Hello Christchurch Kids and welcome to our blog. This Sunday is our last look at the exodus of the Israelites. They escaped slavery in Egypt and have spent years in the desert. The land God promised them is nearly in sight.
First there is a river to cross... but we've already seen that water doesn't get in the way of God's plans.
The Israelites have crossed the river and so now the only thing in their way is a wall but it's not just any wall. This was the wall surrounding Jericho.
Wow! What an amazing story. How do you think the Israelites felt when Joshua told them the plan to take the city of Jericho? Do you think they wondered how God was going to make it work? They had seen God do incredible things already so maybe they didn't doubt it.
God can do amazing things when we listen to him and follow his ways. Sometimes God's way might seem strange to those around us but this is what the Bible tells us about God...
Yes, God’s riches are very great! God’s wisdom and knowledge
have no end! No one can explain the things God decides. No one can understand
God’s ways.
Romans 11:33
We are going to have some fun building and knocking things down today as we remember the story of the walls of Jericho.
Our challenge today is to see how tall a tower you can make with Lego BUT you have to stack the bricks on the smooth sides not using the bumps! How high can you build your tower before it falls over?
or you could play a game of Jenga - another great game of building and knocking down.
Prayer
Father, You are the God who can do anything. You can even make shouting at a wall work to bring it down. Help us believe in You and follow Your instructions even when it seems weird to other people.
Amen
Here's one of favourite songs from F@CT and we can sing it today as we have heard that God is bigger than big, stronger than strong and mightier than mighty. God can do anything!
Thanks for joining us today and we hope you have enjoyed following the adventures of Moses, Joshua and the Israelites. Next week we begin our journey towards Easter, starting at Palm Sunday.
Hello Christchurch Kids. We hope you've had a great week back at school with your friends. Happy Mothers Day! We hope you have a lovely day celebrating with your family.
Today, we are continuing to follow the Israelites and they are getting very close to the land God promised them. Moses has had some incredible adventures with God but he is now coming towards the end of his life. He passed the leadership of the Israelites over to Joshua and we are going to find out more about it.
We have another part of the story to watch as well. Joshua needed to find out what was happening across the river so he sent spies to find out. Do you think they used secret codes and fascinating gadgets or were they just really good at hide and seek?
Let's watch the video to find out more.
Rahab helped the spies when they were in Jericho and we are going to hear more about her next week. Her story doesn't end there though. The book of Matthew starts with the genealogy of Jesus, which means his family tree, and Rahab is on the list.
This is amazing as we heard in the beginning of the video that she was someone who made bad choices in her life and she was also a Canaanite - who were fierce enemies of Israel. It is even more amazing as, at the time that Jesus' family tree was written, it was usually only men who were on the list. She is one of the few women who were included. She heard the stories of God and the amazing things He had done and she believed in him. God made Rahab part of his plan.
Remember that I commanded you to be strong and brave. So
don’t be afraid. The Lord your God will be with you everywhere you go
Joshua 1:9
God spoke these words to Joshua when he began leading the Israelites. Rahab was also brave when she hid the spies in her house. She must have been worried about what the king's guards would do if they found them.
We can remember these words as well when we are feeling worried and scared.
We are going to pretend to be spies today and we have a secret code to crack.
If you have had fun with our secret code, there are lots more spy activities over at Frugal Fun 4 Boys.
Prayer
Today we are going to use a game to help us pray and it's a game I expect you might have played before. We're going to play I Spy! It's a great way to say Thank You prayers to God.
You can play with colours or letters and after everyone has guessed your object, you can thank God for what you spotted (maybe with a big AMEN from everyone).
We've got a song today which is always popular when we sing it at church. This song is based on our Bible verse from Joshua.
Have you got strong arms ready for this one?
Thank you for joining us today and come back next week for the last installment of our adventures with the Israelites as they make their way to the Promised Land.
Christchurch Kids - We need you!
Thank you to everyone who made wonderful Valentines cards for the residents in our local care homes. We have had messages to say how much they enjoyed receiving them and it was such a great way to reach out into our community and show people God's love.
We are going to be sending cards and chocolate eggs to the residents to help them celebrate Easter and we would love your help.
