Today we are announcing the winners of the Easter challenges.
First up, the Champions of the CHYPS Instagram Photo Tasks:
Challenge # 6 | Something Surprising
The winner is... Quinn
for his video showing his spectacular origami!
Challenge # 5 | Flatlay Photo of Favourite Things
The winner is... Ella B
for her beautiful arrangement, including a bicycle, and a photo of her mum and brothers (bonus points for that,. Ella!)
And... drumroll please...
Challenge # 4 | Chain Reaction
In Second Place... Jack
In First Place... Dylan & family
Highly Commended / Don't Try This at Home, Kids! Mr O'Keefe
Plan a party or a backyard picnic for everyone in your bubble. Make some invitations, decorations and plan and make some party or picnic food. Write a little about it and email it to me (photos would be great too!)
She made a picnic lunch for the whole family on Sunday! Great job, Sophia!
Angie and Peatalisa took up challenge 4 and interviewed their grandfather to write this fabulous article. Thank you so much girls, and to your Papa, for sharing this with us!
Journalists: Peatalisa and Angie
Today we (Peatalisa and Angie) interviewed our Papa (grandad).
What are your favourite things to do?
He likes looking after our Nana who has dementia and is sick.
What did you do for a job before you retired?
He worked in the sea and collected fish from all over the world. He worked away from family- he says he felt lonely but he came in the holidays to make everyone happy and came with fish.
What was the naughtiest thing you did in school?
He and his friends drunk alcohol in High school.
What did you do for fun as a teen?
He played rugby union and he fell in love with it .
Where’s the most interesting place you’ve travelled to?
To L.A. America. He loves it there because his family lives there and it reminds him of his mum who has passed.
Who do you most admire in the whole world and why?
Jesus because when he was lonely Jesus was there to talk with.
What do you do best?
He says looking after everyone and making sure they are doing the right thing .
What is your favourite word?
Thank You.
What was your favourite book when you were a child?
The bible because when he was younger the schools in Tonga never had other story books.
What is your most memorable moment in your life?
His Mum and Dad just for taking care of him and teaching him well.
What is the most difficult thing for you right now?
It’s believing in Jesus,because every time he sits next to Nana she is not well he is losing hope that Nana is going to get better.He sits next Nana and prays for her and he just think it’s really hard for him to believe Jesus.
What lessons do you think the world can learn from the past?
To keep the past with you.
Jesus gave the disciples the gift of peace. We too, can share the peace of God. Usually, when we 'pass the peace' at church, we greet people with a hug or handshake, and say 'May the Peace of God be with you.' It is like a wish, or a prayer for the other person. We say it because we know God loves both of us. Then we invite people to pass the peace to our neighbours.
Obviously, there are no handshakes or hugs happening outside of our bubbles at the moment. One of the ways people have been sharing the gift of peace (and joy!) with others, is by displaying a teddy bear in their window. I have seen the smiles this has brought to many faces as families have been out on their daily walk, getting some exercise during this lockdown period. It has helped people feel more connected.
We thought we would create our own Lockdown version of "Pass the Peace". The young people and their leaders from Christchurch North Methodist Parish and community have been working together on a very special video project. We hope you enjoy the end result. Here is our "Pass the Peace" - Lockdown Style!
PASS THE PEACE
Click here to watch the video on YouTube. Please share it with your friends, family and neighbours!
I want to thank everyone who helped make this video - you guys are awesome!
HOLY HUMOUR SUNDAY
For many churches, the Sunday after Easter is celebrated as Holy Humour Sunday. The day is filled with parties, picnics, practical jokes, songs, stories and humour. Some churches have a 'Bright Sunday' celebration and call it 'Jesus is the LIFE of the PARTY!' It sounds like lot of fun and a wonderful way to celebrate the greatest miracle ever - the resurrection of Jesus.
Laughter has the power to move our lives forward, even in the midst of difficult times. So, it seems to me like it's great timing to celebrate Holy Humour Sunday!
A JOKE
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Lettuce.
Lettuce who?
Lettuce pray.
PRAYER
Loving God,
Thank you for being with us, and loving us always, no matter what. Help us to grow in love and peace, as we follow the ways of Jesus. May we know your joyful presence in all of our lives.
Amen.
CHALLENGES
Give some of these challenges a go! Email me to let me know how they went. I will post your pictures on the blog where I can.
