"If you put glitter on your angel, Santa can see your tree better."

I have been a lazy soul for a while...just couldn't get myself going on the blog, but my intentions are there. What do they say about good intentions??? I'm starting fresh and not trying to catch up!

The month of December brings all the buzz in our communities about "the reason for the season" so why not take advantage of so many people talking about Jesus to teach children the truth. And all of the documentaries are appearing...I saw the one the renowned astronomer did (again) that he says proves Jesus would have been born April 16, 6 b.c. My point...it doesn't matter WHEN Jesus was born, but WHY.

Since last year, we have added two little girls to our class. Sometimes that number is three AND we may be adding a little boy...I'm excited. That gives us at least five sometimes six in our class. We start off our winter series with the birth of Jesus, this week the angel Gabriel visited Mary to give her the good news! What good news you may ask...that Jesus is coming!

My daughter gave me some puppets from Oriental Trading last year for Christmas and they are really good. In this particular set is one for Mary, Joseph, and an angel. The angel has some wild yellow yarn hair and a halo that flops around but the sweetest expression on his face. I used my felt board and felt board figures to tell the lesson first so I knew that they were listening...then I pulled out the puppets. They thought the angel had funny hair, too. This is sorta how the story went: "One day something wonderful happened to Mary. An angel came to her and said, God has a special plan for you. You will have a baby. He will be God's Son." We had already talked about how Mary must have been startled when the angel appeared because he tells her "Do not be afraid." So when the angel comes near Mary, she jumps in surprise...so do the kids. Amazing. At first Mary was reluctant because of her 'non marital' status but after the angel explained things to her Mary believed in God's plan for her. She would gladly do all that God wanted her to do for Jesus' coming. Now, who's going to be the mother of God's son...you got it..Mary.

Now we switch to the Joseph puppet. Joseph is laying down sleeping. You see, the angel appeared to Joseph while he was asleep and gave him the good news. The angel said, "Take Mary as your wife. She will have a special baby. Name Him Jesus." The angel approaches Joseph while he sleeps..."Jooooseph, Joooooseph", the Joseph puppet lets out a snore...the girls giggle. BUT they get the point! "Joseph you will marry the woman named Mary and when the baby is born you will name him...JESUS!" Joseph believed the angel and after a little soul searching he took Mary as his wife. Joseph would name Mary's child Jesus. Now let's review...who gets some very good news? Mary. What is the good news? That's she is going to have a baby. Whose son will this be? God's. Who will help her raise this special baby? Joseph. What will be his name? Jesus. They did great!!

Our little craft project today was to make an angel to hang on their Christmas trees to remind them about God's son. Some of these children are brought to church by grandparents only, so I always encourage them to relay the story when they get home. What's that Bible verse from Isaiah 11:6 "And a little child shall lead them"?

I cut angels out of fun foam and put a cable tie hanger in them. I was brave today. We used GLITTER! I squeezed craft glue on the angel and let them spread it with a craft stick. We put the angel in a plastic shoe box and I let them "salt and pepper" the angel with the glitter. They were awesome! We talked about the angel Gabriel and that is what they wanted to name them. We left them in the classroom to dry during church services. As one little girl says, "If you put glitter on your angel, Santa can see your tree better." Maybe we need to put some glitter on us so when we do the things God wants US to do we can show the world God. I pray this week that you put some glitter on YOU so the world can see you better.

Flats are for rocky ground, heels are for dirt!

Are you a little curious about the title? By now, you have probably figured out that I take the titles from something that makes an impression on me during our class period. This week we concentrated on what it means to follow God without questions and our roll model would be Abram. If you would like to follow along with the account you may do so in Genesis 12:1-9. A short passage that says a lot!

Moving from one place to another can be stressful and upsetting. God asked Abram to leave his home and travel to a far-off land. How wonderful would it be if we learned to follow God with Abram's willing heart! Beginning with Genesis 12:1, we see the development of the kingdom of God. God made a special appearance to Abram and told him to move to another part of the world. Abram was 75 years old at the time...I can't imagine. Hebrews 11:8 reminds us of the faith that Abram exhibited in his obedience to this call. The blessing offered by God is complex, but a messianic promise is included in "all the people on earth will be blessed through you" Gen. 12:3.

