30 Hour Famine 2014

Our youth group will be participating in the 30-hour famine on April 25-26, 2014. This year's theme is RELEASE THE FEAST! Here is a brief snippet from the leader's manual that puts into words why we do this each year better than I ever could:

Did you know hunger is also a justice issue? That's because kingdom justice involves the whole person and their relationship to God, other people, and their own body- and going hungry when there's enough food in the world falls into the "that's just not right" category. 

Visit 30hourfamine.org for more information! And here are a few pictures of the last couple of years.

Our Break-the-Fast 2013. We raised $1,100, which is enough to feed a child living in poverty for more than 2 years. Our goal this year is $1,300.

Our First Fast in 2012. We had 14 students and 3 adults participate.

Week 8: Feb 23

Our theme for February is "Jesus Shows Us How to Love"

Week 8- Jesus Talks to Nicodemus: What You Can Say to a Friend (John 3:1-21)

I had planned on having the kids make friendship bracelets (with the popular loom band craze going on right now) and brainstorm ways that we can be good friends and how to encourage others, but instead I'm going to do the lesson that we missed when it snowed back in January, since it was prepared and has been sitting there, waiting for me to use it for a month now. So instead of Nicodemus, we'll be talking about how Jesus faced temptation when he was on this earth, and how we face temptation today. I will still try to toss in a few lines about how sometimes it's tempting to not be a good friend (gossiping, tattling, etc.) just so it won't be completely skipped over. 

Amended Week 8 (As planned for Week 3)-Jesus Faced Temptation, Just Like Us (Matt. 4:1-11)

All of us make mistakes; nobody is perfect. No one in the history of the world has EVER been sinless... except for Jesus. This is a main part of today's lesson. But even though we are going to slip up, we don't have to knowingly do things we shouldn't. 

To hep get this lesson across, I'm going to start out by giving students a fun size pack of m&ms or skittles. I'll tell them not to open/eat any while I'm handing them out. Then I'll ask them if they want to eat it (sorry, you can't!), Then I'll let them open the bag and pour them into their hands. I'll ask again (nope, not yet!). I'll tell them to smell the candy in their hand. Did any of them stick out their tongue for a quick lick?

Ask them if they can eat the candy (No). Why not? (Because you told us not to). Some kids might have by this point. Don't fuss... just continue the lesson. Talk a few minutes about how good M&ms taste and how they are messy if they stand in your hand too long, and how you love the feeling of them on your tongue, etc... Then tell them you'll be right back. Step out of the room for about 10 seconds. When you come back in, see if anyone has eaten their m&ms. Ask them if they like waiting and having to follow directions. Say something like, "Even though you know you're going to get to eat them eventually, it's really hard to not eat them right now, isn't it? Even if you're not supposed to. That's called temptation. Temptation is when you want to do something that you know is wrong."

Let them eat their candy as you tell students that Jesus faced temptation, just like we do today. I like to paraphrase the Bible stories so they'll flow better for little ears to hear. I'll type up the story the way I want, then print it out and stick it in my Bible, so it will give the appearance I'm reading from the Bible. This is a great example for kids to learn that reading the Bible is important and we learn about Jesus by studying the Bible. (Paraphrase below)

After reading the story, hand out the chart to each child, along with a pencil. Have them fill out the chart as you go over each thing Satan said, as well as Jesus' reply. Go into discussion here and answer any questions the kids might have about what each means. Here is what my chart looks like.

The Verses: 
Matthew chapter 4, we'll start with verse 1. When Jesus was an adult, he went into the wilderness and was tempted by the devil. He fasted, which means he didn't eat for 40 days and nights. He was VERY hungry. While he was there, the devil came to Him. He pointed to a pile of rocks and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread." 

That was temptation. Jesus was very hungry and would have enjoyed eating bread, but he knew he was supposed to be fasting and it would go against the fasting rules to eat. What do you think He did? Let's see.

