Holy Humour Sunday!

Check out the video below...

https://youtu.be/oH0mfdgut9Y

Thanks to MATCH

(Media and Tech @ Chapel Street)

for the video this morning

This morning was Holy Humour Sunday. Since the 15th Century, churches have celebrated the Sunday following Easter with Holy Humour Sunday. It is an opportunity for Christians to celebrate the greatest miracle in history - Jesus's resurrection. We have the best reason to be joyful!

It also gives us the opportunity to celebrate, and give thanks for, the times when we have got through troubles and come back from sad moments in our lives, with the help of Jesus's love. It's not to say we can't feel down when things aren't going right... we all have times when we're sad, worried, anxious or angry. Jesus is with us in all of that, right there with us, loving us.

Good humour, laughter, a twinkle in the eye, are one of God's many gifts that help us cope with some struggles in life... especially the smaller, annoying little problems. So, enjoy this little collection of jokes from our Awesome Kids and remember that JESUS is the LIFE of the party!

He is Risen!

The Awesome Kids from Christchurch North Methodist explored the Easter Story using Resurrection Eggs - each plastic egg contained a symbol from the Easter story. We decorated shortbread biscuits (egg and heart shaped) with icing and sprinkles, and had an easter egg hunt. Our youth media team made a short video which you can watch on the previous post.

After the service we enjoyed an all-age scavenger/egg hunt. In groups we searched for members of the congregation who had the items we needed to collect. Some were easy to find, but others were very good at hiding and led teams on a chase around the garden! We looked for the clues in the bible verses we were given and the final clue led us to the person who had the items representing the empty tomb - hollow chocolate eggs!

He is Risen!

He is Risen indeed!

Easter

This is a video that Izak , Jack and James made on Sunday.

Easter Egg / Scavenger Hunt on Sunday at the Chapel Street Centre!

Join us this Easter Sunday for a special Easter Celebration Service at 10am.

The Chapel Street Band will be playing, we will be making some delicious Easter treats in Awesome Time, and after the service the whole congregation is invited to join in an Easter Egg / Scavenger Hunt! Everyone welcome!

Hosanna!

And unlike the character in last week's Palm Sunday puppet show, "Hosanna!" does not mean, "Hose Anne!"

In today's story from the bible, we learnt about a very special parade. The people lined the streets, waved palm branches and shouted "Hosanna!" as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. They were shouting "Hosanna!" which meant, "Hooray! Jesus is here, our saviour!"

At the Chapel Street Centre this morning, we had our own parade, starting from the carpark and entering the church waving our kiwi version of palm branches (ferns) and singing 'Hosanna!'

During Awesome Time we painted hand-print palm branch, and laminated fern bookmarks.

Palm Sunday Procession

Join us for a very special Palm Sunday Service tomorrow, 14th April.

Meet in the car park at 9.50am and bring a fern branch if you're able to.

THE YES

Our drama group at camp presented the wonderful story, THE YES, by Sarah Bee. 

The Yes set off to explore the big wide Where. But the Where was home to the Nos, who travel in packs and discourage the Yes at every turn. They told the Yes that the tree was too big to climb, the bridge too rickety to cross, the woods too scary to explore. But even just one Yes is stronger than countless Nos.

In life, we are faced with many obstacles to overcome… choices, where we have to decide YES or NO. Sometimes it’s scary. That’s OK. Being brave doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to be a bit scared. There’s a quote we heard at camp which goes:

“There can be no courage unless you’re scared.” 

So, I think we just have to remember that Jesus is there with us, every step of the way, Jesus gives us strength and helps us to be brave. He's there saying, 'Yes! You can do it! I believe in you!' 

We need to listen for God's voice, to know what path to follow. We need to keep faith in God's everlasting love that strengthens us.

Jesus wants us to have the courage to be ourselves, to try new things, to stand up for what is right, to be kind to one another, and to reach out and share the love of God with everyone.

Camp Service

On 24 March, we had our Camp Service at the Chapel Street Centre. This is a service led by the people who were at our annual Church Camp, which was held in February at the Waipara Riverside Campsite.

At church camp, the campers plan and lead the worship service on the Sunday morning. Everyone pitches in and does something to contribute to the service. We choose which group we'd like to help with... it could be the team who cleans and prepares the hall for the service, arranges flowers, or the group who chooses the bible readings, prayers and leads them. There was also the drama group and the music team. We each have about 30 minutes to plan and organise or practice, then after morning tea our service begins.

We then re-create the service for the rest of the congregation, which was what we did on March 24th. 

BRAVE

Our theme for camp was BRAVE.  Bravery is not the absence of fear… it is moving forward in spite of it.’

There are awesome kinds of courage, and everyday kinds of courage that ordinary people show all the time.  

At camp, in teams, we faced a number of challenges… some that required us to do things outside our comfort zone, to try new things, to reach out to help someone else, and to trust our teammates.

There was the traditional camp waterslide and flying fox, and other challenges saw us tackle obstacle courses, melt ice with our bare hands, and collect coloured balls whilst blindfolded -following the directions from our teammates.

In our concert on the Saturday night, many of our campers overcame nerves to perform an act to entertain the rest of us. There were dancers, singers, musicians, a karate item, jokes and skits. Who could forget the Invisible Bench Skit?

So, our camp and our worship service was a celebration of the moments, big and small, that bring out the hero in each of us, where we shine the light of God's love, and live in Jesus's way.