Wired for Worship: Week Six

With Advent coming up the following week, last Sunday was our last lesson on worship. The kids really seemed to love the unit, and we loved teaching it. So our last week, we went back to Jesus and focused on what Jesus has to do with worship. The topic was communion, which is a little tricky to explain to kids... Okay, very tricky. Symbolism doesn't quite grab their fancies.

Thanksgiving was coming up that Thursday, so we did a little Thanksgiving review. The kids were all wondering what in the world Pilgrims and Native Americans had to do with Jesus, I'm sure. We talked about how there was one big Thanksgiving meal years and years ago, to celebrate the Pilgrims and Native Americans meeting together. Then, every year since then, we've all sat down as a family and filled our faces with stuffing and turkey and casseroles--as a reminder of what the first Thanksgiving was like. This was the perfect tie in to Jesus.

I asked the kids what meal they had every week at church. Communion eventually came out of the crowd, and we talked about how the first time Jesus and his disciples had the Last Supper was very special, and that it was a passover event. Jesus held up the wine and the bread. We talked about what the wine and the bread symbolized. Jesus' blood shed for us, and His body broken for us. I asked the kids why Jesus' blood was shed for us, and His body was broken for us. SIN. Then I drew their attention to a little chalice up at the front I'd drawn. It was empty, and next to it was a piece of bread. I had all of the kids call out sins they'd committed, and we wrote them inside the chalice. There were a lot of sins. But what did those have to do with Jesus? Why did Jesus have to die for our sins?

We use the analogy of cleaning. When Mom mops the floor, she tells you not to go on it, you might get it dirty. Because as soon as your dirty feet touch the clean floor, it's no longer clean. We talked about how God is that way. If we touch him with our dirtiness, God is no longer clean. But the difference is that God is unable to be unclean. If God wasn't clean, He wouldn't be God. So instead, we're kept at a distance in our dirtiness. But what happened was that Jesus shed his blood, and his blood covered us, so that we can be clean with God, who is also clean. Then we colored in the wine on the chalice, over the sins. The sins were no longer visible. That's how Jesus' blood was shed for us.

We read 1 Corinthians 11:26-28.

"For whenever you eat this bread or drink this cup, you are proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes. Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before eating the bread or drinking the cup."

Taking it verse by verse, we talked about what it means to be "proclaiming the Lord's death". The kids were all pretty quick at this one, which surprised me. The simple idea was that we're telling everyone that Jesus shed his blood and broke his body for us. Then we talked about what an "unworthy manner" could be. This one took a bit of work. But we talked about how Jesus did this FOR us, and how communion is more of an exchange than anything else. When we go up to drink the wine and eat the bread, what we're doing is giving Jesus our sins, and taking the body and blood he gives back to us. If we don't give Jesus our sins when we go up, we're going up in an unworthy manner, and we're taking from the Lord without giving anything. That's why we need to examine ourselves and give our sins to God when we go up there.

Leading from there out, we talked about how communion is an act of worship. Because Jesus died for our sins, the way that we thank him is by actually taking what he gave us. How would you feel if you gave somebody a present and they didn't take it, they just gave it back to you and didn't want it? You would feel hurt. That's what we do to Jesus if we don't take the body and blood that he gave for us. And we give him our sins in exchange for it. One of the kids mentioned that everything we do with God is a give and take, and how worship is like that too. Worship always starts with God giving us something. It never starts with us. It's ALWAYS our response to God. And so when God gave His son for us, we respond in thanking him by taking what He gave us, and giving Him what he wants. Cleanliness. And the whole reason he wants cleanliness is so we can be with Him.

We did the Hot Seat again that week, and it was really wonderful some of the things the kids said. I have the audio clips of it, but I need to figure out how to post them. Here's one from the week before, though.

The question was "What is worship?"

Child: It's like, a relationship.
Amanda: How do you think God feels when we worship him?
Child: I think he feels glad, and happy...
Amanda: How do you feel?
Child: It makes me feel glad that I did it.

Reminder: Christmas Unwrapped rehearsals are every Wednesday night from 6:30-7:30ish, and Sundays at 10:30 (between the services.) The actual event is on Sunday, December 13th at 6 PM.

A Letter to Non-Christians

Shane Claiborne wrote books like "The Irresistible Revolution" and "Jesus For President", and was just published in the December/Christmas edition of Esquire, which is pretty cool. I read what he wrote, which is basically a letter to non-Christians and found it really interesting some of the things he said. And I agree with him on most points (I hesitate to say all until I've really read it all and prayed through it and thought about it). I think it's an important reminder to us Christians that when people first called followers of Jesus "Christians", it wasn't a compliment, it was an insult. Sometimes I think it's still that way today. We're following a Jesus who was spit on, mocked, and hated because he preached love and joy and peace to people that the rest of the world hated, ridiculed and spat on. Jesus wasn't clean cut, and he wasn't wearing polo shirts and jeans to church on Sundays. He was the homeless, raggedy man on the side of the road with nothing to eat, no rock on which to lay his head, and his whole ministry was preaching to those like him about the greatness of God's kingdom, and preaching to those "above" him about the greatness they were missing out on. So often, we Christians forget about this, and we forget to live into the CHRIST part of our name. So maybe this Christmas season instead of focusing on the love and joy and peace that Christ brought to people like us (the modern-day Levites, Pharisees, Sadducees, you name us), we should focus on bringing that love, joy, and peace to the people that Christ lived and breathed with while he was on earth. Those most like him, with no place to lay their head and no food in their stomachs.

http://www.esquire.com/features/best-and-brightest-2009/shane-claiborne-1209

Cut and pasted for your convenience:

To all my nonbelieving, sort-of-believing, and used-to-be-believing friends: I feel like I should begin with a confession. I am sorry that so often the biggest obstacle to God has been Christians. Christians who have had so much to say with our mouths and so little to show with our lives. I am sorry that so often we have forgotten the Christ of our Christianity.

Forgive us. Forgive us for the embarrassing things we have done in the name of God.

The other night I headed into downtown Philly for a stroll with some friends from out of town. We walked down to Penn's Landing along the river, where there are street performers, artists, musicians. We passed a great magician who did some pretty sweet tricks like pour change out of his iPhone, and then there was a preacher. He wasn't quite as captivating as the magician. He stood on a box, yelling into a microphone, and beside him was a coffin with a fake dead body inside. He talked about how we are all going to die and go to hell if we don't know Jesus.

Some folks snickered. Some told him to shut the hell up. A couple of teenagers tried to steal the dead body in the coffin. All I could do was think to myself, I want to jump up on a box beside him and yell at the top of my lungs, "God is not a monster." Maybe next time I will.

The more I have read the Bible and studied the life of Jesus, the more I have become convinced that Christianity spreads best not through force but through fascination. But over the past few decades our Christianity, at least here in the United States, has become less and less fascinating. We have given the atheists less and less to disbelieve. And the sort of Christianity many of us have seen on TV and heard on the radio looks less and less like Jesus.

At one point Gandhi was asked if he was a Christian, and he said, essentially, "I sure love Jesus, but the Christians seem so unlike their Christ." A recent study showed that the top three perceptions of Christians in the U. S. among young non-Christians are that Christians are 1) antigay, 2) judgmental, and 3) hypocritical. So what we have here is a bit of an image crisis, and much of that reputation is well deserved. That's the ugly stuff. And that's why I begin by saying that I'm sorry.

Now for the good news.

I want to invite you to consider that maybe the televangelists and street preachers are wrong — and that God really is love. Maybe the fruits of the Spirit really are beautiful things like peace, patience, kindness, joy, love, goodness, and not the ugly things that have come to characterize religion, or politics, for that matter. (If there is anything I have learned from liberals and conservatives, it's that you can have great answers and still be mean... and that just as important as being right is being nice.)

The Bible that I read says that God did not send Jesus to condemn the world but to save it... it was because "God so loved the world." That is the God I know, and I long for others to know. I did not choose to devote my life to Jesus because I was scared to death of hell or because I wanted crowns in heaven... but because he is good. For those of you who are on a sincere spiritual journey, I hope that you do not reject Christ because of Christians. We have always been a messed-up bunch, and somehow God has survived the embarrassing things we do in His name. At the core of our "Gospel" is the message that Jesus came "not [for] the healthy... but the sick." And if you choose Jesus, may it not be simply because of a fear of hell or hope for mansions in heaven.

