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!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

With the end of the year alomst upon us, all four of our SALT Club groups are now beginning to explore the Christmas message. 

Sparkies continue to explore the Christmas story with the series 'Jesus was a baby'. 

Fireflies, Comets and Illuminators are tackling a Scripture Union series entitled ‘God comes to his people’. Starting with Mary as she tries to make sense of God’s promise to her, then onto the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, and finally the response of the shepherds to the Good News, each session looks at the Christmas story through the eyes of some of the key people involved. This series gives children an opportunity to explore each characters feelings and response to the events taking place. 

Exploring God the Creator

Well, it's been a long time since this blog was updated but that doesn't mean it's been a quiet year for SALT Club. Numbers continue to increase each term as more and more families join our congregation. Earlier in the year, we re-started our toddler-preschool age group known as Sparkies. This has been met with great enthusiasm from both children and their parents.

Term four is shaping up to be another exciting term for SALT Club. Our three primary school groups have gone back to the beginning to learn more about the way God created our amazing world. In this unit there is a focus on the fact that it was this same extraordinary, powerful creator who humbled himself by becoming a helpless child and then grew up to fulfill God’s ultimate rescue plan by dying on the cross for our sins.

We are blessed to have such a wonderful collection of inquisitive children in our congregation. It is fantastic to see their understanding of God’s love as well as their willingness to ask both the big and little questions about the consequences of this love increase throughout the year. Parents have a big role to play in encouraging these questions and helping to find the answers to them. This can be as easy as a conversation with your child as they return from SALT Club each week. By asking some simple questions, they are able to see your interest and will be open to more conversations about God at other times. We are also encouraging parents to be actively involved in the SALT Club program throughout the term by either leading or assisting sessions with their children’s age group.

Welcome to term 4

Welcome back to SALT Club for term 4! We have lots of exciting things planned for the final term of 2011 and (of course) the lead up to Christmas.

We will be having two 'all ages' services this term (30th Oct & 4th Dec). This is a great time for everyone in our church family to join together in worship. In preparation for these services, kids attending SALT Club will have opportunities to contribute their own prayers, thoughts and impressions about God, Christ and Church 'stuff'. These will then be shared with the rest of the congregation during the 'all ages' services.

As always, each of our groups will also be discovering what the Bible has to say to kids living in 2011 and how God remains relevant even in today's fast paced, D.S driven world.

Salt Club in Term 3

It has been a busy term for SALT Club so far! Children in each of our three groups have been learning about different aspects of the Bible and how it relates to their everyday life. 

Fireflies (4 year old pre-school – grade 1) are learning about the Gospel of Luke and how Christ continues to show his love for us each day. 

Comets (grades 2 – 4) have just completed a series of ‘Living with Jesus’ looking at the experiences of the disciples in the Gospels of Mark and John. They are about to embark on ‘Adventures with God’ learning about some of the events in Acts. 

Illuminators (grades 5 – 7) have been making shadow puppets and learning about Moses so they can see the way in which Moses was a shadow of what came through Jesus.

Ethel Armstrong and Jacqui Minnis with some of the Fireflies