I'll Love You till the Cows Come Home

On Sunday we read the story, 'I'll Love You till the Cows Come Home', by Kathryn Cristaldi. The narrator described their love for all these different kinds of animals, throughout all their weird and wonderful adventures. No matter where they went, what they did, the narrator loved them all the way through their journey, and welcomed them home to that love.

We unscrambled a mystery bible verse, to discover the verse from John 3:16 - For God loved the world so much that he gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not die but have eternal life.

God's love for us is A W E S O M E. Through all our journeys, our doubts, our questions, our misunderstandings... even if we don't ask for it - God's love is real and awesome and stays with us always, no matter what.

God loved the world S O  M U C H that he gave us Jesus. That's H U G E. God's love is so B I G, so W I D E, so D E E P... it's pretty cool.

We created some crazy cool collages, and Yoshua and Izak built some awesome Lego creations... celebrating that no matter who we are, what we look like, where we come from... no matter what... God LOVES us.

Camp was A M A Z I N G!

Come to church on Sunday 29 March to relive our creative worship service from CAMP 2020! We'll also see the CAMP MOVIE and photos.

CHYPS 2020

CHYPS is back this year - with tons of energy, enthusiasm and lots of laughs.

We are so blessed to have Angie Sisifa as our new youth leader this year, assisted by Monica. Our first session for 2020 was packed with high energy games, getting to know one another, and time to chat about how the year had started off for everyone. We were reminded that through it all, God is with us, loving us, all the time - no matter what.

Thanks to the mums who provided us with a scrummy supper to finish!

Our next CHYPS is Saturday 14th March!

Mountaintop Experiences / On the Edge

Think about a time in your life when you reached an edge. When you had to make a choice, pick a path to follow, or make a really hard decision.Who or what helped you make the decision? The scriptures today were about hard decisions. Sometimes you know in your heart what the right choice is, but our friends might be telling us something different.

We are starting the season of Lent, which is all about making choices. Lent is also a bit like a journey. Imagine a journey along an edge... a physical edge like a beach, lakeside, rooftop, mountainside - or an edge within our community, maybe differences in cultures, backgrounds or ways of thinking or doing things.

We heard the story of Jesus and his friends on the mountain. The story is called The Transfiguration. Transfiguration means when something is changed in an amazing way. In this story, Jesus' appearance was changed dramatically and mysteriously. It was when it was revealed to some of Jesus's disciples that Jesus truly is the Son of God.  

In Hot Chocolate Club, we shared our Mountaintop Experiences... times when we were either literally on top of a mountain, or metaphorically. Times when we felt on top of the world. Times when we felt super close to God. Times when we felt full of wonder and awe. Times when we felt the love and peace and comfort of God flood over us.

We talked about ways we can reflect God's awesome light and love, in our daily life. We thought that every time we had a choice to make, if we stopped to think about what Jesus would do... what God would want us to do... it would help us to make the right decision.

Sometimes, when we have a choice to make, a big decision on our minds... it feels a bit like we are on the edge. We remember that God is with us through our journey, every step of the way, we just have to stop and let God guide is in our choices.

In pairs, we did a Lego-person photo shoot, going on a hunt for photos of our wee model living on the edge. It was a reminder that wherever we go, whatever choices we make, God is with us, loving us always.

CHYPS is back!

Calling all YOUTH

intermediate / high school age

CHYPS/CHapel Street Young People's

YOUTH GROUP

is back for 2020!

This Saturday 8 Feb

Time: 6.30pm to 8pm

Cost: $2 per person

at

The Chapel Street Centre

A Musikool Kids' Christmas

Here's a flashback to Christmas - it seems so long ago now! Thanks to photographer Monica, we have some photos to share from our Christmas Party at Musikool Kids.

Thanks everyone for a wonderful morning, and for all your good wishes xx

Our Awesome Youth

Flashback to pre-Christmas... here are some of our team hanging out on a Sunday morning. Church is a great place to make new friends and strengthen existing friendships. 

CHYPS Youth Group 2020

CHYPS starts back on 

Saturday 8 February

6.30pm to 8pm

Gold Coin Donation

See you there!

Blessing of the Backpacks

Bring your school bag, lunchbox or pencil case to church this Sunday for our...

Blessing of the Backpacks

Sunday 26 Jan

10.00am

Awesome Time will be back, and Hot Chocolate Club for our older youth.

See you there!

Christmas Eve Carol Service 5.30pm

Please join us for our all-age Christmas Eve Carol Service.

Tuesday 24 December

5.30pm

at

the Chapel Street Centre

There will be carols and a pop-up nativity!

All Welcome!