Grab your pens, pencils, paper, card, glue, scissors (and maybe even feathers, stickers or wobbly eyes!) and get creating! We have over 100 cards to make together so any you can make would be brilliant.
Please can you drop your cards to Emy's house by Monday 22nd March (email her at childrenandfamilies@ christchurch-clevedon.org.uk for her address).
Hi everyone and welcome back to Christchurch Kids. We hope you've had a good week.
Today we are looking at when Moses spoke to God and God gave him the 10 commandments. You might have heard of the 10 commandments already. Let's hear about them in today's video.
We've heard in today's story that God gave Moses the 10 commandments to show ...
how to love God,
how to treat each other,
and
how to be part of God's team.
That sounds like good things to listen to.
The 10 commandments are like road signs. They show us safe ways to journey through life.
Let's have a look at what the 10 commandments are..
1. Love God more than anything else
2. Make God most important
3. Say God's name with love and respect
4. Honour God by resting on the last day of the week.
5. Love, honour and respect your mum and dad.
6. Do not hurt others
7. Be faithful to your husband or wife.
8. Do not take anything that isn't yours.
9. Always tell the truth.
10. Be happy with what you have and don't wish for other people's things.
God gave us these commandments because he He loves us so much and knows what is best for us.
These are good rules to follow. It isn't always easy to follow them and we can ask God to help us.
Our Activity Book
If you are new to the Christchurch Kids blog and would like an activity book, please email Emy at childrenandfamilies@christchurch-clevedon.org.uk
We can have a look in our activity books now and find the pages about the 10 commandments.
We have a fun activity today that you can cut out of your book.
You can make an origami Chatterbox with the 10 commandments on.
Just like the Israelites in today's story, we can get things wrong and we don't always follow God's commandments.
The good news is that we can say sorry to God and He will forgive us for the times we have got things wrong.
Get out your pot of bubbles and say sorry to God for something. Blow some bubbles and watch them float away and pop as a sign that God forgives you and you can start again.
We've got a great song to share together today. It's called "The Boss of Me". Does that sound strange that we want someone to be the Boss of us? The brilliant thing is that because we know God is completely good and completely trustworthy we can totally trust Him that He knows best for us in our lives.
He can be "The Boss of Me" because I know He loves me.
Thanks for popping by today. We hope you can join us here next week for F@CT Online as we have fun together and find out more about Lent with puppets, songs, prayers and crafts.
Hello everyone and welcome back to Christchurch Kids. We hope you've had a great half term week.
We're following the Israelites at the moment as Moses leads them across the desert to the land God has promised them.
Today we are going to be looking at a very special place called "the Tent of Meeting". Let's watch the video together and find out more about it.
In the video, the Tent of Meeting looks like a very simple tent but it definitely wasn't. God gave Moses very detailed instructions on how to build and decorate the Tent of Meeting. In fact, the instructions are so detailed that they can be found in Exodus in chapters 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 and 31!
God gave instructions for how to build a special table and what a golden lampstand should look like. He gave instructions for 10 linen curtains woven with blue, purple and red threads with pictures of cherubim ( a type of angel). And lots, lots more.
Why was the Tent of Meeting so special? What can we learn about God as we hear about the Israelites building it?
The Tent of Meeting was so special because God is so special. We use the word "holy" to describe God and it means completely perfect in goodness and righteousness.
We can never make a building as special and perfect as God but the Tent of Meeting took many precious materials and people devoted their time and effort to show how they considered God to be completely holy and worthy of worship.
There is no one holy like the Lord. There
is no God but you. There
is no Rock like our God.
1 Samuel 2:2
Activity
You may have noticed that we don't have pages in our Moses Activity Books for today's story.
I thought it would be fun to make our own tents today (or dens).
What things are precious to you that you would use to decorate your tent to show God how special He is to you?
Here's a den we made in our house a little while ago. We have used favourite blankets and quilts and there were lots of cushions inside to make it really cosy! Maybe a favourite, precious toy could visit your tent?
Prayer
We've got a prayer today that we can say on our own but it is even better when we pray this prayer with other people. Maybe you would like to pray this with people in your family.
God is so good and so amazing that there are endless things we can thank God for.
You can take it in turns to say...
"God is good, God is great,
Thank you God for ________________"
See how long you can keep your praise prayers going by thinking of different things to add to the end of the last line.
