Merry Musikool Kids

Thank you to all our awesome volunteers who have helped make Musikool Kids such a fun and happy place to be on Friday mornings. Thank you to all the wonderful children and your parents, grandparents and caregivers, for being part of our Musikool Kids' family.

May the joy, love and peace of Christmas be with you all!

Nativity Service 9 December

Join us next Sunday, 9 December at 10am for our Nativity Play and Service, led by the children and youth and young adults from our parish.

All welcome!

FISH at Christmas in the Park

Instead of our usual FISH night at the church, we will be having our picnic tea at North Hagley Park, from 5.30pm Saturday 24 November, then staying on to enjoy the entertainment at 7.30pm (featuring Dylan and Quinn!)

Bring wet weather gear! :o)

Caleb a National TV Star!

Congratulations to our very own Caleb, who starred in a recent episode of the TVNZ show, Fanimals.

If you would like to watch it, you can click on the link below. Caleb is on at about 7 mins in.

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/fanimals/episodes/s2018-e175

Ark Building Competition

At our November CHYPS night, our team competed to make the best ark... which team managed to float their boat?

Christmas Movie Coming Soon...

Last Sunday a very awesome bunch of 35 were movie stars for the day. Shot on location at St James' Park, THE CHRISTMAS STORY features a bunch of hardworking shepherds, enthusiastic angels, confused wise guys, a misunderstood innkeeper, two proud parents and of course, the reason for the season, Jesus.

THE CHRISTMAS STORY will premiere at the Family Christmas Service on Sunday December 9th, 10am, at the Chapel Street Centre.

For a glimpse of what's to come, watch the trailer here:

https://youtu.be/qOMRl7GvVcU

Blind art

Last week we heard the story of Bartimaeus, who was blind. We talked about what it might be like to not have the use of our eyes. We tried some activities blindfolded, such as walking through a maze (with a helper calling out directions), and drawing a self-portrait, blind.

Monica took this literally, and first drew a picture of "herself wearing a blindfold." Then, she tried to draw "herself, wearing a blindfold". What a difference between the two pictures. It sure helps being able to see what you're doing.

The story was a reminder to us about including and welcoming everyone, no matter if they are different to us in any way.  

Musikool Kids' Mums Rock!

Some of us mums dusted off our high-school-days musical instruments and brought them along to share with the children at Musikool Kids. No one minded that some of us were a bit rusty! A very enjoyable morning!

https://youtu.be/wdR1HnSSEtA

White Sunday Reflection

(Above: Monica with Hazel)

Monica's Reflection on White Sunday – 14/10/18

The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives, together, as a church... every part dependant on every other part.

Today we celebrate all the gifts God gives us, and recognise that we are meant to use these gifts not just for our own good, but for the good of the people around us. 

Our reading from Corinthians tells us that all the gifts support and add to each other. No gift is more special than any other gift. All are needed.

In 1 Corinthians 13, verses 1 and 2, it says that ‘whatever our gifts are, we are to use them lovingly, the love is more important than the gift.

Many people from our church family have helped and guided me, shaping me into the person I am today.

I’m sure many of you here will remember Doreen and Lester Riley. Growing up, Izak and I became very close to them, so much so, that we called them Grandma and Grandad Riley. Whenever we visited, they always had lollies in a little crystal jar on the coffee table, just for us. Something that had a big impact on me was learning that Grandad Riley never had a teddy bear growing up. So, when he became ill and went into Wesley care, we bought him a bear and took it into him. They always seemed so pleased to see Izak and I and really made us feel like we were part of a church family.

Theda Barritt, more commonly known as ‘The Spider Lady’ was someone I really looked up to during my childhood. She always had an interesting story to tell, and was eager to share and educate Izak and I, of her spider collection, which lived upstairs in her bedroom drawers. I learnt many things from her, which I am very grateful for.

In recent years, Hazel has taken me under her wing. She has shown such an interest in my life, keeping up with everything I’m doing and encouraging me. She even taught me how to watercolour paint, which has given me a great head start for NCEA level 1 art. A lot of the techniques she has taught me, I have been using to complete my current assignment.

Dave has helped some of our young people by giving them volleyball tips, and teaching them about electronics. He has been very supportive of my music and sport, even going to the extent of finding parts for my saxophone, and texting or emailing after a big sporting event to see how I went.

Even those younger than me have taught and given me things. For Example, Dylan helped me learn how to do flips on the Trampoline, and all the Awesome kids bring a smile to my face every Sunday. I am in awe of the confidence of them, getting up in church and speaking, or singing in the band at such a young age.

I get a lot of happiness, by teaching them the ukulele, and helping out in Awesome Time.

Every person contributes to the life of the church, and has gifts and talents to use, whether you know it or not... just like some parts of the body are a mystery as to what they do, and what they are for, they are still a part of the body and, are needed.

All you Awesome Kids here know every super hero or heroine has a super-power, a special gift. But the difference between them and their arch-rivals is how they use their gift. The message today, is that the superest gift of all, is the gift of love.

