PromiseLand Kids

Moving Closer to God

2010-11-09T11:18:00.000-08:00

I didn't realize until today just how long it has been since I have updated the post about our services in kids church.
Since the beginning of the year God started really stirring something inside of me - a PASSION to take the children in a deeper relationship with HIM! At first I was overwhelmed, I felt I had already been trying to do so, but wasn't getting the results I wanted. I wanted to see these kids filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesying, standing their ground when it came to their faith... And as this began to stir inside of me I began to seek God in a deeper level than I had before. As a result we started having REAL alter calls right there in our kids services, these kids would come to the alter with a hunger for God.
Before the children would be released to come down to kids church, I would be in the room praying, the Spirit of God could be felt, God showed me rain from Heaven that fell in the classroom, rain that would heal their little hearts, rain that allowed them to grow! Each week these kids would come expecting to feel God.
This led up to our kids camp, where God was already speaking to me about being the speaker. This was an exciting and scary thing for me. Who was I to speak at a camp? But God gave me idea's that brought a freshness to the services, an excitement...and at the same time allowed the Spirit of God to move.
These kids came to the alter with an even greater hunger, a desire to be in God's presence. God showed me their hearts as He was slowly turning them back to Him. He showed me His Spirit as it made it's way through this room.
God is not looking at the age of a person, but He is looking at the Heart, looking for those who are willing to speak for Him!
Many of these children went home filled with the Holy Spirit! Ready to battle anything that came their way.
And now that summer has come to an end, we, at our church, are training these children to be the little warriors that He is calling them up to be.
They have become bold enough to open their mouths and speak to their classmates, to speak in the classroom when a teacher is trying to teach them that Evolution is how we came to be! Their prayers are going straight to the throne room of Heaven and God is answering their prayers. They are even starting to see visions from God and sharing them to encourage others in their faith and their walk with God!
I am excited to see what all God has in store for these young people, and honored to be a part of this in their lives.
God, through these chilren - Bring Revival!

Fire From Heaven

2010-01-26T09:53:00.001-08:00

The last few weeks we have been talking about being a kid that takes flight or just an average kid. A kid that takes flight is a someone who does their best to follow directions and obey, they read their Bible and pray all on their own. An average kid only reads their Bible if they feel like it, they don't always obey because again they don't feel like it and just want to be able to do what they choose to do. Elijah is a man in the Bible that took flight. He followed God's direction no matter how scary or silly it sounded. He was to camp out near a river and have raven bring him food, he stayed with a widow who had no food but when she followed the simple instructions of making a meal with the last of her flour and oil God provided for her so that it never ran out until it started to rain again when her crops could grow. When the widows son died and she blamed Elijah, Elijah didn't become angery instead he took his body upstairs and prayed for him until he was alive again. Elijah gave God all the credit.
Then one day when Elijah was challenging the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, they were to have their god send fire on the sacrifice they had prepared and Elijah would call on his God. All day these prophets shouted out to their God and danced around but nothing happened. Finally Elijah called them over, rebuilt the alter of the Lord that had been torn down and with one prayer God send down fire that consumed the whole sacrifice. Wanna learn more about the story; read 1 Kings 17 & 18. I've added a video clip of the experiment we did just this last Sunday.

2010-01-05T11:20:00.000-08:00

During the month of December we talked about Joseph. Our similarities; how even though he lived long ago as a young man he was proud and boastful, tested and tempted. But also how Joseph made wise decisions that pleased God, and how God used Joseph for great things. God had a plan for his life, just like He has one for all of us.

One of the biggest lessons we can learn from Joseph is to forgive others, the way he forgave his brothers.

NFL Theme

2009-11-12T12:01:00.000-08:00

During the month of October we used a NFL theme. The boys especially loved this! We talked about things such as: the football players train hard, they learn new plays, they practice many hours a day, vs. how we should learn what the Bible says, practice sharing Jesus with others, and staying strong/standing up for what you believe. Each Sunday we played a game of football, learning new plays, handling the ball, had Fun Facts to see just what all those boys knew.

Nascar Theme

2009-11-12T11:53:00.000-08:00

During the month of September our theme was NASCAR! We talked about finishing the race, the cars power vs. the power of the Holy Spirit, how God cares for you vs. how the pit crew cares for the car, & the cars tune ups vs. our spiritual tune ups, such as reading our Bible and prayer.
We played Nascar theme games where at the end the kids where put into groups and had to come up with a crew cheif, driver and pit crew members, they had to design their own box car and race them.

Jesus Disciples

2009-07-14T09:32:00.000-07:00

Summer is here and our lives are full of excitement and fun, but all of this keeps us so busy. Over the last couple months I have spent 2 weeks in Romania, doing a kids camp for the children there who otherwise would have never had an opportunity to attend camp. If you would like to find out more about my trip to Romania check out my family blog,

http://www.the-reighard-7.blogspot.com/. I will have that info up within the next couple of days.

We have had our VBS here at the church with many children coming through the door and filling the places with laughter and smiles. And now we prepare for the upcoming camps for our children and teens.

In children's ministry we have been talking about being Jesus Disciples the last couple of weeks. We have learned that the word discipline means more than getting a swat on the behind and being grounded. It means, 'Training to do what is right even when you don't feel like it.'

