Haha... those lights! Not the ones I'd originally intended to use... we had a few technical issues (isn't that always the way with Christmas tree lights!) Anyway, I thought the lights were a good reminder of the message in this week's bible story.
We are called, as the body of Christ, to shine like Jesus, sharing God’s grace and love to the world. In the circle of grace and warmth of God’s love… and through the light of Jesus, we are powered to spread and share that amazing love. God wants us to shine bright, reflect the Son (S-O-N), and spread God’s never-ending love with others.
You can watch a cool video about the bible story of the transfiguration of Jesus by clicking here:
I love the Lego bible story... who doesn't like playing with Lego? You can take a bunch of random blocks and create the most incredible things. Transforming a pile of ordinary little bricks into something quite marvellous, is quite a cool link to the transfiguration story.
Your challenge, should you choose to accept it... is to create your own transformation 'story'. Begin by taking a photo of your pile or box of bricks (if you don't have lego, you could use books, tin cans or other recyclables, or paper or card). Next, transform your stuff into something spectacular! Take a photo. Send your 'before' and 'after' photos to me, and we'll post them on the blog.
Let it remind us that God's awesome love can transform us, and by shining the love and light of Jesus wherever we go, we can help make the world a brighter place.
Wordle:
Try your hand at this week's word puzzle... click HERE
Prayer:
Here's a cool prayer Anne found for us... written by Bruce Prewer:
Shiny, Like Jesus
Dear God,
When will people become more love-shiny,
like Jesus?
I hope it won't be too long,
'cos things are in a big mess here on Earth.
Please put the Spirit of Jesus into billions of hearts,
so that his shininess can change us from inside out.
Last week, Dave talked about Jesus's miracles and his biggest commandment: to love one another.
Often in the bible, we read how God loves everyone, even people who are really mean and ungrateful. In Jesus’s sermon on the Plain, we hear about how we are supposed to love our enemies and show kindness to people, even if they are being unkind to us. That’s not easy!
It’s a lot easier to love and forgive someone who is kind and loving. It’s pretty hard to forgive someone who has done us wrong. Sometimes the hardest person to forgive can be ourselves. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy. We need to remember that everyone makes mistakes, and no matter what, we are loved and we are forgiven too!
Let’s try to follow the Golden Rule: treat others how we want to be treated.
I thought you might enjoy this story, Enemy Pie, written by Derek Munson and illustrated by Tara Calahan King. I've read it in church before, so you may remember it. But it is such a good story, about treating people as friends, even if they act like our worst enemy.
Challenge from Dave:
Dave's challenge for each of you... is to do an act of kindness for someone this week. It might be someone in your family, or perhaps someone at school.
Activity:
Make a collage using pictures from magazines, newspapers or advertising fliers... of all kinds of people, showing that God's love is for everyone.
Here's a prayer...
Loving God,
Help us to treat others with love, as Jesus taught us.
This week's Awesome Time Online is brought to you by Carol!
This Sunday we are learning about some 'I WILL' statements from Jesus. You can read about them in the Bible, in the book of Luke, chapter 6, verses 17 to 26.
This is Luke’s take on the beatitudes. It is about hope when you are in those times when hope seems so far away.
First, watch and listen to the story of 'Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day' by Judith Viorst and illustrated by Ray Cruz on Read Aloud Children's Books.
What a great story, Carol! Thanks for sharing that. I wonder if anyone has seen the movie? My favourite scene is when Alex's older brother is going for his driving test. Hilarious!
These seven statements are precious promises that give us the perfect assurance, rest, hope, and joy that can only be received from God.
My favourite 'I Will' is the one that says, 'I will love you.' No matter who we are, where we are or what we're doing, Jesus promises to love us always. How awesome is that! - Melanie
A Challenge from Mel...
Did you give the Wordle a try last week? Here's this week's Awesome Time Wordle... try to guess my 5 letter word. You get six guesses. Correct letters will show up in orange, and if it's in the right place it will be green.
Or make something out of hearts – a wreath or a chain of hearts, a card or a bookmark to give to someone special, to remind them how much YOU love them, and how much JESUS loves them too.
More challenges coming... keep an eye on this blog!
Check out these gorgeous cards, made by Kyla and Samara with some of the resources in their Awesome Kids craft goodie bag. Let us know if you'd like one too!
This week's Awesome Time Online is brought to you by Jillian and Richard.
Fishers of People (Luke 5:1-11)
In this story we see Jesus work a miracle, and learn that he called ordinary people to be his disciples and teach others about the love of God.
Watch Jillian tell the story, 'Fishers of People' from an inflatable boat by clicking HERE.
Next, Richard has a challenge for you... watch by clicking HERE.
Richard's Challenge | Sink or Swim?
The fishermen in this story caught such a large load of fish that their nets became so heavy and they began to sink. Fish normally float so would you really expect a whole lot of fish to sink a boat?
For a bit of fun, you can search for a number of things around the house, and guess whether you think they will sink or float.
You need:
a bucket of water
small things you have at home that you are allowed to put into water
BEFORE you put anything into the water, make two groups. One with things you think will float, and another group of things you think will sink.
Take a photo on someone’s phone so you can remember which group things were in.
Carefully place each item into the water
What floats, and what sinks?
Take each item out of the water and put them into two new groups. One with things you know float, and another group of things you know sink.
Some suggestions to try: fruits, vegetables, paperclip, coin, wooden block, lego, crayon, key (not the car key!!), stone, ice cube, drink bottle, jar of jam (lid tightly on!), cork, cotton ball, spoon. There are endless things to try!
If you’d like, you can send your photos to Mel for the blog, and tell us if there were any surprises!
Prayer
Dear God,
You have created all the wonders of this world and beyond.
No matter what we do, no matter where we go,
You are always here, reminding us how much you love us and love others.
You always listen to us, and always care for us
Thank you Lord
Amen
Wordle
For those who enjoy a word puzzle (adults included!) how about trying this Wordle challenge. Try to guess Mel's five-letter word... taken from Richard & Jillian's talk today. If you've never played Wordle before... here's how it works.
Try to guess the word in 6 tries. Each try must be an actual word (you can't just type random letters). After each guess, the colour of the tiles will change to show you how close you are to guessing the correct word. If you guess the right letter in the right spot, that tile shows up as green. If you have the right letter but in the wrong spot, the tile shows up as orange. If you've guessed a letter that isn't in the word at all, the tile shows up grey. It's a little bit like hangman, but you're guessing a whole word at a time rather than just single letters. Remember if you guess a letter correctly, it's possible it might appear in the word more than once. Ready to give it a try? Great! Click here for this week's WORDLE CHALLENGE!
If you'd like to try a word search, crossword puzzle or colouring page, here are some links:
Watch this space for Awesome Time Online... brought to you by the Awesome Leaders from Christchurch North Methodist.
There will be stories, activities, crafts and plenty of challenges. There will be chances for our Awesome Kids to win prizes and opportunities to share your own stories, news, photos and videos.
On Sunday we kicked off 2022 with a Blessing of the Backpacks, followed by our first Awesome Time of the year. There were mixed feelings about starting school. Some were starting new classrooms, new schools.
Bella and Jack were presented with bibles as they begin their secondary school education. We wish them all the best as they begin this new chapter in their lives.
In Awesome Time, we created some magnetic mirrors to reflect our mood and remind us that God loves us all the time. We also made pop-up puppets, who hid away when they were feeling sad or shy, and popped up when they were happy and excited. No matter how we are feeling, where we are or what we are doing, our God loves us just the way we are and is always with us!
Check out the video from last Sunday's Awesome Time: https://youtu.be/EeGRSQnvuVs