Verse 4. But Jesus told him, "No! People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." Jesus knew that even though he was hungry, it was more important that He listen to God. 

Just like when I told you not to eat candy, you knew it was important to listen to your teacher, even if you really wanted to eat it without permission. Let's keep going.

Verse 5. Then the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, to the very top of the Temple.

The temple is what the jews call their church. Could you imagine standing on the roof of our church? 

Anyway, verse 6. The devil said, "If you really are the Son of God, then jump off! You'll have angels to protect you, right? You won't get hurt!" But Jesus said, "You should not test the Lord your God." 

This meant that even though God can perform miracles, we shouldn't put ourselves in dangerous situations and expect God to protect us. We shouldn't pray for God to keep us in the car instead of using a seat belt. We have seat belts to protect us. We shouldn't jump off a roof and expect God to keep us from breaking a leg. Even though God could keep us from breaking it, that's not His job! We have to use good sense and not put ourselves in tempting situations.

The last temptation was when the devil took Jesus to the top of a very high mountain. He showed him all the kingdoms of the world and all of their fancy things. The devil said, "I will give it all to you, Jesus, if you will kneel down and worship me." But Jesus was too smart for that! He said, "Get out of here, Satan! The Scriptures say, 'You must worship the Lord your God and serve only Him." Then the devil finally went away and angels came and took care of Jesus.

What do you think that lesson could teach us? Even though there are lots of fabulous things in this world (like money and nice clothes and big tv's), we need to make sure we are worshipping and serving God and not any of those other things. If we spend more time playing video games than we do learning about God, which are we serving? This is a big temptation for lots of people. It's easy to put other things ahead of God, but Jesus shows us that if we obey and worship God, then He will take care of us. Not because we listen to our friends, and not because we put ourselves in dangerous situations, and definitely not if we care about things more than we care about God, but because He loves us very much and wants us to listen and obey Him.

Here are a couple completed story maps and the kids who made them!

Week 7: Feb 16

Our theme for February is "Jesus Shows Us How to Love"

Week 7- Jesus Cleaned the Temple: How Do We Clean Up? (John 2:13-22)

Sorry! I couldn't resist. I saw this on Pinterest ages ago and now every time I think of this story in John 2 I can't help but picture Jesus doing this... 

Anyway, this week's lesson is following the theme of Jesus showing us how to love. Sometimes He does this by loving us sweetly, and sometimes he uses a tough-love approach. 

For this lesson, I have a small spritzer bottle (courtesy of oriental trading) for each of my kiddos. I'll start off by telling them this story:

Jesus and his friends went to the big city of Jerusalem for Passover. While He was walking around the temple, He saw some things He didn't like! In the temple area there were merchants selling the cattle, sheep, and doves for people to buy for their sacrifices. He also saw them exchanging foreign money. Jesus was very upset! The temple was supposed to be a holy place, like our church is today. With all of those people acting like it was a marketplace, they certainly weren't treating it holy.

The rules back then were a bit different in the temple than they are in our churches today. Remember how in the Old Testament people sacrificed animals? Well, until Jesus was crucified and resurrected that was still one way we communicated with God. People were coming from all over to the temple for Passover and had to purchase animals to sacrificed. 

The problem was that the merchants- those set up in the temple area- were selling the animals for much more money than they should have, because they were greedy. Jesus thought they were basically stealing, since they were taking more money than they should. They also took more money than they should when they were exchanging the visitors' money for what was allowed in the temple. 

What does 'holy' mean? Why was the Temple holy?
What part of our church do you think is most holy? (The sanctuary)
How can we keep our sanctuary holy? (By not bringing in food or drink, don't spill things or leave papers or other messes, don't run around, don't jump on the altar/stage area, etc.)

Jesus is really upset. What do you think He might do?

Let's see, Verse 15. Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased the merchants out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers' coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. 

Wow! I did not see that coming! Did you?