#1 - TAKE A WALK
Next time you and your 'bubble' are out for a walk, pay particular interest to your surroundings and take note of anything surprising or interesting.
a) Make a list of all the interesting things you see on your walk. Include other senses - what do you hear / smell or:
b) Write a poem about the things you notice in your neighbourhood.
# 2 - SHARE A JOKE
Email me with a joke and I might share it on the blog. You could even video yourself saying it, if you like.
# 3 - PARTY / PICNIC
Plan a party or a backyard picnic for everyone in your bubble. Make some invitations, decorations and plan and make some party or picnic food. Write a little about it and email it to me (photos would be great too!)
# 4 - BE A JOURNALIST
Phone an elderly neighbour, relative, or friend from church and interview them about their life. Have a list of questions ready. Some ideas could be:
What are your favourite things to do?
What did you do for a job, before you retired?
What was the naughtiest thing you did at school?
What did you do for fun, as a teenager?
Where is the most interesting place you've travelled to?
Who do you most admire in the world, and why?
What do you do best?
What is your favourite word?
What was your favourite book when you were a child?
What have been the most memorable moments in your life?
What is the most difficult thing for you right now?
What lessons do you think the world can learn from the past?
Using the information you gathered from the interview, write up an article about this person.
# 5 - MAKE A PEACE WREATH
Trace around the hands of everyone in your bubble. Create a Peace Wreath like the one below.
# 6 - PEACE DOVE
A dove is a symbol of peace. Make this quick and easy dove, using your hand:
# 7 - QUIZ
Show us how observant you were while watching the Pass the Peace video. How many questions can you get right? Click HERE to take the QUIZ
I look forward to hearing from you!
Love, peace and joy to you all.
P.S. Here is a beautiful, friendly little piwakawaka Paul met in the park on his walk today.
On Sunday we put out some Easter challenges for you all...
Sophia is zooming through them, demonstrating her awesome creativity and enthusiasm! Check out the photos below where she has completed challenges 3, 4, 5 and 6! She has also entered the Easter quiz online Challenge #1 (click HERE to do the quiz!)
Apparently the scavenger hunt and baking are underway... great job, Sophia!
Today is Easter Sunday! We hear the story of a surprising thing that helped Jesus' friends move from feeling very sad to feeling great happiness! We celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. We use the word “Resurrection” to talk about Jesus being alive in a new way.
On Easter Sunday, Christians in churches everywhere greet each other with words that have been used for hundreds of years. “Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!”
Check out the Easter Edition of Digital Awesome Time below... and make sure you watch it all the way through, to look out for our special guests!
Loving God, thank You for loving us so much that you sent your son, Jesus to show us how to live and love in this world. Help us to remember what Jesus taught us, as we celebrate Easter. Amen.
A Story from Belinda | I am Not a Worm (by Scott Tulloch)
Seeing as we have some butterfly crafts this week, we were reminded about this rather funny story (although it has quite a surprising and not-so-good ending!) Anyway, hope it makes you smile :o)
CHALLENGES
Have a go at one or more of our Awesome Kids' Challenges for this week! There are prizes to be won! All the Palm Sunday challenges and these Easter weekend challenges are open for you to enter (closing date Friday 17 April 6pm).
Make one of these delicious looking Easter treats, or bake or cook up something of your own invention. Share the photo (and recipe) with us if you can. You might even like to try making Dylan's meringues.
1. Line a tray with baking paper
2. Mix 2 cups Greek yoghurt with 2 Tbsp runny honey
3. Pour the mixture over the baking paper and spread with a spatula to about 1cm thickness.
4. Cover with sprinkles and/or mini Easter eggs or chocolate pieces.
5. Freeze for at least 3 hours.
6. Take it out of the freezer and cut into random triangular shapes.
7. Enjoy!
Make or decorate an Easter hat! Here's a photo from several years ago, of our very own Sophia, with her Easter hat made during Awesome Time.
4. MAKE AN EMPTY CROSS
The cross is a symbol that reminds us of the sadness of Jesus’ death. The empty cross is a reminder that Jesus was and is no longer dead.
Make a cross, from branches, pieces of wood, cardboard, flax, or any other materials you can think of. Send us a picture!
5. MAKE A BUTTERFLY
A butterfly emerging from the cocoon is a symbol metamorphosis, transformation, hope and eternal life. Using old magazines, newspapers, bits of paper, paper plates, or whatever you can find around your house... make an Easter butterfly to represent new life. Don't forget to send us a photo!