The kids have met Joe, a man who has good intentions but has a big talk, he is always trying to do something big, but he lacks the discipline to follow through with his grand ideas. He has tried to run in a marathon but did not train or discipline himself for the event. He came back unable to finish the race and obviously very out of shape. But we too need to have this discipline in our lives, to run the race of life. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 talks about running this race in such a way to win the prize, a prize that will last forever. It's talking about training hard, it takes work and discipline. We must be disciplined to become who God wants us to be.

We've talked about the Bible and how it is a very important book that tells us about who God is and how He wants us to live. Psalms 119:11 'I have hidden your Word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.'

Also how we need not only read the Bible but meditate on it. Again we had Joe visit the classroom, he had heard about meditating on God's Word and he really wanted to make God happy so he went out and bought an expensive head wrap and mat to use while meditating. He misunderstood the verse and found out that he wasted a lot of money. Joshua 1:8 'Study this Book of the Law continually. Meditate on it day and night so you may be sure to obey all that is written in it. Only then will you succeed.' This verse is telling us to fill our minds with God's Word, think about it always, trying to understand it. The kids were encouraged to meditate on God's Word this week. Asking themselves these questions: What is this about? What does this mean? and How can I apply this to my life?

Mother's Day

2009-05-11T12:10:00.000-07:00

To start today I had the kids fill out questionairs about their mom's, let me share some of their answers with you:

Why did God make mothes?

-so we can have people to clean the house

-so we can have Mother's Day

-so I would have someone to love me

How did God make mothers?

-he just puff and there they are

What ingredients are mothers made of?

-love, kisses, hugs,

-skin, blood

-love and perfectness, P.S. i think dirt

Why did God give you your mom and not some other mom?

-my mom is nice

-because my mom is perfect

-God knew she liked me lots more than other moms

What kind of little girl was your mom?

-sneeky

-mean

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?

-is he good

-will he give her money

Why did your mom marry your dad?

-he is cute

-to have babies

-he is a good man

What's the difference between mom's and dad's?

-mom cleans the house

-dad's are more awsome

-there are different letters

What does you mom do in her spare time?

-read the Bible

-shop

-sleep

What would it take to make your mom perfect?

-she is already perfect

-if she got a motorcycle

If you could change one thing about your mom what would it be?

-her hair, i'd want it longer

-nothing

-I'd have her get me more toys

One child answered, 'I don't know, but Jesus does' for every one of his questions. : )

Kids sure are fun to have around. Thank you to all you mom's who share your kids with me for a few hours each week!

We then did an object lesson with rice crispies. We compaired ourselves to this crispy little cereal. It is easily spilled, dry and hard. Just as we are easily spilled or knocked down by messing up, our spirit may become dry by not staying in God's word, our heart can even become hard, or hateful or mean. The marshmellow is white, pure, and oh so sweet, just like Jesus and his love for us. Jesus does so much for us and he loves us so much, he sacrificed his life for our sins. However, together these two things make something wonderful, delicious rice krispy treats! Jesus does not want us to stand alone or be dried, hard or easily spilled. He wants us to accept his love in our lives and bond to him, just like the cereal bonds with the marshmellows.

We compared ways that our mothers are like Jesus in how they love us no matter what, they sacrifice things for us to have what we might need or want, and they do so much for us.

We played a little trick on the kids today, where we had one child come forward and answer some very easy questions, name an animal, pick a color, choose a kind of pop...they jotted their answers down on seperate pieces of paper. And then it happened...Amber read his mind. Telling him what his answers were. Hum, don't our mom's often do this too, already know the answer to the questions they may ask us, or know what we have done without having to tell them?

Satan: The Biggest Loser

2009-05-11T10:44:00.000-07:00

To start today we had two kids come forward, one was Team A and held a bowl of candy bars, the other was team B and help a bowl of grapes. All the kids had an opportunity to choose which team to be on. After all the kids had picked a team the leader from Team A announced that everyone on that team could have a candy bar for a dollar. Leader B announced that those on his team could have some grapes for free. Often the world offers things that seem like a good deal, such as the more good stuff you have the happier you will be. Everyone else is doing it, so it must be ok. However, they often have a price.

Grapes may not be as exciting or popular as a candy bar, but it was free and it is better for you. Choosing God's ways aren't always as popular either, but it is better. Different things in life may seem more fun, but often when you take time to think about it these things also come with unpleasant consequences.

The only way we can be stong enough to stand against these trials in life is to know the Word of God.

There is an example in the Bible, Matthew 4, where Satan tried to trick Jesus. Satan even tried to use parts of the scripture, but he twisted it and didn't tell it as it was intended to be. But Jesus didn't fall into any of these tricks, he knew the Bible, he had them in his heart, and was able to stand against the temptations.

To end our lesson we played a game where we we had 5 balloons upfront with lies written on them, such as No One Will Know, and on 5 sheets of paper were written Bible verses that distroyed (popped) the lies. As they matched up the lies with the verses they received a piece of gum or a football card.

For our closing game we had 5 items up on the table, and two kids were chosen to come forward and quess the prices of these items. The child who's total amount was closest to the real total amount of the items was the winner and recieved a water bottle.

