D.A.T. #7 | God's Love is Always With Us

God is always with us, through all the ups and downs of life. When we're feeling sad, happy, worried, afraid, hopeful. In the busy, noisy times and in the quiet, still times. God is always with us, loving us always, no matter what.

D.A.T. #7 | Psalm 23

Take some quiet time this week, to be grateful for the good things in our lives. We can be thankful for family, friends, a heart of love, things that bring us joy (like playing games, music, drawing, going for walks) and for a shepherding hand guiding us.

I'm super thankful and so excited to have Siu and her amazing children on board this week. Siu is the Youth Co-ordinator for the Central South Island Methodist Church of NZ. Siu and her family have put together a music video of 'My God is So Big' especially for us... so please click below and enjoy singing along! HUGE thanks to Siu, Vaiuli on the ukulele, Massey the dancing batman superhero, and the Frozen dancing girl, Ílaisaane! We are in awe of your talent, and look forward to seeing more of your music videos! 

Click HERE to sing along

This week's bible reading comes from the book of Psalms... there are a couple of versions here you can listen to:

Click HERE to listen to today's bible reading: Psalm 23

Click HERE for another version of Psalm 23

Challenges

Here are our challenges for this week. Why not give one a go? You can try more if you like... and we would love to hear how you got on. If you'd like to send me your photos/videos, please email me!

# 1. Psalm 23 Quiz

Click HERE to do this week's quiz.

# 2. Paper Beads

Using coloured paper, or pages from old magazines, make some paper beads like these ones. Thread them together to make a necklace or bracelet for yourself, or to give to someone.

# 3. Nature Treasure Hunt Box

Go on a walk around your neighbourhood. Collect some interesting treasures and put them in a cardboard box or egg carton. Take a photo and send it to us!

#4. Gratitude Heart

Draw a large heart on a piece of A4 paper. Divide the heart into random segments. Colour each segment and label it with something you are grateful for... something or someone you love.

Some ideas might be...

– Something that someone else did for you today.

– A person in your life that you appreciate.

– An activity or hobby you are grateful to be able to do.

– A positive quality of someone that can sometimes be hard to get along with.

– A skill or ability you have.

– A part of your body you are grateful for and why.

– An item that you love.

– Something that made you laugh.

– What you have learnt from something that was hard.

#5. Toilet Roll Characters

Here's a use for those empty cardboard toilet rolls! Get creative and make some characters - maybe they could represent people in your bubble.

#6. Bubbles for your Bubble!

Make some home-made bubble mixture. There are lots of different recipes around, but you could start with the basic recipe of 2 Tablespoons of Dishwashing Liquid and 1 Cup of Water. You can make a bubble wand out of almost anything... pipe cleaner, an old wire clothes hanger, cookie cutters, straws... use your imagination!

#7. Juicy, Crispy, Crunch

Eat something, like a piece of fruit (or maybe some rice bubble cake... see recipe below!). Take note of all your senses as you eat. Describe what you see, hear, smell, feel and taste. Write a poem about it!

#8. Sheep Paper Craft

Using strips of paper looped over, make a sheep like this one. If you don't have googly eyes to stick on, just draw some. You could try using different coloured paper, or even using strips of newspaper for a different look.

#9. Bubble Bake-off

Cook up a storm in the kitchen. Bake something to impress and delight the people in your bubble, or challenge them to a Bubble Bake-off! Pick a recipe of your choice, or you might like to give one of these a try.

Rice Bubble Cake

• 125 grams Butter
• 125 grams Chelsea White Sugar
• 2 Tbsp Honey
• 4 cups Rice Bubbles

1. Combine butter, Chelsea White Sugar and honey in a pot and boil for 5 minutes.  
2. Add rice bubbles and stir.  
3. Spread in buttered slice tray and cut while still warm.

Gingerbread Biscuits

• 2 cups flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 Tbsp Gregg's Ground Ginger
• 1 tsp Gregg's Ground Cinnamon
• 1 cup soft brown sugar, firmly packed
• 150g butter
• 1 egg
• 1 cup icing sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan assisted). Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
2. Sift the flour, baking soda, Ground Ginger and Ground Cinnamon together into a food processor or mixing bowl. Add the soft brown sugar.
3. Add the butter and pulse in food processor or rub with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add the egg and pulse or stir to mix. If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour to the mix. Work the dough into a ball. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface or between 2 sheets of baking paper until 5mm thick. Using cookie cutters, cut shapes and place on the baking trays. Form the leftover dough into a ball and re-roll and repeat cutting out until all the dough is used up.
5. Bake the gingerbread for 8–10 minutes or until cooked and golden. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.
6. Make the icing by sifting icing sugar into a bowl. Mix in 3–4 tsp hot water to make a piping consistency. Using a small piping nozzle, fill a small piping bag with icing and decorate biscuits. You could decorate them to represent different members of your bubble/family!

BE IN TO WIN!
Take a photo of your completed challenge/s and send it to us! 
We'll post your pictures on the blog and all entries go into the draw to win a scrumptious prize.

Click HERE to CONTACT us.