Pastor Jason asked us at staff meeting this week what "Lent" has historically meant to us in our lives.  Several members of our group grew up Catholic, where Lent was a time of fasting and "giving something up for....".  For me, Lent really became viscerally personal after my trip to Israel a few years ago, where we walked the Stations of the Cross in Jerusalem, touched the hill where the Cross stood, visited the dungeon where Jesus was thrown after meeting with Pilate, stood in the room of the Last Supper (I never take Communion that I don't picture that room!)  Jesus's sacrifice came alive for me - for me, Lent needs to be a time I stop thinking about myself for a while and not just think about but really act on what sacrifice means to me.

For the past several years, we have offered opportunities at Lent to give sacrificially to 5 organizations that work with marginalized groups in our world or people who have suffered from a natural disaster.  As always, B5 - Brick by Brick by Burke - is our primary focus. 

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In addition, we added Rising Hope UMC Mission Church, partially because of the Capital Campaign soon to begin, but also because the volunteers and staff at Rising Hope work right in the low income community, they are able to work more transformational with people than we have the opportunity to do.  What we CAN do, however, is help financially support the work that is going on there.

The 3 other opportunities are all UM Special offerings - Native American Ministries, Heart Havens, and UMCOR's "One Great Hour of Sharing".  You can learn more about all of these opportunities by clicking on this link, or by picking up a SHARE brochure on the entryway table.

The last two weeks of Sunday School focused on the lessons of Transfiguration and the Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.  These are big "T" words that young children might be hearing for the first time.  So how to you teach these big "T" words? 

On Transfiguration Sunday, we taught the line of scripture that says, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" (Matthew 17:5 NIV) and simplified the lesson with the phrase "God said it, so that settles it!"  Children were challenged to respond to quotes that may or may not have come from the Bible.  Instead of saying "true" or "false", they responded with "God said it, so that settles it!" or "God didn't say that!"  How often are we puzzled by what God said or didn't say... does our own intelligent interpretation occasionally mix up God's words?  How do we know what God actually said?  Read the Bible to know his words.  It's a simple suggestion we make to the children in Sunday School and we hope that adults are modeling the same practices.  We concluded our Transfiguration lesson by singing Climb Up Sunshine Mountain.  In case you missed seeing it on Facebook, you can watch our video here.  (Author's note: I am not a singer - and the children requested to march around the room - it's one of their favorite things to do!)

Teaching the word "temptation" was a little bit easier, but it's still a big "T" word concept to comprehend.  Children understand the temptation of wanting to eat sweets before dinner instead of afterwards or wanting to cut corners when they clean their rooms by stuffing things under the bed or in a closet instead of putting toys back in their place.  These were pretty obvious examples... but what about the temptation to say mean things about a friend because you want to fit in with the rest of the kids? Or telling a lie because being honest might hurt someone's feelings? Or laughing at a classmate who made a mistake? Adults and children face a variety of temptations everyday, and if we're honest with ourselves, we don't consistently remember God's words in the face of temptation.  In our Sunday School lesson, we practiced shouting "NO!" just as Jesus did when tempted by the devil in the wilderness. If we remember God's words, we can be empowered to say "no" to our daily temptations as well.