Don't get me wrong, I still believe in the afterlife, but too often all the church has done is promise the world that there is life after death and use it as a ticket to ignore the hells around us. I am convinced that the Christian Gospel has as much to do with this life as the next, and that the message of that Gospel is not just about going up when we die but about bringing God's Kingdom down. It was Jesus who taught us to pray that God's will be done "on earth as it is in heaven." On earth.

One of Jesus' most scandalous stories is the story of the Good Samaritan. As sentimental as we may have made it, the original story was about a man who gets beat up and left on the side of the road. A priest passes by. A Levite, the quintessential religious guy, also passes by on the other side (perhaps late for a meeting at church). And then comes the Samaritan... you can almost imagine a snicker in the Jewish crowd. Jews did not talk to Samaritans, or even walk through Samaria. But the Samaritan stops and takes care of the guy in the ditch and is lifted up as the hero of the story. I'm sure some of the listeners were ticked. According to the religious elite, Samaritans did not keep the right rules, and they did not have sound doctrine... but Jesus shows that true faith has to work itself out in a way that is Good News to the most bruised and broken person lying in the ditch.

It is so simple, but the pious forget this lesson constantly. God may indeed be evident in a priest, but God is just as likely to be at work through a Samaritan or a prostitute. In fact the Scripture is brimful of God using folks like a lying prostitute named Rahab, an adulterous king named David... at one point God even speaks to a guy named Balaam through his donkey. Some say God spoke to Balaam through his ass and has been speaking through asses ever since. So if God should choose to use us, then we should be grateful but not think too highly of ourselves. And if upon meeting someone we think God could never use, we should think again.

After all, Jesus says to the religious elite who looked down on everybody else: "The tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom ahead of you." And we wonder what got him killed?

I have a friend in the UK who talks about "dirty theology" — that we have a God who is always using dirt to bring life and healing and redemption, a God who shows up in the most unlikely and scandalous ways. After all, the whole story begins with God reaching down from heaven, picking up some dirt, and breathing life into it. At one point, Jesus takes some mud, spits in it, and wipes it on a blind man's eyes to heal him. (The priests and producers of anointing oil were not happy that day.)

In fact, the entire story of Jesus is about a God who did not just want to stay "out there" but who moves into the neighborhood, a neighborhood where folks said, "Nothing good could come." It is this Jesus who was accused of being a glutton and drunkard and rabble-rouser for hanging out with all of society's rejects, and who died on the imperial cross of Rome reserved for bandits and failed messiahs. This is why the triumph over the cross was a triumph over everything ugly we do to ourselves and to others. It is the final promise that love wins.

It is this Jesus who was born in a stank manger in the middle of a genocide. That is the God that we are just as likely to find in the streets as in the sanctuary, who can redeem revolutionaries and tax collectors, the oppressed and the oppressors... a God who is saving some of us from the ghettos of poverty, and some of us from the ghettos of wealth.

In closing, to those who have closed the door on religion — I was recently asked by a non-Christian friend if I thought he was going to hell. I said, "I hope not. It will be hard to enjoy heaven without you." If those of us who believe in God do not believe God's grace is big enough to save the whole world... well, we should at least pray that it is.

Your brother,

Shane

To Live Is Christ (Paul): Week Six

First off, thank you all for your prayers and thoughts concerning my dad. He is home from the hospital and doing well. :)

This was our last week of studying Paul for this semester, and it was super fun. We've been doing Paul since August, studying the chronology of his ministries, from the very beginning as a little Jewish school boy to this Wednesday, when he was shipwrecked on the island. We had a lot of fun doing this lesson, and I had a great time teaching it. A great last week of Paul for the next few weeks while we focus on Christmas Unwrapped and Jesus' birthday.

So, keeping in theme with boats and being shipwrecked, I thought, 'hey, let's act this story out'. So, the kids were divided into two teams. They each had to pick one Paul--who got to wear cool reindeer antlers--and Paul was the only person allowed on their boat. I gave each group a cardboard presentation board, some rope, stickers, markers, tape, and paper. My special helper and I got scissors and the kids directed us on what to do. The basic objective was that they had to build and decorate a boat that could carry Paul on his different missionary journeys. This was really fun and the kids loved it! I gave them a few minutes and we had beautiful boats with wonderful names. Paul sat down in the boat, and the other members of the team got to pick some cargo to take with them. They could pick three out of water, food, a blanket, a pillow, and a bible. One group picked food, water, and a blanket. The other picked food, water, and a bible. And the boat was packed and ready to go... But where?

We broke this video up into a few parts. The kids all gathered round as we watched the first part of the video. I didn't tell them which island to go to (there were a few islands around the room). They had to listen to the video, figure out where to go, and then go do the first thing there. So we went to Cyprus first. Paul got a bandaid, and they were able to switch out one of their items for a piece of an anchor (the bible verse). Then, if they didn't have a blanket, they lost an arm (frostbite's no fun!), if they didn't have food, they had to have another person on their boat (famished!), and if they didn't have water, they couldn't speak (their throats were too scorched). So we had some disabilities going on, and then we watched the second part of the video.

So the kids went off to Crete and we played a quick game while they were there, similar to front of the boat, back of the boat. The person that was left standing got to pick if they wanted to take another piece of cargo on the ship, or take one away from the other team. The kids got the next part of the anchor, and had more disabilities than they could count, and off they went toward the final place, Rome... But then the winds howled, rain poured (from spray bottles, it's a tough world out there!), and their boats were tipped over by the wind (played by Me). They had to "swim" (army crawl) to the nearest island, which happened to be Malta.

So we watched the last part of the video, and we talked about how now, the Maltese people have a huge population of Christians on the island, and it's all because of Paul! Paul probably thought this shipwreck was going to be awful and there was no good from it, but God turned it into good by using it to spread health and Jesus to the people on the island. That was cool!

I showed two That Will Leave A Mark videos, and we talked about what kind of mark we thought this event left on Paul. The kids thought it probably strengthened his faith. Then I asked the kids to think about the event that made the biggest mark on their own lives. We had little brothers and sisters, deaths of grandparents, first days of schools, getting punched... All of these things that happened. We talked about how these marks can be good or bad, and when they're good, it's easy to navigate. But what do we do when it's bad? When we have shipwrecks in our lives, how do we swim to shore. I had the kids close their eyes and go back to that memory and to look around the room, and see if they could find Jesus. When they did, we talked about how when future things make their "mark" on our lives, we should look around and find Jesus, and He'll direct us where to go.

The verse for the week: "We have this hope as an anchor, firm and secure." - Hebrews 6:19

Next semester we'll be talking about the different Pauline epistles. We'll spend two weeks on each of the different Pauline epistles to the churches. What I would like to do is have someone come in that has been to each of the cities those churches are at (Colossus, Ephesus, Corinth, Thessalonica/Salonia/Thessaloniki, Galatia, Rome, Philippi) and bring pictures and memories so the kids can see that each one of these epistles was written to places that actually exist. I think that would really bring home the realness of the bible to them, and I would love to be able to experience that with them. So, if any of you know anyone who has been to any of these cities, please let me know :)

To Live is Christ (Paul): Weeks Five

We've done a lot of studying Paul this year, and will be next year too. Last week, Paul and Silas were in jail for telling people about Jesus. The kids acted the story out while making chains out of fruit roll ups. It was really fun. I gave the kids 7 minutes to build a make-shift jail out of chairs, blankets, whatever they could find in that room (it's amazing what kids can find when you tell them to build something!). I should have taken a picture of this jail--it was amazing! I would never, ever want to be inside of this jail. We stuck a Paul and a Silas inside the jail, tied their hands and feet together, and made them sit there while we read the story.

In the story, Paul and Silas are walkin' around, tellin' people about Jesus and are thrown in jail. While they're in jail, they still talk about Jesus (some nerve, eh?). Then, one day as they're praying in their jail cells, the chains fall off their arms and legs, the door to the jail cell opens, and they're free. But what do they do? Nothing. They sit there, and continue to pray. At this point, the kids and I are both going "huh?"

So, we find out as we read that the jailer comes, sees that Paul and Silas stayed, and is blown away by how they followed the rules (basically. See, parents, this is a lesson you can get into!) So he takes them home, and Paul and Silas convert his entire family into Christians. Talk about some good repercussions for obeying the rules!

So, the kids ate their chains, we talked about Paul and Silas, we freed Paul and Silas from jail, and then we showed another "That Will Leave A Mark!" video. We talked about how Paul made his mark by staying in the prison and then converting the jailer's family. Then we talked about what the kids can do to make a mark in the lives of the people around them. They loved the makeshift jail!

