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SSTN # 85 - September 23, 2004
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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:
--> "His Name Shall Be Called..."
1) WARNING!!! Used Resources!
2) Christmas decorations ideas?
3) Survivor Theme
4) Keeping Kids Interested
--> Teach Your Kids to F.R.O.G.
5) Ages 8-12
6) Hosting fellowship?
7) Revival room decorations?
8) Alternative Halloween Ideas
--> Amazing Miracles of the Bible
9) Leadership HELP!!
10) Ventriloquist skits
11) Children's Sunday
12) Odd menu: Dinner with a Difference
13) Ventriloquist skits
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--> "His Name Shall Be Called..."
The God of the Old and New Testament is known by many names. These names
help us to understand his nature and reputation. They define him as
Protector, Defender, Friend, Advisor, Judge, and Savior to name just a
few. The Third Commandment says, "Do Not Misuse God’s Name". It is my
desire that this study will help you to teach respect and honor for God to
the children in your ministry. Free USA shipping!
To learn more, go to this page:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html
(you may need to copy and paste this address to your browser)
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1) WARNING !!! Used Resources!
It has come to my attention that someone has used the network to scam an
SSTN subscriber. The scammer claimed to have "used ministry resources" to
share with her if she paid the postage. The subscriber sent the scammer
the postage and has never received her items. The subscriber has made
repeated attempts to contact the scammer, but has not received a reply.
This is probably an isolated incident, but I strongly advise that if
anyone else decides to buy used materials in this manner, that you DO NOT
send money for postage until AFTER you've received your materials.
Your webservant,
Sarah Keith <><
http://www.ChristianCrafters.Com
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2) Christmas decorations ideas?
Can some one please help me with ideas to make Christmas decorations. We
normally have a big tree in church and we need to make some new
decorations this year. The Sunday school kids will be doing in. I will be
so great full.
Love in Christ
Roelene
--from SSTN: use Christ-filled decorations such as "Chrismon or Jesse Tree
ornaments". You can learn more about them at:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/chrismon.html
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3) Survivor Theme
I just wanted to respond to Angie who was asking for ideas and I just had
the most awesome Sunday School using the Survivor T.V. show as a base. We
are an Apostolic church so using the T.V. was alittle testy but this was
accepted well. We had a bible challange and a reward challenge every week
for 6 weeks, then the winners(split into boys against the girls) get to
have a campout. The enthusiasm was great and the kids had a ball while
learning and studying. We named our teams using the tribes of Isreal and
made "buffs" with tribe names. Each week whoever won the bible challenge
got to pick the reward challenge. The bible challenges were games like
jeopardy, family fued, bible baseball. The reward challenges were usually
outdoor games like limbo, sack race, jumprope, skip-it and hoola hoop. The
ones who won the reward challenge got a special treat from the treat box.
This 6 week challenge had the kids anxious to come and our piano player
even wrote us a song which I will attach. Feel free to pass this idea on
and be sure to give it to Angie. Thanks Linda
--from SSTN: for more ideas on a Survivor theme, check out our Sermon's
page:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/sermons.html
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4) Keeping Kids Interested
I am a Junior Sunday School teacher (ages 10-14). It is a challenge
coming up with something every Sunday. I have found that doing up a
calendar for a month and picking a theme for the month (i.e. talk about
biblical kings, or cultures) really helps. This allows me to study and
gather information and/or materials. Because we have the children for a
short time (our S.S. actual is 45 min.), I have found staying on a subject
longer helps ingrain it in their memory. Do reviews.
Also, pull the Bible up off its pages (not literally), by making the
biblical people and the time real to kids. We are teaching them about
ancient history, and that is not usually a favorite subject. For example,
we did biblical food month. Find food recipes that biblical people ate
during that time (i.e. we did Ethopian). This is always a hit. Do
biblical clothing theme, biblical weaponry theme. Take these themes and
compare them to present-day.