6. EASTER EGG COLOURING
Design, draw and colour your own easter egg hunt. Put the egg up in a window that faces the street, so everyone can enjoy it.
7. EASTER SCAVENGER HUNT
Try this scavenger hunt with your family. Either work as a team, or compete to see who can find all the items first. Check the boxes online HERE and send us a photo of all your items.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Easter Blessings to you and your bubble, and your family wherever they may be.
Here is an entry from Angie, in the Musical Challenge... what clever photos Angie has taken of her sister Peatalisa, playing ukulele. Now all we need is a video of her playing it!
4. MUSICAL CHALLENGE You can interpret this any way you like! Either take a photo of you with a musical instrument, make a video of you or someone in your bubble playing a musical instrument... you could make your own musical instrument, sing a song, write a song... anything that celebrates the love of Jesus!
I stumbled upon this awesome book, The Good Egg, by Jory John and Pete Oswald. It has some great ideas for how to get along with everyone in our 'bubble', even if sometimes they are a little bit rotten. I especially like the ideas for looking after yourself... 'reading, painting, breathing in... breathing out...'
Quinn has made some awesome Easter-themed origami... check out these joyful rabbits, made entirely out of paper!
This Easter bunny really made me smile, and I was so impressed! What can you make from a piece of paper? Can you use paper or something else to create a joyful face? Why not give it a go and enter our 'Joyful Face' challenge?
8. JOYFUL FACE Be inspired by this selection of smiling faces... make your own smiling face in a creative way.
Dave has sent in an entry for one of our challenges...
I think it's pretty cool!
4. MUSICAL CHALLENGE You can interpret this any way you like! Either take a photo of you with a musical instrument, make a video of you or someone in your bubble playing a musical instrument... you could make your own musical instrument, sing a song, write a song... anything that celebrates the love of Jesus!
Here are a couple of videos about the Easter story you might like to watch today.
In today's part of the Easter story, we remember how Jesus died for us.
When Jesus died, Jesus's friends were so sad, they cried and cried. But God had a wonderful surprise. On Easter Sunday, we will celebrate that Jesus was alive again! His friends were very, very surprised, and happy! Check back here on Sunday to find out more about it, and we'll celebrate together. In the meantime, why not try one of the activities below?
Let us pray:
Loving God, we know that You care deeply for every person in Your world. We are so glad that You offer a promise of life to everyone. Help us to share in bringing this good news, and Your awesome love to people in practical ways. Amen.
MAKE AN EMPTY CROSS
The cross is a symbol that reminds us of the sadness of Jesus’ death. The empty cross is a reminder that Jesus was and is no longer dead.
You might like to make a palm cross, from flax (or if you don't have any flax, you could use cardboard). How to make a palm cross.
Or you could try a rose paper cross or fingerprint cross, like these ones below:
Hot Cross Buns
If you are lucky enough to have some hot cross buns at home, this is the perfect time to eat them! I love mine heated with butter melting through them... delicious! If you don't have any, you could try making some! If you don't have yeast (which you need for hot cross buns), you could make something else with that lovely spicy cinnamon flavour instead - how about French toast?
Why is such a sad day called Good Friday?
It is primarily an English term. In Germany the day is
known as Karfreitag or “Mourning Friday”. It is suggested that “good” is a
corruption of “God” as in “God’s Friday”. Goodbye is said to have evolved from
“God be with you”. Others speculate that “good” was used to denote “holy”.
Others believe that calling such a dark day “good” reflects the hope of the
resurrection that would not have been possible without Jesus’ death.
Looks like Bella's family have been busy cooking up some tasty treats to celebrate, despite being in lockdown I'm sure you'll have an awesome day, Bella!
Lots of love and blessings from us all xxx
Sophia created a chocolate story for Bella:
Dear Bella,
You are such a fabulicious sister, with your curly wurly hair and pinky cheeks. This is your lockdown birthday, so make it extra special. A Turkish holiday would have been eggcellent, but not right now. You are such a smarty that you probably know where Mars is. Tomoro you twirl on the crunchie ground. Don't flake out with surprise when you see us eclipse you in a race. This lockdown life is a picnic.