Wired for Worship: Week Three

One of the biggest challenges of Children's Ministry (or any ministry, really) is finding how to incorporate God's truth with current day to day affairs in a way that the kids really understand. The goal is to get the kids to the point where they can do that themselves--find God's Word in their every day life and live into it.

This weekend was Halloween. The kids came in on Sunday sugar-hyped, wishing they were home to eat their candy and reliving their nights as Hannah Montana, a hamburger, a SWAT team member, etc, etc. The difficulty is how to take that hype for Halloween and turn it into a hype for Jesus and a desire to learn.

We played this video and asked the kids how they saw the people worshiping in the video. People worship in all different ways--some raise their hands, some sway, some sing, some pray--but God wants one thing from all worshipers. He wants us to worship him in truth (John 4:24). Worshiping in truth means that we take off our masks (hey, halloween!) and come before God as our real selves, and we don't hide anything. Then we played a song for the kids and let them worship their God in truth!

Some quotes from the kids:

"I really love that I don't have to go to school on Sunday. I can just be with God and love him all day long and think about him all day long."

"When you worship God and you can just give Him your heart, it just makes you feel better on the inside and everything you worry about just goes away."

Hopefully I'll get some audio up of what the kids said, and some pictures of them worshiping. The lesson was really powerful, moreso for the teachers than the kids, I think!

On Your Mark: Catalyst (Andy Stanley)

A few weeks ago I went to Atlanta for the Catalyst 2009 conference. Catalyst is a huge conference for church leaders to go and hear from incredible speakers who are most definitely ordained by God. There are 10 sessions with about 8-9 different speakers, and each one leaves you scratching your head, humbled, and on fire for God. The theme for this year's Catalyst was "On Your Mark". Andy Stanley started us off with a really amazing talk.

"What man is a man who does not leave the world better?" This quote is taken from Kingdom of Heaven, but is so completely relevant to our lives that it's impossible to get away. Everyone wants to leave a mark. Andy even made the point that if we're leaders, we HAVE to want to leave a mark. That's what makes a leader. And the truth is, every single one of us leaves a mark. But which mark do we leave?

Things come up. That's just life. It would be so boring if every day things were exactly the same. A phone call, a conversation, a bank account statement... All of these things happen, and suddenly, we're all in the middle of a "crisis" point. We have decisions to make, things to say and do, and all of a sudden, we have a mark to make. And the most troubling part of it all, as a leader and as a follower, is that you never know where that mark is. Every single one of us is going to touch someone or hit someone in some way, and we're going to make our mark. The problem is that we don't know when that's going to happen. We won't see our greatest opportunity until after it's past us. Have you ever had someone come back to you later and said, "you know, you really stuck with me when you said that?" And you're completely floored. To you, it was just a casual comment or compliment. But to them, it was the world. It changed who they are and how they think, and a light bulb all of a sudden went off. And maybe if you'd known that ahead of time, you would have planned it out better, or maybe been too scared to say anything at all. So maybe that's a blessing. Either way, we don't know when our mark is being made, and a lot of the times, if we were going to pick where our mark was going to be made, we'd pick a different moment.

In the story of Joshua, Joshua gives his people three commands (Joshua 23-24). He tells them to cling to the Lord you're God. He tells them to love God. And then, as our kids could tell you, in Joshua 24:15, he says, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua tells his people to follow the Lord, love the Lord, and build their house to SERVE the Lord. And to this day, people are reading Joshua's words and following what he said. That was a mark made. And the thing is, we all have a mark to leave. But we need to make THE mark, not A mark. YOUR mark, not a mark. We all have a specific mark to leave, and we all have a choice to make.

¹³ Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?"

¹⁴ "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?"

¹⁵ The commander of the LORD's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.

-Joshua 5:13-15

The funny thing about this passage to me is the angel's answer. "Are you for us or our enemies?" Joshua asks. That seems like a pretty easy question, right? You've got two choices. 50% chance. But, you know, in pure God-fashion, the angel throws us for a loop and says "neither." What? You're not for me, or for my enemies? Suddenly, Joshua realizes something. God's not FOR us. We're FOR God. Now, I'm not saying that God's not for us and that He doesn't fight for us, because absolutely He does. But the point is, the angel didn't come down to earth to make Joshua's mark. Joshua was on the earth to make God's mark. God didn't come to play a role in my story. I was created to make a mark in HIS story.

And Joshua's response is just so perfect. He humbled himself, fell down, and asked, "what message does my Lord have for his servant?" He is out to serve the Lord. He hears what the Lord's messenger is saying, and he fires right back, "what message does my Lord have for me?" "What can I do?" His life is about serving God. How many of us can say that and mean it? I think we all want to mean it, but how many of us can actually say it and mean it and take it and make it our own?

Andy Stanley said his father had one quote that hung on his wall in his office the entire time he was growing up. "God takes full responsibility for the life wholly devoted to him." It's not about who is for or against you, but it's about who you are for. Yes, there are consequences to following God. There are consequences to not following God too. We have responsibilities and consequences in this wonderful relationship we have with our Lord. God calls us to do these crazy things that are sometimes not fun. But our responsibility is to be obedient to God and to trust him with the consequences. The thrill of life that comes from knowing Jesus is so great and so wonderful, but it comes with great responsibility. The responsibility of being obedient to the King we know. And sometimes that obedience is blind and hard and just plain not fun. But we have to trust our God to take that obedience, and to take those consequences, and make them what is good and holy. Our responsibility is to obey and to trust. And that's how we can make our mark.

It all boils down to three things. 1) You don't know the biggest thing God will do for you. You don't know how He's going to use you or change you. You don't know the biggest blessing He will give you. You don't know where your mark is going to be. You don't know if it's going to be a little thing, or a big thing. But it's there. God didn't create an idle creation. He created an active, fast-paced creation that seeks to glorify Him and change the world and mix it up. 2) You don't want to miss it. Our relationship with Christ is so thrilling, and the plan he has for our lives is so, so big. That mark He has planned for us is so great and so big that we don't want to miss it. We don't want to miss our chance. 3) Living to make my mark is too small a thing to give my life to. God's mark is worth giving your life to.

All of this left me wondering... Am I doing everything I can do for God? Am I sold out to Jesus? Am I living my life wondering if God is FOR me, or am I living my life knowing that it's FOR Him? Am I expecting God to be a part of my story, or am I living it to be a part of His? Where is my mark, and am I ready to make it?

To Live is Christ (Paul): Week Four

"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone. The new has come!" - 2 Corinthians 5:17

Studying Paul has been really good for the kids, and for me to be able to see how much these kids retain and how well they're learning and adapting our lessons to their lives. We start every lesson with a review of the previous lessons. It's been four weeks of lessons (over a six week time frame), and it still amazes me that the kids can tell me details of what we talked about the first time we talked. I ask them about how Paul grew up, and they tell me the bible verse, and then about the clothes he wore and what he had to do. And they seamlessly ease into the following stories. This week was interesting because it was the mark of the turn from Saul to Paul. When the kids were explaining, one of them said, "Well Saul was a bad guy and was trying to stone Stephen!" Another girl corrected him and said, "No, he wasn't a bad guy. He was just a guy that did a bad thing. He didn't know about Jesus yet!" It was really cool to see them thinking on that level and helping each other in that respect.

We started are lesson by breaking into three groups. The first group read in Genesis about when Abram and Sarai's names were changed to Abraham and Sarah's, and when Simon's name was changed to Peter. The other two groups read about the time where Saul's name becomes Paul. One group had the question of why, and the other group had the question of when. We went over those two as a big group, and then we talked about names in the Old Testament. We talked about how a long time ago, people named their children based on the meaning of the name, not on how pretty the names were. The first group presented what they found out about Abram, Sarai, and Simon, and then we talked as a group about the importance of names.

Here are what the kids came up with:

• You can't just say "hey you" and still be polite.
• It's how you can tell people apart.
• It helps you know who you are.
• When somebody knows your name you're better behaved

After all these, we talked about how every name has a meaning, and in this time period, people named their children after how they wanted their children to perceive themselves. For instance, how Jesus' name means "Salvation". I talked about my name, and how it means "God's gift", and how the reason I was named that was because my parents wanted me to know that I was "God's gift" to them. We talked about how God referred to Saul by Paul from then on because he wanted Saul to know that his identity was new, now that he was in Christ. We talked about how Saul and Paul are the same name (Saul is Hebrew, Paul is Roman), and how the changing of it also meant that Christ wasn't just for the Hebrews, but for everyone.

