God's Love - Part 2

The past few weeks in kid's Connection, we have had awesome times of worship. The children have participated with energy and enthusiasm in praise to Jesus. Here are some pictures from this past Wednesday:

They all want to come up to the front and help the "praise leaders" and as long as they are worshipping, we love the energy and let them!

I love this part of "The Crazy Song" when they fall on their knees before Jesus in prayer. To see a room full of children on their faces is amazing.

The next part of the song is awesome too. They lift their hands to Jesus:

I just love the energy and passion they have been bringing each Wednesday and hope that it not only continues, but gets better every week!

After worship, announcements and prayer, we had a very neat object lesson from Sister T. It was called The Corners of God's Love. She held up a piece of paper with the words "God is Love" written on it. After asking the children if they believe that it is important to share the love of God with others, she asked if they thought that when they share God's love, do they have more or less of His love for themselves. They thought that it was the same or more, so she did a demonstration.

Holding up the paper, she asked how many corners there were on it. They assured here that there were 4, so she continued by asking how many corners there would be if she cut one off. Most of the children answered that there would be 3 left, but a few caught on quickly! Holding their curiosity, she cut off a corner and "shared" God's love with one of our visitors - giving them the corner she cut off and telling them that Jesus loves them so much and He wants them to know it.

Now, to count the corners that are left. Well, if you cut a corner off the paper and then count again, you will find that you now have 5 corners! They were in awe!

Again, she shared God's love with another visitor, telling about how much He loves them, then counted the corners and now, there were 6! Completing all 4 original corners and continuing to share God's love with the visitors or those who haven't been in a while, the final count was 8 corners.

The moral: When we share God's love with others, we don't have less for ourselves - it actually gets bigger and we have more of His love, for ourselves and to share with more people!

Next, Sister Dawn taught an object lesson with a tootsie roll pop. She compared the inside to our hearts when we first give them to Jesus. They are soft and sweet. But, when we do things that make Jesus sad, we add layers of hardness to our hearts - like the candy around the tootsie pop. But, when we repent and ask Jesus to cover us with His love and mercy, He takes that away, like when we eat the outside of the tootsie pop and He leaves us with His love in our hearts. They were given tootsie pops to take home to share this with their family.

The last thing we did this week was to play a quizzing type game that was also similar to a sword drill - asking questions from verses that had to do with the love of God. So, we set up a buzzer, put children onto teams and started. Each team had a Bible. The question was asked and the team was given time to look up the verse and hit the buzzer with the answer. They earned points for their team when they answered correctly.

Aman and Jiliane search for the correct verse:

Presley searches as well:

Brett found the right one and stands to read it out loud:

The game ended with each team having answered at least one question correctly. They seemed to enjoy this type of game and did a great job looking up the verses!

Faith brought her friend Kennedy for the 2nd week in a row - she is already sharing God's love - must have been her baptism!

Zachary Hinkle, Dylan Stitt and Jayce Hinkle:

All in all, we had another great week in KC!

God's Love

Since most of our lives are bombarded at this time of the year with the message of Valentine's Day, we decided that we would use this as an opportunity to remind the children of kid's Connection where true love came from in the first place.

Through the use of various colored hearts, we learned a message of the love of God for all of us.

A black heart represents our hearts when they are full of sin and we don't let Jesus in; when we continue to live however we want to live.

A red heart represents the blood that Jesus shed on the cross to cleanse us from our sins. He died for us because He loves us.

A white heart represents our hearts after Jesus has cleansed us - after we have repented and given our lives to Him, he makes us clean and new!

A green heart represents our new life. Just like in the spring, the grass will turn green again with a new life, so we have a new life in Jesus when we let Him lead us.

A yellow heart represents the streets of gold in Heaven where Jesus is preparing a place for us. He loves us so much that He wants us to be there with Him.

With this simple message, we hoped to convey to the children a message of God's love and His desire for them to know Him and give their lives to Him. That is the true meaning of love - God's love for us.

Next, we had a scavenger hunt prepared for them. They were in three teams for the hunt and were given a list of items to find that would symbolize God's love - lots of hearts - representing His love for us: sweet candy - His love for us is sweet; a stuffed animal - He provides comfort and love; a heart eraser - His love erases our sins, etc. We gave them 5 minutes to see which team could find the most items. All of the items were found just in the nick of time and the blue team had the most items found. This earned them 1000 points for their team! The orange and green teams tied and each won 750 points for their teams. The points remain very close.

On Your Mark, Get Set, GO!!


Caleb, Dylan and Erica looking for the treasure:


Don't give up - keep looking! There were 14 items hidden in Griffin Hall.


Jiliane and Cameron checking off their lists:


Chris found the last hidden item - a pencil (God is writing our story!):


Remember that they earn points several ways. They can fill out a review sheet in their team color when they arrive each week. They can participate in worship. They can win contests. They are all awarded points for bringing offering. Participation is also rewarded. Soon, we will have a winner for this quarter to choose the type of party we will have. We are looking forward to another great party!