Hello and welcome to Christchurch Kids. We are looking forward to Christmas now. Have you got decorations up yet?
The Three Kings Advent-ure
We've been following the three kings all week and today they have made it to the sea. It looks very blue today. I wonder if the kings will stop for a quick swim?
Where does the Christmas Story start? There are four books of the Bible that tell us about Jesus' life. They are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and they are called the Gospels. Then word 'Gospel' means 'good news'.
Matthew starts the story of Jesus with his family tree which goes all the way back to Abraham.
John starts the story at the very beginning of creation.
Mark starts the story when Jesus had already grown up and it starts with Jesus' cousin, John the Baptist and Jesus' baptism.
The Christmas story that we are most familiar with comes from Luke and he starts the story with a visit from an angel. It isn't the angel who came to see Mary, but the angel who came to visit Zechariah to say that his wife Elizabeth would have a baby.
Elizabeth was Mary's cousin and her baby grew up to be John the Baptist.
This is a really great retelling of the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, complete with an unusual looking angel and a tiny bike!
Game
Our story above actually misses a little bit from the end of the story.
When John was born everyone thought that he should be called Zechariah after his father, as that was the custom. Zechariah wrote down that the baby's name would be John, just as the angel had told him. When he had done this he was suddenly able to talk again.
Our game today is ... who can be the quietest the longest?
This is also a good game to play in the car.
Another variation of this game is deciding a word that no-one is allowed to say and the last person to say it wins. Sometimes this game can last for hours in our house as everyone tries to avoid saying "banana"!
Prayer
This week is the third week of Advent and in church we will be lighting the third candle in the Advent wreath. This candle is the Joy candle.
Let's take a moment to be quiet and talk to God.
We can thank him for the joy that comes with Jesus' birth at Christmas, the joy that God loved us so much that he sent his Son.
We can ask God to help us remember that joy at times when we are finding things difficult or sad.
We've got a joyful song today with some fun actions to get us celebrating together for Christmas. We hope you enjoy getting moving to this one.
Keep checking back here this week as we carry on with our online advent calendar. Where will the kings go on their journey around the town?
We are going to be having our Christmas Eve Christingle service online and we have a pack to make your own Christingle for every family who books one. We hope you can join us for songs, puppets, magic and lots of fun as we celebrate Christmas together.
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