Crouching Sin, Hidden Temptation

2009-05-05T12:47:00.000-07:00

We used Genisis 4, the story of Cain and Able for our lesson today and how Cain messed up, we all make mistakes but it's how we respond when we make those mistakes that is important. We can learn from them, or make a bigger mistake.

For our opening game we had stickers on the back of 5 chairs in the room, those that were sitting in those chairs were the contestants for our game. On the table in front of these 5 kids were prizes, toys, that they got to pick from and which ever they picked they could keep, and unlike last week there was no fine print. However, this week they had a hard time deciding on which one they wanted for none of them were in very good condition, see I didnt pick from my best toys, I picked from those that were broken or had missing pieces, or even to dried up to do anything with. After I saw the desapointment on their faces, I felt bad and gave them each a brownie instead. This game led into how Able gave God a good gift, the best of his flock. But Cain just gave God some of his crops and didn't pick out very best for him. Cain became jelous and probably felt like a failure. It's at this moment that we have a decision to make, how are we going to handle the situation from here out. Will we make things worse, or better? Because of his jelousy Cain killed his very own brother.

We watched the toy box tale about Crouching Sin, Hidden Temptation, about a boy that cheats on a spelling test and the trouble he ends up in.

We had one of the kids dress as Gus today, Gus again came in all bandaged up. This time it turns out he had a dream he was fighting sin, but when he woke up he discovered he had been fighting himself. How often do we try to fight sin on our own? And end up fighting ourselves and losing. If we are going to fight sin, we need God to fight for us.

I then informed the kids that I used to pretent that I was a karate kid. And I was going to demonstrate for them how I could break a metal reinforced wood beam. Breaking these metal reinforced wood beams is a good way to release anger. I had my volunteers carry this in and demonstrated breaking this ....pencil, with my bare hands.

For our closing game we had a bunch of colored egg halves on the table and underneath of them was either a piece of candy or a puff ball. The point of the game was to end up with the most puff balls at the end of the game, however, if a puff ball was under their chosen egg half they had to give all the m&m's to the other player. After a few rounds of this some of the kids had figured out that it was the yellow eggs that had the puff balls underneath. Amazing how we can learn from our mistakes and improve the next time around!

A Servants Heart

2009-04-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

This Sunday the whole church teamed up. They were split into group and went to different places: homes that need repairs or yard work done, and into the community to spruce things up a bit around places such as Elements and the park. Even the children over the age of 8 went out and helped serve others. These kids overlooked their age and put their good deeds to work, raking, mowing, pulling weeds, just cleaning up....
Back at the church with the younger ones, we talked about how serving others is the best way to serve God.
We watched a toybox tales video on how we need to have a servants heart, even when we 'just don't feel like doing it'. The King of the Kingdom announces he is
going to retire and is looking to give the kingdom to a
new king! All they need to do is come to the Castle
and apply for the job. On the path to the castle there is
a giant rock on the path blocking the way – many toys
pass by and complain about it – ‘someone should do
something about that’ – but all they do is mutter and go
around it. Finally one toy sees the rock and moves it
out of the way only to find a note underneath – ‘give
this to the King’ – the King gives him the throne
because he was the only person applying for the job
that had a servant heart.
They talked about things that even though they are smaller would still be able to do to help out. And how Jesus said, I did not come to be served, but to serve.
We ended by playing a batting game, where once they answered a question from the lesson - they were up to bat.

Meet Eggbert

2009-04-14T16:26:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, there was a town called EGGville, and it was full of Egg Citizens. They lived simple lives, much like we do, except they rolled everywhere they went. But all was not perfect in EGGville. For you see, there was a legend. It was always whispered, and known around EGGville as "The Legend of the Hammer." It went something like this: "There is an evil hammer that lurks in the dark in EGGville, and if an Egg ever finds itself all alone the hammer may strike and squash the Egg." Whenever an Egg was found cracked or flattened - the Evil Hammer was always given the credit, though no one really knew whether it even existed.

We met some of the citizens from EGGville, and witnessed how they fell into the trap of the hammer. Some of them were into fame, power, pride, money and even food. We talked about how there are a lot of things in this world that are not 'sinful' in and of themselves, BUT if they become the most important thing in our life, they will ultimately destroy us, and cause us to miss out on God's Best!
We then met EGGbert, EGGbert decides that he will be smart, and hides under a metal pot. The hammer comes and bangs and bangs on the metal pot, but EGGbert is safe inside. Col. 3:3 talks about how we are 'hidden in Christ' when we are saved, so the Enemy can't defeat us. All of the things that led to the other Eggs end were not all evil things - but if they become #1 they become sin because they replace what should be #1 -> GOD! EGGbert lives happily ever after.
Each child then got an egg of their own to decorate as an egg person and had to come up with something in their life that although is not sinful if they allowed it to become #1 could distract them from God. Then one by one they got to come up front and smash the egg with the hammer.