We have a great song today called "Tabernacle". This word means "Tent of Meeting".
Let's see how the people worked together to make this special place for God.
We hope you've had fun building dens today. If you would like to send in pictures of your dens,, we would love to share them on here. You can email Emy at childrenandfamilies@christchurch-clevedon.org.uk
Hi everyone and Happy Valentines Day! We hope you have a good day spent with people you love. Thank you to everyone who sent in Valentines cards for the residents of our local care homes. We love sharing God's love with people in our town.
We've already been on quite a journey with Moses. Our video today starts with a recap of the amazing things we've already heard about.
Moses has led the Israelites out of Egypt and now they are following God through the desert but their tummies start rumbling and so they start grumbling.
Let's watch the video and see how God helped them.
God is amazing! The Israelites were in the desert with no food and they complained to Moses. Moses went to speak to God about it and God heard their prayers.
God sent something called "manna" each morning. It was described as "bread from heaven" and it was said to taste like honey. That sounds like a great breakfast to me. I love honey on my toast. Manna was also described as "thin flakes" so maybe it was a bit like Frosties!
In the evenings, God sent quail to the camp (these are small birds) so that the Israelites would have meat to eat too.
God gave them rules about collecting the food. They were told to only collect enough for that day, apart from on the sixth day when they were to collect enough for two days. If they collected too much food, it would turn mouldy the next day.
God was helping the Israelites but they needed to trust Him. It also shows us how important God thinks it is to rest one day a week. This rest day is called a Sabbath. Jews have their rest day on a Friday evening until Saturday evening and most Christians have their rest day on a Sunday.
When we look at the stories in the Bible, we aren't just finding out about things that have happened it the past. We are learning about what God is like and what that means for us today.
In this story we can see that God cares for us. He listens to our prayers and he cares if we are feeling hungry or thirsty or tired.
It says in the Bible...
Do not worry about anything. But pray and ask God for
everything you need. And when you pray, always give thanks.
Philippians 4:6
(You may have noticed another part of the story in the video. We'll come back and look at the 10 commandments in a couple of weeks).
Our Activity Book
If you are new to the Christchurch Kids blog and would like an activity book, please email Emy at childrenandfamilies@christchurch-clevedon.org.uk
We can have a look in our activity books now and find the pages about living in the wilderness.
Today, we have been hearing about manna or bread from heaven so we're going to use bread in our prayers. You will need a small piece of bread for these prayers (or you can imagine a piece of bread as you talk to God).
Tear off a piece of the bread.
We can pray for those who are living in places torn apart by war. We can pray for those people whose families are having to live apart.
We can ask God for peace and healing in these places.
Hold your bread in your hand.
We can pray for people who are feeling lonely. We can ask that they will know God is with them and that they are not alone.
Eat a piece of your bread.
We can thank God that we have enough to eat. We can ask God to help those who are hungry. We can pray for people who are running the food bank and Make Lunch who are helping people to have enough to eat.
Amen
We've got a great song to sing together today. It's got fun actions and bit of dancing too.
We sang it last week at F@CT Online as we talked about how generous God is and it's a great one to sing today as we praise God that He loves us and gives us all that we need.
Thank you for joining us today. We hope you have a great half term.
Have you heard about our Easter play?
We had so much fun putting together our online Nativity play that we are putting something together for Easter Day. A bit of acting or narrating could be a great activity for half term!
If you would like to get involved, please email Emy at childrenandfamilies@christchurch-clevedon.org.uk
Hi everyone and welcome back to Christchurch Kids. We are continuing our adventures with Moses today and we have the most dramatic part of the story to look at. We saw a little part of it at the end of last week's video but it was so amazing we're going to look at it again.
Last week, we saw how the 10 plagues that God sent finally made Pharaoh agree to let the Israelites leave Egypt. They left the country and made their way into the desert.
Pharaoh looked around and realised that all his slaves were gone and he became angry. He decided that he was going to go and get the Israelites back.
God had appeared to the Israelites as a pillar of cloud in the day and a pillar of fire at night to lead them through the desert and they were now camped by the Red Sea when they saw the Egyptians approaching.
We've got a clip from the amazing film "The Prince of Egypt" to show us what happened next...
