God's House

This week in kC, we took some time to review some important things with your children. After worship, offering and prayer, we reminded them about our prayer cloths. Each week, we have a prayer request box with forms for prayer requests and praise reports for the children to fill out. Beside these things, there is a small box of prayer cloths. They are available every week for the children to take as needed. They are in the same fun material that our banners are in - bright, colorful and kid friendly. We took the time to remind them that they are there and what they are for. We also assured them that it is Jesus who does the healing, not the cloth! There is no power in the cloth. But, we explained that since we can not see the prayers that are prayed for us and others can't see the prayers that we pray for them, we can give these to friends and family as a symbolic reminder that they are being prayed for. Many children have given wonderful testimonies of people that they have asked us to pray for who have been healed or recovered miraculously. God works through the prayers of children, just like He does for adults!

Sister Dawn and Sister Tammy prepared and performed a short skit for the kids called "What NOT to do in church" - as a review and reminder of the things that Pastor reminded us a few weeks ago about taking care of God's House and keeping it a holy place. The skit showed 2 girls as church is about to start. They showed everything they could think of that we should NOT do in church. Before the "service" they were gossiping (about their real selves!), talking on the phone in the sanctuary, chewing gum, then, when the music began, they RAN to get a seat. Dawn sat during worship and played on an electronic game. Tammy stood for worship, but with her arms crossed and not participating in the worship. Evyn filled in as a "preacher" for us and while he did, the girls were passing notes, eating lollipops, drinking soda, throwing paper airplanes, whispering, etc. Finally, as soon as "altar call" was made, instead of praying or being quiet, they threw their trash down and ran to the back to chat and play with their friends.

To pull it together, we asked the kids if they noticed anything we did wrong. They were able to tell us EVERYTHING! We had some great discussion with them about those things and why they are not good in God's house. Then we reminded them that it is not enough to know that these things are wrong, but that we have to remember to do or not do them, as appropriate.

Tying this to our lesson this week, we introduced John Mark and told how he didn't do what he said he would do, causing others to not trust him anymore. He learned quickly that he must do the right thing, not just say he would do it, and had to work hard to earn the trust back. To demonstrate these truths further, we split into 3 groups for small group lessons.

Sister Dawn had an activity in her session to demonstrate what happened if she had a game for them and didn't supply all the necessary materials, but didn't tell them until it was too late. How disappointing to not be able to trust someone to do what they are supposed to do.

Brother Mark asked the kids various questions and gave them each a paper with Yes on one side and No on the other. They then held up the side that answered as they wished for each question. He reminded them that is important to let our yes be yes and our no be no and to be true to our word.

Sister Tammy had a demonstration where she was going to play catch with someone, but kept tricking them and not throwing the ball, until finally, they stopped trusting her to do what she said. We then talked about things we do or don't do when we say that we will or won't - they offered some great discussion.

Through these small group lessons and our skit, we pray that the children left with a valuable truth to treat God's house with respect and also, to do what we say we will do and be trustworthy. How important of a lesson that is and the earlier they can learn it, the better off they will be!

Alexandria and Erica before service:

Filling out the review sheets to earn points for their teams:

Pre-service activities: