The Story Keepers - Roar In The Night

Hello Story Keepers and welcome back to Christchurch Kids. We have an exciting episode to watch together today called "Roar in the Night". Marcus finds some lion cubs hiding in the stable and it looks like it might lead them into a dangerous situation...

It's great that we can be Story Keepers too. By watching the video and learning the stories from the Bible we can share them with others and pass them on. Today, maybe it's enough to watch this video. If you would like to find out a bit more, keep reading...

Our  BIG question today is... 

When we do a little, kind thing, does it really make a difference?

In today's episode we saw lots of people working together, each playing a part to help save the lion cubs: Marcus looked after them in the barn; the family went to see the circus master; the circus master introduced them to the ship's captain and the ship's captain took the lion family home. Each of these actions on their own wouldn't have helped as much as putting them all together.

When we do a small, kind thing for someone, we might not know how much that helps them by the end of the day but God knows. He can use our little acts and help them work together to achieve good things. 

In the story we heard today, Jesus told the disciples about the woman who brought her two coins to the temple. She didn't bring as much as others but it was all she had. God could see her heart and knew she loved him so much by doing all she could.   

Psalm 139 tells us that God knows our thoughts. He knows what is in our hearts.

Lord, you have examined me.
    You know all about me.
You know when I sit down and when I get up.
    You know my thoughts before I think them.
You know where I go and where I lie down.
    You know well everything I do.
Lord, even before I say a word,
    you already know what I am going to say.

Psalm 139 : 1-4

When we do small, kind things for other people, we are showing God that we love him. He can use those actions to make amazing things happen.  

You can hear the whole of Psalm 139 here

A secret sign

Did you notice the secret sign in today's episode? The ship's captain drew a line in the dust on the table and Ben drew another line to make a fish symbol like this...

This is called the "ichthys". It was a secret symbol that early Christians used to communicate to each other when the Romans were trying to stop them. It was used to mark meeting places and when two people met they took it in turns to draw the two lines of the fish to show that they were Christians - just like in the episode today.

The early Christians took the first letters from the phrase "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Saviour" in Greek and this spelled out ICHTHYS, which is Greek for fish.

Christians still use the fish symbol today as a sign of their faith. Maybe you could make your own Ichthys symbol today. You could draw it on a piece of paper and decorate it. You could arrange some sticks or leaves when you go for a walk to leave a symbol for another Christian to find. 

Prayer

We are continuing our October prayers about being thankful today. Can you think of something to say thank you for for every letter of the words THANK YOU? This is called an acrostic - just like the Ichthys symbol.

Here's my prayer. What does your prayer look like?

Thank you God for

Tortoises - who go slowly but get there in the end

Helping others - for people who help others in our town

Avocadoes - they're really yummy

Night time - for a comfy bed to sleep in

Kindness - for my kind friends

Yoghurts - they're so yummy too

Oranges - for delicious juice for my breakfast

Umbrellas - for keeping me dry in the rain

Amen

We've got a song today about how God knows us and loves us. Have a listen, you can sing along and have a little dance too. 

We hope you all have a great half term. Come back here next week for F@CT online or you can now join us at Christchurch for F@CT at church. 

F@CT will look a little different in the church at the moment but we will still be having lots of fun and learning about God. 

Here are some of the ways that it will be a different:

• Anyone over the age of 10 will be wearing a face covering unless they are medically exempt.

• We will be sanitising our hands.

• We won't be having our usual pastries and drinks.

• We will be sitting in "Sheep Pens" with our families!( These will be tables and chairs but we are calling them Sheep Pens and you will have a sheep to make friends with). We will stay in our Sheep Pens to keep a distance from other families.

• We won't be able to sing but we will have lots of fun joining in with actions.

• Each Sheep Pen will have it's own set of resources as we will still be making things to help us learn about our story. 

• Everyone will need to book ahead so we know who is coming. You can book your Sheep Pen for F@CT on November 1st here.

The Story Keepers - Episode 5

Hello everyone and welcome to another action packed adventure with The Story Keepers. We have lots of unexpected twists and turns in today's episode. We hope you enjoy watching it.

(Some of you may notice that this episode is labelled Episode 8, but it matches with the week 5 worksheets in our activity book)

It's great that we can be Story Keepers too. By watching the video and learning the stories from the Bible we can share them with others and pass them on. Today, maybe it's enough to watch this video. If you would like to find out a bit more, keep reading...

There is a page for you to have a look at all about Episode 5 in the back of your Story Keepers Activity booklets. 

Our  BIG question today is... 

What is God's unexpected Good News for us?

In today's episode so many unexpected things happened. 

• Justin didn't think very highly of Cyrus' circus skills but they helped save the children from the Roman soldiers. 
• Cyrus thought he was going to treated badly by Flavius but he was treated like a prince... to start with. 
• It was very unexpected that Cyrus chose to stay with Flavius when Ben and the family come to rescue him. 

Did you think it was unexpected when the Story Keepers forgave Cyrus and Justin gave him his cloak?

Today we heard the parable of the Prodigal Son. A parable was a story Jesus told that tells us more about God. What does this parable tell us about God?

In this parable, God is the father and we are like the Prodigal Son. Every day we get things wrong, choosing to go our own way instead of relying on God. When we say sorry and turn back to God, He is always there waiting for us, running towards us for a big hug.

This is the unexpected good news. 

We will all get things wrong, because everyone does, but God will always forgive us. He doesn't just "forgive and forget" - it's even bigger than that. God came up with a rescue plan and that plan was Jesus. When Jesus died, he took the punishment for all the things we had done wrong. God loves us so much that his Son died for us - and then came back to life three days later!

This is sometimes called the gospel, which means GOOD NEWS.

