Yesterday we launched our after school club for children in school year 2 – year 6.
When we arrived we gathered together to have pancakes (as its Shrove Tuesday today), hot chocolate – with marshmallows! or milkshake. It was delicious!
We started the session with a question:
What does God look like?
We looked at some famous faces to see if we could tell who they were… can you guess?
What does God look like? – tricky hey!
So to help us understand the question we looked to the Bible. Our story came from the Old Testament with a story about Moses and a burning bush (Exodus 3: 1-15). We heard how God appeared to Moses like fire. But this doesn’t mean God always looks like fire. At other times God appeared to Moses as a cloud. What the Bible does tell us, though, is what God is like. By reading about God in the Bible we can know that he is a very caring and loving God.
We thought about different words we could use to describe what God is like. We thought about stories we’ve heard from the Bible, we thought about words used in songs that we sing in school and church – we even made up new words by blending two words together #incredamazing.
Using these words we drew a bush then splattered paint on them to create flames. Around our fantastic pieces of artwork we wrote some of the words and phrases to describe God.
(Click the images to view larger)
Next week we explore the question: How did God make people?
We continue with our series on ‘Songs to God’ looking at Psalm 20.
Psalm 20 is a prayer for victory, with the confident assurance that God will give it.
In this session we focus on ways in which our children can know that God is strong and ready to help us. This help will usually come through other people, but we can still praise God for his strength and care and learn to trust him to help us when we need it.
The praise march the younger children will take part in is simple yet its a good reminder for us as adults…
Praise God; He is strong!
He will help us all day long!
Praise God; He is king!
We trust Him for everything!
Praise God; we can pray!
He will help us every day!
Praise God; when things are tough;
We know God is strong enough!
Praise God; He is strong!
He will help us all day long!
Don’t forget we’re launching ‘Spotlight‘ our after school club Monday 27th February
We are so excited to be launching our after school club for children in Years 2 – 6.
Spotlight: Putting the spotlight on Jesus
We’ll be launching on Monday 27th February. For our first session we’ll be sharing some pancakes together as a welcome treat (Don’t forget – Shrove Tuesday the following day!).
The first 6 sessions we’ll be looking at a children’s discipleship course looking at the questions children may have about God, Jesus and The Bible. The 6 sessions will start with a question, that we will hopefully be able to answer at the end of the session!
We start with ‘What does God look like?’ Check back to the blog after the 27th Feb to see how we got on
This Sunday we begin a new series called ‘Songs to God’ where we’ll be looking at four Psalms.
The Psalms are rich and varied. Shouts of praise, expressions of confidence, cries of distress, prayers for help; all these and more can be found. They reflect the whole of life lived out in relationship with God. Sometimes, because they were written in a very different cultural setting, we find some ideas strange, but most of the time we find ourselves, our circumstances and our emotions mirrored here.
This week we look at Psalm 19. In this psalm, David writes about how all of creation tells of God’s great works. He created the world, and us, and so we should praise him. Likewise, God’s Word is perfect and gives us life (verse 7), this is mirrored by John’s writing about Jesus (the Word made flesh) in his Gospel. We should care about following him because he made us and cares for us. He loves us!
From this session we hope the children will understand that even though we’ve never seen God we can know about Him because of what He’s
made. We can look around and see how awesome He is.
The children will have the opportunity to be creative themselves. They could build something from construction or playdough (a BIG favourite here at ABC Kids), they could draw or create their own poem or song about God’s creation.
We love the song ‘Creator God‘ from Worship for Everyone so we’ll get the instruments out and praise God for all that He has created.
We end our series on ‘How should we pray?’ with Luke 18: 15-17
Let the Children Come to Me
15 Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 17 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
From this session we pray that the children will feel welcomed just as Jesus welcomed the children in the Bible story. Even though we cannot go to see Jesus in person, as the children in the story did, we are reminded that He is always with us and he loves to spend time with us each day.
For this session we would like the children to discover that God knows all about us. He knows us from the inside. With that in mind when we pray God wants us to be honest with Him. Based on Luke 18: 9-14 .
To demonstrate this we’ll have two boxes, one looking sparkly and pink in a prominent position and the other a rather tatty box which will be partially hidden. Inside the tatty box will be something really precious. The sparkly pink box will have a blank sheet of paper.
The children will hear how there is something special for them to see. A child will be invited to come and open the box to show everyone the contents. We won’t tell them which box to open but hopefully they’ll go straight for the sparkly box. When the contents are a disappointment we’ll show the children the tatty box which will have the precious item in there. The aim of this is to remind US that it wasn’t the outside that was important, but what was inside. Similarly, it’s not what we look like or how we behave on the outside that’s important. God knows that it is the real person who is inside us who is important. He knows what we are really like and we don’t need to pretend we are something else.
When you pray are you truly honest with God?
This week we’re having an All Age Worship. A time where we are one family of God, worshipping and learning together.
The theme for this service is ‘Listening to God’ based on 1 Samuel 3: 1-10
In the story, Samuel spent a lot of time listening to God. Initially he did not recognise God’s voice, but once he knew it was God speaking, he listened attentively. God spoke though Samuel to the people around him. In today’s world, life is often very busy, and it is sometimes hard to find time to sit and listen. We believe God still speaks to people today – in lots of different ways – but it is not always easy to hear his voice among all the other voices that surround us.
Following the time together we will be having a bring and share lunch. There’s always plenty to go around. Hope to see you there.