I've been super impressed by the number of you taking up the challenges during the week. Your creativity and enthusiasm is awesome! I'm sure we will all be putting on weight with all the amazing baking and cooking that's been happening!
Here is a short message from me for this week, and below you can find all the challenges. You can do one or two, or try the whole lot. You can enter multiple times. I am keeping a record of the winners, and prizes will be delivered when lockdown is over.
Keep smiling, washing your hands, and be kind to one another!
Let us pray: Lord, I can't even count all the things I should praise You for - but I want to try! Please help me to remember to ring out your praises every day. Amen
Here are some crafts and challenges you might like to try this week. Have a go at one, or more, send me a photo or video to be in with a chance to win a prize!
1. PALM SUNDAY QUIZ Click HERE to do this week's D.A.T. online QUIZ! 2. MAKE A PALM SUNDAY ROCK PICTURE or VIDEO
Be inspired by the video above... can you use rocks, pebbles, stones or anything else you have around your home to make a picture or video of a scene from the Palm Sunday story? You might like to create a picture of Jesus riding the donkey, or someone in the crowd. If you don't have any stones, see if you can improvise with other objects - Lego, or pegs, or draw a picture in a plate of sand. Use your imagination!
3. CREATE A CROWD
Re-create the crowd that was there, shouting "Hosanna!" as Jesus rode into town on a donkey. You could use members of your family, toys, teddy bears, Lego, pets, or draw a picture. You could make a chalk picture on your driveway or footpath. Take a photo or video of your 'Crowd' and send it to me!
4. MUSICAL CHALLENGE
You can interpret this any way you like! Either take a photo of you with a musical instrument, make a video of you or someone in your bubble playing a musical instrument... you could make your own musical instrument, sing a song, write a song... anything that celebrates the love of Jesus!
You might like to make a rock concert, using stones (or tin cans, or other objects around your house). Here is a link to a video of some percussionists making music on the ringing rocks in Pennsylvania.
We look forward to seeing and hearing your joyful sounds!
5. MAKE A PALM FROND
Using thin paper, fold it accordion style, then cut in half at a steep angle. Staple and fan out the pointy ends. An easier option is to draw around your hand (either on green paper or card, or colour it in). Put your palm frond onto a straw or iceblock stick.
6. MAKE A DONKEY
I love this donkey, created from wooden pegs! Try making your own donkey. If you don't have pegs, you could use iceblock sticks, Lego, or draw one. Send me a photo!
7. MAKE A PALM CROSS
Flax makes a great palm cross, but if you don't have any, try making one from cardboard or thick paper.
8. JOYFUL FACE
Be inspired by this selection of smiling faces... make your own smiling face in a creative way. I especially love the painted rocks, and the upside down face with googly eyes on the chin!
9. CHAIN REACTION
Our CHYPS Youth Group have been busy making chain reaction videos using marbles, dominoes, cards... and other objects around the house. Why not have a go at making your own awesome chain reaction video and share it with us? I'll post a couple of videos on the blog in the next day or so, to give you some inspiration. Have fun, and be joyful!
Email your entries to me, and I'll do my best to put your photos/videos up on the blog for everyone to enjoy. Have fun!
Congratulations to everyone who entered our Awesome Time Challenges during the week. I was so impressed by your talents and creativity!
Here are the winners of the challenges...
'Animal World' by Anaya
'Harvest Platter' by Sophia
Sophia created a beautiful crayon artwork for Harvest Festival, even studying artist Eric Carle to learn how to do shading. Anaya used pencils to create her amazing picture, titled 'Animal World'.
Mele's girls were the clear winners in the quiz based on the book, Red, with 100% correct. That must have been a combination of great listening and awesome teamwork! Jack and Sophia tied for second place. Congratulations!
The Master Chef Challenge was sooooo difficult to judge! In the end, we were so impressed with Sophia's two-course meal she cooked for her family, complete with menus! Sophia even made the pizza dough from scratch. Dylan's cooking video was fabulous too, if you haven't seen it yet do check it out HERE! Esther's afghan cookies looked delicious - I only wish I could have tasted them! Well done to you all, and to everyone who has been cooking or baking up a storm in the kitchen.
The vege characters were awesome, all of them! In the end, Brian the Broccoli won first place, because he looked like he had oodles of character, and we loved the alliteration used in his name. Well done, 'Emeline!
Keep an eye on the blog for new challenges, coming very soon!