We talked about the difference in how Abram moved and how we would move, how long and hard it must have been for Abram and his family and friends to move using their camels and donkeys. Putting up tents, taking down tents, putting up tents, taking down tents, putting up...you get the idea. But did Abram question God? Did he complain? No, he did as God asked him. For our activity, we cut pictures from magazines and catalogues of things we would take on a trip. We made a camel from construction paper...the string tail and googlie eye were hits! It's been a while since I had to teach a four year old how to use scissors, so that was a...challenge. But I must say, it was a short lived challenge. They caught on so quickly. Pretend your scissors are the mouth of a bird and you want your bird to say..."Whack, whack, whack!" Of course, you are opening and closing the scissors as you whack, whack, whack. (My son told me that when these kids start kindergarten the teacher will know which ones are Church of Christ...they will be the one cutting with scissors going "whack, whack, whack".)

After cutting out pictures (I made sure everyone had some sort of clothing and food in their collage) and gluing them to paper, we went around the table and I ask them the purpose of the pictures. When we got to one little girl she had a picture of a woman exercising, a plate of spaghetti, a pair of heels, and a pair of flat shoes. "Tell us about your pictures." "Well, the woman will carry my bags, I'll eat the spuzgetti, when we walk on rocks I'll wear the flats and when we walk on dirt, I'll wear the heels." Makes sense to me...and she's 4!!!

Make a mental picture of this collage...her concept is amazing...God will carry our baggage, he provides for us, when the road is rocky...we have a way to make it easier and when our are paths are smooth we have God to thank. I pray this week that you have packed your heels and your flats and that you remember God is with you!

Get those children out of the muddy, muddy, children of the Lord!

Another year, a different group of children and good ole Noah!!

I don't know what possessed me to "build" and ark but after about a half a bottle of aspirin, a box I got out of my husband's workshop, a shoebox, and LOTS of woodgrain contact paper....tada...ARK! I found two packages of jungle animals to go along with my farm animals and now we have all the makings of an arky, arky made out of gopher barky, barky! You know the song right? Just in case you don't here it is:

The Lord said to Noah: there's gonna be a floody, floody
The Lord said to Noah: there's gonna be a floody, floody
Get those children out of the muddy, muddy, children of the Lord

Chorus:
So, rise and shine, and give God the glory, glory
Rise and shine, and give God the glory, glory
Rise and shine, and give God the glory, glory
Children of the Lord

The Lord told Noah to build him an arky, arky
The Lord told Noah to build him an arky, arky
Build it out of gopher barky, barky, children of the Lord

Chorus

The animals, they came in, they came in by twosie, twosies
The animals, they came in, they came in by twosie, twosies
Elephants and kangaroosie, roosies, children of the Lord

Chorus

It rained and it rained for forty days and nights and daysies
It rained and it rained for forty days and nights and daysies
Almost drove those animals crazy, crazy, children of the Lord

Chorus

Then Noah he sent out, he sent out a dovey, dovey
Noah he sent out, he sent out a dovey, dovey
Dovey said "There's clear skies abovey-bovey", children of the Lord

Chorus

The sun came out and dried up the landy, landy
The sun came out and dried up the landy, landy
Everything was fine and dandy, dandy, children of the Lord

Chorus

The animals came off, came off in threesies, threesies
The animals came off in threesies, threesies
Grizzly bears and chimpanzee-sies zee-sies, children of the Lord

Chorus

Now, this is the end of, the end of my story, story
This is the end of, the end of my story, story
Everything is hunky dory, dory, children of the Lord

Chorus

For our application today, I cut out an ark from brown construction paper and made copies of some Bible people templates I had. We glued Noah, Mrs. Noah, Mr. and Mrs. Shem, Mr. and Mrs. Ham, and Mr. and Mrs. Japheth inside the ark as we counted them. In case you're not real sure who all these people are, you can read the account of Noah in Genesis 6 through 9. I'll give you a hint...the only people besides Noah that God found to be worthy of saving were his wife, their three sons and their sons' wives.

The kids thought that Ham was a funny name for a son. And no, he didn't have a son named "ham-burger". Four year olds...too funny!! This week we only got to the point in the story where Noah and his family are loading animals on the ark. Next week, they get loaded, God closes the door, the rains set in and then God makes a promise to Noah. Check back to see what the promise was!

SonRock Kid's Camp!!

Unfortunately, I'm pretty forgetful and didn't take my camera when we had our kid's camp! But I did take some photos of my room before I dismantled it. SonRock Kid's Camp was a big hit with our kids....we had a Super Saturday with four Bible story sessions that was incorporated in a camping theme.

We were blessed with help from a group of kids from the A&M church of Christ's Aggies for Christ. They were great, what a great inspiration to our kids. They allowed our children so see that it's not just okay, but really cool for college kids to love the Lord enough to come share their weekend with our kids. They taught the kids new songs, did skits, and participated in being "camp guides" to move the kids from one class to another.