When we Fall...Biggest Boo-Boo Ever

2009-04-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

Today we started a new theme on sin. We started off class with a game where one child was chosen to come forward, they were instructed to pick a prize off of the table, no need to spend a lot of time thinking, just to pick what looked good to them. The prizes were an MP3 player, Gameboy DS, cell phone, and a twinkie. Each of these items were marked FREE. The child chose the Gameboy DS. However they didn't notice the fine print at the bottom that read, 'Winner of this prize is the proud owner for 10 secends and then it is to be returned to the original owner.' The twinkie on the other hand had fine print that read, 'The winner of this prize gets to keep it.' In life satan will trick you by not telling you the whole truth. Which usually results in unexpected things or consequences.
Gus was back today and had brought a birthday gift. He excitedly handed the gift to Tim, a bag of candy. The bag was empty. When Gus was questioned on this he admitted that he had just one. And then later he was looking at the candy and it looked so yummy he had just one. And then after lunch he had just one, he figured nobody would mind. Gus never did admit to eatting them all, just ONE at a time. Alot of people sin alot, but will only talk about the ONE little thing they did, not realizing that the sum of their sins is that they rob God and others of a “full
bag” – their life ends up very empty.
The kids were all asked this question, “What do you do when your friends all want to do something that you know is wrong?” They had some crazy, even violent, answers. : ) But they all had the right idea, to turn and run.
For our next game we had a Hershey Kiss, fun size Butterfinger, and a regular Twix on the table. Our volunteer was asked to choose any one of the candies that they wanted. No fine print this time. I did tell them that I really love kids, and delight to give very good things, so I think they should trust me and pick the little one, but they don’t have to. It is totally up to them. The child chose the biggest option on the table, the Twix. They hadn't seen the hidden reward of the LARGE hershey bar if only they had listen to the instuction of picking the small one. We need always to remember to trust God when he says he loves us and delights to give us good things. Sometimes the things of the world appear to be more attractive than the things of God, but we have to remember that in the long run, choosing God’s Way will always be better!
We had a couple other fun activies to go with our lesson today, and then we talked about Genisis Chapter 3, how the serpent tricked Eve into eatting the forbidden fruit, and what came of it. And how we need to try our hardest not to sin, or do things we know are wrong. God gave us free will to choose what we want in life, if we want to follow him or not. We need to fight the temptations of life daily and not fall in to them.

Daniel Review - Chapter 9

2009-04-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

We finished up our talk on Daniel today. The kids helped go back the last 6 weeks and retell parts of Daniel. To start off class today I asked the kids to share with me a story about a time when they needed help. I had a couple examples myself of times when I ran out of gas and had to have the kids school bus pick me up and when I was in high school and we got out early because of an ice storm, a friend of mine and I decided to go out on a back road and slide around on the ice which resulted with my car being at the bottom of a very steep ditch.

For an opening game we played limbo, Anna can practically bend in half!

Starting into the lesson we had a couple of the kids help out with a skit, about trying to get a stain out of a dress and how some times people allow stains, or sin, into their lives and how they try to hide it but the only way to get rid of it is through Jesus.

We had an object lesson this week with a bowl of water and as the kids listed off some sins we dripped in food coloring which turned the water all blue. Sin can dirty our lives, the only way to clean it back up is to ask for Jesus' forgiveness, by pouring in some bleach, all our sins disappeared.

We talked about Daniel chapter 9 where Daniel prayed for the people of Jerusalem, who had sinned and how he pleaded with God to bring about the promised return of his people to their land.

We ended our day with a parachute game, they even cheered enough at the end that they got Pastor Tanya under the parachute to be Daniel while her husband Chris was the lion trying to capture her. Were all the cheers worth the bruised knees? Of course!

Daniel and the Big Surprise

2009-03-24T10:11:00.000-07:00

This week we continued our talk on Daniel. To start off the class they were warned to pay close attention. We talked about what sorts of things we need to get ready for, here are some of their answers: school, church, bed, a party....and what we need to do to get ready for them.
We had 2 bottles of water, one was dirty water with pond moss inside of it, the other was pure, clean water. They were aked which bottle they would like to drink from, when they all picked the obvious, I asked why. We then talked about how we should try to stay clean and stay away from sin that would dirty our lives.
John 14:3 was written on the board, 'When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.' The kids were asked to say the verse a few times trying to memorize it. Then one word at a time was erased as they continued to say the verse memorizing it until half the words were gone.
We talked about Daniel, chapter 7, where Daniel had the vision of the 4 different beasts, and how then thrones were put in place and the Ancient One sat down to judge. Then someone like a son of man came down from the clouds of heaven. And how this man approached the Ancient One and was led into his presence. He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world - never ending.
Daniels vision was then explained, how the 4 different beasts represented four kingdoms that will arise from the earth. But in the end, the holy people of the Most High will be given the kingdom, and they will rule forever. But how war was raging on God's holy people and was defeating them, until the Ancient One - the Most High - came and judged in favor of his holy people.
We talked about how even before Jesus was born, Daniel had a vision of Him coming out of the clouds and joining God, the Ancient One. His vision was about Jesus coming back for his people. When this happens it will be a big surprise, no one knows the day or the time. We need to live every day, ready for his return.
Just as we are warned in the Bible to always stay ready, Jesus is coming, the kids were warned to pay close attention today and a prize was awarded to Aryanna, for doing just that. Just as we will recieve an eternal prize for staying ready, for doing all things to please God and living every moment for Jesus.
We ended with a surprise for all - cookies and juice!
And of course a parachute game.