Monica 

Secret Fudge Recipe

On White Sunday, during our "Teach Me Something in 5 Minutes" session, Merilyn shared her famous white chocolate Russian fudge recipe. For those who missed it, here it is!

WHITE CHOCOLATE RUSSIAN FUDGE

MERILYN's Microwave Recipe

Ingredients

3 cups white sugar

½ cup milk

1 Tbsp golden syrup

½ tin condensed milk

125g butter

  

1 tsp vanilla essence

100g white chocolate

METHOD

Add all ingredients (EXCEPT chocolate and essence) into a LARGE microwave bowl.

Stir.

Cook in microwave on high for 14 min, stopping after every 2 min to remove bowl from microwave and stir.

At the end of cooking time, add vanilla essence and chocolate and beat with an electric beater for 4 to 5 minutes.

Pour mixture quickly and evenly into a greased shallow tin.

Put in fridge to set.

VARIATION:

Dark chocolate version

Replace one of the cups of white sugar with brown sugar

Replace white chocolate buttons with dark chocolate

Add 1 Tbsp cocoa powder

Making a better World

Last Sunday our Awesome Kids faced some challenges where the only way to overcome the obstacles was to work together with the other team and share their resources. If only we all shared a little more, then the world would be a much kinder place!

CHYPS Masterchef challenge

Last CHYPS night involved a Masterchef challenge. 

Go to the CHAPEL STREET YOUTH BLOG to find out more.

Exciting Upcoming Events

Make sure you put these dates on your calendars now!

Youth Service video

Last month, as part of our national Methodist Conference, youth from Auckland joined together with young people from Canterbury to lead an amazing Youth Service, held at Christchurch North Methodist Parish.

Check out some of the highlights here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pjVNX2ffe0

One Body with Many Parts - a White Sunday Celebration

Christchurch North Methodist Parish celebrated White Sunday, when traditionally in Tongan and Samoan churches the children and young people lead the worship service. Our Awesome Kids, youth and young adults took lead roles in our service assisted by some of our ‘slightly more experienced’ Awesome Kids.

We acknowledged and celebrated not only our children and youth, but people of all ages. We recognised the gifts God has placed in the people of our congregation and showed our thanks for the friendship, caring, teaching and mentoring given by our church family to our young people.

Our theme was taken from 1 Corinthians 12, One Body with Many Parts. Despite our obvious and many differences, God calls us to a colourful unity, and to a diversity without division. Every part is dependant on every other part. “I need you, and you need me.” If one part hurts, every part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

 AbsolUKE, our ukulele group, led the worship music, along with the Chapel Street Band.  Our young people led the prayers and readings, alongside older mentors, and we had an all-age drama group who performed The Body Skit. Our Call to Worship was co-led by one of our children and her very special 90-year-old friend.

In a time of discussion, we shared our most memorable experiences from Sunday School and Youth Group days, and a Question Time, posed some tricky questions: What is the best thing about being a child? What is the best thing about being a grown-up? What is the hardest thing about being a child? What is the hardest thing about being a grown-up?

We then broke into small groups for ‘Teach Me Something in Five Minutes’. Each adult and child taught something to someone from a different generation, in only a few minutes. There was knitting, weaving, origami, gardening tips, ukulele lessons, recipes and legends shared, different languages and how to make a paper dart. The variety of skills taught and information imparted was incredible. There was a tremendous buzz, warmth and much laughter as the generations worked together.

One of our teenagers presented a reflection, celebrating all our God-given gifts and highlighting the point that we are meant to use these gifts not just for our own good, but for the good of the people around us. She shared how being nurtured and guided by some of our elderly members of the congregation has shaped her into the person she is today.

“Every person contributes to the life of the church, and has gifts and talents to use, whether you know it or not... just like some parts of the body are a mystery as to what they do, and what they are for, they are still a part of the body and, are needed.”

She concluded with a message from 1 Corinthians 13, verses 1 and 2, that “whatever our gifts are, we are to use them lovingly, the love is more important than the gift.”

A Wonderful White Sunday

What a wonderful job our Awesome Kids, Youth and Young Adults did this morning, as they led our White Sunday Worship Service.

https://youtu.be/qaatvbxLlJo

More photos and videos to follow, keep an eye on the blog!

CHYPS October 13th

Calling all youth in years 7 to 13...

Join us for CHYPS YOUTH GROUP at the Chapel Street Centre, Saturday 13 October, 6.30pm to 8pm. A night full of fun, friends and a fabulous supper. See you there!

Welcome

Last Sunday we talked about ways to make visitors feel welcome at church. Our Awesome Kids made some posters welcoming everyone to the Chapel Street Centre.

White Sunday 14th October

Join us at the Chapel Street Centre this Sunday 14th October 10am-11am for our White Sunday service. We will be celebrating our young people, and the church family who loves them, prays for them, supports them and encourages them.