I'd done some research and looked up the meaning of all the kids' games, so we spent a lot of time playing Memory with their names. They were in teams and had to pick the matches. It was really fun, and the thing that kept the kids' attention was the wait to find out what their names meant. Then we cleaned up, and they all got a cookie if they could come up and tell me one thing they learned and what their name means.

We talked about what it means to be a new person in Christ, and the bible verse for the week, and that was that!

Wired for Worship: Week Two

Last Sunday we picked up on our worship lessons with some talking about who God is and what he does and why we were made to worship Him. The kids started out by creating things out of play dough, and then we talked about how God created every little thing in this world, and how He created the whole world. We talked about some things we know God to be, and then we talked about what worship is.

We've been defining worship as "our response to God's greatness". It's more than that, for sure, but on an elementary level, it gets the point across. The kids pay a lot more attention to us adults than I thought they did! We talked about how we see people worshiping upstairs, and why they might worship different ways. The most common answers were that people close their eyes and put their hands up in the air. One little girl noticed that the music team likes to clap and "jump around". We talked about why they do the things they do... How sometimes they try to reach God, or want to focus on him, and how the bible says we should be UNDIGNIFIED for Christ. We read the passage in Matthew that says even if we don't praise him, the rocks will cry out. And talked about how our God deserves a lot of praise! And then we played a song, and let the kids worship however they wanted to. Some danced. Some prayed. Some waved their hands in the air with their eyes closed. One little girl swayed. It was adorable, and really cool to see the kids praising God in their own way.

I think the coolest part of working with kids is that moment where you see what they've been learning hit what they're doing. Teaching the kids about worship has been really amazing--they've really soaked up who God is and why we should praise him, and I've seen a difference in how they're responding in church and in the lesson. They seem to be building a real reverence for the Lord, and it's really cool to watch. Looking around and seeing the kids with their hands raised and their eyes closed singing songs to God was really amazing, and I hope they'll never lose that, and that our church can be one that continues to foster that in our children.

Wired for Worship: Week One

The idea of "worship" has come up a lot in my own life lately, and it's threaded into Holy Cross and the kids there, and I think it's really cool. One of my favorite parts about being in Kids ministry is how much God grows me and changes me while He teaches the kids through me. I'm both taught and teaching, and it's what makes my "job" (really? that old Mark Twain quote floats through my head) so enjoyable. Life with Christ isn't easy, but it's certainly exhilarating! So, lately the threads have all been weaved to worship. It's so rarely studied in our culture and the question is hardly ever asked, but what is worship? I don't even think I've begun to uncover the answer to that question.

The kids have started wanting to stay upstairs for the music (and even the sermon sometimes... tell me that's not cool!) on Sunday mornings. We're all for letting the kids worship upstairs and engage in the music and the prayers, but kids are kids and sometimes the fidget fairy comes and takes over. So the question was, how do we ingrain in our children the idea of what worship is, why we do it? How do we teach them to worship the God of the universe? I'll confess that at first my thought process was, "I have to teach on worship? Uhhh." Not anymore.

I went off to Catalyst last week, and Louie Giglio was talking about the magnificence of God, and the heart that worships Him. He posed a question along the lines of, "what would you like to see happen in your church, that if it happened, would completely change the face of your ministry?" I thought about the question long and hard, and the answer was simple. I want to see our kids actively worshiping God. I don't want them to just be bystanders and students of the Word, I want them to be living, breathing worshipers of who God is and what He can do in their lives. But how do we get there? How do we foster that in our children?

I picked up this book called "Wired for Worship" by Louie Giglio. He's got little devotionals that go with it, where he takes a Psalm and you have to circle the characteristics of God. I started doing that, and it hit me. Of COURSE, in order to worship we have to KNOW the God we're worshiping. People worship all sorts of things. If you want to find out what you value most and what you worship most, look at how you spend your time. You worship the place you spend your time. With that in mind, we realize that none of us really KNOW the God we worship, or at least not the way we should. So, before we can teach the kids to worship God, we have to teach them who God is and why we should worship Him.

Yesterday, we worked on finding out who God is. I started out by asking, "Who is God?" The kids had a hard time answering that question (wouldn't you?). Then we played two songs. The first was Wonderful Maker and the second was You Are Holy. We looked at each of the characteristics of God in the song (father, counselor, Emmanuel, friend, savior, Messiah, Living God, Maker) and looked up bible verses that went with each of them. By the end, the kids were so impressed by who God is that they could hardly contain their excitement. Then, we defined worship as being our response to God's greatness. The last line of You Are Holy is, "and I will live my life for you." We talked about how THAT is true worship.

I'm excited about where this season is going and how the kids (and myself) are going to learn to worship God in a new, powerful, more genuine way. Louie talked about how we have to show the face of Christ on our faces. Show people what heaven looks like through our faces. He used the example of Extreme Home Makeover. After everybody yells, "MOVE THAT BUS!" what do you see first? You don't see the house. You see the people's faces. You see the house pictured on the faces of the family. And that's how we should be. If the magnificence of Jesus Christ and the magnificence of heaven were on the faces of our kids, that would change the face of our ministry.

To Live is Christ (Paul): Week Three

"He has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light." -1 Peter 2:9

Every Wednesday night when I leave church, I have an overwhelming sense of peace and excitement. These kids are incredible, and I love their passion for the Lord and how they are striving to know more and be better. Sometimes I feel like if I just stood in front of the group and told them what verses to read, they would go into it with lots of excitement. I could give the most monotone lesson, and these kids would still be on fire for Jesus. It's so cool watching the Holy Spirit radiate within each of them, and seeing the growth! They come back to church every Wednesday night ready to recite bible verses from weeks ago (and without any reward, other than an awesome high five). They are just the coolest kids I know and are really doing things for the Kingdom. I'm so proud of them.

We start off each week with a simple review of the week before (and what is important up to there). I am constantly surprised how much the kids take in and retain each week--they are walking SpongeKids and should be a show on Nickelodeon. Regardless, we went over the first week (Saul's upbringing), and talked about how Saul had to wear rabbi gear and how he was raised to say his prayers, and do all sorts of religious things. Then we talked about the Stoning of Stephen, and how Saul was there, giving approval on and URGING for Stephen's death. The kids were a little shaky about WHY Stephen was stoned (apart from just being a christian... why that was a bad thing), so before we started the lesson, we went over how important it was in a Jewish culture not to blaspheme God, and how the Jewish followers thought it was blasphemy for Jesus to say He was the son of God (even though we all know it to be true). And on to our lesson, we go.

Lesson: We read Acts 9:1-9, but in short little doses. First, we read Acts 9:1-2. For some reason, the verses tripped me up when I was reading them at home, so I made the kids read them a few times to get the message. We talked about what Saul asked the high priest to do (and who the high priest was), and why Saul would ask such a thing. The kids had great answers. We summarized up the verses by saying that Saul asked the really important guy for letters to arrest people of "The Way". The kids were funny because they knew who we were talking about, but when I asked them who "The Way" is, they didn't know how to explain it! So we did a little call back to John 14:6, and talked about how Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life". It was funny watching their faces. One little girl was really impressed! She thought it was clever of them to call themselves that.

Activity #1: I had the kids pretend to be the high priest and write letters to the churches. This was one of those activities that I didn't really have a reason for doing, it just felt like it should be done, and it gave some time for intrapersonal/linguistic learning styles to shine. So, we wrote letters... One of them says, "Dear churches, please help Saul arrest and kill any followers of "The Way" because they are lying about our God!" (We had to go over the idea that the Jewish people believe in the same God, they just don't believe in Jesus. Thankfully, our Sunday lesson was on The Trinity, so the kids got it). I had all of the kids sign their names and seal their letters, and hand them to our makeshift Saul for the day.

Lesson: We then read Acts 9:3-7. Saul acted out each part as we read, and it was pretty funny. We took it verse by verse. I explained that the light was really bright, and we talked about times when it's been way too bright outside. One child even said that sometimes, when it's so bright outside, she goes blind for a minute. Inside, I'm thinking "oh you just wait!". Then we talked about how God called out to Saul, saying "Saul! Saul!" and how he knew Saul's name. I asked the kids how they would feel when they heard God calling them after what they had done last week. Some said surprised, some said awful, but one little girl (who is 5!) said, "I would feel really scared because I hurt God and God is really powerful and what if he was mad at me?" I thought it was incredible insight! I asked the question, "How did Saul persecute God?" And the kids gave me a few answers --> killing his people, speaking bad about his people, not believing in Him. We talked about how the Bible says that ANYTHING you do to the people around you, you do to God. So if you love the people around you, you love God. To which one of the boys replied, very solemnly, "so if you stone the people around you, you stone God." Ouch and Bingo. These kids are really thinking about this God stuff!! I had the kids scream really loud for the sound the other people heard, and then we talked about how those people hadn't seen what Saul did, and how hard it might be for Saul to explain it to others.

