Craft - Noah

Noah

I love the story of Noah.  Ever since I was a little kid I was fascinated that he could live on that ark with all those animals.  I remember always watching documentaries about finding the ark.  It really was only the last couple of years that I realized that the story isn't about an ark and animals.  I wanted to find something that didn't focus so much on the story we all know and love.  I wanted the kids to read between the lines. I didn't want them to wait 45 years before they got the real meaning of the story "God keeps his promises". I looked all over for a good craft. There are tons of them. This is the one I chose to go with

I got the idea from another website.  You need:

• Paper plates
• cut outs of Noah and a few animals
• verse

I cut one paper plate in half and stapled it to a full plate.  Staple the backs together to make a pocket.  If you plan to color then do that before you staples.  It really makes it easier.  I went to DLTK Bible crafts and found some coloring sheets. I copied them into Word and shrunk them down to a quarter sheet.  I traced a thick line around the animals and copied.  The line helps the little kids guiding them as they cut out the animals.  I then went to  Making Friends and printed out paper dolls and cloths to make the Noah.  This took a while, but it is worth it.  We cut everything out and voila! Make sure to have teachers stress the rainbow at the top of the plates.  This is the symbol of God's promise. I will post the templates I used as soon as I find my jump drive :)

Happy Crafting! 

Bulletin Board - Fall

Fall Bulletin Board

Oh bulletin boards. I just love how they look, but I really don't like doing them.  I have quite a few to do and there is one ginormous one in our Fellowship Hall.  I took a different approach to that one.  I decided to section it in half. The bottom half would have "photo albums" and would advertise our programs and events.  This wouldn't change much other than updating the information and photos.  The top half will change quarterly. 

I'm not sure if you could tell how large this board is , but I'm 5'7 and have to reach to touch the top of the "books" 

One of our volunteers made the books out of poster board. She cut out the squares and laminated them. We tape the pictures to the squares and they can be removed easily without ruining the book.  We take the whole book down during VBS time.  That will be another blog post. 

I blew up our Bible verse onto two 11x17 sheets of paper and cut clouds out of poster board.

 The tree was made by taking big sheets of bulletin board paper and twisting it tightly.  We twisted 6 strips.  Then we tied the strips together with fishing line. Hanging it was a bit of a challenge.  When I was at the top of the ladder trying not to fall, the strips started slipping out of the string.  I had to lean against the trunk and staple a few of the branches. I also bent some so the leaned forward.  Once the tree was stable I staples the roots in place.  We had die cuts of leaves and apples.  I needed to fill in all the empty space that was left. I think it worked out great!  I got the graphics for the scarecrow at DJ Inkers.  They have great clipart and it is very inexpensive.  These are high resolution so you can blow up the images and not loose the quality. 

Here is one of  our information boards leading to the Sunday School Rooms. We customize each board to the grades that are on that particular floor.  This is for our 2nd-5th graders.

 

We have one board in the hall for our younger students.  I decorate this one quarterly also.

I used scrapbook paper and a Fiskars stencil for everything.  I laminated all the pieces so hopefully I can recycle this board in the future. 

HAPPY FALL!

Children's Sermon - What If We Don't Talk About Jesus?

Good Morning Boys and Girls! 

How many of you have been to a restaurant?  What is your favorite one?  What makes it your favorite?   If you go to a restaurant and really really like it would you tell all of your friends about it? They will probably ask their parents if the can go and if they like it they will tell more friends right.  What if no one ever talked about your favorite restaurant? Do you think it would stay in business? Probably not because no one would know about it.   

 

Now just imagine if no one talked about Jesus.  See if his disciples hadn’t told others about him then we wouldn’t know all the wonderful things that he did for us.  How sad to never celebrate Easter, or Christmas.  We wouldn’t have our church.  As a matter of fact even our year 2013 would be different.  Life as we know it would be totally different. Believe it or not  there are still people who haven’t been told about him. They don’t know Jesus’ story or how much he loves each one of us. Boys and girls we need to tell others about how awesome Jesus is and we need to teach others.  If we don’t talk about him then there will come a time that people will forget, and when Jesus does come back he will be sad and wonder why we didn’t love him enough to talk about him.   

 

Can we pray?

 

Jesus thank you for all you have done.  We promise to keep your name alive and tell everyone we know about your amazing life and love for us.  In your  name we pray. Amen

Children's Sermon - Judging

Look at this car boys and girls.  Isn’t this the coolest car you have ever seen?? Would you love to own this car?

For those that can’t see the car it’s a van with no hub caps, rust everywhere, a hole in the back door, and the back door is bungee corded closed. 

 

What?  You don’t like this car? !! Well boys and girls this is my car.  Do you know why I love this car so much? This car was the first car I rode in when I moved to Wisconsin 14 years ago.    This car has driven to CT 8 times,  Canada 10 times, Florida 4 times, Cleveland 12 times, Virginia once to see my son graduate, and has driven almost every inch of Wisconsin.  I saw the Mississippi River for the first time in this car.  This was the car that took me to the hospital when my sons were born and took me to the hospital every day for a month while they were still in the hospital.  This is the car that brought my babies home from the hospital.  This car was stolen and every single thing, even the seats were stolen out of it, and it was rear-ended on the highway. This car has seen a lot of tears, heard a lot of laughs, it’s been there as all 7 of our children have grown, and it will be there for our grandchildren.  It’s been through it all and yet with over 350,000 miles it still gets us where we need to go.  I think when you hear this cars story you’ll think it’s a pretty neat car.  

See boys and girls we judged this car because of how it looked and sometimes we do the same thing with people.  Instead of hearing all the wonderful stories a person has to tell and getting to know them, we judge them because they might look different, act different or dress different than we do.  The Bible warns us about judging.  Matthew 7:1 says “Judge not, that you be not judged.”  That means that if we don’t want other people to judge us, then we shouldn’t judge others. 

Can we pray?

Lord, we know judging others is wrong. Open our hearts to the stories that make them who you made them to be.  In your loving name we pray, Amen

What kind of love - JJ Weeks Band

An amazing song that reminds us of why we are part of an amazing ministry.

It's been so darn long since I posted last.  Now that I am working full time at my church, I am hoping to update more often.  This is going to be great!  I am having a hard time finding crafts and activities and bulletin board items so I will start posting my own ideas.  I have to tell you sometimes the effort I put into finding these items seems like an eternity, and I never really find what I wanted anyway.  Even though I think I'm a crafty person I have issues coming up with my own ideas.  So it is out of necessity that these ideas are born.  The LORD has definitely blessed me and I know that when I least expect it he puts a thought in my head and I run with it.  I think he is testing my patience levels though because he waits until the very last minute to put the idea in my head.  I really need a refresher in that area :)  I hope you enjoy and please feel free to use these ideas in your ministry! 

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