Church School resumed September 10th. My name is Janet Stone and I am writing to invite your child to join us for in-person Church School each Sunday. Church School is where students will learn about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and how to live a Christian life. We learn Bible stories and we learn how to use those stories to help us be better people. All PreK-8th Grade students are welcome. Children start out in Church at 10:00 with their families and are sent to Church School following the Children’s Sermon. Please note that on the first Sunday of the month, children are directed to the Education Building first and then return to the church building in order to be with their family for communion. I am looking forward to a fun-filled Church School year! Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns.
This week in Church School we continued our study in Genesis. In Genesis 1:26-2:4 we learn about the creation of humankind. God looked at the beautiful world that He had created and thought that the world needed people to enjoy and care for it. So God set His creativity in motion and created humankind. We learned that we are made in the image of God! God made us with His own hands and so we looked at our own hands and saw that although we are the same, each of us having hands, we are also uniquely different, with each of us having unique lines upon our palms and fingers. God shaped us this way so we can be unique individuals. As we are a part of God’s creation, we have been instructed by God to care for the earth and all the living creatures within. In just this small section of scripture, we have learned how we are created in God’s own image as unique individuals with the divine guidance and expectation to care for the beautiful earth we live on and the amazing creatures living here with us!
Welcome back to Church School! Today’s lesson was focused on Genesis 1:20-25. God created the earth and saw that it was good and beautiful. But there was something missing. So God decided the earth needed living things. God made trees, grasses, and flowers of all colors. Then God added fish for the waters, birds for the sky and animals for the land and God delighted in all of His creations. We are thankful to the Lord for all the wonderful and interesting living things He has created, including us!
This week in Church School we learned about the Ascension of Jesus from Acts 1:6-11. We learned that, although Jesus cannot stay here on the earth with us, we can have him in our hearts. We can speak with him through prayer, and we can do his work by helping others. Please note that this was the last Church School for the school year. We will start up again on September 10, 2023.
Today in Church School we learned about the Holy Spirit. We read John 14:15-21. We learned that Jesus sent the Spirit of Truth who abides in us. This is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our helper, teacher, comforter, and friend. He becomes a part of us when we become a Christian and understand that Jesus died and rose for us. When we’re ready to live our lives in honor of God, the Holy Spirit will lead us and guide us every day. We are grateful for the Holy Spirit!”
Today our Church School students went fishing with the disciples! We read the story from John 21:1-14 wherein the disciples spent an entire night fishing only to come up empty handed. Jesus comes along at daybreak and tells them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat and suddenly 153 fish were caught in their nets. This miracle was the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples and from it the students learned that if we stay on the “right” side of life, living with Jesus in our hearts, we will always be equipped with what we need and will live a good life in God’s care.
This week our focus was on shepherds and sheep. We read through John 10:1-10 and our focus was initially on sheep – what they eat, where they live, what they give us and who takes care of them. Then we discussed the responsibilities of a shepherd – they always provide what the sheep need and how they always protect the sheep. Then we made the leap in our thinking to the idea that we are just like sheep and that Jesus is just like a shepherd. We have needs like food, shelter and protection from our enemies and Jesus can help us with the needs that we have! Our scripture of focus was “The gatekeeper opens the gate for him and the sheep hear his voice”~John 10:3. If we reach out to Jesus with our needs, he will certainly hear us and help us.
This week Church School students learned about the road to Emmaus. We learned that sometimes we don’t recognize Jesus right away. We have to look a little deeper to find His goodness. Students practiced by thinking about disguises and masks and how if we look past those disguises and masks we can find the goodness and blessings that life has to offer.
This week in Church School we spent our time together retelling the story of the sadness of Good Friday through to the joy and wonder of Easter Sunday and the Risen Christ. The children learned to tell the story using a storyboard featuring the tomb and depictions of Jesus after his death, and of the angel who tells of the Good News. “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” Luke 24:5 Good News indeed!