Let the in-dwelling of the Holy Ghost guide your teaching. I have found
that listening to what God wants the children to learning has made my
class exciting. He lead me this last couple of month to talk on the signs
of witchcraft and sorcery. Don't think they are not being exposed. They
are! When I taught this topic, I was amazed at what they already knew,
and some of it on our school grounds. Get a load of that!
Jennifer Monk
jennifermonk@juno.com
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Teach Your Kids to "F.R.O.G."
Teach your kids to "Fully Rely On God". Check out our new craft project
based on "Trust in the Lord with all your heart..." from Proverbs 3:5-6.
Learn more at:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html
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5) Ages 8-12
One thing I did which really worked well was to have a "Love Act Chart".
Every week I would place a heart sicker on a chart for every act of love
or kindness the kids had shown during the week. When we got to 100 acts
of love we would have a pizza party or fun activity of their choice. If
the love act was questionable we would vote on it. My child one tried to
get a love sticker by saying she took care of her doll that week, of
course I had to tell her that one didn't count.
Jacquelin Maxwell
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6) Hosting fellowship?
>Sunday school classes also participate in hosting fellowship
>we found this a wonderful opportunity for the kids
What is "hosting fellowship?" I would love the kids at my church to
learn these values of thinking about others first and self restraint!
Please give us more (?all) the details!
Thanks
Sharon
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7) Revival room decorations?
Hello,
I am beginning a series of messages on revival and the Holy Spirit. I
would love to decorate the room for this. I know that I want It happy and
exciting. I would appreciate any ideas that can be used. Also, if you
have ideas on this subject ~ please share. I am trying to let the
children know how important they are to the Father and that He wants to
minister to them.
Thank you
Blessings,
linda
--from SSTN: decorate using symbols of the Holy Spirit: doves and tongues
of fire. Also, check out "Spirit Gifts" in our Curriculum Creatives
section:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html
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8) Alternative Halloween Ideas
Our church is very new (9 months old), and we meet in an elementary
school. We are trying to reach out to the surrounding community but being
in the school we are having some visibility issues.
We are wanting to provide an alternative Halloween where kids can have a
safe environment to "trick or treat" and have a fun time.
At this point we are considering a "Trunk Or Treat" where all of our
members will bring our cars to the parking lot decorated, and open our
trunks and hand out candy, treats, and information about our church. For
visibility we were thinking of having some inflatable jumping things and
maybe a slide.
In December we are going to have a birthday party for Jesus and I am going
to make birthday invitations to put in each child's treat bag. (I'll tell
more about the birthday party idea if anyone is interested)
We are hoping these two events will give our new church some visibility
and will draw some families with children to our church.
If anyone has any other suggestions for a safe alternative to Halloween
I'd love to hear the ideas!
Thank you,
Wendy B.
I have been reading Christian Crafters for a while now, since the start of
our new church and have really loved some of the ideas I've seen on here!
Thank you for such a wonderful place to share ideas!
--from SSTN: thank you Wendy. Also, check the Archives for a gold mine of
ideas on this subject:
http://christiancrafters.com/archives.html
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--> Amazing Miracles of the Bible
God’s glory and love are revealed through the miracles he performed and
were fully realized when he came to earth in the form of a man to save
mankind. By studying the miracles of the Bible children will gain a better
understanding of God’s love and faithfulness and how he continues to be
loving and faithful in miraculous ways to his people today. Great for
rotation-type programs!
In the Curriculum Creatives section:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html
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9) Leadership HELP!!
>I have a problem and I was wondering if anyone would have any advice for
>my situation. I am 18 and love working with children and one day would
>like to be a children's pastor. I have been working in our church's
Sunday
>school for 6 years, most of this time I worked with children in grades 1
to 7.
This message is in response to Rachel who wrote for some leadership help.
You are in my prayers, and I completely understand where you are coming
from. I went through the same exact thing you are going through about a
year ago, I am 23 years old, and I started teaching in Sunday School
classrooms at the age of 14 as an assistant teacher at my previous church,
and had been caring for children since the age of 11. I came to my current
church in 2001 and began serving January 2002 as a helper in the pre-k
classroom as the teaching job for that classroom was already filled, and I
love the pre-k age group. To make a long story short, the couple who were
teaching the class went through a rocky time and stepped down. The church
actually considered putting an "experienced teacher" in the classroom, but
prayed about it with the pastor and decided to allow me to move up into
the position of teaching even though I would be the youngest member on the
team. I took off on the team, from my previous experiences with Sunday
School, preschool classes, day cares, and baby-sitting. Team members who
had been there for years were going to the pastor, without my knowledge
telling him this and that. Word got around and after they hired a
Children's Ministry Pastor to oversee our entire children's program,
another lady at the church fell into place to oversee the K-2nd graders.
One Sunday morning everyone kept saying congrats and giving me a big hug,
I had no idea what was going on. Then the Children's Ministry Pastor came
to me questioning whether or not I would move into the position of
Preschool Director. I wanted to scream yes and jump up and down for joy, I
love being in leadership positions, and I love a challenge. Instead I said
I will get back to you, and I went home to think about it. I fell apart at
that point. I started crying and just flipping out that the church would
ask me something like that, as I was already teaching the Pre-k first
service class (my class), substituting for the Pre-K second service
teacher (when she could not be there), had been talked into combining the
three year old and pre-k classes when no three year old teacher was
present, taught the three year old class second service when the teacher
didn't show up, was setting up classrooms in the nursery, toddler/walker,
two, three's, and pre-k classroom, teaching two of three Christmas Eve
services and two of three Easter services, arranging the curriculum for
the three's and pre-k including cutting things out, and still managing to
approach everyone with a smile on Sunday morning, after being up until 2
or 3 am on Saturday night.
I was suffering from major burn out, but like you, was too into the
children to step back and see how it was all affecting me. I was grouchy,
short-tempered, tired, whiny, and not only that, but I was literally
making myself sick to be able to stay in bed in an effort to get a break.
All though I turned down the director position, I still found myself doing
everything as the new director stepped into place. I finally stepped back,
told them I was going to take a few weeks off, stayed completely clear of
the children's ministry, all though still attending church services, and
started to analyze the situation. I realized that the reason that I was
doing seemingly everything/or at least more than everyone else, was
because I wanted everything done a certain way. We have a lady at our
church who's soul job is to purchase supplies, cut things out, and
organize classroom cabinets; however because I took the initiative to
start doing many of these things myself when they were not a certain way
on Sunday mornings, she stepped back, enjoyed it, and let me run wild. I
was setting up all of the preschool classrooms each week (putting the
puzzles on two tables, crayons and craft on two other tables, and balls
of Play Doh with Play Doh tools on the last table) because it bothered me,
not anyone else when they were not set up when children started to arrive.
I unlocked the cabinets in every room because I was the one who decided
since I had my keys out to unlock my own cabinets, that it wasn't too much
trouble to unlock everyone else's also. I started realizing during my time
off, that if I am not there, someone else will have to be there; if I
don't unlock all the cabinets someone else will have to in order to set up
their classroom's, if I didn't set up the classroom's someone else would
have to or they couldn't have class that day. I stopped doing all the
extra's, did only what was required of me, adding in a few little things
here and there like putting the sign in cards out, since I had to walk
into the other room to get them, and all of the other classrooms were on
the way back. I guess, bottom line is do what is asked of you, and what
makes you content. If you love being around the children, then teach, if
you don't enjoy organizing the curriculum or cutting it out, find someone
who does enjoy it. The saying goes that there are plenty of eager workers
with no work to do. Recruit, recruit, recruit! Find a team of people that
can help you with your overwhelming load, and remember that you are not
expected to be a super hero and do it all, and that what you don't do,
someone will eventually have to do, and that they cannot rely on you
forever to do it all. When I took sometime off, the very first thing I
thought of was who is doing this, or who is doing that, but you know what
came to me, if I wasn't there, someone had to be doing it, the Sunday
School program was not going to come to a screeching halt because I wasn't
there, and I didn't have to carry the entire preschool ministry around on
my shoulders. Give it to God in prayer, ask for guidance, it will work
wonders, I have been there. I will keep you in my prayers that God give
you the guidance you need, and put you in the place He wants you according
to His Will.
