Happy Christmas from the Youth!

Last Sunday, our young people led a Christmas Youth Service. The focus was on peace, but there was a fair amount of joy involved too!

Thank you to all who helped make this such a special start to Christmas.

 

Bubble fun!

 This morning, we heard a story in church about a king, who wasn't bothered about shiny crowns, fancy clothes or having servants. This king had holes in his jeans and his crown was dull and dented. He would rather do work himself, than make servants do it. He was kind and generous and shared what he had with others. This reminded us of Jesus, who always shared and wants us to show God's love to others by being kind and generous too.

We heard another story out in Awesome Time about a greedy king who wanted to keep all the bubbles in the kingdom for himself. This led to some bubble play and bubble art. We experimented with bubble solution, paint and straws to create some bubbly art, then went on to paint with brushes whatever we felt like. There were some fantastic paintings created, which will be photographed for our Awesome Art Project.

They have also been framed and are on display in the Chapel Street Gallery for you to enjoy!

Mountain Sunday collages

 Check out our awesome mountain collages we made for Mountain Sunday!

Walking Trees

Last Sunday was the second Sunday in our Seasons of Creation Celebrations. 

We read the beautiful book, Walking Trees by Mary-Louise Gay. We talked about looking after our planet and showing care and love for one another too.

We created some beautiful nature crowns, and looked a bit like a walking forest as we went back into church to share with everyone!

 

The Awesome Art Project

 Carol is leading our Awesome Art Project, which is very exciting! Our Awesome Kids are creating some artwork which will be scanned and printed onto greeting cards. These greeting cards will be available for sale as a fundraiser for our Parish. 

Check out these amazing artworks below and one of our artists, Maryross, in the process of adding her artist's signature to one of her pieces.

Seeds of Peace and Justice

We heard two parables Jesus told about seed planting. In one the farmer scatters the seed and God makes the seed grow. In the other, a tiny mustard seed is planted, and grows to become the tallest in the garden. 

A tiny seed can become a massive tree.

Seeds and people have a lot in common. Every flower, leaf, vegetable, plant - is different. Each looks different and has a different purpose. Each grows at different rates, times and has different needs. Just like us. 

We can plant seeds of compassion and kindness and seeds of peace and justice.  These seeds may be small acts, but with God they can become huge.

Prayer: God, you love each of us, no matter who we are or what we can do. Encourage us to share love with others this week and welcome those who don’t always feel included. Amen.

Women in the Bible

Carol and Maureen researched some of the women in the Bible - and more about the lesser known women - including a sister, a grandmother, and a mother. Here are the posters created in Awesome Time.

Beautiful Family

Today we celebrated Mother's Day, and all the special people - Mums, Dads, Grandparents, Step-parents, Aunts, Uncles and extended family, who love and care for us. 

We talked about what it means to be part of a family, and what it is to be part of the family of God.

We shared the beautiful pukapuka, Tōku Whānau Rerehua/My Beautiful Family. Written in te reo Māori (with the English translation appearing second on the pages) by Rauhina Cooper and beautifully illustrated by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White this pukapuka is a wonderful celebration of the diversity and vibrancy of families within our communities. 

We remembered how Jesus showed us that each one of us is loved and treasured by God. 

We created clay people representing the beautiful diversity of people in our families, and our church family / the family of God. 

 

Livvie's is a work in progress. We hope she will share the finished product with us soon!

Prayer:

God of life and love,

who created a world of diversity and vibrancy

Thank you for whānau - for all kinds of family

for the special people in our lives

who love us, care for us, protect us and keep us safe.

Thank you for our church family, for our leaders,

our role models, our guides and our friends.

Thank you for Jesus, who taught us You love 

each and every one of us, just the way we are.

Amen

Say Something!

 Enjoy watching the video created by our tech experts, Livvie and Liam a few weeks back. 'Say Something' was inspired by the book of the same name, by author/illustrator Peter H Reynolds.

https://youtu.be/gKDN-S2iMwk

There are a lot of things that might worry or scare us, but God wants to take those fears away and give us peace instead. 

We can trust that Jesus is near, even though we do not see or feel Him all the time. There are things that are scary and worrisome to us, but Jesus wants to take those burdens and replace them with His peace. He wants us to rely on Him. He can take away those fears and swap them for His peace. 

We don’t have to bear grudges and worries alone. We can have the comfort of His love surround us always. And we can share the love, forgiveness, and peace of Christ with others around us.

Dear God,
Thank you for the peace of Jesus
Help us to rely on that instead of fear
Help us to trust in you and share your love with those around us.
Help us to say something with words, with action, with creativity, to spread peace and love.
Give us the courage to use our voices to inspire, heal and change the world.
Amen!

Easter Sunday Service 10am

Join us for Easter Sunday!

10am 

at the Chapel Street Centre

 

Welcome back!

 

It was a hot day for the first day back at the Chapel Street Centre for 2024! Our Awesome Kids enjoyed some ice blocks to cool off.

We had our Blessing of the Backpacks and there were devotional book presentations to those who were starting secondary school.

We were so happy to see you all! Thank you for coming! You are AWESOME, God loves you and your church family loves you!

Blessing of the Backpacks

Join us on Sunday 4 Feb at 10am for our Blessing of the Backpacks.

Bring your schoolbag, kindy bag, uni bag ... and we'll have a special blessing with Rev Anne to mark the beginning of our school year.

We'll have some presentations for our youth who are beginning secondary school too.

Look forward to seeing you there!