Blankets and God's Family

This week in vacation church school, we will be learning about our Church School mission project, supporting Church World Service in Blanket Sunday. 

We will be learning more about what Church World Service does, how we as the church help support people in need around the world, and how the children can help.

As part of the lesson, we will be spending time with a teaching of Jesus in Matthew 25:34-40

In this teaching, the people stand before the king, not knowing what to expect. The king says to the people, "Come into the kingdom, for I was hungry and you gave me food, thirsty and you gave me something to drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me." The people are very confused, and say to the king that they never saw him hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked or sick! The king replies "Just as you did this to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me."

We as the church are called to respond to the needs around us and all over the world, as all people are member's of God's family. In church school, we will talk about many of the ways that we can respond to the need's of God's children all over.

Family Discussion: The kids will have learned a lot today about things that CWS supports. You can ask about what they've learned. How do you as a family support the needs of others, "the least of these" who are members of God's family?

For next week: Children are invited to bring a blanket from home for "show and tell" on blanket Sunday.

Inside church school chapel: The Offering

The Third Grade class lead us this week in responding to the word, and invited the children of the church to write or draw their joys and concerns to share. 

We learned about how joys were something that made you happy, something that you were grateful for, or something that we wanted to thank God for. We heard about some great friends, gratitude for food and shelter, sports teams that were in championships, and loved parents.

We also learned about concerns: things we were worried about. Some of the concerns were for big things happening in the world, for family members who were sick, and also some movies that were scary.

The third graders gave out paper and pencils for all of the children of the church to write or draw their joys and concerns and then collected them all in the offering plates. We ended with prayer as we lifted all of the joys and concerns of the children up to God and placed them up on the alter to entrust to God's loving care.

Thank you to teachers Peggy and Mary Jo and all of the third graders who lead us in prayer.

Inside the classroom: Good Sam I am (6th Grade)

This week in chapel, our sixth graders lead us in "the Word"--the middle section of worship that includes scripture and a response to scripture. The 6th grade taught us about the parable of the Good Samaritan.

The Sixth graders started with two teams on the soccer field with one unjust injury (and you should have heard the Kindergarteners around me gasp!). Several of the injured players teammates walked by or pretended not to notice. Finally, a player on the opposing team, came over to help the injured player up and get them to help.  Mr. Grant closed our work by reading from the Bible the story of the Good Samaritan 

Inside the classroom: "Daily Bread"--1/2nd Grade

This Sunday, three individual classes lead the church school in worship and we hope to give you a peak into both the final product and some of the thought that went into the kid's creation.

The 1/2nd grade class lead the group in a prayer that they had created based on their study of the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)throughout the year. When talking about the phrase "give us this day our daily bread," Kate lead the class in a discussion of what is our "daily bread?" The children came up with a wide list, of everything from shelter to love to special people in your life.

In a follow-up class, they discussed the story of Jesus inviting disciples to be "fishers of people" (Luke 5: 1-11). Since Jesus didn't really intend for the disciples to cast rods to catch people, the class talked about these needs--our daily bread--as "how we fish for people" with acts of kindness and love. The class then worked very hard to write and practice over the next few weeks, and last Sunday they lead the church school in this wonderful prayer:

We pray to God for Everyone to

Be Safe

Have Food

Have Clothes

Have Shelter

Have Fun and Laughter

Have a Helping Hand

Have Friendship

Have Love

Take Care of Nature

Have Faith

Love Jesus

Amen

And all the people say "Amen!"

 Thank you so much to Kate, Sarah, Danielle, and Ann for your thoughtful and creative teaching in our 1/2nd grade class.

Discussion for Families: What are the things that make up our "daily bread"? What are the needs (physical, spiritual and emotional) that we need filled every day? How can we help to be "daily bread" for those around us?

Middle School Youth Group

The Middle School Youth Group has a lot of fun and projects on Thursday afternoons.

Pictured here with "the assembly line of teamwork and love."

Lead by the valiant Liza (above) and Andrea (not pictured).

And with many a game of dodgeball ;-). You can see what they are working on in these pictures on Sunday!