Hope this helps!
Love in Christ,
Sarah in California
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10) Ventriloquist skits
This site has several scripts:
http://www.puppetresources.com/index.php?searchterms=ventriloquist&type=3&what=simplesearch
This site has several books, plus some free sample scripts:
http://www.friendspuppets.org/resources.htm
And if you go to this site, you'll find several resources, including a
"how-to" video:
http://www.childrensministrytoday.com/cgi-bin/cart/cp-app.cgi?usr=50X1065056&rnd=2802573&rrc=N&cip=163.11.255.30&pg=cat&ref=27
Linda in Ohio
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11) Children's Sunday
We do this every year at our church. This past summer we had a fun
contest with an Olympic theme on Wednesdays. I put each child on one of
three teams. I gave them points individually and for their team for being
there, bringing someone and if their team won the weekly game. We used
Son Games for our lessons and games. At the end of the summer we used
children's Sunday as our "closing ceremonies." The flag processonal was
done to "Sumnon the Heroes" (the music we hear during the Olympics). At
the end we presented the awards to the teams and the one person with the
most points. This was a lot of fun and it kept our attendance up during a
ususal summer slump. We went from 13 to 33 in one week! Even though the
Olympics are over for a while, it could be done anytime.
Gary
Springfield, MO
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12) Odd menu: Dinner with a Difference
1. blacergirad
2. danacavwperamlovediphp
3. noestapo
4. kedhacrnsearecc
5. spupnosoo
6. disayaldes
7. pasostertotoa
8. nefrdikone
9. tradenfrninmnet
10. tsfoliedocokaca
11. evsiteter
12. patomouseot
13. gnadlasssiedr
14. kesdorertf
15. icjldacmerlyean
16. knedonirdrf
17. tergloswasfa
18. korstpinupam
19. stopsedoner
20. hosbeemecfninac
21. niglewoasfs
NAME:___________________________________
Course 1 __________
__________
__________
___________
___________
____________
Course 2 ____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
course 3 ____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
Course 4 ____________
____________
____________
_____________
_____________
REAL MENU
1. Garlic Bread
2. Pavlova and whipped cream
3. Teaspoon
4. Cheese and Crackers
5. Soup spoon
6. Side salad
7. Roast potatoes
8. Dinner fork
9. After dinner mint
10. Seafood cocktail
11. Serviette
12. Tomatoe soup
13. Salad dressing
14. Desert fork
15. Jelly and Icecream
16. Dinner knife
17. Glass of water
18. Roast pumpkin
19. Desert spoon
20. Beef mince Nacho’s
21. Glass of wine
Intructions:
-Staple 1 and 2 together to give out to your guests
-keep page 3 for your reference
-Set the table only with a tablecloth, salt and pepper and centrepiece
-Your guests choose the menu they want from the scrambled menu writing
down the numbers
-Don’t allow much time for choosing ( a few seconds only)
-Each course choice is removed before the next course is served, including
cutlery
Have fun
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13) Ventriloquist skits
Bob might be interested in this email list :
CHRISTIAN VENT LINE: This is where you will find
wonderful opportunities to share Gospel vent
information. Meaningful discussions, bargains, and
newly written skits are posted on this list. Nina
Cooper < cc-nina@triad.rr.com> is the moderator of this
list. To join: ChristianVENTS-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
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