Hi Christchurch Kids! Welcome back to our blog. We hope you are enjoying the sunshine now that we can play outside without getting cold and wet!
We're continuing to look at prayer today. Prayer is something that people have found tricky for a long time. The disciples must have found it a curious topic too as they asked Jesus, "How should we pray?"
Jesus gave us lots of examples of when he prayed and what he prayed about. Did you know that Jesus even prayed for us!
Let's watch the video and find out more...
When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, he gave them the answer that we now call "The Lord's Prayer." When Jesus said the Lord's Prayer, he didn't mean that we could only use those words. It is more like a recipe of that sort of things you can put in a prayer.
Let's have a closer look at the Lord's Prayer
Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name.
We can praise God and tell him that he's amazing!
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
We want the world to be good just like God planned. We want to follow God's plans for us.
Give us today our daily bread.
We can ask God for the things we need - and that other people will have the things they need.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against
us.
We can say sorry to God when we get things wrong and ask Him to help us forgive other people when they get things wrong too.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
We can ask God to keep us safe from things that could lead us away from following Him.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and forever.
We can tell God again that he is amazing FOREVER! He is in charge.
Amen.
Activity
That's a lot of things to remember when we are praying. We can make something to help us remember the different things we can pray about. We can make a prayer bracelet where different colour beads remind us of different things. If you don't have beads, you can make your own from Fimo or even paper. Here's how to make paper beads. If you don't want to wear a bracelet, you could thread the beads on a string and tie them onto a bookmark or a keyring.
Purple bead = Purple is a royal colour. This reminds us that God is special and Amazing
Blue bead = This reminds us that we want the Earth to be as good as heaven. We want to follow God's ways.
Brown bead = This reminds of asking for our "daily bread" as we can ask for things we need.
White bead = We can say sorry to God. When God forgives our sins they are completely wiped away and we are clean again (Maybe you can imagine a totally clean whiteboard!)
Dark/black bead = The dark colour reminds us of the things that can lead us away from following God. We can ask for God to keep us safe.
Yellow bead = Yellow reminds us of the colour of a crown (you could use a gold bead instead). God is King. He is amazing and He is in charge.
Prayer
Today, let's practice saying the Lord's Prayer. You can say it slowly, pausing between each line as you think about what those words mean.
We are going to finish our time on the blog today with a fantastic song about prayer from Awesome Cutlery. It's got some great words and we hope you enjoy singing along.
Next week, we have F@CT Online here on the blog and in the church. We will have a story, songs with actions, prayers and crafts - all the usual F@CT fun! We are continuing to look at the amazing promises God has made us. We would love to see you there!
Who's birthday is it? It's the church's birthday! Today is the day we celebrate a special day called Pentecost. It's the day when the disciples first went out and started telling people about Jesus. BUT... they didn't go out on their own. Jesus had promised a gift but what would it be? Jo from the Little Worship Company is going to tell us more. What is in her story bag today?
Wow! What an amazing day that must have been!
We are going to celebrate Pentecost by getting creative because we love making things to help us remember what we have heard.
In the story today we heard how the Holy Spirit sounded like a mighty wind so we are going to be making our own kites!
Have you made a kite fly on a day without much wind? You have to run really fast and put so much hard work in. It does fly a little but not a lot. When the wind blows, you can fly your kite with hardly any effort at all.
When the Holy Spirit helps us, it's like the wind helping the kite on a windy day. When we try to do things on our own it can be like running along trying to fly the kite without using the wind. Think about the amazing things the kite could do with the help of the wind - hovering high up or looping the loop. it certainly couldn't do those things on it's own. The Holy Spirit helps us do amazing things too. The Holy Spirit helps us to do the things God has asked us to do.
Here's some instructions to make a paper kite using just a piece of paper, a stapler and some string.
Prayer
Do you write thank you letters after you've had a present from someone? Maybe you make someone a thank you picture?
It's always good to say thank you when someone has given us a good gift and we can say "Thank you" to God for sending the Holy Spirit - the best present ever!
How would you like to say thank you to God today? You could say it, or sing it, or dance it, or draw it?