Then, He went over to the people who sold the doves. He said, "Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father's house into a marketplace!" 

Why do you think it made Jesus so upset to see people treat the Temple in an unholy way?
Do you think it was a good thing for Jesus to do?
Did it work?

Usually, we can ask our friends nicely to not bring snacks into the sanctuary, and we can remind our family members to pick up everything off the benches before they leave, but Jesus didn't ask nicely. Jesus told them to leave. Why do you think He did that?

While Jesus was clearing the temple, his disciples remembered in the Old Testament, in the book of Psalms, 69:9 it says something like, "Passion for God's house will consume me." Jesus' friends realized that this was a really big deal. Jesus went on to prove that it wasn't the building itself that was important, though, He says, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up!" Jesus was no longer talking about the temple He was clearing, He meant His own body. 

We need to make sure we clean up not just our church, but our lives, too. That can be kind of confusing. I mean that on one hand, it is very important to keep our church well-maintained. We try to dress nice and not leave messes because we are in God's house and it is a holy place. We are being respectful by keeping it clean. On the other hand, Jesus is also saying we need to make sure our lives are clean. 

If Jesus is in your heart, do you want Him to have a clean, holy place in there, or a dirty, stinky one? We can keep our hearts clean by studying our Bible to learn more, praying and talking to Jesus often, being nice to others, and many other things. Or we can keep our hearts dirty by not thinking about God except during church time, by being mean to others and being disrespectful. 

To end this lesson, I will write each student's name on a spritzer bottle and let them decorate it with Jesus-themed stickers. Each bottle will have a 1/2 water, 1/2 vinegar mixture so that each student can help clean our church tables. I will have lots of rags (cut into fourths) provided, as well as a few bottles of just water for the smaller children.

The kids had a GREAT time decorating their bottles and helping clean God's house! (They cleaned their spot at the tables before eating snack.)

Valentine Movie Night

Just a reminder, friends, that we'll be having MOVIE NIGHT at church from 6-9pm this Friday. Parents, drop your kids off and go have dinner. We'll fill them up with popcorn and candy bars for 3 hours. Maybe we'll even fit in a game or craft, depending on how much time we have! Kids of all ages are welcome!

Due to snow we have rescheduled MOVIE NIGHT for February 28, from 6-9. Hope to see you there!

Week 6: Feb 9

Our theme for February is "Jesus Shows Us How to Love"

Week 6- Oh, How He Loves Us! (Special Valentine's Day Lesson)

This week we talked about the different ways Jesus shows us love, and how we can show each other love. Since Valentine's Day is this Friday, we made Jesus Valentines to show how much we love Him, too! We made a Valentine Wreath with a cute poem in the middle for Jesus.

We read through the poem together and discussed what each part meant. It's sometimes easy to forget that our kids don't know what "laying [prayers] at Jesus' feet" means, so we talked about each phrase. 

1. What is a Valentine?
2. Why would I want Jesus to be my Valentine?
3. How does Jesus make our lives complete?
4. How can I lay my cares at Jesus' feet? What should we do when we have a worry or a prayer?
5. What kinds of blessings does Jesus give us?
6. How is Jesus' love for us different than our love for ice cream? Or our pets? Or even our moms and dads? 


The final product:

You can tell that I didn't make them use the directions in attaching their hearts. They could do whatever they wanted, as long as the words were shown. We used tacky glue (I recommend Oriental Trading's Fabulous Foam Glue over the gold-Aleen tacky glue you can find in most stores- they're usually too thick for the kids to be able to use properly) to attach the hearts however they wanted around the edge, after gluing the ribbon on first. 

We finished the morning with a wonderful prayer by Brynson and delicious chips! Each kiddo also got to take home (or eat!) a Valentine cake to celebrate the holiday. 