My particular lesson was Jesus walking on the water and had the theme of Jesus being a protector.The lesson was taken from Matthew 14:22-33. We divided the kids into four groups: pre-k that included 3-4 year olds; K-2nd grade; 3rd-5th; 6th. My New Testament that is The Illustrated ICB Bible was a big hit with the two older groups. If you haven't seen The Illustrated International Children's Bible you need to check it out. It was created especially for children and is illustrated in a frame-by-frame format style. The realistic images help illustrate the actual scriptures. The pages are actual Bible verses not a story of what is going on....really neat. (That's my commerical for the day!) We read the story from the Bible and then discussed what was going on and THEN we re-created the story. I had pulled out my trusty 5 foot cardboard boat and added a sail to it. We used an oscillating fan with a spray bottle of water, a "Thunder Magic" tape, aluminium pie pan for the thunder/lightening sound, and flash lights to simulate lighting. I had a camp lantern we turned on and turned out the overhead lights. I was surprised how these kids got into acting out the story...they EVEN got into the cardboard boat! (We removed the table and chairs and sat on sleeping bags spread out on the floor.)

For the younger groups we didn't get quiet so "intense"....I was afraid of having crying little ones. We used the old faithful sandbox with the blue Easter grass for water and a cardboard boat with fiberfill in it. Disciples on a stick that could be poked into the fiberfill worked well. They enjoyed throwing the Easter grass on the boat...."they gitten' lots o wader"!! We sang a new song:

"With Jesus in my boat

I can Smile in the storm [3]

With Jesus in my boat I can

Smile in the storm when I’m sailing Home

When I’m sailing Home [2]

With Jesus in my boat I can

Smile in the storm when I’m sailing Home."

(Repeat)

The disciples had been with Jesus for quite a while. They had seen Him do amazing things. And now, Jesus was walking on the water to them! Peter had faith in Jesus' power, and so he climbed out of the boat and walked on the water with Jesus. But then Peter took his eyes off of Jesus. He looked at the big waves splashing around him. In that moment, Peter forgot that Jesus is bigger than anything--even the wind and the waves.

We many shake our heads and think Peter was foolish for sinking in the wter. But we do the same thing in our lives. We worship Jesus and try to follow Him. But then problems come--and they seem so big! We take our eyes off Jesus and the problems grow bigger and bigger. We begin to sink down into the stormy waters of our troubles.

But Peter called out to Jesus, saying, "Lord, save me!" And Jesus reached out and pulled Peter out of the raging waters. He will do the same for us. We can call out to Jesus anytime, anywhere, about anything. And He is there. He wants to be with us and help us through the storms of life.

Don't give up on me!

Sorry there is such a big gap between postings. Extended vacation and a Kid's Camp has taken it's toll...but I'll be back!! We will be promoting next week so it maybe a little while longer...don't give up on me!

"It smelled like a tuna fish sandwich!"

I love the story of Jonah. I can relate to Jonah. Jonah was given a task to do and for some reason thinks that he can run away from it...don't we all do that sometimes? We know what our task is, we know what God expects of us, yet we think we can run away from our responsibility. Doesn't work that way!! If you'd like to read the whole story check out the book of Jonah in the Old Testament. Unlike many other well-known Bible characters, Jonah's whole story is not told in the Bible. In the four chapters of his book, we learn only what happened to him during a very short period of his life, perhaps a matter of weeks. We know that he was a prophet of God from 800 b.c. to 750 b.c. about the time as the prophet Amos.

There is so much material available for the Jonah story that it is hard to choose what to use. But my favorite way to present this story is the element of surprise! I have a plush fish that I bought at a dollar store that actually had a mouth. I used my old trusty seam ripper and cut the seam at the back of the mouth. I'm not sure what kind of fish this is so it works really well to not promote the "whale" theory. It's blue and white and kind of a cross between a whale and a shark...maybe it's a whark. I pulled out one of those bendable people that I got from Oriental Trading in the Nativity group and taped his arms across his chest. (He wouldn't go in the whark's mouth very well with flailing arms.) The cardboard boat from another story worked for Jonah's get-away boat.

As you know, God spoke to His prophet Jonah, telling him where to go. He wanted him to go to the great city of Nineveh and preach. Maybe Jonah was afraid to go to Nineveh, the people there had a well-earned reputation for cruelty to their enemies. Maybe Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh to preach because he didn't want to help such sinful people. Or maybe Jonah was just stubborn! Sound familiar? Can YOU relate? In our class we talked about how sometimes we know the right things that we are supposed to do but we do just the opposite...and does God see us! "Yup, he gots eyes everywhere! He sees everywhere!"

