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

Happy Mothers' Day!

This morning we learnt that there are many different names for God. Sometimes God is referred to as a king, a shepherd and even a rock. Many people call God 'Father', but did you know that God is also like a Mother?

In the bible, in the book of Matthew (chapter 23, verse 37), it talks about God being like a mother hen, 'gathering her brood under her wings'. In Isaiah 40:11, 'God tends the flock like a shepherd; and gathers the lambs with gentle arms and carries them close to the heart'. 

We shared the brand new book 'Mumapalooza' by NZ author and illustrators Sarina Dickson and Ant Sang. It's a wonderful celebration of all the mums and mother-like figures in our lives.

With 'gentle hands' we played the game of 'Pick Up Sticks', and created some beautiful framed artwork for a treasured mum.

Loving, gentle, caring God,

Thank you for loving us always, no matter where we are. 

Thank you for the special people in our lives who love us;

For the mums, dads, stepparents, foster parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles… 

for everyone who gathers us in with gentleness and love 

and carries us close to the heart, just like you.

Help us to show them how much we love them too.

Amen

Thanks, Mum

 This morning our Awesome Kids made lavender bath salts, cards and flower pen toppers... wow, us mums were very spoilt! 

The lavender scent is to help us relax... and the salt is because we are 'salt of the earth'! ;o)

Watch the work in progress here: https://youtu.be/iIU-mhL-KYo

Lily and Emelia's handprint art

Challenge # 8 | Hand-print Bouquet

Lily and Emelia (and Mum, Michelle), created a beautiful handprint artwork for their grandmother on Mothers' Day. I'm sure she was so thrilled, what a special gift.

Happy Mothers' Day

Here's a blast from the past... check out these Mothers' Day videos our Awesome Kids made a few years back...

This first video was made in 2010:

Thanks Mum

Hope all the mums, aunties, grandmas, nanas, and all the special people out there who care for our children had a lovely day today.

Here are a couple of videos our Awesome Kids made for Mothers' Day, some years back. How they have grown!