Eternal Life--In the Garden!

John 11:1-45  Jesus Raises Lazarus From Death: 

I am the resurrection and the life. 

Words are important. 

We can look forward to life after death. 

A great symbol of this transformation is the butterfly. 

Butterfly craft:

Substitute? Veggie Tales Time!

Substitution Week!

This weekend I will be out of town, so my friend, Linda is subbing for me. (Thank you so much, Linda!) Two weeks ago, when she subbed for me, they started watching Jonah and the Whale,  the Veggie Tales version. 

This week, the children will finish watching the movie. Lucky for us, there is a discussion page already created!

http://veggietales.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Jonah_Discussion.pdf

Here is a discussion page I found on Veggie Tales Jonah! I hope it will help fill in the rest of the time after the movie is over.

If there is a lot of time still left, I think it would be fun to try to act out the story. The whale could be a sleeping bag, where kids could take turns getting “swallowed" and getting “spit out."

I love Veggie Tales so much! I found out that they even play Veggie Tales on Saturday morning, now, on NBC! That is awesome!

Have a wonderful week, Folks! 

Ashley

Kayla

“You are the Light of the world”

INTRO:  This lesson was used on February 5, 2017.

Scripture

Matthew 5:13-20  (Salt and Light)

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. ¹⁵ No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Welcome:  Got our hot chocolate and some cookies to dunk!

Open with conversation:  Everyone shared something. We got to talking about the movies they want to see. Everyone agreed that we want to see Trolls 2!

Scripture search: Use the table of contents or use the Gospel trick. (We split the Bible pages in half, and then split the right hand side into half. You should end up on or close to the Gospels. We chant “Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John!” while we are searching.) Older kids helped younger kids find chapter and verse.  Volunteer reads; others followed along.

Activity: This is such an amazing scripture full of images and ideas. All of them can be used, but I like simple! We read the whole thing, and we end with Jesus’ imperative “…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

As far as deciding on an activity on which to base the whole lesson, I chose “You are the Light of the world.”  I can think of many artsy activities that would illustrate this message, but this week I wanted to make it very literal. I darkened our classroom. (lights out, window covered) I asked the kids to find a small candle in the dark. They couldn’t find it. We discussed the difficulty and what makes it so hard. Next, I lit the tiny candle. Now try to find it. It’s easy!

Discussion time:

What made it difficult in the dark?

What made it easier?

What are “dark times” in our lives?

(When people are acting crummy toward us. When we’re sick. When we are angry. When our friends want us to do something we shouldn’t do. When we have the urge to go against the rules.)

Now, what makes it easier to make good choices on those bad days?

(Knowing what Jesus wants us to do. Knowing what our parents would want us to do. Remembering how we will feel after we do naughty things.)  

We want to walk toward Jesus’ light. We want to follow His lead when we make our decisions. In this story, Jesus is empowering His followers (yes, that means us, too!) to BE that light TODAY, for ourselves and for other people who also need direction in making decisions and following God.

One of my students, said, “Hey, that’s just like the song we sang in church—‘Hide it under a bushel, NO! I’m gonna let it shine!’” Yep! It sure is like that song! Did I mention I love my Sunday School kids? And, yes, we sang the song!

Closing Prayer

 Dear God, we thank you for being our light when we are in the dark. Thank you for giving us Jesus to be our light. Help us to remember that we are also the light for others when they are having a dark time. Give us the courage to let our light shine so that it might show the way to you, oh God. Amen.

More Activities:

Arts and Crafts:

Stained glass craft: trace a color page image of a candle onto Plastic wrap. Move the wrap to a aluminum-foil-covered piece of cardboard. Once wrap is secured, color the image with sharpie markers, outline in black sharpie. The foil will reflect light, the colors are transparent. Looks pretty cool!

Mosaic of torn paper: draw a candle or lantern. Fill the spaces of the candle with paper. Fill all the surrounding area with dark colors, starting with black on the border of the paper, working inward to purple, red, orange, yellow, then the white/yellow surrounding the flame. That should be pretty stunning!

Make a real, rustic lantern: Canning jar, wire, votive candle: wrap the lip of jar with wire, creating a bail from which to hang the lantern. Add any decorative elements. Place candle inside. Cute and they give off a lot of light!

Decorate a small glass votive candle holder with just about anything. Use the upcoming holiday, the season, a gift for a friend who might need a little pick-me-up, or maybe someone in church who is older than their parents who doesn’t have a grandkid in this church.

Any craft that includes:  Lamps, candles, glow-in-the-dark items, fire, flashlights, torches, the sun and moon. The list can go on and on!

Any activity that includes trying to do something in the dark vs. in the light. Finding, following, reading, small tasks, etc., with and without light.

Skits about showing the difficulty between doing things well with and without light and how that relates to making choices with and without God’s (or Jesus’, parents’, good friends’, or teachers’) guidance.