In Jonah's attempt to run from God he goes to Joppa where he got on a ship going to Tarshish, a long way from Nineveh. During the voyage, God sent a bad storm that tossed the ship around and threatened to break it to pieces. The little cardboard boat was tossing and flipping on the piece of dark blue felt that was half on the table and half on my lap. The bendable Jonah was being tossed from side to side. The ship's captain and sailors were so frightened they cried out to the gods they worshipped, but of course, that didn't help since their gods weren't the true God. As the storm grew worse, the sailors woke Jonah up who had been sleeping down below on the boat, they asked him what they could do to stop the storm. Jonah told them to throw him into the sea and it would become calm. The little bendable Jonah got thrown overboard and the ship sailed on without him. As Jonah floundered about in the sea expecting to drown, out came the whark from under the blue felt and swallowed him up!!! You can tell they weren't expecting this! Was being in a fish's stomach for three days and nights better than drowning? Of course! It wasn't a nice place to be, but it saved Jonah's life. One of the girls decided it probably smelled like a tuna fish sandwich.

Jonah realized how wrong he had been, trying to run from God. Jonah prayed and praised God for the three days and nights that he stayed in the fish's belly. While Jonah prayed and praised God for saving him he was suddenly thrown up onto dry land. This event was not lost on a 5 year-old. "You mean the fish puked him out of his belly???" Welllll, yeah. The bendable Jonah comes flying out of the whark's mouth and lands on the table without the blue felt. God spoke to Jonah again: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you." This time Jonah obeyed. Wouldn't YOU? He had learned his lesson. He headed for Nineveh to tell the people what God told him to say.

Maybe if we had to stay in a place that smelled like a tuna fish sandwich for three days and three nights, we might have a better attitude about doing what God wants us to do. It shouldn't take that...maybe if we remember Jonah, we can develop a better attitude. The next time you smell tuna...

Do you know what choices are?

Summer vacation wreaked havoc on our attendance the last few weeks. Week before last, I was all by my lonesome so this past week I used the material that we were supposed to have done the previous week. Worked for me!

This weeks' lesson came from the book of Ruth. Ahhh, you guessed it....a lesson on making good choices. The book of Proverbs tells us "Even a child is known by his behavior. His actions show if he is innocent and good" (20:11). We, as teachers, have the opportunity to guide the children in our classes to make good choices as adults and we also get to help them act in a way that is pleasing to God now. This week we started our class talking about choices and what the consequences are for making those choices. They were really into this.

Then we moved to the sandbox with our stick figure people. When I use the sandbox, I tell the story using the visual aids and then I let them tell the story (with prompts) and use the props/visual aids. Before I ever began the story, I told them I was going to give them two choices. I usually have a problem with them wanting to play in the sand and not listen to the story. Here's your choices: 1. You can listen and watch while I tell the story and NOT play in the sand until I tell you can and for that choice you get to stay here and do the story and play in the sand. 2. You can play in the sand while I try to tell the story and for that choice you may go sit in your chair at the other table and not get to play in the sand when I am through telling the story. NUMBER 1 WINS!!! I was blessed with a friend that works harvesting crops and a few weeks ago it was time for wheat to be harvested. I asked my friend if he could save me some of the wheat so we could use it to tell the story of Ruth. I hit the jackpot! A gallon bag of wheat!

The story of Ruth takes place during the time of the judges in Israel. The primary purpose of the book of Ruth is to present the link between Judah and the Gentile world in the ancestry of Jesus Christ. Gleaning was a common practice done by poor and helpless people such as widows. According to Israelite laws, any loose stalks dropped by reapers in a harvest field were to be left for the gleaners. Ruth was not obigated to share her gleanings with Naomi, but she chose to do so as an act of love. We talked about gleaning and what that meant. I sprinked loose wheat kernals in the sandbox as I told them about gleaning and we stuck the full head of wheat in the sand. Then I gave them a ziplock baggie and told them they could glean the wheat we had dropped. The whole time they are gleaning we are talking about Ruth and Naomi, Boaz and Orpah. They were excited about their wheat kernals and wanted to know if they could take them home....sure, I only have a gallon more!! We took our wheat kernals and wheat stalks over to our other table and glued them onto a sheet of construction paper and had paper cutouts of Boaz, Ruth, Naomi, and Orpah so they can tell the story when they get home.

You have choices to make this week...will you choose Jesus to be in your life or do you face the consequences?