrating the amazing ways the organization has grown and learn about what is ahead for KKi in the years to come. Hosted at our offices in Costa Mesa (1630 Superior Ave. Unit C) we will be discussing our model for empowerment through exhibits, videos, and a presentation given by co-founder & CEO Kohl Crecelius.

Learn more and purchase tickets for the evening here... http://krochetkids.org/gala-2012

We just wrapped up our final lesson in our series examining the lives of several key Old Testament characters. In this lesson, we looked at some words from Solomon in Ecclesiastes about worship. God cares about our attitudes and actions as they pertain to worship, and we challenged ourselves to examine our attitudes and actions when it comes to worshiping God, and to consider ways to grow in this area.

OVERFLOW is nearing the end of our six-week study of men and women from the Old Testament. This week was the first of two lessons on Solomon, one from Proverbs and one from Ecclesiastes. In this lesson based on Proverbs 2, we challenged ourselves to identify real, practical ways to seek God’s wisdom and apply it to our lives.

We reported last month that the fire sprinkler system installation would commence in early April and we're happy to report that the fire sprinkler system installation is now about 65 % complete. The street connection, backflow device, detector check, underground water line to the building and the sprinklers in all of the office and class rooms have been installed. The remaining portion of the system’s installation will not be completed and made operational until all the interior improvements are completed later this year.

The building exterior improvement plans (which include required seismic safety upgrades) were submitted to the City of Costa Mesa in early April. You may recall that the City of Costa Mesa required us to bring the main building up to current seismic safety codes because of the change in occupancy classification related to the expansion of the sanctuary. The seismic upgrades significantly increased the scope of the exterior and interior improvements. We won't know the full cost impact of those upgrades until we've received fully approved plans back from the City. We've received the first round of plan comments from the City and have re-submitted the plans for what we hope will be the City's final comments. We'll start work on the exterior improvements within a week or so of securing the City's final approval, which is expected by the middle of May.

The interior improvement drawings are nearing completion and will be submitted to the City as soon as the exterior drawings are fully approved. While we wait for the City approval process to be finalized, we continue to work on fine-tuning cost estimates for all of the renovation line items. We expect to have completed a budget update based on approved drawings sometime towards the end of May or early June.

OVERFLOW has finished our "Purity Series" and is now continuing in our adventure into the lives of some significant men and women from the Old Testament. We’ve already studied Joshua, Samson, and Ruth. This week, we examined a passage from the life of David. We saw how God led Samuel to choose David to become the next king of Israel, even though David’s older brothers appeared to be more suited for the job. We challenged students to consider how they view themselves and others.