Mission Kids is our Wednesday Night Class for Pre-school through 5th Grade. We meet in the Family Life Center from 6:45 - 8:00 on Wednesday nights. We would love to have your kids in our classes!
Hello Mission Kids Parents!
We've been doing great with our Treasures of the Nile theme on Wednesday nights these past few weeks. Thank you so much to all of you that have volunteered and helped with the kids. The help is greatly appreciated!
We will wrap up Treasures of the Nile a few weeks early (tonight will be our last lesson in the series), and will be spending the month of July celebrating summer! We have lined up a ton of fun and exciting events for our kids. Check out this summer's schedule below:
Wednesday, July 1st - 4th of July Fun Night
We will learn about the armor of God and will celebrate our country. We will have hot dogs strawberry and grape slush drinks for snack. Donations of food/drinks will be appreciated.
Wednesday, July 8th - Open Gym Night
We will host the Mission Kids Games! Each class will learn about teamwork as they work together to complete an obstacle course and other fun games. Please make sure that your child wears appropriate shoes for the night's events. We will also have slush drinks (orange and grape), and you are welcome to send your child Gatorade. We will be in the gym, and it will be hot, but we will have water breaks and will have the fans on.
Wednesday, July 15th - Vacation Bible School! Camp Edge
Wednesday, July 22nd - Movie Night
We will try to beat the heat and get out of the gym tonight. We've been studying Moses in Treasures of the Nile, so we will be watching a cartoon movie about Moses. We will have popcorn and slush drinks. Again, donations will be appreciated.
Wednesday, July 29th - Puppet Show
We will have special guests, Puppets on the Rock, here to teach and entertain the kids.
We're really excited about all the fun activities we have planned for this summer. I will be posting photos of our events, so please get those photo release forms to me if you have not already. Thanks!
Showing posts with label Mission Kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mission Kids. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Let Us Love One Another
Have you ever noticed that God will send you the same message over and over again until you finally get it? For example, you might do your devotion for the day and read a scripture that really speaks to you. Then, later in the week, you run across the same scripture in your Sunday school class, then again in your Bible Study group, then again in your favorite online devotional blog, then you hear it on your favorite radio program...it just goes on and on.
Some people call it a coincidence, but I don't believe that it happens by chance. I know that it's God's perfect plan and that He puts these scriptures and messages in our lives and makes them unavoidable. He is so patient that He continues to feed us the same message over and over again until we finally say, "Okay, God, I get it. What do You want me to learn from this?" and let Him show us His perfect truth.
That's been happening to me lately. Last Wednesday night, the lesson that I taught was a familiar one - we studied about Pharaoh forcing the Israelites into slavery and learned that even when bad things happen we can still trust God because He sees what we go through and He has a plan. The lesson also pointed out that we should love one another and always treat people with kindness and love instead of being mean like Pharaoh. (I know this is kind of elementary, but I teach toddlers through fifth grade, so hang with me for a few minutes.)
Our memory verse (which I hope all the kids learned, because it's a really important one) was 1 John 4:7-8 - "Beloved, let us love one another: For love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love."
I typed that verse up to give out to my classes on Wednesday night, put it on our Mission Kids blog (check it out at http://www.ssfwbmissionkids.blogspot.com/) and even taught the kids a little song to help them remember the verse. Every week, when I give the kids a memory verse, I try my best to learn it and memorize it as well, but I had learned this verse when I was younger, so I just put it on the fridge for my brother to learn and didn't really look at it anymore.
Well, apparently, I hadn't learned my lesson to God's satisfaction, because He kept putting that verse in front of me all week. It popped up on my friends' facebook profiles, in the online devotions that I read, in my personal devotion, in a book that I was reading and on the radio show that I listen to every day.
But what lesson did I need to learn? Loving people is hard, but I already knew that I was supposed to treat people with love (and I try - I really do! My sarcastic streak makes it really hard sometimes, but I try nonetheless), so what was God trying to teach me?
When I finally said, "Okay, God. I get it. What do You want me to learn from this?", He started showing me.
I've been studying the Samaritan woman at the well (check out her story in John 4) and have been reading Paperdoll by Natalie Lloyd. One of the lessons in the book is about love. The Samaritan woman knew about love. She had been married five times and was living with a man that was not her husband. She had plenty of experience in love. She knew exactly what it was. Right?
Wrong. She thought she knew what love was. To her, it was just an emotion. Something that she used to fill the void in her life. She was so desperate for real love that she filled her longing with an artificial, pop-culture, made up version of love. She looked for love in all the wrong places, and all the wrong faces (sounds like a country song, right?). But that day at the well, she learned what LOVE really was.