Daniel the Daring Dude - Falling Food

2009-03-18T14:50:00.000-07:00

Before we got started today the kids had to make a specialty plane, one boy even made a stealth fighter plane. They had a contest to see which of these planes would fly the furthest, our winner was Lilly with a distance of about 46 feet.

Finally this week our friend Gus told us about the perfect dive, he has been in a sky diving club for the last month and this week finally pulled it off. He excitedly told us all the details as he described this perfect feat. Life is a plunge! We need to be willing to JUMP
(put our faith in God), and enjoy the fall, event though it looks and feels crazy at times, knowing that when we get to the end of our life, God will be right there with us.

Miss Molly got a new job at a zoo, she told us of a weird menu for the lions, it was an old Babilonian meal. Dill pickles, Apples, Noodles, Ice cream, Eggs and Lettuce. Notice anything about these items? She shared a couple of these items with the class.

The kids helped tell this story of Daniel, chapter 6, by having a few volunteers come up for a game show version of the lesson.

We ended the day with a parachute game, 'Daniel' was underneath the parachute, while a 'lion' was on top, as the rest of the group shook the parachute the lion had to try to find Daniel crawling around underneath.

Daniel - Death Dive

2009-03-17T20:27:00.000-07:00

Today we talked about Daniel Chapter 3. We started out by watching a video of my brother Jeremy sky diving. I asked the kids how many of them would be brave enough to parasail or sky dive, even at the risk of falling to their death, most of them excitedly raised their hand. However, when I asked them if they would be brave enough to stand up for Jesus and what is right, even if they had to risk embarrassment or death, most of them still raised their hand but they had to think about it.

Poor Gus this week he remembered the parachute, jumped out of the plane, was having a great time, he was enjoying the fall and the view and talkin’ to a bird, and then all of a sudden the ground was racing up and he panicked and closed his eyes! (WHAM!) He forgot he had a parachute on board and only needed to activate it by pulling the rip cord. The same happens in the Christian life, we forget he have ‘God on board’ and prayer is how to activate God.

Miss Molly had a flamin recipe she shared with us this week. To hot for us we just simply enjoyed hot coco and marshmallows.

Our lesson talked about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, the kids helped with this story. These three guys could have easily decided that they would at least make it look like they were bowing down to the statue by pretending to look for their contact, or what ever small item could have been lost back in that day. But they didn't, they stood up boldly for what they believed in.

For our parachute game we split into teams and with 3 large red balls and 3 large yellow balls our challange was to try to be the last team with our color ball left on the parachute.

Daniel the Daring Dude! - Jumping Chuteless

2009-03-04T13:39:00.000-08:00

This week we made plain ol' paper airplanes and had a contest to see who's would fly the furthest.

Gus came back to visit and was all bandaged up. He told us that he got the nerve up to JUMP, but he forgot one very important thing… the parachute!!! And crashed into earth. (good thing he is made of felt and cloth!) He forgot it behind in all the excitement and busyness of being on the plane. The same thing happens in the Christian life, in the busyness of life we can forget JESUS and it will always result in CRASHES!

Today, Daniel learns that all the king's advisors are being put to death because the king is demanding that they tell him both his dream and its interpretation. Daniel HOLDS on to God's promises, he obeys by allowing God to use him, asks his friends to pray for him, and goes before the king expecting God to deliver them when he gives the answer God gave him. They show that God can do the impossible when we make ourselves available to be used by Him.

We met Miss Molly who has her own cooking program, but she is frustrated this week because she got a recipe to a 'Mystery Meal' and can't make any sence out of it. The directions are to mix a little of this and a little of that, a pinch of other stuff, and mix together with a thing-a-ma-gigger. Poor Miss Molly understood how Daniel must have felt as he was asked by the king to tell him his dream and it's interpretation. How was he to know what someone else dreamed?! But God helped him out!

We finished up by playing with the big parachute, this week we put a bunch of soft balls on it with buckets setting out around outside the circle. The object was to try to get the balls to bounce off of the parachute and land in one of these buckets. It was harder than we thought it would be. : )

Daniel the Daring Dude! - Taking the plunge

2009-03-04T13:07:00.000-08:00

This week we started a new unit on Daniel. We started out talking about my adventure in parasailing. (Ask the kids what I landed on.) I even attempted to draw them a diagram. : )

We met a puppet named Gus who just joined a parachuting club. He excitedly told us about the airplane, the parachute strapped to his back, the noises, the wind, and...how far down it was. Once he got to the door he chicken out, he was to scared to jump. We talked about how you can have all the ‘stuff’ and be in the right place, but if you don’t JUMP you will miss out on the adventure. The same is true in the Christian life. Having a Bible and going to Church don’t mean anything if you never put your FAITH in God, and JUMP.

Our lesson was on Daniel chapter one - how Daniel and his friends were taken by King Nebuchadnezzar and were to learn the Babylonian ways, they were to eat the food off the kings table but, these 3 men didn't want to eat the defiled food of the king, so they asked to be fed just vegetables and water. 10 days later these men were stronger and healthier than all the other men. God was pleased with these three men and gave them knowledge and understanding.
Daniel determines to HOLD on to God's Promises, and OBEY God by not eating the king's food as required. He PRAYS and trusts God to help him stand up to his leaders and EXPECTS the best from God and is proven right! Daniel shows us how to trust God and take a stand against what is wrong!

