Blessing of the Animals this Sunday

This Sunday we will be celebrating St Francis of Assisi Day / Blessing of the Animals. 

Feel free to dress up as an animal, bird or bug - and/or bring a furry friend to church (real or toy)!
Out in Awesome Time we will be making a fingerprint animal picture to frame and take home. Check out the sample I very quickly made up below (by the way, in case you can't tell, they are supposed to be frogs at the bottom!) I'm sure you will do a much better job than me!
Look forward to seeing you Sunday,
Melanie

Storm Bells ringing

I've got a hat!

Today was 'Hat Day' at Musikool Kids. There were all sorts of hats - plain hats, fancy hats, sensible hats, silly hats, witch hats, royal hats... we all had a hat on our head to sing lots of hat songs... including:

I've got a hat (Julie Wylie's Magical Musical Play CD)

Little Down Dance (Julie Wylie) "...he brushes his hair and puts on his hat..."

Dingle Dangle Scarecrow "...with a flippy floppy hat!"

"If you're happy and you know it wave your hat!"

Diane and Bill - two of our behatted helpers!

Storm Bells

As Caleb (pictured above) explained to everyone in church, we made storm bells to remind us that Jesus is always with us - in the calm and in the stormy times of life.

Spring Flower Art

Have you checked out the Chapel Street Art Gallery recently? Last Sunday our Awesome Kids created these spectacular works of art to celebrate Spring Flower Festival.

Click on the link below to view more photos.

Spring Flower Sunday photos

AbsolUKE (ukulele group)

The AbsolUKE had a jam last week. Join them again tomorrow for some more groovy uke music!

FISH photos!

James, Spencer and Andrew playing Beachtowel Basketball

A fun night was had by all at FISH last night... we played Scatterball, Beachtowel Basketball, Backwards Charades and a crazy time seeing how many balloons we could stick to Catherine and Tomas! Thanks to Alicia for providing the glo-sticks which were a fabulous way to end the night!

Check out the photos below.

click HERE for FISH photos

FISH this Saturday!

Join us for FISH (our family fun night) tomorrow night, Saturday 10th September, 5pm to 7pm. Turn up at 5pm with your own tea (f&c, pizza etc), then join in some madcap family games afterwards. Of course there will be ice-cream & chocolate fish - and the last of the glo-sticks!

click HERE for photos from previous FISH nights

AbsolUKE!

Join Monica and the AbsolUKE group for a ukulele jam next time, Sunday 11 September after church in the Awesome Kids' Room during morning tea time.

AbsolUKE - ukulele lessons with Monica

Faith families

God is with Us

Some days are better than others. Some days are great, and some days can be a bit rough. Some of us are having a few rough days at the moment, and that is very hard. It helps to have family and friends show their love and care. We also have our family of faith, our church family, to help us through hard times. Best of all, God is with us always, no matter what happens - loving us and helping us.

 

Family of Faith

We heard recently a story about Abraham and Sarah and learnt more about being part of a family of faith. 

In the bible story (from the book in the bible called 'Hebrews', chapter 11) Abraham and Sarah believed in God, followed God's way and God's love. They lived in tents and went on a journey. God promised Sarah and Abraham they would have many, many descendants (children, grandchildren, great grandchildren) - as many as the stars in the sky. Sarah and Abraham had faith and trusted God's promise. 

We remember God's promise to be with us always, and even if we can't see God with our eyes or touch God with our hands we can know and feel that God is with us, loving us.

Starry Night Art

We made some awesome starry night collage artwork... using black paper, fabric, metallic markers and of course tons of glorious, sparkly, messy star confetti! We replaced our artwork in the Chapel Street Art Gallery - go along and check it out!

Faith and fishing

The other week we continued the theme of faith. 

Dave had three chairs to lie on, and said that the centre one represented our faith in God.

If you take God away as our support, we would not be very stable and could fall anytime.

Dave tested the children’s faith in him. They all said that they knew Dave and trusted all that he did and that he wouldn’t do anything to hurt them. Dave and the children made a deal, if a bucket of water was placed on Dave's chest, and he fell, he would get wet.

However if it stayed, they would all get wet.

Dave drank water from the bucket and flicked some at them to “sample’ what could happen to them.

The bucket balanced and all was well, but Dave got a cramp in his little toe and sat up quickly, tippling the bucket toward them. They all screamed and ducked for cover, but the water was in fact only shredded paper!

Lots of fun, but a good lesson in having faith in what trusted people in their lives say and do.

We discussed the disciples' faith in Jesus when he told them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat.

And of course, we had to make fish!