She learned that she was worthy of love -
How many of you know a Samaritan woman? I'm not talking about a person that was born in Samaria, I'm talking about an outcast. An outsider. Someone that is living on the edge and desperately longing to be on the inside. Someone that has no self-esteem. Someone that had been beat up and defeated by the cruelties of this world. She avoids your gaze, she walks down the hallway alone, she carries around her broken heart and searches every face for any semblance of acceptance and love.
Guess what? She is worthy of love. So are you. So am I. God lovingly created each of us. He placed a longing in our hearts to love and be loved. The Samaritan woman had been passing out her heart to every person that would take it, hoping that someone would finally take care of her and her heart and love her the way she so desperately wanted and needed to be loved.
That modern day Samaritan woman that you know? She's the same way. She needs to be loved. And since Jesus isn't walking around on the earth in human form anymore to meet her at her modern day well and show her what love is, it's up to us to do it. He told us in John 15:15-17, "Henceforth, I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, that ye love one another."
Jesus came to earth and suffered and died to save us. Now, He wants us to go tell the world what He did. It's up to us to show them what His love looks like. The Samaritan woman was worthy of love. Jesus showed her love. We should do the same for those modern-day Samaritans.
She learned that she should love herself -
Do you have a healthy self-esteem? As women, we all struggle with body image. We all struggle with loving ourselves. The Samaritan woman was no different. She definitely struggled with her own self-worth. This is evident from her past. She had been married five times and when she met Jesus at the well, she was living with a man that was not her husband. She used men and their empty promises of love and affection to feel like she was special and worthy of being loved.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 says, "Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and you are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."
The Samaritan woman was trapped in sin because she didn't understand how special she was. She didn't love herself, and she allowed people to use her and mistreat her. When she met Jesus and He told her all the things she had ever done and showed her what love really was, she finally got it. She was not only worthy of love, she was allowed to love herself. She was Created by God and was loved by Him, and she was His temple.
Do you love yourself? Do you treat yourself like a temple of the Lord, or do you allow your body to be used and abused by yourself and others?
She learned that she should love others -
After the Samaritan woman spoke with Jesus at the well, the first thing she did was run throughout the streets and tell others about Him and all the wonderful things He had done for her. She was so excited about sharing His love and His message with others that she left her water pot at the well and ran through the streets. The men in the village thought she was crazy!
How excited do we get about sharing God's love today? I'm afraid we've lost that excitement that the Samaritan woman had. After she learned that she was worthy of love and that she could love herself, she couldn't wait to share that love with others.
She wasn't instantly a Bible scholar. She didn't instantly gain all knowledge and understanding of what had just happened to her at the well, but she did know this: she had finally filled that void in her life and there was a fountain of living water springing up in her soul and it was overflowing and she HAD to share it!
"As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." Proverbs 25:25 She had good news - she had been thirsty and now she was filled. And she knew the Man that could fill others that were thirsting.
So, "Beloved, let us love one another." We are all worthy of love, we are all loved by the Father, and we all have love to share.
Some people call it a coincidence, but I don't believe that it happens by chance. I know that it's God's perfect plan and that He puts these scriptures and messages in our lives and makes them unavoidable. He is so patient that He continues to feed us the same message over and over again until we finally say, "Okay, God, I get it. What do You want me to learn from this?" and let Him show us His perfect truth.
That's been happening to me lately. Last Wednesday night, the lesson that I taught was a familiar one - we studied about Pharaoh forcing the Israelites into slavery and learned that even when bad things happen we can still trust God because He sees what we go through and He has a plan. The lesson also pointed out that we should love one another and always treat people with kindness and love instead of being mean like Pharaoh. (I know this is kind of elementary, but I teach toddlers through fifth grade, so hang with me for a few minutes.)
Our memory verse (which I hope all the kids learned, because it's a really important one) was 1 John 4:7-8 - "Beloved, let us love one another: For love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love."
I typed that verse up to give out to my classes on Wednesday night, put it on our Mission Kids blog (check it out at http://www.ssfwbmissionkids.blogspot.com/) and even taught the kids a little song to help them remember the verse. Every week, when I give the kids a memory verse, I try my best to learn it and memorize it as well, but I had learned this verse when I was younger, so I just put it on the fridge for my brother to learn and didn't really look at it anymore.
Well, apparently, I hadn't learned my lesson to God's satisfaction, because He kept putting that verse in front of me all week. It popped up on my friends' facebook profiles, in the online devotions that I read, in my personal devotion, in a book that I was reading and on the radio show that I listen to every day.
But what lesson did I need to learn? Loving people is hard, but I already knew that I was supposed to treat people with love (and I try - I really do! My sarcastic streak makes it really hard sometimes, but I try nonetheless), so what was God trying to teach me?
When I finally said, "Okay, God. I get it. What do You want me to learn from this?", He started showing me.