Activity #2: Charades. We sent three kids out of the room, and as a group, came up with a charade. The first child got up, and performed the charade (an elephant swinging from a rope and picking vegetables) for the second child, who in turn, performed it for the third, and down to the last one. We talked about how hard it was for the last child to describe what she saw--especially when it seemed so strange! And there was that point!

Lesson: We read Acts 9:8-9. We talked about a few things here, best summarized:

• One of the reasons Saul might have been the only one to see/hear God is that the people with Saul had letters to arrest any Christians they came across. If they didn't turn and believe in God just like Saul did, they could have arrested Saul. So in a way, God was protecting him.
• God used light because God IS light. People who don't know Jesus are living in darkness, but God called out to Saul, and used his light, to make Saul see how great he is.
• God used light to blind Saul so Saul would have to rely on God, and other people (how hard when you're traveling!)

Activity #3: Before we started the activity, I told the kids the bible verse for the day, which is the last half of 1 Peter 2:9. Then, we cranked up some "Marvelous Light" by Charlie Hall, and I taught the kids the motions. They LOVED this song, especially because of all of the really active motions you can do with it. And it helped them remember the word Marvelous Light, so I was happy with it!

Activity #4: Our trusty-dusty timeline! We did it as a group this time. We made six squares on the piece of paper, and on the back, listed the five parts of the story we thought were most important. Each child drew in one of the squares, and then another child dictated the words to go with it. We had 1) Saul writes letters asking for help to hurt Christians. 2) Saul goes on a journey. 3) Saul gets spoken to by God and asked why he's hurting Him 4) Saul is blinded 5) Saul needs God and other people. Then in the sixth, we wrote the verse for the week. Taped it up to the timeline, and we're good to go.

Bible Verse: Then we worked on learning our bible verse. We did it in a before and after kind of way, where the kids shouted back and forth. One group would shout "HE CALLED US OUT OF DARKNESS" and the other group would shout "AND INTO HIS MARVELOUS LIGHT!" Then they all recited it together. We played a game where we threw the shoe around... We had a child sit in the mushpot, and whenever the shoe was thrown to someone on the outside of the circle, they had to recite the verse. If they recited it correctly, mushpot person would finish it by saying "1 Peter 2:9". If they recited it incorrectly, mushpot person had to say the verse to get out of the mushpot, and they would switch places. It lasted for a bit, but eventually everyone outside of the mushpot knew the verse, and by that time, I've done my job and the game is shot. I had all of the kids line up and individually tell me the bible verse for the week. Flying colors!

This lesson couldn't have been better timed, and I know that was God and not me. The parents all came down just as I was wrapping up (we played Freeze Dance to Marvelous Light and the kids loved it) and their kids were excited, excited!! I was really glad I did the first activity (writing letters) because it helped enforce the God protecting us point at the end of the lesson (which God revealed to me as I was speaking. SO COOL). All in all, great Wednesday night, and the kids LOVED it. Next week we're off for Catalyst, but the following week, we're going to see Ananais.

Multiple Intelligences

http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/articles/7_ways.htm

I was re-introduced to this theory last spring as I was taking classes on Child Psychology, as well as Educative Process in Technology. Both classes brought up this idea of multiple intelligences, and it intrigued me, but I was never sure how to incorporate all of the intelligences into one (and had never really tried). However, for some reason it sparked in me when I started planning for the fall semester, so I've tried actively to tie them together for each lesson on Wednesday nights.

The whole idea of the theory is that kids learn best when the lessons are presented to them in different ways. There are all sorts of studies out there that say if a child repeats something eight times, he/she'll retain it. I don't want the kids in our ministry to just come to church and leave--I want them to retain all of the information we give them, and then use that information to impact their lives. And the way we do that is through repetition, repetition, repetition. Sounds boring, doesn't it? Well, not if they don't realize you're repeating it! I've been planning my lesson trying to get each of the 7 spokes of the multiple intelligences in there, knowing full well that our kids are diverse and were created for their own specific purposes (PSK).

The different learning styles are helpful to know when you're teaching your kids anything, or trying to help your child's teacher understand your child more. Here's a brief description:

• linguistic - these kids learn best through words. reading, writing... one of the more traditional types of learning.
  
• logical-mathematical - learn best through formulas, logic, math... the other traditional type of learning.
  
• spatial - visual, so they'll learn from flow charts and presentations.
  
• bodily-kinesthetic - learn through movement, so games, active participation, hands on.
  
• interpersonal - learn through talk with others, small-group cooperation.
  
• intrapersonal - learn through examining themselves, alone time
  
• musical -learn through music.
  
• (and some theories add in naturalistic) - learn through experiencing.

As I've been planning the lessons and trying to incorporate all of them (which I've done pretty well), I've realized how resistant I am to the musical one. I think it's a little bit ironic, since kids LOVE music. I am not musical and am self-conscious about my voice and my inability to make music, but I want these kids to learn the best they can and I want to use music to teach them, so it's something I need to pray through and ask for God's healing (?) in it all. I never thought children's ministry would be a place where God would stretch me, but it most certainly is. It's funny how much my kids teach me about myself, and how many things in my own life God brings up through teaching them (and their teaching me!)

To Live is Christ (Paul): Week Two

"Christ came into the world to save sinners--of which I am the worst!" - 1 Timothy 1:15

I left church Wednesday night feeling really encouraged about the kids at Holy Cross and what they're learning, and moreso, how much fun they're having learning it. The kids are really passionate about Jesus and what He's doing and what He's done, and I can see in their faces and their actions how much they've changed and how their relationships with God are going. This week, one child told me that she wanted to start praying every day before she went to bed and when she woke up (we talked last week about how Saul did that growing up--I guess it had been on her mind!), and a few of them came into the program spouting off the bible verse from the week before (as well as the stuff they're memorizing Sunday mornings!) All of the kids remembered the bible verse from the week before--even our youngest! One of the kids brought a friend, and one of the parents told me there had been waterworks last week because a child didn't finish her homework (and the Mom wouldn't let her come to church without her homework done). It's great to see God moving in these kids lives--I can see a marked difference in the activities we do. Where a Wednesday night program used to be a ten minute lesson and thirty minutes of games and activities, I've found that recently, we haven't been doing any games that weren't biblical related, and the kids are having even more fun! We're teaching for a whole hour and a half to two hours, and the kids are LOVING it. And I am too. It's such a blessing to see how much they're learning each week at church, and what they're inspiring in their families at home.

So, keeping with our lesson on Saul, this week was Week 2, which was a more difficult lesson. The Stoning of Stephen. I was somewhat anxious about how to get this lesson across in a way that the kids could understand both the seriousness of it all, and at the same time, not go home scared out of their minds. I think the lesson came across well. The kids were sobered about life afterwards, but not discouraged, which was really good.

We opened with a review of last week's lesson (I really need to be more diligent about opening in prayer!). I opened up the timeline and the kids went crazy about what we learned about last week. I think they did my entire lesson in the three minutes I gave them to review.

Lesson: We cracked open the bibles and read Acts 6:8-15. We talked about what the issue was, and what the Jewish council was doing (lying to kill Stephen because they were scared) and about why that was such a big deal. The kids all agreed that it was not good what they were doing (one child even said, "I don't know why they were so scared! They should have just put it in God's hands!"). We then read Acts 7:54-60, and we talked about what it meant to be stoned, and how much it would have hurt, and how it was a really awful way to die, but Stephen had so much faith in God he did it anyway. Then we stopped and read Acts 8:1, and talked about what it meant that Saul urged the Jews on.

Activity #1: Stoning of "Stephen". We pulled out the cotton balls, some duct tape, and a trash bag. We cut a hole in the top of the trash can for "Stephen" to stick her little head out, then taped the trash bag (sticky side out). The kids circled around her and took turns throwing "stones" (cotton balls) at her, seeing if they would stick. Hindsight is 20/20 and I should have picked an older child to put in the center because "Stephen" got scared and started crying :-/ We calmed her down though, and I used it as a teaching lesson. We talked about how the kids felt when they were throwing the cotton balls at "Stephen", and how they felt when "Stephen" started crying. And we talked to "Stephen" and asked her if she'd done anything wrong, and what it was like having the "stones" thrown at her when she'd done nothing wrong. Then we talked about how it was different with Saul because in our game, we didn't want to hurt "Stephen", but these people did. We talked about how Saul urged them on and how he wanted to hurt Stephen, and how awful that made him seem. The kids were really sobered by this exercise.