The kids played a parachute game - during this game they had to listen carefully and follow directions. If they were not listening they would miss out on their turn to run under the raised parachute.

Guard Your Heart

2009-02-20T10:33:00.000-08:00

With it being the day after Valentine's Day it was only fitting to talk about what we love. The kids each shared one thing that they love, here are some of there answers: tv, PS2, candy, gum, pop, football, my mom and dad, Jesus. Aww, the important things to children. : )

We played a game where each child had a heart with their name on it taped to their back. They were told the name of the game is Guard Your Heart, try to collect as many of the others players hearts as you can. When the game was over the winners were not those who had the most hearts, it was the ones who still had their own heart still on their back, even if they collected no other hearts.

Back in the class we talked about how we need to guard our hearts and how we sometimes go after things that may seem harmless but in the long run can steal our heart. We talked about how some of the things we love can even be harmful.

Your 'heart' is the part of you that loves and enjoys life. There are a lot of people and things in this world that are after your heart. There are also a lot of things that we chase after, but just like in this game, when chasing those things, we lose our own heart in the process.

There are some people in this world that while guarding their heart, look like they are missing out on getting a lot of things, but the truth is, they haven't lost anything, they had it to start with - and in the long run, they will be the happier ones.

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs 4:23

We ended the day by decorating and filling bags with candy and leaving them as a pleasant surprise on the cars in the parking lot of the church.

It's not all about YOU...Pride.

2009-02-09T11:53:00.000-08:00

Today the we started by learning all the different languages the kids know, surprisingly they all knew more than I thought. They may not be able to speak other languages fluently but did know several words in Spanish, Sign Language, German, Russian, and others.

They met a man named Gus who was a fix it man, he was very handy and helped out many people. However, he always left a business card and even a bill for his work. He wanted to make sure every one knew who he was. They met a girl named Molly. Molly also like to help others but she lived off of getting credit for what she did and became very upset if she did not receive credit for her good deeds. They learned the verse - "Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Matt. 6:6 Which was very fitting for what we had learned the first part of class.

A child was chosen to build a tower out of big blocks while the rest of the class answered this question....What do you think our Bible story would be for today, that has to do with different languages, a tower, and thinking a lot of yourselves. GREAT JOB, kids!! They figured it out with no help from me. We had a fun twist to our story. They helped me tell it the original way with help from Genesis 11. They then helped me act out a skit, where a girl named Stephanie wrote a play and wanted some of her friends to help her with it so that they could put it on for the neighborhood. And then the whole neighborhood would see how great she was. Only during the play we found that Stephanie thought she could do everything better herself. Stephanie was left with no one to help her, and so her play ended up ruined. We compared the bible story to the skit and talked about how we don't always need to make everything about us, we don't always need all the attention, and credit for every good thing we do. In fact we ended today with each child receiving at least one card that says 'Servant of Jesus' They had a mission for the week - to do a good deed for someone else and not let them know that they did it, but to leave their card instead.

Super Bowl Sunday

2009-02-09T11:25:00.000-08:00

This week I am in Florida, so the wonderful Amber is taking over kids church today. The kids were invited to wear their favorite teams colors. They filled out a survey which had predictions from the BIG game on it. Such as which team will score the first point, which team will win the coin toss, and which team will win the Super Bowl. To get all psyched up they did their own warm ups to get their blood pumpin' - had a football toss contest - and a cheer off, where each team came up with their own cheer.

Their lesson was very fitting - Facing the Giants.

They started out by talking about what football players wear to protect themselves and how the pad and helmet protect them. A younger child was chosen to come up and try on football pad and a helmet, and they were asked if it looked as though this stuff would protect them like they do the football players. They decided that this stuff wouldn't protect him very well because they were to heavy for him to loose on him and just to big for him.

Which of course reminds us of the story in the Bible, David and Goliath.
David was just a young boy, he was suppose to stay home and care for the sheep while his older brothers were at war against the Philistines.
Remember the Philistines were big people, they had a Giant man named Goliath who came out each and every day and wanted to know who would fight him. He would shout to the Isrealites, in his deep, growly voice, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man who will fight me. If he is able to defeat me we will become you servants, but if I defeat him you will become our servants.”
With this the Isrealites were terrified! We all know the story ends by little David going to where the soldiers were camping out and saw what was happening, he approached the king and said "I will fight for you." The king tryed to get David to wear his battle armor, but it just didn't fit David. David faced the giant with just stones and a sling - and WON!

They ended the day with a Super Bowl snack, chips and salsa.