We've got a great song today all about the Holy Spirit. We hope you have fun singing along and dancing as we celebrate Pentecost.
Thanks for joining us here on the blog this week and we hope you have a great day celebrating Pentecost.
We have exciting news! This week we will be starting a Christchurch Kids group in Christchurch on Sunday mornings - Hurray! It will be happening in the hall during the morning service for primary school aged children. We will be sitting at tables with our siblings with resources on each table. Adults will be wearing masks but primary school aged children won't need to. We will be having lots of fun finding out more about prayer with stories, games and crafts.
If you would like to come along, you will need to book a place as we have a maximum number of 15 places each Sunday. You can book a place by clicking here.
We're really sorry that we can't run Bubbles or Rapidz at the moment.
We will still be here on the blog too until the summer holidays so you can find out more about prayer here as well and chat about it with your family.
Hello and welcome back to Christchurch Kids. Today, we are going to be continuing to talk about prayer. Have you talked to God this week? What did you chat about?
Today we are talking about asking for help. We all ask for help all the time. What do you need help with during your day?
Tying your shoelaces?
Getting a lift to football?
Being given a packed lunch?
Reading a tricky word in a book?
I love it when someone helps me as shows they are thinking of me, even when it's a little thing like making me a cup of tea.
The Bible tells us that God loves us. He loves us so much that he sent Jesus so we could be friends with Him forever. God wants to help us because He loves us.
When we pray, we can ask for help. It could be for a little thing or a really big thing. Peter's friends asked for God's help in a really big way.
Let's listen to the story and find out....
Did you notice that when God answered their prayers, Peter's friends still didn't believe it had happened! God is more amazing that we can imagine and will do more than we expect.
Prayer
God loves to help you with things - big and small. This week, if you find something you need help with, remember to ask God. Look for how He answers your prayer. Maybe someone will come along to help you, maybe you will find that lost thing. God can answer our prayers in the most surprising ways - just like in our story today.
We've got a song to join in with now and it's so much fun and we've got some friends here to help with the actions too. God wants to help us and he is always there and always listens and always hears me when I talk to him...
Thanks for joining us here on the blog this week. We have exciting news! Next week, on May 23rd, we will be starting a Christchurch Kids group in Christchurch on Sunday mornings - Hurray! It will be happening in the hall during the morning service for primary school aged children. We will be sitting at tables with our siblings with resources on each table. Adults will be wearing masks but primary school aged children won't need to. We will be having lots of fun finding out more about prayer with stories, games and crafts.
If you would like to come along, you will need to book a place as we have a maximum number of 15 places each Sunday. You can book a place by clicking here.
We're really sorry that we can't run Bubbles or Rapidz at the moment.
We will still be here on the blog too until the summer holidays so you can find out more about prayer here as well and chat about it with your family.
Picture used from
<a href="https://www.vecteezy.com/free-vector/boy">Boy Vectors by Vecteezy</a>
Hello and welcome to Christchurch Kids. We hope you've had a good week.
We are starting to look at something new this week and we're going to be talking about it until the summer holidays as it's a big one... PRAYER
What does prayer look like to you?
Does it look a bit like this - in church with our hands together and eyes closed?
Does it look like this? Asking God for help when we need it? (Maybe he's just lost his bucket and spade and would really like to make a sandcastle!)
Does it look like this? Talking to God when we are feeling sad?
The AMAZING thing about prayer is that it can be all those things and lots more things too. Each week we are going to be talking about a different bit of prayer and this week our prayers might look a bit like this....
Jesus taught us how to pray when he told us what we now call "The Lord's prayer". It starts...
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be your name
Jesus is telling us that when we pray we can tell God how amazing He is. "Hallowed be your name" means "May your name be special". There's a word for this and it's...
Worship
Worship is saying how great and good God is. It isn't about stuff He's given us or things He's done for us, it just saying how fantastic He is!
What can we say when we want to worship God? Maybe you have a favourite song in church that talks about how amazing God is? You can use that as a worship prayer.
We can use words from the Bible as a prayer too. These are words from the Psalms
Come, let’s sing for joy to the Lord.
Let’s shout praises to the Rock who saves us.