We will have a Teach Me Something part of the service, where we will each teach something to someone from another generation. It may be that you would like to show someone a knitting stitch, or how to put on a tie, a dance move, a note on a musical instrument or an easy way to do long division! You may like to bring along a favourite recipe, a gardening tip or the best piece of advice you've ever received. You might like to teach a prayer or poem, your favourite bible verse, or show a small child how to tie their shoelaces. it doesn't matter what it is, but it is the spirit in which it is shared.

Mud Runners!

Congratulations to Isabella and Sophia, who competed in the Rangiora Mud Run last weekend. It takes true grit, perseverance and determination to do an event like this, so HUGE WELL DONE to these awesome young ladies!

AbsolUKE - a right royal performance!

Congratulations to the 9 ukulelists and 3 vocalists and 3 solo dancers who performed on the big stage in front of HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS, and the Tongan Princess at the Methodist Multi-Cultural Festival tonight. Wow!

Here are a few photos of our amazing AbsolUKE performers waiting to go on stage. In the background you can spot the princess.

We will put up some pictures of our performance in the next few days.

Thank you so much to our AbsolUKE team and all our amazing supporters. You were stars!

Fruits of the Spirit song

Here is the link to the song we are doing on Sunday, if you need a refresher!

Methodist Multi-Cultural Festival Saturday 29 Sep 6pm

Join us at St Andrews College (in the gymnasium) for a brilliant concert, featuring our own AbsolUKE and some of our awesome dancers!

FISH this Saturday

Join us for FISH this Saturday 22 September

5pm to 7pm

at the Chapel Street Centre

all welcome

Words are like Toothpaste

With the very willing help of some of our Awesome Kids, Carol emptied an entire tube of toothpaste onto a plate. We observed how easy it was to get the toothpaste out. But then Carol asked if someone could put all the toothpaste back into the tube. Izak volunteered to have a go, and it proved rather tricky.

Carol said that words are a bit like toothpaste. They come out very easily, but they are hard to put back. Sometimes we say things without thinking, and our words can be hurtful. 

We then have to stop and say to our neighbour, I'm sorry, will you forgive me? 

Hopefully every time we brush our teeth, we will be reminded that we need to think before we speak, and use kind words that build one another up.

Check out the toothpaste video:

https://youtu.be/94qpNv092e0

James 3:1-12

Sky Sunday

We celebrated Sky Sunday by creating some galaxy jars and night sky paintings.

Bella led us in prayer:

Loving God, Thank you for your amazing creation. Thank you for the sky, for sun, moon and stars. May Your love shine through us and around us. Help us to go out into the world knowing that You are with us, rain or shine. May we shine like the stars in Your sky! Amen.

The Chapel Street Band began leading worship with the beautiful song by Louis Armstrong, What a Wonderful World and the hymn, Here I Am Lord (or, I the Lord of Sea and Sky).

Psalm 19:1–6 (a paraphrase) 

The heavens are telling the wonders of God. The skies are telling all that God has done. 

Each day announces to the next day: “God is amazing!” 

Each night passes on the same news. They do this without words. 

We can’t hear them speaking. But the message, “God is amazing!” 

goes out to the whole world. 

The sun shines in the sky, warm and joyful, like a person on their wedding day. 

The sun shines in the sky, strong and sure, like an athlete running a race. 

The sun travels across the great wide sky, from one end of the heavens to the other.

The heavens are telling the wonders of God. The skies are telling all that God has done. 

CHYPS and bread

Eating challenges at CHYPS!

Mother and Daughter Team

Amanda and Dorothy teamed up to lead Musikool Kids last week. Thanks to musical mum and daughter for a fabulous session!

Windmills, Spring and a Giant's Garden

Last Sunday we heard the story of the Giant's Garden. 

The giant was so selfish, he didn't let the children play in his garden. He built a big wall around it to keep them out and put up a sign, 'No Trespassers'. The trees and flowers and birds missed the children so much. Spring forgot the giant's garden, the flowers didn't feel like blooming, the trees didn't blossom and the birds disappeared. The giant's garden became wintry, grey, cold and lonely. The giant was miserable.

When the children crept back into the garden through a hole in the wall, Spring returned. The trees and flowers bloomed and blossomed and the birds sang. The giant's heart melted when he noticed a small child who couldn't reach to climb a tree, and he went out into the garden and gently lifted him up into the branches. The child threw his arms around the giant's neck and kissed him. The giant tore down the wall and the sign, and welcomed the children back into the garden.

We talked about opening our hearts to others, welcoming people into our lives and sharing God's love and kindness.

We made windmills (in the giant's garden, the flowers "bloomed like stars") and created a tree on canvas, which we added our thumbprints to. We are all different, each one of us is special and unique, loved by God and has a place in the church family and in the world. We need to remember to welcome others into our "garden" and share what we can.

CHYPS this Saturday 8 Sep

Join us at the Chapel Street Centre for CHYPS Youth Group

Saturday 8 September

6.30pm to 8pm

Gold coin donation appreciated