Activity #2: We added the next week to our timeline. The kids did a great job figuring out the most important parts of the story. I had a great helper who made sure that we added Saul into the mix instead of focusing on Stephen. The kids also drew a picture of Saul throwing stones at Stephen. We taped them to the timeline and talked about them. The kids were all really excited to see what goes next on the chart!

Activity #3: We had stones left over from VBS decoration, so we pulled them out for an activity. All of the kids sat quietly and we thought of people we know who get persecuted, just like Stephen did. The kids all thought of somebody they know at their schools, the gym, the church, wherever they go who gets picked on or maybe doesn't have a lot of friends. They wrote the name of the person on the stone in sharpie, and then we held the stones in our hands and prayed for the person. It was really cool hearing all of the kids praying for the kids at their schools. They took the rocks home with instructions to put them somewhere they would see them, and when they did see them, to pray for the person on the rock. The kids were really excited about this activity and all said they would pray lots for the person on their rock :)

Activity #4: This activity worked with the help of a little bribery! We read the bible verse to memorize this week (all of the verses are verses Paul penned), and wrote it down on a big piece of paper, and set it in the middle of the circle. We played a game called "popcorn". Generally, the game works where you try and count as high as you can. However, you can't premeditate who says what number, and if two people say a number at the same time (or count out of turn), you have to start over again. We did it with the bible verse, and it was great! The kids had the bible verse repeated multiple times! I told them if they got through it, they all would get a cookie. And then I added to the mix and made them stand in line to get their cookies. They all had to repeat the bible verse to me while in line to get a cookie. All of them passed with flying colors, and one of the Moms even got in line and memorized the bible verse for a cookie! It was really great, hearing all of the little voices memorizing God's word.

The kids are really impressing me with how much they're learning and how on fire they are about Jesus! I'm having a blast planning the lessons, and I really feel like this semester is ordained by God! I can't wait to get into the next two weeks, which are about Saul's conversion, and talk about what it means to be a new creation! I think the kids are going to be really blown away by how DIFFERENT Paul is than Saul. I can't wait to see their reactions!

To Live is Christ (Paul): Week One

"Remain faithful to what you have been taught!" - 2 Timothy 3:14

We started our semester-long lesson on Paul last week, and it started out awesome. The whole focus of the semester will be on being a new creation (after PSK over the summer, this seems like an awesome next step and I'm excited where God is taking us!) and there seems to be no better person to illustrate how different life with Christ is than the apostle Paul. And so, for the next 12 weeks (or so), we'll be studying a different part of Paul's life, starting with his birth, and ending with his death (and as much as we know about in between!). We're also trying to incorporate as many of the different learning styles as we can into each lesson--it's been a challenge, but the reward has been great!

Week one, we talked about the beginnings of Paul's life. I've been doing the Beth Moore study "To Live is Christ" and got a lot of my information from that. The kids LOVED this lesson! I thought for a moment that some of them might actually go subscribe to Judaism if we weren't careful!

The Lesson: When the kids walked in, we started out by telling them that this semester we'd be learning about Saul. I was shocked to find that most of them didn't know who Saul was! (One of the girls talked about King Saul, and I was impressed by that, but alas, wrong Saul!) So, we started out with Jewish traditions. The first thing we talked about was how much Saul's father wanted him to be a rabbi (as a Pharisee), and what a Jewish child went through when on that track. We started out with talking about how a five year old would need to know the torah, and have it memorized, and then worked into dressing like one of the Jews of the time. We made our own yarmulkes (yamakas) out of paper plates and markers (and talked about the meaning of the yarmulkes, which the kids maintained!), put on the tzitzits ( tassels around the shoulders ), and then put on the phylacteries (boxes of God's word over the forehead and the heart). The kids LOVED this portion and asked a lot of questions!

Activity #1: We had two sets of Jewish gear (yarmulkes, tzitzits, and phylacteries) and put together an obstacle course. The kids had to keep the jewish gear on throughout the entire obstacle course. Inside their phylacteries (Styrofoam cups), was the bible verse for the week. The team that won was the team who had every player go through the obstacle course (derobing, and rerobing) and had the entire bible verse for the week written down. The kids loved it, and boy did they learn the verse!

Activity #2: We have an ongoing timeline for the kids to work on throughout the study. The kids are separated into two groups -- writers and drawers. One group draws a picture of the lesson, and the other group writes a summary. The kids have to talk about the lesson first and pick out the most important points. They really seem to like this activity, and it's great to watch them get so excited about it. Each week we review the timeline up to that point, and it's great what they've retained.

Activity #3: Memory Verse game. Each week we spend about twenty minutes going over the memory verse. This week, we played catch. Whenever someone caught the ball, they had to say the memory verse. Then they threw it to the next person. The goal was to give everyone the ball (in an order), and shorten the time it took to go through everyone. The kids finally got it to just over a minute, and every single kid knew the bible verse when they left. It was awesome!

This week was shorter than normal too. We had a party because all of the kids had learned the bible verses over the summer and I'd promised them a party! It was fun having a party the day we learned about Jewish customs!! The kids all seemed to really love the first week! :)

Random Lessons: Tower of Babel

This was a shorter Sunday lesson plan because we started in the service for some worship. So we only had about twenty minutes of lesson, but it was still good. We had about 12 kids--an even split of boys and girls which worked really well.

The first thing the kids did was open their bibles to Genesis 1:28, which reads, "God blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth!" We asked the kids what each of these phrases meant, including what it meant to fill the earth. We talked about why God would want us to fill the earth--if God created a big, gigantic universe for us to live in, why wouldn't he want us to inhabit and enjoy every bit of it. God loves to show off his creation--especially his prize creation, US!

Lesson: We then read in Genesis 11 about the Tower of Babel. We stopped every few verses to ask questions. We talked about how awesome it was that at one time, everyone in the entire world spoke the same language. We talked about how that would make everything a lot easier than it is now--easier to play, easier to communicate, easier to tell people about Jesus. Then we read the part about how the people built the tower to be closer to God, and how back then, people thought if they could be closer to God, they became more like God. And how they wanted to do things to be like God so they could be God. Then, we read about how the people said they wanted to build the tower so that they wouldn't be spread out. DUN DUN DUN! We talked about how the people were completely disobeying God! God wanted them to fill the earth, and they were trying to not do what God said! We talked about the consequence of their disobedience--that they now had a lot of languages and were going to have a hard time understanding each other. We brought a few kids up and had them speak gibberish, and all the kids laughed. Then we asked the kids what they would do if they showed up at school and only one other person spoke their language... Who would they befriend first? They said the person that spoke the same language as them because friendship is all about understanding each other. We talked about how at the Tower of Babel, people felt the same way, and that's how certain languages got isolated into certain areas. Then we asked the kids: Didn't God do what he said he would do? Aren't people filling the earth now? They all answered yes, so we led to the follow up question... Wouldn't it have been easier for the people to just obey God, since his will was done anyway? YES.

Activity: We split the boys and girls up into two teams, and blindfolded one girl, and one boy. We made a rope circle somewhere in the room, and placed kids from both teams around the room. The kids had to try and direct the blindfolded child to the rope circle, but the opposite sex team tried to distract the child. We timed them to see how long it took them to get to the rope circle and talked about how hard it is to give good information and hear good information when people are speaking differently and distracting you. We talked about how the Tower of Babel showed that disobeying God only made things harder for us.

Camp Araminta: Where Faith Takes Flight

I just got back from a week long "vacation" to volunteer at our local Anglican overnight summer camp. The camp ranges from kids going into 4th grade to going into 8th grade as campers, then a flight crew (which are campers that help out with things) who are going into 9th and 10th grade, and then CITs who are going into 11th and 12th grade. I was a counselor, with 10 4th-6th grade girls and a CIT in my cabin. It was a joy and a blessing to be able to be there this week, and I know that God moved in huge ways this week, and these children's lives are going to be blessed because of it.