It's not all about YOU...(Greed)

2009-01-25T21:26:00.001-08:00

We started out today with a game where we had two volunteers come forward, we placed in between them a big bowl of candy. They had 20 seconds to crab up as much candy as they could in two handfuls, the only catch was they could not use their shirts or pockets to help stash the candy, just their hands. Who ever had the most candy at the end of the time was the winner and could keep the candy. Those who were chosen to play excitedly came up and even tried crabbing candy before we said go. Those who were not chosen of course did not find this game to be fair, since they didn't even have a chance.
We went on to do an object lesson with teeth. We talked about how we all loose teeth, we grow out of our baby teeth and new, bigger teeth grow in, in their place. And how most of us don't get upset over this fact of life because when we loose a tooth we get something in place of it; yep you guessed it, money from the tooth fairy.
Jesus talks about something else that we need to lose. He said, “whoever loses his life for my sake will find it”. (Matthew 10:39) Jesus said we need to lose our lives. That means you need to stop worrying about yourself and focus on Jesus. It means not worrying about how many toys you have or want but focusing instead on Jesus. It means not pushing your way to the front of the line or always insisting that you go first but instead doing what Jesus would do. We lose our lives when we say yes to Jesus, “Jesus, you are in charge of me today. I will do what you want me to do, when you want me to do it.” When we loose a tooth, we receive something from the tooth fairy. When we loose our lives for Jesus, we get something in return - a better life than we could ever imagine.
We talked about a couple other verses where Jesus is telling us to put others first and being more blessed when you give than when you recieve.
We went on to talk about a disease that many, many children get. In fact they may have it and not even know it. This disease is called 'I-want-itis'.
Here are some of the symptoms for this disease:
*When you go to the grocery story, toy store or even the drug store, do you see a lot of things that you want to buy? Do you constantly say to your mom, “Oh, I want that. I want this. Please, I really want it.”?

*When you watch commercials on television, do they make you say over and over again, “I want that”?

*When you go to a friends birthday party and your friend opens the presents, do you say to yourself, “I want that too.”

*Did you have a long, long list of all the things you wanted at Christmas?

*Do you behave like a crazy person when you do not get the things you want? Do you whine, cry, throw yourself onto the ground, pout, plead, and beg?
It was terrible, we found out that everyone of us in the classroom had this disease at one time or another. We mentioned things that we think we need. And how this is not something that the doctor could help us with. But, Good News! - the Bible has the cure that we need.
Greed - the constant wanting of things, is not good. Toys are fun, but surprisingly enough, not the most important thing in life. God is the most important thing in life and when this greed sneaks into our life we need to pray and ask God to help us feel more happy with the things that we do have.

It's not all about YOU....

2009-01-18T12:13:00.000-08:00

As our title suggests our lesson today was about ourselves....selfishness. And how, believe it or not, everything is not about You. So many times we worry about what we want ourselves, what can make ourselves happy. The world has given the false assumption that we need to focus on ourselves, our appearance, our feelings, and what we want. However, almost every sin committed can be traced back to a selfish motive.

And the Bible tells us in Philippians 2:3, 'Do nothing, out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself.'

We started out today with a game like charades where the kids acted out little senerio's. Half of them were being selfish and the other half was putting others first, laying aside what they wanted to do to make time for, or help another person.

We went into our lesson with a little story about a king who lived in a great castle and had a lovely kingdom. But unlike other kings, King George spent most of his time ... in the bathtub! Why? Because that's where he'd play with his favorite toy: his rubber ducky. But one ducky wasn't enough for King George. He wanted all the duckies! We found out what happens when the king made a huge mistake, deciding that the most important person in the world is, well ... himself!

For those of you familiar with veggie tales you probably recognize this version of the story, from King George and the Ducky!

This led into our story of David, and how David was a great king, treated his people right and fair. David was well liked, and with God's help had won several wars. However, one day while out on his balcony David spotted a beautiful woman, her name was Bathsheba. David loved beautiful women and already had several wives. But when he saw Bathsheba he wanted her too, even though she was alread married. David became selfish and took her anyway, this caused David to sin with Bathsheba. The story goes on to talk about Davids punishment from God because of this.

There is also a parable told to David from the prophet Nathan,
In the parable there was a rich man with many sheep and a poor man with only one little lamb. This little lamb was so special to the poor man that he treated it like his own child. This rich man did an awful thing. One day a traveler came by and he killed the poor man’s little lamb to feed the visitor. When David heard what the rich man had done, he was filled with anger. “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall die!” David declared indignantly, not knowing he was talking about himself! “You are that man,” Nathan told the king.

We ended with an object lesson with a mirror, on one side of the mirror was written the words, SELF. One of the greatest battles in our lives is the battle over being selfish. Oftentimes, we get so focused on our own problems that we cannot see the needs of others around us. We are so focused on ourselves we can't see the people right in front of us who may be in need.
God wants us to serve others around us to show His love to them. However, if we stay focused on ourself, we cannot even see the needs of others. Our whole vision is filled up with our own self.

FAITH

2009-01-11T12:05:00.000-08:00

For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.’"

Matthew 17:19-20

Today for our opening game we had a couple volunteers, one was instructed to close their eyes, with no peeking, and the other was to talk them through an obstacle course of chairs. They had to trust their partner to lead them through without bashing their shin's.

How many of you have played Mario on Nintendo 64? We started out our lesson by talking about video games, we used Mario as an example. How he will walk right up to the edge of a cliff and look down at the bottomless pit, and surf across red hot lava on the back of a turtle shell. No matter what we are trying to get Mario to do, or how many times he has fallen off the turtle into the lava, he never once has turned around and looked at me and said,"Hey, you aren't very good at this; maybe you should try something simpler so I don't get burned" Or ,"No way!, not me, take Luigi, but don't take me in there." Mario always goes where I tell him to.
Mario has complete faith in me; he never asks why, when, how come or how long.
We talked about how we should be like Mario when it comes to having faith in God. Because unlike me, God is not only good at the game, but He is the creator of it. He knows exactly what is waiting for me around the corner.

