Kidzport January 24 – Perseverance and Pancakes

January 27, 2010

We had an interesting day this past Sunday, as we coupled our lesson with pancakes! There’s nothing better than learning scripture while downing some fresh-cooked flapjack goodness, is there?

There are many scriptures that deal with the concept of perseverance. Perseverance can be summed up in one phrase:  ”Don’t give up.”   Here are some great scriptures to read:

Psalm 27: The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalm 121: I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.

Isaiah 40:  But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

Notice a theme?  Rely on God! When our strength fails, we can “persevere” by holding onto God.

For Parents:

• Read the chapters listed above with your child, and find the specific verses.
• Talk about times when perseverance is hard.  Are there specific examples in your life you can share?
• Pray together that they will remember to turn to God when things get hard.

Schedule note: This Friday (Jan 29th) is our first Family Night!  All parents should plan on attending with their children, at 7:15 in the sanctuary.

KidzPort – January 10 – Dreams and Statues

January 18, 2010

Did you ever have a dream that woke you up, and left you wondering what it meant?  Sometimes are dreams are so real that we cannot accept that they didn’t really happen.  At other times, we dream about familiar people in unfamiliar circumstances.  Either way, dreams are an important part of our lives.

This week we looked at the story of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel found in Daniel 2.  The king had a strange dream, and he asked all his astrologers, magicians and fortune-tellers to explain it to him.  As an added challenge, he wouldn’t tell them what the dream was.  The king figured if they were for real, then they would know.

When no one could figure out the dream, Daniel was brought before the king.  Daniel told him that God was sending him a message.   He went on to explain the king’s dream.

³¹ “You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. ³² This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, ³³ its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. ³⁴ You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. ³⁵ Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Notice something about this “image” or statue that the king saw.  As you look from top to bottom, the materials get less valuable.  But they also get stronger.  Daniel told the king that the dream meant that there would be many kingdoms, each one less wealthy than the previous ones.  Finally (just like the legs and toes) the kingdoms would become divided.   Finally, the Kingdom of Heaven would come and destroy the earthly kingdoms, and would last forever.

We know that the great “stone” in the vision is Christ.  His kingdom will last forever.  What’s important here is understanding how God speaks to us, and how we need to be open to what He is trying to tell us.

For Parents:

• Talk to your child about dreams.  Do they ever wake up with nightmares?  A good thing to do is to pray woth your child when a nightmare comes.  This will get them in the habit of turning to God in scary situations.
• Read over the story in Daniel 2 and see if your child fully understands what is happening.  What is the most valuable part of the “image?”  Who does that represent?

KidzPort January 10 – A New Year

January 11, 2010

In our first KidzPort session of the new year we talked about – the new year!  (Stunning, I know.)

New Year’s are a traditional time for beginning.  Marking from one year to another is a convenient way to evaluate our lives and choices.  So it is natural that we look at the past year with (constructive) criticism and look to the new one with hope and determination.

People make resolutions on New Years.  That means that they resolve to change something in their lives.  It’s not always that what they are doing is bad – it usually means that they can simply do better.

One thing we resolved to do better is to promote respect:

• Respect for God
• Respect for one’s self
• Respect for those in authority
• Respect for others

For Parents:

• Talk to your child about the promise of the new year – what areas can they do better in?  Remember to be honest about what areas you can do better in.
• Pray with you child about this time of change, and that you will make the most out of what God has planned for you in 2010.

KidzPort Vision 2010

January 5, 2010

As part of our New Year’s Weekend celebration at Gospel Light, each of the network pastors and leaders were asked to share their vision for 2010.

Some of the things we hope to accomplish in 2010:

 

·      More Family Involvement: The primary vision for 2010 is to have more parent and family involvement in the Children’s Network.  While parents have been supportive, this is not the same as being involved. We believe that Kidzport should be partners in the spiritual growth of our children.  To that end, we hope to create more of an environment for parents to get involved. We will do this several ways:

 

o      Encouraging parents to participate in Friday night cell groups and Sunday morning children’s ministry.

o      By planning more “family” events.

o      By improving communication with parents throughout the year.

 

·      More Activities: We are hoping to have more activities outside of the Friday/Sunday ministries.  This includes fun events like trips to amusement parks, movie nights, picnics.   These activities not only provide fun experiences for the children, but are good outreach opportunities.

 

·      Better Curriculum for Friday night Cell groups.  While the Sunday KidzPort ministry is going well, it has been a challenge to develop good curricula for the cell groups at the same time.  We hope to use outside resources to provide sound, professionally-developed children’s curriculum.

 

·      More Outreaches: We hope to better develop a plan for outreaches and kid-friendly evangelism.

 

·      Expand existing activities: Our goal is to make our existing activities (specifically the revival, Hallelujah Night and the Cantata) bigger, with more of an eye for outreach

We hope that you continue to partner with us as we enter this new year!