Sandy Balocca

Personal History

Sandy trusted in Christ as her Savior after attending a Youth for Christ event when she was a senior in high school. About a year later she was introduced to Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) and the idea of teaching children the Bible and giving them the opportunity to trust Christ as Savior. After leading a child to Christ at the Shawnee County Fair she was hooked on teaching children about God.

She taught elementary vocal music in Topeka for 6 years before accepting a full time position with CEF. She served as a missionary for 15 years in Kansas and the Middle East. She was stationed on the island of Cyprus and traveled into several Muslim countries training Christian leaders and teaching children about Christ. She returned to Topeka and began her ministry to children through TBC in July of 1993.

Ministry Responsibilities

I came to TBC in July of 1993. I was first hired part time to get the 11:00 Sunday school hour staffed and ready to start in September of '93. In March of 1994 I was hired full-time to be in charge of the children's Sunday school classes. Soon the nurseries were added to my responsibilities; VBS and Pioneer Club followed soon after. I also taught the children at Family Camp and helped with Kids Choir. In later years the nursery and Kids Choir were deleted from my responsibilities and A2, Planet 56 parties, Golf Camp and Tennis camp were added in addition to the kids Sunday school, Pioneer Club, Family Camp and VBS.

Some of her responsibilities include recruiting and training the Children's Ministry staff, choosing and purchasing all material that is used in the programs, safety for all of the children, purchasing supplies for all of the classrooms and programs, maintaining updated databases with important information on the staff and children, evaluating current programs and creating new programs, maintaining the video library for kids, assisting the Children's Ministry staff and parents as needed, etc.

Education

Bachelor of Music (B.M.) in Music Education from Washburn University (1974); Child Evangelism Fellowship Leadership Training Institute.

Family

Sandy was born in Topeka and spent her childhood in Redlands, California before moving back to Topeka in the 7th grade. She is the oldest of 3 daughters. As a child she spent a lot of time outdoors. In her last year of college her parents and sisters moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. Her youngest sister and her family live in Fresno, California. Her other sister and family live in Cobble Hill, British Columbia. Sandy has 6 nieces and nephews. Her father passed away in 1993 and her mother passed away in 2007 and she misses them a lot.

Interesting Tidbits

Sandy is single, never been married, and available; although, she claims about 500 TBC kids as her own. Any future husband will need to love kids. Her hobbies include playing around on the piano and violin, walking while listening to her MP3 player (favorite songs include "Healing Rain" and "We Are the Dinosaurs"), reading mysteries by her favorite author Mary Higgins-Clark, playing video games of which "Mario Kart" is her favorite, and playing with her pet guinea pig named Lacey. One of her passions is studying the Bible and learning new things.