Committed to serving Christ, each other and the community
Please find this week’s Sunday Connections below. This will be our last one for 2018! I hope that amongst the last few weeks of Advent everyone has found some inspiration and encouragement in celebrating the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ this year. SundayConnection_16.12.2018
I hope to see you at one of our Christmas services this year! Christmas Services 2018
Merry Christmas,
Cassie
Our Newhaven Sheep Nativity Trail is well underway and our sheep have had some happy visitors already! Will you find our sheep hidden across Newhaven and help us tell the Christmas Story? How does it work you ask?
Please enjoy this week’s Sunday Connection attached. This is an opportunity to connect to our Sunday children and youth lessons throughout the week. This week’s edition also includes some exciting links that creatively tell the Christmas story, as well as links to interesting articles to help us support one another at Christmas time! Please enjoy!-Cassie SundayConnection_09.12.2018
This week we were visited by Katie McGlew who ran a Godly Play session for all three children’s groups on the story of Abraham and Sarah; therefore, this Sunday connection is a one for all. Please click the following link and enjoy. Sunday Connections_
Please find attached the Sunday Connection for Lighthouse and Youth. Also attached is a set of Bible verses that you may wish to use alongside your advent calendars.
Sunday connections allow families to connect to our Sunday lessons in Youth and Lighthouse midweek. Please see the PDF attached for this week’s Sunday connection. Website_forSunday11.11.2018
Lighthouse (P1-P6)
Bible Passage: Matthew 25:31-46
Aim: To prepare our hearts and minds for the shoebox service our primary school aged children looked at the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats to see that we show our love for Jesus by loving and serving other people.
To Think About: Sheep and Goats look similar, particularly so in the Middle East. What sets them apart from one another, is there character. Sheep: Rely on the shepherd. Follow the shepherd.
Goats: Are happy on their own. Like to go their own way. Don’t pay attention to instructions. Would eat anything they could find -including the shepherds cloak! The children put together the illustration to the left with their leaders’ help. They wrote Jesus’s name on a big piece of card and put a crown over his name to show that he is a king. They drew a sheep on one side and a goat on the other. The sheep would be blessed and they looked happy. They put a smiley face on the sheep. The goats would not be blessed and they looked miserable. Sad face.
Chat together about ways in which your family tries to follow Jesus, including showing His love to others. Why is important to show others about Jesus in this way? If you are putting together a shoebox together this week for next week, chat and wonder a bit about the person who might receive it. Pray for them.
Youth (P7-S4)
Bible Passage: Judges Ch. 6 & 7. We focused on Ch. 6 and used The Message Translation
Aim: To show that God used an ordinary person, with all of his doubts and fears, for His purpose of rescuing the people of Israel.
Retold Here (Both Ch 6 and Ch 7): This video is aimed at upper primary, but a quality re-telling.
To Think About: What do we know about Gideon from that he says in Ch 6? What are Gideons fears and doubts in the whole situation? How does God respond to Gideon? Can we bring our fears and doubts to God today? Do we know of any ordinary people who’ve been used for God in big ways now-a-days? If appropriate, pray that God would use your family as part of his story.
Lighthouse (P1-P6)
Aim: To Pray, understanding that God is listening and wants us to keep talking to him.
Bible Passage: Luke 18:1-8
To Try: Here are a few ideas for praying together! The Church of Scotland has collected a list of great ideas to get creative with prayerHERE
Youth (P7-S4)
Aim: To explore How God work through Joseph’s gifts, character, and life circumstances?
Bible Passages: Joseph’s Story Found in Genesis 37-50
A Good re-telling: Can be found in the The Bible Project Genesis, Part 2 Found HERE. Joseph begins at 5:20; however, watching from the beginning is quite helpful!
Things to Think About, all or some: Can you think of any times in your own life where something positive was able to come out of what seemed like a really negative/situation? Describe it, how did you feel in it? How did you feel after? Thinking about a time when you had to think about whether to forgive someone who was mean, unkind, or horrible, or not. Knowing how you felt, how do you think Joseph might have been feeling when he saw his brothers? Who did God use to help him to make his choice about what to do? Who are those people in your life? How could the story have been very different if Joseph hadn’t chosen to forgive?
