God: Even better than a superhero!

This morning in SALT Club, we discovered that God protects his people in a way that no superhero can. 

One example of this was what happened to the Israelites after they left Egypt and came to the Red Sea. God told Moses to hold out his staff and the water parted to make room for God's people to cross the sea on dry ground!

What would it have been like to walk across dry land with two massive walls of water surrounding you? Would you have been able to see all the fish and other creatures swimming around next to you? What would happen if you put your hand into the water? How would you feel? Excited? Scared? Confused? Worried? The more important question is what would you say to God? Would you thank God for looking after you? Or is it just his job to keep you safe so it doesn't matter if you forget to say thanks to him?

God might not part seas for us to walk through everyday, but he does protect us just like the Israelites. He gives us food to eat, warm houses to live in, shelter to keep us dry on cold rainy days and he stays with us each and every day.

Our challenge this week is to remember to say thank you to God for looking after us each day. We can do this by praying a very simple prayer and filling in the blank: "Thank you God for looking after me today when........ Amen".

God wins the debate

In my last post I told you about how God used Miriam to rescue her little brother. But what happened to that little baby when he grew up? As we continue our our unit on Moses, we will piece together more and more of his story:

Once he was old enough, Moses went to live at the palace with the Pharaoh's daughter. One day he saw an Egyptian beating up a Hebrew slave & was so angry that he killed the Egyptian. He knew that he would be in BIG trouble so he ran away into the desert and became a shepherd in a country called Midian.

40 years later... Moses was looking after a flock of sheep when he saw a curious thing - a bush that was on fire but didn't burn up! When he went to investigate, God spoke to him (how cool is that?) and told him to go back to Egypt to tell the Pharaoh to let God's people (The Hebrews) go.

Moses wasn't too sure that God was talking to the right person (he was 80yrs old and not a very good public speaker) but in the end God won the debate (anyone surprised?) by telling Moses that God would be with him and would tell him what to say. So, Moses returned to Egypt.

This Sunday, we find out what happened when Moses returned and what God had in store for his people.

Here are some photos of what the desert in Egypt is really like.

Big sister to the rescue!

A couple of weeks ago, our Fireflies, Comets and Illuminators groups spent some time thinking and talking about how God can use anyone to help save people. In particular, we heard about how God used a young girl, her mother, and a princess to save a little baby boy who would grow up to become one of the most important people in the Bible.

The girl's name was Miriam. Her brother's name was Moses.

Here's how it happened:

1. The king of Egypt (Pharaoh) was worried that the Jewish slaves living in Egypt would one day become too powerful and take control of his kingdom.
2. Pharaoh ordered all of the Jews' baby boys to be thrown into the Nile River to be drowned.
3. A Jewish lady called, Jochebed, hid her baby boy until he was three months old.
4. Then she put him in a waterproof basket and put the basket in the water near the bank of the river.
5. Miraim hid in the reeds on the bank to keep watch over her little brother and make sure he was safe.
6. Pharaoh's daughter went to have a bath in the river and saw the baby in the basket.
7. The princess decided to adopt the baby and raise him as a prince of Egypt. She named him Moses because it means 'pull out (of water)'.
8. Miriam ran over to the princess and offered to find someone to look after the baby for the princess.
9. The princess paid Jochebed look after Moses until he was old enough to go and live in the palace with her.

Just think, if God can save a little baby from a powerful, angry king using his big sister - imagine what he can use us for!

This is what the Nile River looks like today...

Jochebed put Moses' basket in reeds like these ones...

More than a Technicolor coat

Some people may know him as the guy with the fancy coat but this term, our school-aged groups are finding that there's a bit more to Joseph than his fashion sense.

So far we have discovered that even though he was annoying enough that his brothers chucked him down a hole & then SOLD him, God stayed with him. Then, once he made it to Egypt, God STILL looked after him... Even when he was thrown in gaol for no reason!

So how much do YOU know about Joseph?

Did you know:

• The name Joseph means 'God will increase'.
• Joseph was Abraham's great-grandson.
• Joseph lived in Israel & Egypt 3,800 years ago.

To find out more about this important hero of the Bible & how God stayed with him no matter what, check out the book of Genesis in your Bible.

A challenge for you

I have a question for you...

Can you name all of the books of the Bible in order? Try it….

How far did you get?