Week 5: Feb 2

Our theme for February is "Jesus Shows Us How to Love"

Week 5- Jesus Heals the Sick: What You Can Do (Matt. 4:23-25, Mark 1:29-39, Luke 4:31-44)

I plan to begin this lesson by students brainstorming anyone they know who is sick. It could be an older relative in a nursing home, a friend with a broken arm, or even a mom with the sniffles. Each person can write down someone's name on a piece of poster board. A volunteer will pray that God will be with everyone who is on the paper. 

Then I'll start asking questions:
1. What types of sicknesses are there?
2. What makes people sick?
3. Think about the last time you were sick- how did you feel?
4. What can you do for someone when they're sick?

*Just a note, because demon-possession can be EXTREMELY scary to a small child, and in my case I can't sit around to answer everyone's questions and quell everyone's fears, I leave that specific part out and just go with "sick people." If you're in a small group (or with your own child) and you feel like you can talk to your kids about it without creating the fear inside of them that the devil could crawl inside of them (trust me... this is where you even mentioning it will lead their little brains, no matter what else you say while talking), then you might wish to add that part.* 

Over the last few weeks we've explored how amazing our God is. We learned how when Jesus was a kid he learned all He could at the temple... He was proud to be a follower of God. We talked about how Jesus showed us how to be baptized so that we can show others we are proud to be followers of God, also. Last week we were reminded that Jesus wants us to go share the Good News with others. We can share the Good News of Christ Jesus with others, even if they're under the weather. Our sharing is nothing like Jesus', though. Listen to what He did!

(paraphrase) I'm going to read you guys a few verses from the book of Matthew. Chapter 4, verses 23-25: "Jesus traveled and taught all around Galilee. He healed every kind of disease and illness. People heard about this and began bringing everyone they knew that were sick. Jesus healed all of them!"

That's pretty amazing, isn't it? Jesus was able to actually heal- or fix- everyone that came to Him. In the book of Mark it says that Jesus healed Simon's mother-in-law. Do you remember Simon from last week? He left his fishing boat to follow Jesus. His wife's mom was sick with a terrible fever and Jesus healed her! Anyway, after He healed people in one area, He would go somewhere else to preach and heal people. In the book of Luke, chapter 4 it even says that Jesus told everyone, "I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God in other towns, too, because that is why I was sent." 

I'm going to give each of you a small bag and some stickers. Before you start to decorate your bag with stickers, I want you to write a message to someone that is sick. It can be simple on one side, like "Get Well Soon." 

-What would be something good to say on the other side?
-Jesus said "I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God." Even though we can't heal the sick people we know, what good news can we give them?
-Why do you think Jesus healed people?
-God wants us to pray for people who are sick. How come?
-What do you think is more important, healing someone's body when they are sick, or sharing the Good News of Jesus with them? Why is the Good News so important?

While the kids are decorating their bags with stickers and messages of God's love, I'm going to set up stations. Each station will have something that students can add to their Get Well Bags. I'll introduce everyone to each station and tell them what to do, and we'll rotate in small groups so that everyone will reach each station in an organized manner.

My stations:
1. Band-aids- Put 2 bandaids in your Get Well bag.
2. Tissues- Put 1 small pack of tissues in your bag.
3. Gum- Put 1 pack of gum in the bag. You choose the flavor.
4. Hand Sanitizer- Put a small bottle in your bag.
5. Candy- Choose 3 pieces of candy to put in the bag. You choose the flavor.
6. Chapstick- Put 1 tube of chapstick in the bag. You choose the flavor.
7. Card- Write your name on the card and put in the bag.

Once the bags are finished, we will fold the tops over and hole punch a spot to tie a ribbon. Staples would work fine, too. 

Now the most important instructions- Find someone who is sick to give your Get Well Bag to! Maybe you can ask a parent to take you to a nursing home. Perhaps your grandmother has been feeling under the weather. The main thing is that we're being disciples by sharing the Good News of Jesus with others, while also providing them small comforts. Be sure to tell them that no matter what, the bag is only to be opened by someone who is TRULY  sick... not just them trading with a friend ;-).