Christmas Service pics

A massive thank you to all our children and youth, who helped make yesterday's Christmas service so special! 

Christmas Movie!

https://youtu.be/-F5qKIKhQdI

Enjoy our 2019 Christmas movie, brought to you by the children and youth of Christchurch North Methodist Parish.

Thanks to all our Awesome Kids, CHYPS Youth, and special thanks to vocalist Roslind and pianist Monica.

May the Hope, Peace, Joy and Love of Christmas 

be with you all.

Movie Trailer

Here is the official trailer for our Christmas 2019 Movie.

https://youtu.be/IlNjrmDZBTA

Also, an invitation to join us for the screening of the film at our Family Christmas Service.

Sunday 15 December 2019

10am

The Chapel Street Centre

Cnr Harewood Road and Chapel Street

Papanui

Christchurch

Christmas Events for Kids

Hope you'll join us for some of these family-friendly events at Christchurch North Methodist.

We'd love to see you there!

We kick off this Friday morning with our Christmas Party at Musikool Kids, for pre-schoolers and their caregivers. 

Sunday 15 December is our Family Christmas Service led by our young people, including a nativity play and some awesome Christmas music - traditional and modern. We also have the screening of our 2019 Christmas movie!

Tuesday 24 December we have our Christmas Eve Carol Service, starting at 5.30pm. This includes the Christmas story and some favourite Christmas carols.

That's a Wrap!

Our film shoot out at Bottle Lake Forest yesterday was a great success! The weather was fine, the location was beautiful and the children were amazing! Thank you to you all for being such superstars. We have had a little look through some of the raw footage this morning, and there are some awesome shots. The editing process has begun, and we look forward to sharing the finished product with you on 15 December at our special Christmas Service, led by the Youth and Children from our Parish and Community.

Pictured above is Angel Amelia with Rev Anne Preston's dog, Ben.

Watch this space for more updates...

Christmas Filming!

We look forward to seeing you all on Sunday afternoon for our Christmas movie shoot! It's going to be awesome! 

Christ the Servant King

https://youtu.be/KODAG1N4pug

This morning in Awesome Time and in Hot Chocolate Club, we learnt about Jesus the King... but not a normal king... Jesus the Servant King. Jesus came to serve the lowly, the poor, the lonely, the sick, the frightened, the sad. He is a kind, caring and loving king. He didn't have lots of money, a flash castle or wear a shiny crown.

Our Awesome Kids planted petunias in little pots, to gift to the king... and gave them to people in the church.

Our Hot Chocolate Club talked about what it means to be a good leader... here are some of the qualities they look for in a good leader:

• Someone who is fair
• Someone who does not discriminate
• Someone who shows kindness and is caring
• Someone who leads by example, not by bullying
• Someone who recognises the gifts and strengths of others and gives them opportunity to use them
• Someone who gives clear instructions, without being bossy or trying to take over
• Someone who is supportive and encouraging

We then offered someone the chance to step up and be a leader, to create a game or challenge for us all and lead us in that. It was proven that it is not easy to be a leader and uphold all of those characteristics we listed!

We are grateful to have Jesus as our Leader, who is all of those things and more.

Christmas Youth and Children's Service 15 December

Mark this on your calendar!

Sunday 15th December 10am-11am

Chapel Street Centre

All ages, all welcome!

Build My Life

Build My Life, sung and played by Smith & Co. on Sunday. A wonderful way to begin our worship service. Thank you for sharing your musical gifts with our congregation!

https://youtu.be/NHCrb3szwqs

Giving Thanks

This morning we read Psalm 145 from the Bible, which was all about giving thanks to God for all the amazing, wonderful, splendiferous things in the world!

https://youtu.be/3CJJKG0o_7U

FISH: PRE-CHRISTMAS Edition

Last Saturday night, we had our final FISH night for 2019. It was our pre-Christmas edition, with a Christmas Quiz, Backwards Charades, Human Christmas Tree and a candy cane hunt.

https://youtu.be/hediJVcsNbI

3rd Place in the Human Christmas Tree Competition

2nd Place in the Human Christmas Tree Competition

1st Place in the Human Christmas Tree Competition

Hot Chocolate Club begins...

Last Sunday we started Hot Chocolate Club. This is a group for those in years 6 and up. We meet out in the Reese Room, during Awesome Time and have a chat about the bible, school, family, friends, stuff to cheer about and stuff that bugs us. Oh, and of course, there's hot chocolate. Or, cold chocolate milk when the weather's hot!

We had a game where we had to eat or drink the contents of a cup, to reveal a letter or number at the bottom. When we unscrambled all the letters/numbers, we worked out what the bible verse was.