The week is full of lots of fun things to do: archery, canoeing, funny skits and staff videos, indoor/outdoor games, the MUDBOWL (basically a huge field of mud where the kids can play fun games and get really dirty), dirty games (with pudding and sardines and YUCK!), scavenger hunts, counselor hunts, all camp Clue games, great box races, and all sorts of really fun things! The kids love it and have a blast!

My favorite thing about Camp is the spiritual atmosphere of it all. There's absolutely no hiding why we're at camp: for Jesus. Every camper, every counselor, every parent that walks through those doors knows it. From starting every morning with morning prayer, to program, to prayers before food, to devotions, we're centered in the love of Christ, and that's something kids desperately need. This year, our program time was amazing. We started in a big group with all of the kids singing songs (which nearly blew me away! If you've never had a taste of heaven, try being in a room with 4th-8th graders lifting their hands and singing to our Lord!) and then we split up into two groups on the same track. This year, the track had a different word each day: good, escape, together, different, tell. We talked about how God made us to be a good creation, how when we sinned he planned our escape, how the Christian walk is one that we're called to be on together, and how we need to look different, and how to tell others about the amazing love we have in Christ. The kids really loved it and seemed to get it!

One of my favorite parts of camp is cabin time. I love having devotionals with my girls before bed. This year, we were kind of scattered but it was so good! The first night, we read Psalm 139. But then I lost the sheet of questions, so the other nights we talked about other things. We talked about how God created us each with gifts and we have to find our purpose in him. After this, the kids were really into gifts and actually asked to go deeper into that, so the next day we did one of the activities from PSK 1 and tried to help kids find their gifts. The last day was by far my favorite day of camp.

Friday is always River Day. You go down to the river and play in the sand and in the water and it's just great fun! Then we came back, went to town (to get ice cream! yum!) and went on a scavenger hunt and went swimming. After dinner we went in for our last program time. it was amazing. We were talking about telling every nation and every tribe about Jesus, and how ALL nations praise him. And we played the song "He Reigns" by Newsboys to a slideshow of different people all over the world praising God. The most amazing thing was that the kids watched during the verses, but during the chorus, I heard little voices all singing, it's all God's children singing glory, glory, hallelujah, He reigns up to our God. Hands raised, voices lifted, with no words on the screen and nobody egging them on. These kids were doing it voluntarily and in the moment, moved by the Spirit. And I sat there and could feel heaven. I had a moment where I actually thought, "okay, God, take me away" because the glory of it all was just too incredible.

We had a friday night campfire and say-so, where kids could get up and say whatever they wanted about what God did this week at camp. A lot of times, these turn to "I thank God Suzie wore her spiderman shirt because it led to this and it was really funny!" but this year, we didn't have a single silly one. We had kids stand up and talk about how they wanted to read the bible more, how they were going to skip TV to be with God, how they were going to do a book report on the Bible, how they were going to write a story about Jesus for other people, how they were going to pray more. We had three girls stand up and say they gave their lives to Jesus. Welcome Home, kids. Incredible.

I felt a nudging by the Holy Spirit that night to share my testimony with the girls in my cabin, which was scary because my testimony seems a little too "grown up" for 4th-6th graders, but then I reminded myself that it's about life, and I was their age when I lived it. As I shared, I could see them all crying, absolutely taken aback that these things could happen to someone. It was amazing watching their faces change. One of the girls had been struggling with whether to believe science or God, and after hearing my testimony, she said, "see, I can't argue with that. You shouldn't be here, but you prayed to God, and you are. That's proof." My heart nearly soared hearing that. All of a sudden, it was all worth it. And I'd do it over again in a heartbeat just to help that one little girl. But, testimony sparked lots of crying, lots of sharing of hearts, and it was the most amazing part of the whole week (with He Reigns). We got to know each other, share each other's burdens and struggles, and really counsel the girls that were hurting so, so, so deeply. Share God's truth with them in a way that words couldn't always do, and knowing that we didn't live a perfect life and we came as imperfect, broken people really spoke to them.

It was an incredible week, and I wish some of the kids from my church had been able to make it. But I'm so pumping it up for next year. It's an incredible week of fun, laughter, and love, but most importantly, it's a week of coming so close to Christ that you can feel him on your skin and taste heaven on your lips.

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come. You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." - Revelation 4:8&11, 5:9-10 (our theme verse for the week)

Cross Movement Kids: Down and Dirty With Jesus

We've been doing a summer Tuesday morning program a few times this summer. Our theme verse is 1 Corinthians 2:9, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind could ever know what God has prepared for those who love him." We've been doing crazy bible stories and fun games. This week was down and dirty with Jesus.

Preparation: Buy 21 pounds of pudding (at least), relish, ketchup, dishwashing soap, two tarps, some buckets, gummy worms, and the game Twister. Set the tarps down on a grassy area near a hose. We put pool noodles on the sides to make a playing field. Put twister near it, and spray ketchup on the red spaces, relish on the green, dishwashing soap on the blue, and pudding on the yellow. Also, put six gummy worms at the bottom of two of the bowls, and put a generous amount of pudding on top. Tell parents kids need to wear clothes that can get messy, and that they need to bring a change of clothes and a towel.

Lesson: We read the story of when Jesus put mud on the blind man's eyes. We talked about how sometimes people feel like because they did something bad, that's why bad things happen, but how that's not the case. God often uses the bad things to show his glory. We talked about how Jesus used the dirtiest thing (mud!) to make us clean. The kids all got a scoop of pudding and spread it on their faces, just like the blind man. We talked about how nobody but Jesus could make a blind man see, and how God is powerful and he uses even gross stuff for his glory--and a lot of time, it's the gross stuff that makes us see his glory even more! Then we went outside and got GROSS!

Activity #1: Dirty Twister. We had all the kids gather round and played Twister. The fun part of this game was all of the gross things the kids stepped in. When they fell, they fell in lots of fun liquids.

Activity #2: Bobbing for Gummy Worms. We separated the kids into two teams. One at a time they went up and bobbed for one gummy worm. Once they got it, the next person went. The object was to be the first team to do this.

Activity #3: We put pudding in a pie tin. The same groups had to go one at a time and transfer the pudding to a cup.

Activity #4: We poured the remaining pudding on the big tarps (they made a playing field) and some soap and water, as well, and played Front of the Boat, Back of the Boat. One side is the front, one side is the back. The kids have to run from front to back (depending on what you call). The last person there is out. You can also call "Cockroach!" which is where they have to get on their back and flail their arms and legs, "Fish out of water" which is where they get on their stomach and do the same thing (we poured water on them during this time! they loved it!), "marshmallow" which is where they hug their knees to their chest, "Captains Coming!" which is where they salute, and "at ease" which is where they stop saluting. After captains coming, they cant move until someone says at ease. If they do anything wrong or are the last person to do something, they're out. They got soooo messy!

Activity #5: Duck Duck Goose. In pudding and soapy water and grossness.

Activity #6: Human Bowling. We had the kids sit in marshmallow position on one end of the tarp. Then one person would bowl by sliding down the tarp and into the other kids trying to knock them over. They LOVED this game.

Activity #7: Freeze Dance!

Activity #8: Freeze Tag!

Activity #9: We had a coolest hair competition with hair gel, pudding, ketchup, whatever the kids could find!

By this time the kids were really dirty and ready to clean off. We hosed them down, played a few more rounds of duck duck goose on a soap and water tarp, then hosed them off again. We brought the parachute outside and played games with the parachute for about ten minutes before the parents came to pick up their dirty children!

Tip: Review what we talked about again at the end of the day. We didn't do this, and I wish we had. We could have reinforced how much cleaner the kids felt after they'd been through the mess and then been washed off. How Jesus does the same for us. What a gospel presentation this could have been! Hindsight is 20/20.

Joshua, Rahab, and Jericho

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." - Joshua 24:15

We only had three kids tonight, but most of the lesson could be taken and used with more than that. Our church was on a trip to Guatemala, and we had some VBSes going on in grandparents' churches, so we were short many a child. Either way, it was a great night, and one of those where there was very little planning on my part, but God showed up! I actually didn't know what we were doing until I got to Walmart to buy supplies (ten minutes beforehand), and only did this story because a little boy in the group asked for it!

Preparation: Before the lesson, I bought little wooden planks (about the size of a bookmark), some magnetic backing, and some stone spraypaint (about ten bucks total, for enough to make six). I spraypainted each of the wooden planks and let them dry during the lesson.