Lighthouse (P1-P6)
Prayer: Ask, Seek, Knock
Aim: To be inspired to talk to God
Bible Passage: Luke 11:5-13, Retold brilliantly in Song Here
To Think/Chat: Why did the man knock at his friend’s door so late? Why do you think he kept trying? If a normal friend could answer his friends need, as friends of God, is it okay to for us to ask the same thing to God in prayer until we get an answer? Do those answers always look like the things we expect?
Note: As adults, many of us have learned from experience that we often don’t see the answers to prayer in the way that we expect to see them, or exactly how we would like, in fact sometimes the answer isn’t the way we would do things at all! Sometimes we don’t even recognise it ourselves until a long way after. Acknowledging this with children is really important and sharing your own experience is too! The point of this passage is that if this man can persist and receive from his friend, how much more we can persist in prayer and receive from God!
Youth (P7-S4)
Series: Ordinary? Abraham
In youth we are beginning a series on ordinary and flawed people in the Bible that God has involved deeply in the story of his love and redemption of the world. This past Sunday we looked at Abraham who was promised by God, that he would have a son, that his descendants would be more than the grains of sand or stars in the sky, and that from his descendants would come the Saviour.
Bible Passages- Stories of Abraham’s life and relationship with God are told in Genesis 11:27-25:11. A good summary of the life of Abraham has been made by the Bible Project .
To Think About- In what ways was Abraham Ordinary? What would people have to say about him today? In what ways did he honour God? Did God take away his promise when Abraham made mistakes? Does God take away his promises to us if we make mistakes? Give thanks to God that His promises never change! Skip ahead to the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 in wonder!
Each week we will put up the passage of scripture that the children and youth have been learning about on the Sunday past, alongside some suggestions of how to engage with the same scripture at home. Catchier title suggestions appreciated.
Lighthouse: P1-P6
Bible Passage: Luke 11:1-4; Matthew 6:5-15
Pray Like Jesus from Mosaic: God is Here
Aim: To pray knowing, from Jesus’ example and teaching, that God wants us to talk to him.
Questions: What can we bring to God in prayer? Is there anything we can’t pray to him about? What are the things Jesus prayed about in the Prayer in Matthew 6:5-15? When do we say this prayer at church?
Learning the Lord’s Prayer: The following link uses a mixture of words and pictures to help us learn the prayer line by line. The Lord’s Prayer Creative . It may be fun to come up with some actions to help you remember too!
Practicing Prayer Together: Five Finger Prayer—Cassie has copies of a version of this.
Two of my favourite books of prayer ideas for 8+: The Teenage Prayer Experiment Notebook , The Prayer Experiment Notebook. A book recommended by others for our 6-8s: What Every Child Should Know About Prayer
Youth P7-S4
This week in youth we spent time in the service learning about Sandra’s experience in Rwanda with Tearfund. We then spent time preparing for the Newhaven Church Bake-Off as part of our Harvest efforts to support the work of Tearfund. The two weeks previous we looked at issues of social justice and what the Bible has to say.
The Bible passages we have looked at: Matthew 25: 31-45; Leviticus 25:1-24 (Harvest Passage)
Leading up to Harvest and our Shoebox services, encourage your young person to think about where their heart is in showing God’s love to the world: are they passionate about taking care of the Earth we are given? Does homelessness tug at their heart? Do they enjoy helping those younger than them learn new things? Do they stand up to bully’s and look out for those that would be left out? Open up about what excites you most in this whole area of social justice. If they are struggling to pinpoint, perhaps pointing out where you’ve seen them do this would be a start! Encourage them to ask God to help them find ways use their talents to show people and the rest of creation God’s love. Make a point to encourage and point out their giftings this week.
I hope you find these ideas enriching and enjoyable!
Cassie
Children’s and Youth Worker