This video explains that Good News really well...

Prayer

This month we are looking at Thankfulness in our prayers. We can say a huge THANK YOU to God for sending Jesus to be our rescuer.

If you want, you can say a special prayer that invites Jesus to be your friend forever. This is what we mean when someone says that they are a Christian. It means that they have prayed that special prayer.

There aren't any special words to become a Christian and you can talk to God about it using your own words. These words are an example of the prayer that you could pray.

Jesus – I know that you made me and want me to obey you with all my heart. 

I know I have disobeyed and wanted to go my own way. I have thought and done things against your directions. I am sorry. 

I know that you gave up your life to save me from these sins and make me your child again. 

I accept your promises and ask you to please save me now and forever. 

Amen.

God's Good News is so amazing it makes us want to jump up and down and spin right around! 

We can do that right now this song!

We hope you all have a fantastic week and we'll be back next Sunday with more adventures with the The Story Keepers.

 

The Story Keepers - Episode 4

Hello and welcome to Christchurch Kids. This week we are continuing to follow the adventures of The Story Keepers. This week's episode is called 'Ready, Aim, Fire' and the the Story Keepers are in danger from the Romans again . Can Tacticus get the warning message to them in time?

You can watch Episode 4 here...

 It's great that we can be Story Keepers too. By watching the video and learning the stories from the Bible we can share them with others and pass them on. Today, maybe it's enough to watch this video. If you would like to find out a bit more, keep reading...

There is a page for you to have a look at all about Episode 4 in the back of your Story Keepers Activity booklets. 

Our BIG question today is... 

When things are difficult, do we find it easy to trust God to help us?

In the episode today,  things got very difficult for the Story Keepers when they found themselves in serious danger. Zak was also having a difficult time as he was worrying that his uncle wouldn't think he was brave enough. 

In today's stories we hear about some more difficult situations. Bartimaeus was blind and he wanted Jesus to heal him. He shouted for Jesus, even when those around him told him to be quiet, as he trusted that Jesus would help him. 

Jesus knew it was the right thing to heal the man with the paralysed hand but the Pharisees made it difficult for people to do good things on the Sabbath. Jesus trusted God that it was right to heal the man even if it got him in trouble.

It's not always easy to trust God when things are tricky but we can remember His promises in the Bible to help us. 

In Deuteronomy 31:8, the Bible says...

The Lord himself will go before you. He will be with you. He will not leave you or forget you. Don’t be afraid. Don’t worry.

Prayer

October is the time in the church when we celebrate Harvest. It's when we are thankful for all the amazing things that God has given us. We are going to be thinking about thankfulness in our prayers this month.

Here's a great thankful prayer that we can say together

Thank you God for all that grows, 

Thank you for the sky's rainbows, 

Thank you for the stars that shine, 

Thank you for these friends of mine, 

Thank you for the moon and sun, 

Thank you God for all you've done! 

Can you think of any other rhyming pairs of things that we can say "THANK YOU" to God for?

Our song today reminds us that we can be brave in difficult situations because God loves us.

We hope you all have a great week and we hope you can join us here again next week for more adventures with The Story Keepers.

October F@CT

 

Hi everyone and welcome to F@CT Online! We are really excited today as we are not only having F@CT online but we are also having F@CT in church as well. We are feeling really thankful that we are able to meet together in different ways, still able to have fun and learn about God wherever we are.

As we are thinking about being thankful, that is today's theme as it is a time in the church called Harvest when we are thankful for all the things that God has given us.

Our Bible verse today comes from Psalm 107 verse 1

Thank the Lord because He is good.

His love continues forever.

What would our day look like if we were really thankful for all the amazing things we have? 

Maybe it would look a bit like this...

When we are in church, we aren't allowed to sing at the moment but we are going to joining in with the actions to this song together. If you are at home, you can join in with the actions too and sing as loud as you like! 

Let's praise God together.

Maybe you would like to make a Lego model of something that you are thankful for today?

Prayer

We are going to be making Thank You prayer posters today.  

Who do you think made this prayer poster? It's someone who loves wearing colourful, stripey socks, has a large family and loves energetic sports likes skateboarding and football.

That's right! This is Supergranny's prayer poster. She is feeling thankful for her family, her favourite sports, her holiday to the beach, her favourite socks, Froggy Bear and her Bible, which helps her learn more about God.

You can cut pictures out from magazines or newspapers, draw your own pictures, or write words to make your prayer poster. You can put it up in your house and add things to it every day. 

Let's finish today with one of our favourite songs. I find this one quite tricky to sing and do the actions at the same time, even when I have friends like these to help me remember which action comes next!

Let's join in and have fun remembering how AMAZING God is!

At Harvest, one of the ways we can thank God for the fantastic things He has given us is by sharing with others. Here are a couple of ways we can share with others at church at the moment.

Make Lunch

The Make Lunch team has been helping families in our town this year when lots of people have found it difficult to have enough food. This has been a fantastic way to show people that God cares about them. We can help Make Lunch by bringing in the items that they need to help others. This year, we have been asked if we can bring in these items...

Pasta

Pasta sauces

Nappies (size 3, 4 or 5)

Wet wipes

Toilet rolls

Tins of rice pudding

Ready Made Custard

Bottles of Squash

Tinned Vegetables

There will be a table in the foyer next to the office door in church for your donations. Please bring them as soon as possible.

Love in a box

We already getting excited about Christmas this year and we are going to be collecting filled shoeboxes again. You can download the form with all the information about what to put in the shoeboxes here.

Christmas may seem a little while away but shoeboxes are sent out at the beginning of November.

We hope you've had great fun today feeling thankful. We will be back here on the blog next week finding out about more adventures with The Story Keepers.