We also did a couple experiments on miracles. For our first experiment a volunteer came up and peeled and sliced up a banana. A second volunteer came up to peel and cut the second banana, however as she unpeeled her's she found that it was sliced already inside the peel! Was this a miracle? No it was a trick, but a pretty cool one the kids couldn't figure it out. If you want to know the trick you can ask one of the kids, (I let them in on my secret.)

Seeing or hearing of miracles builds our hope and trust in God.

Our second experiment; we placed a piece of cardboard on top of a cup of water and flipped the cup upside down. Amazing! The water doesn't spill out, it suctions to the card board. To test their faith in the water not spilling out we even had couple kids walk underneath the cup. We decided this wasn't very miraculous. So we tried it again only this time without the card board, I poured a small amount of the water into a second cup, (didn't want to get them to wet, just incase). A brave volunteer came forward and when tipping the cup over his head only a few dribbles came out. He lacked faith that he wasn't going to get REALLY wet. Was this a miracle? Again, no it was a trick. (There was a piece of sponge in the bottom of the cup.)

In the Bible there are many miracles that are real, not just tricks.

The Bible defines faith as; ‘being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.’ Hebrews 11:1”

Although these signs build our hope and trust, we need to always have faith in God, knowing that he has things under control.

If you belief in the miracles in the Bible, that is faith. Faith is essential in your relationship with Christ. We need to have faith in the cross, and faith that God will be with us everday of our life, no matter what we are going through.

Grace

2009-01-04T18:47:00.000-08:00

Grace - God's undeserved and unearned, love, favor, and mercy.

Our main verse for today was:
Ephesians 2:8 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-

We started out class with the game, The Price is Free. One child was picked to come up and choose one of three envelopes. They were told what was in each envelope, one had a nickle, another had a quarter and the last one had a dollar. Which ever one he picked he could keep what was inside. It was his. This seemed so easy that some of the children were second guessing which envelope he should actually choose. He did end up with the envelope with the dollar inside and some of the kids were shocked to find out it really contained a dollar. To them it was just simply to easy. That's all there was to the game, no lies, no tricks, just basically a free gift.

As we moved into the lesson, they learned the true meaning of grace, and we looked at examples of God's grace that are in the Bible. The Israelites definitely did not deserve or earn God's grace as they lacked faith, grumbled and complained, and built a golden calf to worship. Even after they had started witnessing God's power.
God built their faith until they were able to trust him and were ready to obey. God rescued them by grace through faith - the same way Jesus now saves people by his dying on the cross for our sins. We did not deserve that from Him, but out of love, out of grace it happened.

As a closing activity a box of broken glass was placed in the front of the room. I asked for a volunteer, several kids raised their hands. I explained to our volunteer he needed to take his shoes and socks off and walk around in the box of glass. He didn't think this was a good idea, but I assured him that I had a first aid kit in the other room to fix him up afterwards. Well, of course no one walked in the box of broken glass but we did use it as an object lesson that just as it is not smart to walk around in the broken glass and hurt ourselves and rely on the first aid kit to fix us up, it's not smart to do things we know are wrong and just figure that Jesus will always be there to fix our problems and take away our sins. Jesus will always be there, he will always forgive us from our sins, but to do to things we know we shouldn't do and rely on Him for forgiveness just doesn't make since either.

Currently

2009-01-03T16:25:00.000-08:00

The last couple weeks we have talked about: Mercy-keeping us from the consequences we deserve. This week the kids received no mercy from me at the beginning of class, if they were not obeying, doing what they were told, they were removed from the table. Which let into our lesson on God's mercy, and how we don't have to pay the price of death for our sin, we can have eternal life because he sent his son to die for our sins. Last week our main verse was Romans 6:19-20 and how hope is our anchor, when we go through troubles in our life we need to hang on to the hope that God will see us through and give us the strength to do so. We did an experiment with a hard boiled egg and a glass bottle, ask the kids how we got the egg inside the bottle without squishing it. Hope begins with trust, at fist they didn't know how I was going to make it happen, but we can have hope in God and trust in Him because of all the amazing stories out of the Bible about how God kept His promises to people, how he kept them safe, how he healed them and saved them. And about all of Jesus’ miracles, those stories help us know and believe that our God is mighty and powerful and capable of all things. Those things build our hope in Him.
Hope is to believe or to trust, not knowing what may happen, not seeing the goodness of the situation, just believing and trusting that God will be there with you through it all.

Last Month

2009-01-03T15:46:00.000-08:00

(Picture taken during a missions trip to Agua Prieta, Mexico in December, where we did a VBS on this same theme.)

Last month in PromiseLand we talked about, The Power of My Tongue, and how the Bible tells us it is the most powerful weapon, James 3;8, and that no man can control it. We even used a real cow tongue as an object lesson. We also compared our tongue to the rudder of a ship and how it is just a small part, but the rudder steers the ship wherever the pilot wants to go. So our tongue is a small part of our body, but can make great boasts. James 3:4-5. In James 3:5-6
we need to remember that our words are like fire - you can’t control them and can’t reverse it after the hurtful words are spoken. We need to be careful to use our words to praise and glorify God.