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.