Warm Up: The kids came in, and I asked them if they'd ever read the book "Three Little Pigs". Of course, they all had. We talked about what the three pigs did, and what they built their houses out of (straw, sticks, and stone), and how the big bad wolf came and blew down the first two, but not the stone one, because it was sturdy. We talked about how it's sturdiness made a big difference! Then we did a quick overview of Moses, and how Joshua was the next leader of the Israelites, after Moses died. And how Joshua had to defeat Jericho to get to the promised land.

Lesson: We read snippets of Joshua 2. Basically, the kids got the following story: Joshua sent two people into Jericho to check out the city. They knocked on a sinner, Rahab's, door. She hid them. Other people in the town saw and told the King. The King and everyone in the town were already afraid of the Israelites, so they sent some people to question Rahab. Rahab hid the men upstairs in the attic, but told everyone else they had left. Then she went up and told the men she knew that their God was the true God. They told her they would keep her safe when the walls came crumbling down. She let them out, and remembered their promise.

Interactive Lesson: Then we pulled up a barstool and made a pyramid of paper cups on top of it. We talked about how Joshua heard from God he had to march around the city 6 straight days without making a peep. We talked about how the walls were really really strong, and how the whole city was surrounded by walls that made up houses, and one of those houses was Rahab's. Then we marched around the barstool. Each rotation I asked one of the kids if they wanted to try and scream the wall down yet, and each time they said no. On the seventh time, we all screamed at the paper cups. They moved a bit, but didn't fall until I breathed on them. Then they came crumbling down! The kids were amazed! We put the cups back up and in a circle, and talked about how what really happened was all but one fell, and we flicked all of the cups but one off. We talked about how Rahab's house stood because she knew God and loved God and followed him.

Activity #1: After this, we posed the question, "how can you make your house a house that serves the Lord and is sturdy?" The kids answered with pray, read the bible, put crosses up, follow God, etc. Then, we gave the kids some chairs, piano benches, a coat rack, etc., and a parachute, and told them they had five minutes to make a fort. Kids LOVED this. My helper and I were going to try and destroy their fort (they had to be inside it) with gator balls. All along, my helper was instructed NOT to harm the fort if they were praying, reading the bible, etc inside, only if they were just sitting. The first time, they just sat, and they got RANSACKED. (they loved being destroyed while under the tent!) Then we took them out, gave them another shot, and told them to think about what makes a house sturdy. They weren't quite there yet, so this time they put books to hold things down, and tried to make the structure more sturdy. RANSACKED again. So, we brought the kids closer, and I asked them again what kinds of houses stand firm. The house of the Lord! How can their houses be sturdy? Pray, read the bible, etc. We hinted enough at them that one of the girls got the hint. They built the fort, and it was really cool because she was very adamant on them not making it structurally supported. At one point, one of the kids tried to suggest another way that would have worked wonders, and she said, "we don't need that! we've got God!" This time, they took their bibles in the tent with them. When my helper and I approached, we could hear them praying and reading the bible. We threw the balls, but purposely threw them so they wouldn't put a dent in the tent at all. My helper and I played up that we didn't understand how their tent wasn't falling down. Then we crawled under and asked the kids why their fort stayed strong. All of them answered GOD.

Bible Verse Memorization: After this, we made bible verse cards. We took the stone-painted wooden planks (which were dry now) and wrote in black sharpie the memory verse ("As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." -Joshua 24:15) and put magnetic backing on it. We instructed the kids to put it somewhere their whole family could see it and to implement some of the ways we'd talked about to make their houses strong for the Lord. Then we put the bible verse planks (which looked like bricks, to remind them!) up, and played another game.

Activity #2: We made a strange variation of freeze tag. We all played (which put five of us playing) and one person was IT. We gave this person a gator ball. It was just like freeze tag, except IT tried to throw the ball and peg people for them to be frozen. When someone was frozen they put both arms out like the side of a house. Someone else had to come up and put the rest of the house up with their arms, and the two had to recite the verse, "as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!" Then that person was unfrozen. The timing was perfect! By the time the person was unfrozen, IT had just found the ball and managed to peg someone new. We never had everyone frozen at one time. I think if we'd played without the ball, though, we would have not had so much fun!

At this point, the parents came. All the kids knew the bible verse like the front of their hands, and I felt it was a great lesson they enjoyed! Praise God!

PSK #2: Prayers of Blessing

Week two happened to fall the week before a great mission trip our church is going on to Guatemala. There couldn't have been a better week to do blessing!

We started out with some parachute games, and a few other running around games as our lesson was shorter this time. Then we opened our bibles to James 3:5-6, 9-10. We talked about how we can either build people up or destroy them by how we talk, and how we've all been hurt or uplifted by other people's talking about or to us. Then we had the kids define blessing and cursing in their own words, before giving them the following definition:

blessing - anything that you wish upon someone that builds them up and causes them to grow.

cursing - anything that you wish upon someone that causes them to fall, or would hurt their feelings if they knew.

We talked about how all throughout the bible, God gives blessings on people, and people give blessings on each other. We talked about Abraham, and Mary, and Adam, and how their blessings came true, and how blessings made in God's name ALWAYS come true.

Activity #1: I brought paint chips, 2 8x10 black frames, and some sharpies, and two pieces of construction paper. The kids each wrote a message for the people going on the trip to Guatemala on the paint chip (a blessing), and then another blessing for the people in Guatemala who will be blessed by our team. We made a collage on the construction paper with the paint chips, then put them in the frames. Each kid gathered around and placed their hands on a photo frame as we war-prayed (everyone praying out loud, at the same time) for the Guatemala trip. The kids LOVED the war praying!

Activity #2: While all of the above was going on, I pulled one child aside at a time and blessed them in the name of the Lord. I said a quick prayer of thanks for the children and their special gifts before hand, and then blessed them each to go be warriors for Christ in their own special way, ending in the Numbers blessing, "May the Lord bless you and keep you, may he make his face shine upon you and give you peace."

We then played human foosball until it was time to leave. We were going to go prayer-walking (walk around the room and bless different things), but parents came early. This wasn't the kids favorite day, but it was still fun!

PSK #1: Praying To Become Who God Wants You To Be

We're starting a new session on prayer. My hope is that our kids will turn into prayer warriors for Christ, and will start to adapt a lifestyle of fervent prayer in their daily lives. I bought the book "Prayer Saturated Kids" at a local Christian bookstore, and will be working through it for the next few weeks.

We opened by reading Jeremiah 1:5, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." We asked the kids what they thought it meant to be "set apart." The kids struggled for a bit, but we generally came to the agreement that it meant you were different than every body else. We talked about how God made each of us different, and how we have different purposes because we're different.

Activity #1: Each child wrote their name at the top of a piece of construction paper, then drew a picture under their name. We passed the papers around, and each child wrote one characteristic/trait of the child on the paper (for instance, "nice," "good at praying", "helpful", etc). By the end, each child had about 20 characteristics of their own. Then, we read the passage about how God has appointed some to be pastors or teachers, etc. We talked about the traits of each, and had kids write down which one they thought best applied to them.

Lesson: We read the story of David and Goliath, and talked about how David was set apart to defeat Goliath. We focused in on the point where Saul asks David to put on his armor. When David put it on, it didn't fit, however, when David put on the armor that fit him, he was successful. God made us all different, and we all fit into different armor, and our job is to find that armor and wear it so we can be the best we can be.

Activity #2: All the children took their shoes off and threw them in the center. We separated kids into two teams. Each kid then picked two shoes (neither of which were their own, and they didn't pick a pair). We had them line up, then put on both shoes. They then had to race through an obstacle course. If they lost their shoe, they had to start over again. When the kids were finished, we talked about how it was so much easier to do it with our own shoes, and not shoes that were too small or too big.

Lesson: All the kids came and sat down, and we gave them a short quiz to get them thinking about how God made each of them different. The questions for the quiz were from the book "Prayer Saturated Kids." 1. What do you dream about most? 2. What bible character would you most want to be like and why? 3. What would you be happiest doing as an adult? 4. What's your favorite part of the school day? The worst? 5. What do you think God wants you to do to help others? ... After the kids had written these answers down with their names, I collected them to pray over them in my own time... We then talked more about how God made each of us different for a different purpose, and I asked the kids how we should figure out what that purpose was.

Bringing It Home: We talked about how we have to pray and ask God to show us who he created us to be. And how God would show us that through circumstances, prayer, the Bible, etc. Then, we played some music and had the kids lay down and pray while they listened to the music.

The take-home challenge: We challenged the kids to pray through music throughout the week, and to learn Jeremiah 1:5. We shortened it to, "Before I was born, you knew me and set me apart."