Today in Church School we discussed Matthew 21:1-11, Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King. We learned that instead of a royal entrance into the city, complete with a majestic steed, flowing robes, glittering jewels, triumphant music and grand proclamations, Jesus approached the city with humility, connected to the common man and our Father in heaven simultaneously. Our craft time found us tracing each of our hands onto green paper, cutting them out and gathering them together. We mixed our “palms” together and glued them onto sticks, representing the palm branches waved by the witnesses to Jesus and the beginning of Holy Week. While joining hands together as Christians, we can sing out “Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
Today we learned the story of Lazarus, who was a friend of Jesus and brother to Mary and Martha. While Jesus is preaching, he gets word that Lazarus is ill and dying. Jesus goes to him, but it is too late. Jesus called upon his Father in heaven to save Lazarus, which God does. Lazarus is resurrected from the dead. Our students learned that we too can call upon our friend Jesus and be brought away from darkness and into the Christian life. If we follow the teachings of Christ and pray to our heavenly father, we too can have a new life.
Today in Church School we heard the story in John 9 about Jesus healing the blind man and by healing the blind man, Jesus knew that others would see His light and want to follow it. We talked about our eyes and our heart, how we know that our eyes help us to see and we know that our heart keeps our blood moving and our body alive. So we figured that by using our eyes to see Jesus it will help us to open our hearts as well to help others. Ephesians 1:18 says in part, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you”. When we prayed, we asked that Jesus help us to open our eyes so that we can love and serve those around us.
This week’s scripture teaches us about the woman at the well. We thought about how we cannot live without actual water as our bodies need it and we thought about how our bodies use water – to sustain us, to wash us clean and for enjoyment. Then we looked at what Jesus said -”Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ~John 4:13-14. We learned that Jesus is what we need to sustain us, wash us clean and give us joy in our lives!
Valentine’s Day will be upon us this week, so our thoughts have turned to love. As children, we are thankful for the love we receive from our parents, and we are thankful for the love we receive from God, our Father in Heaven. Just as earthly parents provide guidance and boundaries, God our Father has provided us with the 10 Commandments. He has given us these commandments because he loves us and it is through obeying these commandments that we can grow as his children. In Church School this week, we reviewed the 10 Commandments and thought about how these commandments help us be better people and how as better people, we are able to share the love of God with others. Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!
Today in Sunday school, the children learned about being salt and light. Our scripture was taken from Matthew 5:13-16. We learned that what Jesus is telling us to do is to share His light through our actions so that others can see what life is like when following Jesus. And we are to add our own flavor to the world showing others how we live our lives abundantly with joy. Our craft this week was to draw a picture of a candle, showing the light that Jesus represents. We then outlined our drawing with glue sprinkled with table salt representing the flavor we can bring to our lives. We pray with thanksgiving that God allows us to be His salt and light to the world.
This week in church school we focused on Matthew 5:1-12 The Beatitudes. We learned that the word beatitude means blessing and this scripture teaches us that God’s gift of blessing is granted to those who choose to be disciples. We listened to the scripture and talked about how blessed we are already. But we also know that there are many times when we need God’s help. When we live our lives according to Jesus’ teachings and God’s word, The Beatitudes tells us that we will receive even greater blessings. We colored and created a Beatitudes spinner to help us remember them and we did a Beatitudes word search. As children, our students are pure in heart and as our scripture tells us “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God”.
Mark 1:4-11 The Baptism of Jesus
We shared the story of John baptizing Jesus and we thought about the verse “And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness” ~Mark 1: 11 We learned that John encouraged people to be baptized to show that they had changed their hearts and lives. When Jesus is baptized, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, descends on Jesus. A voice from heaven declares “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness” This heavenly declaration affirms God’s love for God’s Son. God also shows us love in this act as well, as God happily claims us as his beloved children. We drew pictures of Jesus being baptized by John and painted with watercolors to show the blue water of baptism (our sins being washed away) and yellow sunshine representing God’s light and love for us. Then we made beaded bracelets with blue and yellow beads to remind us that God’s forgiveness and love goes with us wherever we go!