Songs that talk about shining our light:

“This Little Light of Mine,”

“We Are Marching in the Light of God,”

“Let Your Light Shine”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXkxRNEy8XA&ab_channel=TracyJ001

click here for your free lesson plan!

Why Reinvent the Wheel?

Sometimes, when I am searching for just the right lesson or activity or even a coloring page for the coming week, I start to feel like I am alone. I look for resources to use, but find very little that works both Biblically and according to Lutheran principles. So when I do come up with something that really works, I want to share that with other Lutheran teachers! I hate reinventing the wheel!  I'll bet that you do too!

Let's start sharing our talents and our time! (As I'm typing this, I’m singing "This Little Light of Mine" to the dog's dismay!)

What happens during Sunday School.

Today I want to share with you how I manage a group children of many ages in Sunday School in our little church:

Each Sunday, the kids and I meet together like a family: around a table, drinking (and spilling) cocoa, munching on cookies that were donated by "the Ladies of the Church," and talking about our lives. We start our visit by talking about our week. There is always someone who can't wait to start! (chuckle--you know who you are!) Even the shyest follow suit because they know it's okay. I love them. They can't say anything "wrong" in this class.

The kids and I practice things like taking turns while talking, not talking with our mouths full (I sometimes need to be reminded!), and treating each other with charity when it comes to disagreements.

Next, I bring the discussion around to the Bible story for the day. Lately, because we don't have a curriculum, I have been taking the Gospel reading, researching it, and making information into a lesson appropriate for our kids.

When the gospel reading is too complicated or advanced for this age group, I substitute something that is similar. Next, I take the lesson and think of it in terms of a craft, recipe, song, skit, or game. We really have about enough time for one of those things, so I try to mix it up.

We read the scripture (after a friendly race to find the verses in the Bible), start the craft or activity, and then we talk about the scripture while we work. It usually goes pretty smoothly, except for the mornings where I have overlooked just how messy cooking can be or how hyper kids can get after a big mug of hot chocolate! But, you know, what I am going for is to get kids used to discussing really important matters while doing really normal activities.

If a little argument breaks out, we use that experience to talk about how to handle disagreements. If someone says something inappropriate, we talk about why some things make people uncomfortable and how our words matter. I treat them as though they are God’s own children. Oh wait! They are!

Near closing time, we review our main lesson. For me, this entails finding out the most important part of the lesson and speaking it clearly in as few words as possible. For example, last week, our story was about the “sermon on the mount” and the Beatitudes. I narrowed the message down to something like “when things go bad, God’s not punishing us;  in fact, He loves us even more then!” I try to remind them (and myself) that there are folks in our lives who don’t know that message yet! People sometimes think that God is punishing them or that He hates them for the wrong things they’ve done, but it is our job as followers of Jesus to tell them that God loves them unconditionally and forever, and He will forgive them if they only ask! Some of my kids are young, 5 year olds, in fact, but they get this message. You know, breaking it down to the simplest terms is helpful for them, but it helps all of us. These are big ideas we are trying to teach and understand. I know that I easily forget complicated and mystifying truths, even if they are life-changing! So, for myself, for the older kids, for the adults they may tell later, and yes, for the littlest ones, I say, “simplify the message!”

Now before we end our time together, we take offerings, wish happy birthday, and make any announcements that are important to the whole group at this time.

We like to end our Sunday School session with “the Wave Prayer.” We stand in a circle, hold hands, and I usually start us by saying, “Dear God, we are so thankful today! I am really thankful for …” (the kids here, today, or that the weather is so nice, or that I got to see my mom last weekend…etc.). I then “do the wave” (lift my neighbor’s hand) and it’s their turn. They say they are thankful for their mom and dad or for cookies or basketball or the Seahawks or everything and everyone. You know, kid stuff.  Then they lift their neighbor’s hand. If someone does not want to speak, they may just lift their neighbor’s hand. When the lifted arm gets back around to me, we say the Lord’s Prayer in unison. I should mention that we like to do the Wave Prayer Circle out in our fellowship hall so that we can join the adult class and anyone else we can rope into our circle. It’s more fun to pray as a big group!  After our circle prayer, we drop hands, clap, and say goodbye.

Hi! I'm Rosanna. I live in a tiny rural Idaho town named Genesee.  In this town, there are some parents who are generous enough to let me visit with their children about God and Jesus and goodness and love.  

I am currently teaching the Sunday School class at Genesee Lutheran Parish here. I see from five to twelve kids, ages 5 years old to 13 years old every Sunday.   In churches in small communities, many Sunday Schools face the issue of not having curriculum which fits the needs of all of those kids!  

So, I’m going to share with you what I do each Sunday.  I’ll also share my curriculum as I develop it, based on the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) calendar.  I hope that you can use this information to fit the needs of your small churches too, and I would LOVE to hear ideas from you too!