If you need some tips on how to do better next time maybe you should talk to one of our Comets. Along with the Scripture Union based lessons each Sunday in SALT Club, our grade 2-4 kids have tackled this very task. With a little help from Colin Buchannan and a lot of perseverance, they mastered the books of the New Testament in term one. Now, they have risen to the challenge and embarked on the quest to conquer the books of the Old Testament.  

Anyone else feeling up to the challenge??

Mother's Day & budding actors

Happy Mother's Day to all the mum's out there. I'm sure there have been many breakfasts in bed, family lunch/dinners & of course plenty of hand made prezzies going around today!

Today was also a special day for SALT Club. Our 9.30 service was an 'all-in' service this week which meant that rather than heading downstairs for individual programs, the younger members of our congregation joined us for the whole service.

Now, don't be misled... This was not just a day off for our dedicated band of SALT Club leaders. The kids were most definitely active participants in the service. They were given the challenge of helping Katie & Philip TEACH THE GROWN-UPS! Who would've thought? Kids teaching adults?? Amazing!

I can assure you that all the kids involved did a marvellous job. Kerrie Armstrong had some very keen helpers for her demonstration comparing the Holy Spirit to a magnetic force. Both are very powerful & although we cannot see them, we can see the result of this power.

The Illuminators then took part in a dramatic reading of one of this week's bible passages. Again, this highlighted the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Comets then kindly helped Katie with her sermon (& showed off their acting skills) by re-enacting the events that took place when Paul & Silas were in prison - singing praise to God despite their situation &  the earthquake that followed.

Prayer time was completed by Lucy leading the whole congregation in The Lord's Prayer.

All in all, it was a great service & a wonderful reminder of how much our kids have to offer the whole congregation as we join together to worship our amazing God.

Dads & kids

Growing up in a small country church, it could have been easy to come to the conclusion that church was a place for lots of little old ladies to get together on a Sunday morning and make cups of tea for the mums of the three or four families in the congregation. Aside from a monthly family service on Saturday night, it certainly wasn’t a place for dads to hang out. If anyone had suggested that one of our dads became involved in the Sunday School lesson, our small band of kids would have laughed them out of the room – that was a job solely for women of our mums’ generation. So, imagine my surprise the first time I saw a dad from the St. Paul’s 9.30 congregation actively participating in their children’s group at SALT Club!

We have a great team of people, both male and female, involved in leading and assisting our children’s ministry program each week and everyone does a fantastic job of engaging the kids in the bible & discussing God’s love for us all. However, it must be said that having a man in the room brings a certain x-factor to the session that we women just can’t quite manage. Kids respond differently to men and women and it is great to have that balance in the groups.

It is also really important for our kids (particularly boys) to see that all this ‘church and bible stuff’ is not just the domain of women. That learning about and sharing God’s promise of love truly is for the whole family. Regular male involvement in all levels of SALT Club is one way to provide our kids with this role model.

It is genuinely wonderful to be able to walk into SALT Club each Sunday and see at least one Dad either assisting or (gasp) leading one of our four groups. Personally, it my prayer that this continues to be the case well into the future.

Welcome back to SALT

Well, 2012 was certainly a fantastic year for SALT Club and 2013 is shaping up to just as wonderful. Our regular Sunday morning program will be resuming from the 3^rd of February. Like last year, we will have four different groups running during the 9:30 service each week:

Sparkies (2-4 yrs): This group runs in the Dulcie Harris hall at the back of church. It involves a basic craft activity, a bible story and song all centered around a common theme.

Fireflies (Prep-Grade 1): This group runs downstairs in the middle section of the Ed Centre. Sessions are based on material purchased from Scripture Union.

Comets (Grade 2-4): This group runs downstairs in the far right section of the Ed Centre. Sessions are based on material purchased from Scripture Union.

Illuminators (Grade 5-7): This group runs downstairs in the far left section of the Ed Centre (where the kitchen is). Sessions are based on material purchased from Scripture Union as well as shorter series/one off session on topics of specific interest to the kids.

Sparkies will be starting the term by discovering how we can all tell others about Jesus. Meanwhile downstairs, our three school-age groups will begin the year with a four-week series exploring how Jesus shows us more about himself and God through the power of miracles.

As always, we are looking forward to term full of fun, fellowship & finding out more about our awesome God!