Kidzport September 21 – Trading Gold for Bronze

September 22, 2008

In our second week of Kidzport ministry, we had a much larger group than we did the prior week, especially in the 4-6 year old group.   So praise God that people are bringing their kids to church.  Hopefully this ministry will continue to grow.  

The 4-6 year olds watched a video and learned about Jonah and the great fish.  

In the 7-9 group, the lesson was based on Brother Josh’s message, Trading Gold for Bronze.   The main thing we focused on this week was humility.   In 2 Chronicles 12, we learn that King Rheoboam has become hard on his people.  We talked about how Rheoboam did not listen to the advice of the elders, but instead relied on the advice of young men like himself, and as a result, God sent the pharoah Shishak to come to destroy Jerusalem. But according to verse 7, when God saw that the king had realized his mistake and humbled himself, he spared Jerusalem.  But Shishak still came and took all the gold. 

We talked about who the children should turn to for advice – parents, teachers, pastors, older siblings, trusted adults and God.  We asked what would happen when they took advice from their friends instead of people more experienced.  Then we talked about humility – what it means and when it’s important.  I asked them about pride, when it’s OK and when it’s not.  We said it was OK to be proud of accomplishments, but not to the point you think you’re better than other people, or that you don’t need God. We gave examples of having nice things (like the gold Rheoboam had) and having it taken away, and having then to have not-so-nice things. (like the bronze he was left with.)

For parents:

• Read with your kids 2 Chronicles 12:7.  Ask them what it means to them.
• Talk to your children about who they can go to for help and advice
• Ask your kids about pride.  Find out what they think that they do really well, and how they feel about that.  How do they feel about others who can’t do so well?  Is there anything that they wish they did better?
• Watch how they treat their “nice” stuff.  Is it too important to them? Talk to them about that.  Ask them what they would do if they had to have something not so nice.

Next Saturday, Kidzport is going to be hosting the children’s ministry at the HFC annual meeting.  Hope to see everyone there!

Kidzport Sept 14

September 15, 2008

September 14, 2008 marks a great day in the history of Gospel Light Community Church.  Today we launched Kidzport, a new expansion of our Children’s Network. 

At this weekend’s work day, a group of volunteers, led by my wife, or course, worked hard at getting the building ready for today.   They cleaned, moved, carried, swept, sorted and chucked.  The result was amazing, to be sure. 

If you get a chance, you should come and see the place.  We’ve turned the entire second floor of the building into a kid-friendly learning center.  There is a classroom,  a play/media area, a crafts room, an office, and plenty of storage for our costumes, props and other stuff.  There are some photos at the bottom of the post.

Today’s class was entitled “Taste and See.”  It was based on Psalm 34:8 “O, taste and see that the Lord is good…”  We asked the kids if they had ever had experience with a parent giving them some food that they had never seen before, and what there reactions were.   Typically, they are something like “Ewww.  I don’t like that.”  Us parents respond “How do you know if you don’t try it?  Taste it and see if you like it.” 

So we talked about that, and about how some of their friend respond the same way when the kids talk about church.  We talked about Halleluia Night, which will be coming up October 31.  The kids said sometimes their friends just wanted to have Halloween, and didn’t want to come to church.  So we encouraged them to use the advice of the psalm – try asking their friends to just try it.  Obviously, we’re encouraging the kids to invite their friends to Halleluia Night. 

For parents: 

• Ask your kids if they remember the verse.  Read it with them, and try to have them memorize it.
• Talk to your kids about trying new things, what their reactions are, and why?  You’ll find fear of the unknown is a big part of it. 
• Encourage your kids to invite friends and cousins to Halleluia Night.  More info is coming about it, but save the date now. 
• Pray with your kids that they will be able to try the new things God puts in their paths.

Here are some pictures of the Kidzport center. Click them and they get bigger! More improvements are coming.

  

Kidzport is going online!

September 9, 2008

Kidzport will launch at Gospel Light on September 14 2008!    Bookmark this blog (or better yet, subscribe!) to keep updated.