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SAVE THE DATE
VBS will be June 3-7
for all rising K-5th graders.
6th-12th graders can be Counselors
and receive community service hours.
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CHILDREN'S CHURCH VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
If your child comes to Children's Church, I need you to sign up to help us for one or two Sundays for the Spring Semester. We have got to fill up the 12 spaces as soon as possible for me to plan the services. If everyone signed up for one Sunday, we would be covered. If you are teaching this semester, you are already doing your part and thanks!
Volunteering looks like this - you arrive at 8:45 and help ready the space and welcome children and parents. Get them signed in and just generally help with gathering craft/coloring, get to know kids, and help kids sign up for jobs. Once we start our service, you will just walk kids to go to the restroom, help with crowd control if needed, and walk kids over at 9:30 with Kathy.
I need you to know that we can not have Children's Church without 2 adults present. Sometimes, Ms. Kimmell can not be there or can not help take kids over, so we have to get back into the habit of having parents help.
Mostly, I want you to know that it is really a holy privilege to worship with our kids and hear the Spirit doing her thing with them. I am blessed every week by some comment or watching the kids lead this worship and claim this church as their own.
We have only had 2 folks respond to this request, so grab your calendar and let's get these 12 spots filled. Sign up here
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Hello families,
MLK, Jr. Day is one of my favorite days to teach kids. These kids learn a lot about Martin in school, so we really focus on what Equity and Fairness really mean in terms of social justice for all God's children.
In the pictures, you will see 3 parts to our lesson:
1)The Hands - we wrapped our hands around each other and looked at all the beautiful colors that God gave us. We notice how strong the wrapped hands were together. No two were exactly alike. We talked about how people are different and how people are alike. How to celebrate differences and be curious to learn about others and how to celebrate our similarities (their answers - we all have the same hearts, feelings, "stuff on the inside" , fears and worries). How not to judge someone by the color of their skin, their religion, their sex, their likes and dislikes, who they love, etc. but to step in deeper into that person and get to know them. Which led to .....
2)The Feet- we made a circle and took off our shoes. Then we moved 2 spots to the left and put on the shoes in front of us. Some were huge (high heels, adult shoes), some were too small, a few were close to just right. We talked about the saying "to know someone, you must walk a mile in their shoes". Empathy means stepping into someone else's life to try and feel what they are feeling. It is not feeling for, it is feeling with. Sometimes we are so taken with comparing ourselves and our "lot" with others that we miss out on knowing them. So we then moved on to one of the kids' favorite phrases, "That's not fair!"....
3)The Person - we had three folks stand up at an imaginary fence (where my hand is in pic) to watch a baseball game. The tallest had no problem watching without aids. The middle person just missed seeing and needed help. The third person needed a lot of help. We tried the "fair" or equal route of helping them where each person got two cushions (the same amount) to raise them up to see. Now the 2nd person could see, but the 3rd person still could not see. This led to great conversation that equal treatment may not fit the bill of being "fair". That what fair actually means is that everyone gets what they NEED. At this point, the tallest person immediately gave his cushions to the shortest saying "I don't even need help" and suddenly the shortest could see the game!
So the next time your child says "That's not fair". Ask them "What do you need? Did you get what you need?" "What do you think the other person needs? Are they getting what they need?" Instead of comparing what I have to what you have, I am learning to look at what each person needs individually, to see the other's need not in comparison to mine, to step into their shoes and practice empathy. It is hard and a developmental challenge at this age (and for many of us adults if we are honest!), but that is why we practice!
We ended our class by taking our Peace Rocks (we wrote quotes or words or drew pictures inspired by MLK, Jr.) out to the front sidewalk for folks to pick up and spread peace throughout the city. Check it out.
Peace,
Kathy
Thanksgivings
to Bob Tick and Ed O'Halloran for donating a ton of yarn and art supplies!
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