KidzPort August 22 – Eat Up!

August 22, 2010

We’ve had a busy couple of weeks at KidzPort.  Last weekend was the annual Father and Son Campout, and most of the boys spent theweekend in upstate New York.   Yesterday, we had Kids ROCK Day with our friends at House of Restoration in Hartford.  A lot of our kids went, and had a great time.   We’re looking forward to returning the favor when some of the HoRC kids come for Hallelujah Night this year!

Today we continued our journey through the book of Acts with some more about Peter.  A couple of weeks ago, we learned that Saul had a special calling on his life: to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles.  But God has a message for Peter regarding the Gentiles as well.

When Peter was praying one day, he got very hungry.  He had a dream about a large sheet being lowered from Heaven, tied up at the corners.  When it came to the ground, it opened, and he saw all kinds of animals, birds and creepy things.  A voice said “Rise, Peter, Kill and eat!” But Peter was a devout Jew, and would not eat anything that was not permitted by the Law.  He would not touch unclean animals.  So he said “No!  (Imagine saying “No!” to God – but we do it all the time!!)  He says that he would never eat anything unclean.

God answers Peter, and says that what God has cleansed, you must not call unclean.   Peter still refused.  He refused three times!!  Then God removed the sheet. Peter thought God was talking about food.  But He wasn’t!!

Jews didn’t only not touch unclean food.  They didn’t want to spend time with anyone who wasn’t Jewish.  They though the “Gentiles” were unclean, too.  But – God had cleansed the Gentiles, and sent them a messenger.  It wasn’t up to Peter to turn away from them.

For Parents:

• Read Acts 10: 11-16 with your child.  See what your child can tell you about the story.
• Tell your child about a time when you thought something was “unclean” and God showed you differently.
• Pray together that you both will have open eyes and hearts toward those who might be considered “unclean.”

KidzPort June 28th – Some Really Old Dudes.

June 30, 2009

This week started with a little trivia excercise by Sister Maureen.  She was asking various questions, and challenging the kids to find the answer in Scripure.  One of the things that struck a chord was a question about Noah’s Ark.  The kids were astounded to find out that the most common answer given for how long it took Noah to build the ark was 120 years!

This was a hard thing to comprehend, so we started talking about how long people lived in the bible.  It turns out, that prior to Noah, the average lifespan of people in the bible was over 900 years!! Imagine being born in 1109!  You would have been born before Gengis Khan and Richard the Lionheart.  You would have lived through the Crusades!  You would be older than fireworks in China!

Some of the oldest people in the Bible:

• Seth – 912 years
• Adam – 930 years
• Noah – 950 years
• Jared – 962 years
• Methuseleh – 969 years old!!

But in Genesis 6:3, God says to Noah ” My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”  So after the flood, God decided that man’s lifespan was too long, and he limited it.  (Apparently living for 900 years gave man waaaay too much free time!)  In fact, after Noah’s time, only one person in the bible is recorded as living over 120 years.  (Can you find out who?) 

Ironically, modern scientists have pegged the maximum human life expectancy at about 120 years. The oldest person recorded in modern times is a French woman who died in 1997 at the age of 122.