Can you imagine how the Israelites felt when they saw the Egyptians approaching? Just when they thought they were free, the Egyptian army was chasing them and the only place ahead of them was the sea.
God had an amazing plan for his people. They prayed for help and God helped them in the most incredible way. The Israelites could be brave because God was with them. Nobody could have imagined how God was going to solve this situation as it looked impossible.
But, as Jesus said...
“For men this is impossible. But for God all things are possible."
Matthew 19 : 26
The Bible tells us that God is always with us too. He promises to be with us forever because he loves us so much. If we listen to God and follow his ways, He will always help us.
Our Activity Book
If you are new to the Christchurch Kids blog and would like an activity book, please email Emy at childrenandfamilies@christchurch-clevedon.org.uk
We can have a look in our activity books now and find the pages about crossing the Red Sea.
Prayer
When the Israelites reached the shore after crossing the sea and saw that the Egyptian army had been washed away, they prayed and danced and sang. They praised God because he is AMAZING!
We have a prayer of praise today and it's a prayer we can make with our whole body.
You can stand up tall and tell God how amazing he is using these words and actions...
(3 deep breaths)
God, you are above(reach toward
the sky),
below(touch your toes),
inside (hands to heart)
and all around(big
arm circles).
I worship you(reach toward the
sky),
and give my life to you (touch your toes).
And I love you(hands to heart)
with all that I am (big arm circles).
(3 deep breaths)
We can continue our praising with one of our favourite songs to dance to. God is amazing and we want to follow Him and make Him part of our every day lives.
We hope you have fun dancing along with this one as we sing to God together.
Thanks for joining us today to find out more about the amazing adventures of Moses.
Next week we have F@CT online and we have lots of fun planned with Lego, games, stories, prayers, songs and a familiar face or two popping in to say hello.
Christchurch Kids - we need you!
At Christchurch, we would love your help this week as we are going to be sending out parcels to residents of our local care homes for Valentines Day. In a time when visits are very restricted, we want to send out messages of God's love to those residents and staff. We are sending out chocolate hearts and we would also love to send out 130 Valentines cards! This is where we need your help.
Please could you make some Valentines cards and drop them round to Emy's house (email childrenandfamilies@christchurch-clevedon.org.uk for the address) by next Sunday (7th February).
They could have hearts on the front, with the message "With Love". You could use paper folded in half if you don't have card. You don't need to write anything inside the cards as we will add a message from Christchurch.
We hope you have fun making the cards, but maybe not this much fun!...
Hello and welcome to Christchurch Kids. We're glad you could join us online as we carry on exploring the story of Moses.
Moses appears in the Bible in the book of Exodus. The word 'exodus' means the movement of a lot of people or things away from a place. In our story today, we hear about how the Israelites began their own exodus as they left Egypt. It wasn't easy to leave though as Pharaoh didn't want them to go.
Let's watch the video and find out what happened
How do you think Moses felt when he had done everything God had asked him to and all the people around him just got upset with him?
The Israelites were upset with him as he had said God would free them and they were still stuck in Egypt. Pharaoh wouldn't listen and kept saying :No!"
Moses listened to God and kept going back to Pharaoh to try and warn him but he wouldn't listen. Did you spot all of the 10 plagues that God sent? What do you think it would have been like to live in Egypt when the plagues happened?
1) The river turned to blood 2) Frogs were everywhere 3)Gnats (tiny annoying , biting flies) 4) Flies 5)Cattle became ill and died 6) Boils - these are large sore spots 7)Hail storms 8) Locusts - insects like grasshoppers that eat all the plants 9) Three days of total darkness
Some of the plagues sound a bit weird. I quite like frogs but in the Bible it says that the frogs were on the people and in their beds and even in their ovens. I don't think I like frogs that much!
In the first plague the river turned to blood - what would the people have to drink?
In the 5th plague, the cattle died and in the 8th plague the locusts ate the plants. What did the people have to eat?
After all of these plagues, Pharaoh's heart was still hard. He refused to do what God was asking him. There was only one plague left and it was terrible. God said that all the firstborn sons would die.