2
Let’s come to him with thanksgiving.
Let’s sing songs to him.
3
The Lord is the great God.
He is the great King over all gods.
4
The deepest places on earth are his.
And the highest mountains belong to him.
5
The sea is his because he made it.
He created the land with his own hands.
6
Come, let’s bow down and worship him.
Let’s kneel before the Lord who made us.
7
He is our God.
And we are the people he takes care of
and the sheep that he tends.
Psalm 95 : 1-7
We can sing some of those words too. People have been using Psalms as prayers and songs for over 2,500 years and we are still using them today.
Here's a great version of those worship words...
Prayer
Now it's your turn to have a go at a worship prayer.
It's great to use our senses when we pray. The Bible quite often talks about smells, fragrance and aromas. Incense is something that was burned in the temple which had a good smell to make the place feel special and holy. God even gave Moses a recipe for a special perfume to only to used in the tabernacle (their holy place).
Find a smell you like today. What would you choose? A nice soap? A freshly peeled orange? A scented flower from your garden?
Smell what you've chosen and tell God how amazing you think he is!
Here's another way to worship God - with a song! We can sing and jump around and dance and tell God how fantastic we think he is. He's an Awesome God - Wow!
Thanks for joining us here on the blog this week. We have exciting news! In a couple of weeks, on May 23rd, we will be starting a Christchurch Kids group in Christchurch on Sunday mornings - Hurray! It will be happening in the hall during the morning service for primary school aged children. We will be sitting at tables with our siblings with resources on each table. Adults will be wearing masks but primary school aged children won't need to. We will be having lots of fun finding out more about prayer with stories, games and crafts.
If you would like to come along, you will need to book a place as we have a maximum number of 15 places each Sunday. You can book a place by clicking here.
We're really sorry that we can't run Bubbles or Rapidz at the moment.
We will still be here on the blog too until the summer holidays so you can find out more about prayer here as well and chat about it with your family.
Hello and welcome to F@CT online! We are feeling excited today that we can come together and celebrate online AND in church!
Let's start with one of our most favourite F@CT songs, My Lighthouse. God is our lighthouse, showing us the way when things get stormy. In church, we aren't allowed to sing at the moment but we will be doing the actions. If you are at home, I hope you sing extra loud for us!
How do we know that God made this promise? Jesus said it! Let's watch the video and hear what happened to Jesus and the disciples after the amazing events of Easter Sunday.
Isn't that amazing! God is always with us.
Jesus said...
Do you feel like God is always with you?
That can be a tricky thing when we can't see him. We have a guest today who is really good at explaining things we find tricky about God. His name is Douglas. Let's listen to what he has to say about this.
At F@CT, we love to make things and play games that remind us of what we have learnt about God.
Today we're going to make pop-up puppets that can say "Peekaboo!"
Just like Douglas was saying about remembering that God is with us even though we can't see him.
You can use a paper cup and a paper straw or lolly stick to make your puppet and you can create whichever character you like to be hiding in your cup. Maybe you could make two characters and stick them back to back on the straw so that nobody knows who will pop up and say "Peekaboo!"
Here are some ideas...
I like how they have decorated the cup as well.
I like the paper grass they added to this cup.
https://www.craftprojectideas.com/pop-up-bunny/
Prayer
We can talk to God in lots of different ways, We can talk out loud or in our heads. We can say what's on our minds and just chat or we can use words that other people have written.
Our prayer today is actually a Psalm in the Bible. People have been using the Psalms as prayers for over 2,500 years. Psalm 139 is all about how well God knows us and that he is always with us - even if we go to space! We can listen to the Psalm and say a big AMEN to agree that God is amazing.
This version of Psalm 139 comes from the book "Always Near Me" by Susie Poole.
AMEN!
We're finishing F@CT today with another favourite that we know well - Our God is a GREAT BIG GOD! We can sing to God that He is more amazing than we could imagine but He still knows us and loves us and we are part of His amazing plan.
Thank you for joining in with F@CT Online today. We hope you have had fun and learnt more about God.
Next week, we will be starting to look at prayer. We hope you come back each week and find out more about talking and listening to God.