I've been studying the Samaritan woman at the well (check out her story in John 4) and have been reading Paperdoll by Natalie Lloyd. One of the lessons in the book is about love. The Samaritan woman knew about love. She had been married five times and was living with a man that was not her husband. She had plenty of experience in love. She knew exactly what it was. Right?
Wrong. She thought she knew what love was. To her, it was just an emotion. Something that she used to fill the void in her life. She was so desperate for real love that she filled her longing with an artificial, pop-culture, made up version of love. She looked for love in all the wrong places, and all the wrong faces (sounds like a country song, right?). But that day at the well, she learned what LOVE really was.
She learned that she was worthy of love -
How many of you know a Samaritan woman? I'm not talking about a person that was born in Samaria, I'm talking about an outcast. An outsider. Someone that is living on the edge and desperately longing to be on the inside. Someone that has no self-esteem. Someone that had been beat up and defeated by the cruelties of this world. She avoids your gaze, she walks down the hallway alone, she carries around her broken heart and searches every face for any semblance of acceptance and love.
Guess what? She is worthy of love. So are you. So am I. God lovingly created each of us. He placed a longing in our hearts to love and be loved. The Samaritan woman had been passing out her heart to every person that would take it, hoping that someone would finally take care of her and her heart and love her the way she so desperately wanted and needed to be loved.
That modern day Samaritan woman that you know? She's the same way. She needs to be loved. And since Jesus isn't walking around on the earth in human form anymore to meet her at her modern day well and show her what love is, it's up to us to do it. He told us in John 15:15-17, "Henceforth, I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, that ye love one another."
Jesus came to earth and suffered and died to save us. Now, He wants us to go tell the world what He did. It's up to us to show them what His love looks like. The Samaritan woman was worthy of love. Jesus showed her love. We should do the same for those modern-day Samaritans.
She learned that she should love herself -
Do you have a healthy self-esteem? As women, we all struggle with body image. We all struggle with loving ourselves. The Samaritan woman was no different. She definitely struggled with her own self-worth. This is evident from her past. She had been married five times and when she met Jesus at the well, she was living with a man that was not her husband. She used men and their empty promises of love and affection to feel like she was special and worthy of being loved.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 says, "Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and you are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."
The Samaritan woman was trapped in sin because she didn't understand how special she was. She didn't love herself, and she allowed people to use her and mistreat her. When she met Jesus and He told her all the things she had ever done and showed her what love really was, she finally got it. She was not only worthy of love, she was allowed to love herself. She was Created by God and was loved by Him, and she was His temple.
Do you love yourself? Do you treat yourself like a temple of the Lord, or do you allow your body to be used and abused by yourself and others?
She learned that she should love others -
After the Samaritan woman spoke with Jesus at the well, the first thing she did was run throughout the streets and tell others about Him and all the wonderful things He had done for her. She was so excited about sharing His love and His message with others that she left her water pot at the well and ran through the streets. The men in the village thought she was crazy!
How excited do we get about sharing God's love today? I'm afraid we've lost that excitement that the Samaritan woman had. After she learned that she was worthy of love and that she could love herself, she couldn't wait to share that love with others.
She wasn't instantly a Bible scholar. She didn't instantly gain all knowledge and understanding of what had just happened to her at the well, but she did know this: she had finally filled that void in her life and there was a fountain of living water springing up in her soul and it was overflowing and she HAD to share it!
"As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." Proverbs 25:25 She had good news - she had been thirsty and now she was filled. And she knew the Man that could fill others that were thirsting.
So, "Beloved, let us love one another." We are all worthy of love, we are all loved by the Father, and we all have love to share.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Through the eyes of a child
"The LORD has done GREAT things for us and our HEARTS are filled with JOY!" Psalm 126:3 (NIV)
Every Wednesday night, before we begin class, I line up all the kids (usually between 30-40 from 2 years to 5th grade) and let them tell me prayer requests and praise items.
They always amaze me! They can't wait to share stories about the things that are happening in their lives, and they give God credit for every little thing that they enjoy - from playing a baseball game with their mom that afternoon to getting to go to the mall and have a cookie for snack.
Kids are so wonderful. They are completely honest and they find beauty and wonder in the simplest things. I wish that I was still that innocent and that open to seeing God working around me.
Jesus instructed us to keep a childlike faith in Mark 10:14-15. "But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." (Also see Matthew 18:2-4)
Think about what life could be like if you looked through the eyes of a child...they see past the piles of laundry and stacks of mail and scattered toys on the carpet. They see wonder in the clouds and hear music when the birds sing. They see love in the tiniest actions. They see joy in a lollipop and adventure in a walk through the woods.
Take some time to see your life through the eyes of a child. God has done great things for you, and He wants to show you all that He's done.
Will you open your eyes and let joy fill your heart?
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