God told Moses to tell the Israelites to paint the blood of a lamb on their doorposts and to eat special bread and so the plague passed over their houses and their sons did not die.The Jewish festival of Passover is still celebrated today when Jews remember when the plague passed over them and God rescued them.
The last plague was the one that finally changed Pharaoh's mind.
What does this story tell us about God? He didn't send the plagues because he felt like doing something weird. He did it because his chosen people had cried out to Him for help. It shows us how powerful God is. He gave Pharaoh lots of chances to change his mind too. The Israelites needed God to be the powerful God they knew him to be and He answered their prayer.
It's interesting that the Israelites grumbled at Moses when they weren't freed straight away. Sometimes God's plans take some time to happen and we can get impatient. At those times we have to remember that God has good plans for us and we can trust Him.
In the Bible it says...
I say this because I know what I have planned for you,” says the Lord. “I have good plans for you. I don’t plan to hurt you. I plan to give you hope and a good future.
Jeremiah 29:11
Our Activity Book
If you are new to the Christchurch Kids blog and would like an activity book, please email Emy at childrenandfamilies@christchurch-clevedon.org.uk
We can have a look in our activity books now and find the pages about the 10 plagues.
If you are in Splash, you have a frog and fly game you can make in the back of your books.
If you are in Xstream, you can have a go at making origami jumping frogs.
The instructions to make a jumping frog are in your activity book, but if you need some extra help, here's a little video.
Prayer
In our story today, we heard about how God protected and rescued the Israelites. He is a powerful God.
God protects us too and so today we are going to stick our prayers onto an umbrella.
In the Bible, it talks about God being our shield. We don't use armour very much anymore so a shield isn't something we can easily imagine. An umbrella is a great symbol of protection for us today.
You can write your prayers on post-it notes and stick then on your umbrella or you can draw a picture of an umbrella and write or draw your prayers on there.
Dear God
Thank you that you love us and protect us. Thank you that you have good plans for us. Help us to listen to you with soft hearts so we are open to hear you.
Amen.
We've got one of our favourite songs today. It's 'Our God is a Great Big God'.
We've heard how powerful God is and that he is a great, big God but he still knows us and loves us. Let's praise God together as we sing and do the actions.
Thanks for joining us today on our blog. We hope you can pop back next week to find out what happened next in the Exodus and Moses' incredible journey.
Hi everyone and welcome back to Christchurch Kids. We hope you've had a good week.
We're continuing to look at the adventures of Moses and today God talks to Moses in a fantastic way.
Did you notice in this story that God spoke to Moses but that He also listened. God listened to the prayers of the Israelites as they asked God to rescue them.
When we think about the big heroes of the Bible, like Moses, we can sometimes forget that they weren't always brave and strong. They didn't always follow what God asked straight away.
When God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, can you remember what Moses said?
He didn't say yes straight away. He told God that he was worried and that he wouldn't know what to say. God listened to Moses and helped him in his worries. He gave Moses a powerful sign to show others so they would know he came with God's words. He even told Moses' brother Aaron to go with him and help him.
When God asks us to do something, he listens when we talk to him about it. He knows us and he knows how best to help us. Maybe, just like Moses, we might feel that we aren't good enough. When we feel like that, we can remember that we are children of God! God says that he knows us and that he has amazing plans for us
The Bible tells us how well God knows us in Psalm 139
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. You are all around me—in front and in back. You have put your hand on me.
Psalm 139: 1-5
Our Activity Book
If you are new to the Christchurch Kids blog and would like an activity book, please email Emy at childrenandfamilies@christchurch-clevedon.org.uk
We can have a look in our activity books now and find the pages about the burning bush.
In our prayers today, we are going to write God a letter. What would you say in a letter to God? What questions would you ask Him? God loves it when we talk - or write - to him and he loves to answer us. God can talk to us through the Bible, through things we see and hear at church or in our everyday life and with our family and friends. Look out this week for how God is speaking to you.
Father God, thank you that you know us so well. Thank you that you know just the right ways to help us. We're sorry for the times when we have thought that we aren't good enough to follow you. Help us to listen to you and look for those around us who are helping us.
Amen
We've got a great song now about how God knows us. Let's praise God together that He is amazing and He knows us and loves us.
Thanks for joining in with us today at Christchurch Kids.
We'll be back next week with more amazing adventures with Moses.