We chatted about people who were difficult to get along with, times we've been picked on or bullied, and brainstormed ways to deal with problems like that.

Here are a few pics from our game:

Enemy Pie!

https://youtu.be/PYZRsebhBsY

Last Sunday we heard the story of Enemy Pie, by Derek Munson. It was going to be the perfect summer... until Jeremy, the bully from school moved into the neighbourhood. Luckily, Dad had the solution: Enemy Pie. We all wondered what would be in the enemy pie... worms, bugs, beetles? But the recipe was secret. The only catch to the Enemy Pie Plan, was that the boy had to spend the whole day with his enemy, before giving him the enemy pie.

After spending some time playing on the trampoline at the enemy's house, then back at his own, up in the treehouse and racing around in the back garden... the boy in the story had got to know Jeremy, the bully, and realised he wasn't actually that bad after all. He wasn't being a very good enemy!

The story reminded us of the story in the bible about the tax collector, Zacchaeus. He climbed a tree to see Jesus. He was a bit of a bully, not well liked by the crowd. Imagine their surprise when Jesus called out to Zacchaeus and invited himself over to his place for a meal.

We talked about not judging people too harshly, giving lots of second chances, and remembering that everyone is capable of change. Above all, that Jesus loves everyone, even the bullies among us.

In Awesome Time we made 'enemy pies' (chocolate crackle cakes with worm and snake lollies - yum!) with Rev Anne.

If you'd like to hear the story of Enemy Pie, you can watch it on the Storyline video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_I9NgXKtC8

FISH: The pre-Christmas Edition!

FISH: The pre-Christmas Edition!

Join us this Saturday 9 November at the Chapel Street Centre for FISH!

Our Family Fun Night kicks off at 5pm with tea in the lounge. Bring your own picnic or takeaway tea for your family.

We then move through to the hall for an evening of fun challenges, games and competitions for all ages - this time with a little bit of a Christmas theme!

The evening ends at 7pm with ice-cream and chocolate fish. See you there!

Hot Chocolate Club

This Sunday we are offering The Hot Chocolate Club, for youth in years 7 and up. Although, if you are in year 6 and you'd like to check it out you are most welcome. We will chat about the bible story, share our views, ask questions, discuss stuff that's important to you, play a game and of course, drink hot chocolate. 

In Awesome Time, we will be making some enemy pies! I wonder what disgusting ingredients might be in an enemy pie? Come along and find out with Rev Anne and Monica!

Cafe Church 2019

https://youtu.be/bJkeZLpcOLo

The first Cafe Church in some years was held by Christchurch North Methodist Parish this morning at the Chapel Street Centre. 

It was a fabulous inter-generational service of praise, where people of all ages mixed and created music, art and prayer together in thanks to our awesome God.  We all sat at tables, cafe style, and had our cup of tea or coffee along with cake or cookies, during the service. The tables were covered with newsprint paper, on which we wrote, drew or painted things we were thankful to God for. It was wonderful to see everyone getting involved, mixing, and getting to know one another better, all the while giving thanks and praise to God.

Smith & Co. led our worship at the beginning, with a beautiful rendition of Yet Not I, But Through Christ in Me, and the Chapel Street Band led the congregation in singing One, Two, Three, Alleluia; Psalm 148- Praise the Lord from the Heavens, and How Much am I Worth?

Thanks to Rev Anne for planning such an inspirational and creative worship service, to Merilyn, Dorothy & Noel and co. who worked hard in the kitchen, and to Dave & Richard and all your helpers for moving furniture!

Café Church this Sunday!

Join us this Sunday for Café Church at the Chapel Street Centre!

All-age worship service, including great music, tea & coffee, food, and the chance to get creative with paint to praise our awesome God!

CHYPS #Selfie Scavenger Hunt Edition

https://youtu.be/cQ6UbhT3JB4

Our CHYPS team enjoyed a Selfie Scavenger Hunt tonight, where they had to create certain photos and videos - everything from 'Your team in water', to 'Something that will look awesome in slow motion', to 'Kidnap a member from another team and take a photo with them'. The results are compiled in the video above. Enjoy!

Oh, and as for the winning team...

Congratulations to Izak's team, who took it out with 3900 points! (Although we have to give Monica's team special mention for the cool slow motion video using the water balloon and scissors! Great production, team!)

Give Thanks

Last week our Awesome Kids heard the story of the ten lepers. In our video below, our intrepid roving reporter, Roslind, interviews some of our Awesome Kids & Youth.

Brought to you by MaTCH (Media and Tech at Chapel Street).

https://youtu.be/RhUiMMerUU4