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SSTN - Number 150
February 2, 2001

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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:
1) Pastor is leaving gift
2) VBS Curriculum--summit for VBS ideas
3) HELP?!
4) Getting kids involved in missions
5) Teaching Bible verses with hand motions
6) First communion patterns
7) Kids involved in missions
8) Contests for children?
9) Kids involved in missions
10) Pastor is leaving gift

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1) Pastor is leaving gift

>Our pastor is leaving our church, and I need ideas for a gift

I've seen a couple of things using the kids handprints. One was a
pillowcase, the other a Tshirt. I don't know how many kids you have, if
there would be enough room on the shirt. You could also make a booklet,
where you ask the kids a couple of questions about the pastor and write
down their answers. The children could then draw a picture of the pastor
and sign their name the best they can. Good luck!

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2) VBS Curriculum--summit for VBS ideas, writing your own program

YES!! We have written our own VBS program a couple of times. Probably the
one that I most remember was a few years ago. It took some time and
creativity but it worked out great. It was also intergenerational and fun
for everyone! What we did was use "Greatest Adventure Series" Bible videos
(there are many more out there today, you could use any video series),
each 30 minutes long. This was our opening every morning. We used 4
different (only 4, we'll get to Friday in a minute...)well-known Bible
stories, such as Noah, Joshua & Jericho, Jonah & whale, and David &
Goliath. Watching the video set the theme for the day. We also
"decorated" the area each day a little so that the atmosphere fit the
story, rainbow for Noah, walls for Joshua, etc. There was an
age-appropriate craft each day relating to each story, again be creative,
you could do anything, and there are MANY craft ideas on the Internet and
in books that we didn't even have a few years ago. Each day we also taught
the kids a song relating to the story, again there are many out there,
"Arky, Arky", "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho", etc. The kids did have
individual classes for part of the time, for the craft (obviously
preschoolers can do less than a 3rd grader.) and also to re-tell the story
in class, some the the older classes worked on a skit and acted it out,
while others just read it from a Children's Bible.

Here's the fun part-- the older ladies in our church make quilts and "lap
robes" for people. We got stencils and each day each of the kids painted
a quilt square related to the story that day. The ladies worked each
afternoon after VBS and by Friday had put all the lap robes
together...Friday we took a field trip and delivered the lap robes to the
shut-in members of our congregation!! The shut-ins LOVED IT and the kids
did too, we even had some local media coverage in the paper and
everything.

This VBS took some planning and work by a few people, but it turned out to
be SO SUCCESSFUL! Good luck and God's Blessings!!
Kristan Keith-Our Savior's Lutheran -Eau Claire, WI

--from SSTN: Kristan, thanks for sharing those great ideas with us!!!
--sarah keith <><

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3) HELP?!

Our congregation is building a new auditorium to our existing building.
We are trying to think of something we could give to everyone. We have
been looking for someplace that does the old "funeral fans". Do you have
any ideas about where we could find them? Or any ideas on what we could
give to people? Any help would be great! Thank you, Melissa -
mmm4972@aol.com

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4) Getting kids involved in missions

Response to Kate about getting kids involved in missions:
I teach Children's Church in northern Michigan, ages 4 - 6th grade. We
did a missions project for Christmas through an organization called The Heifer
Project. They offer individuals or groups the opportunity to purchase an
animal as a gift and they send it overseas to a family/village who needs
it and it helps improve the family's life through providing additional
income. They have a wide price range. We used the offering given by the children
each week and also had some adult help with matching the funds given by
the children. The Heifer Project has a wide range of prices, anywhere from
$20 for a flock of chickens, ducks, or geese, all the way to $500 for a water
buffalo. The kids really got excited about this project. The Heifer
Project's website is www.heifer.org and you can request they mail you a
catalog. Hope this helps. Cathy Bodell, Frankfort, MI

(Awesome idea! Thanks for sharing it! Your moderator, Sarah.)

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5) Teaching Bible verses with hand motions

I have a response that might help with the memory verses. We use sign
language or we say it to a certain beat. The sign has worked so great the
kids sometimes forget and we show them the sign and they remember. Other
times the only way they can say the verse is by the song we put it to.
Janice

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6) First communion patterns

>Do you know of anybody who sells a pattern for first communion banners?

Hi Jay and Debbie. We made Banners at our Church also for our two
daughters First Communions. When we made ours, I took my Print Master Deluxe 7.0
program and looked under the Religious section to get my own patterns to
use for the banner. I enlarged a picture of a Chalice, a grape vine and a
Loaf of bread as big as I could get them each onto their own sheet of
paper, cut them out and used them as a template for cutting out my felt
and gold lame' (for the chalice) to glue onto the banner. I used 2 shades
of brown for the bread to make it more realistic looking (this was a
broken loaf). I then used a permanent marker to outline the edges of each.
You can purchase Pre-cut letters in felt that are sticky on the back (and
repositional) to make it much easier. The words we chose for our banner
were "One Bread One Body." We even had one girl who used a stencil of
grapes and stenciled them onto the banner along with a golden chalice
(from material) and the Host from white felt. I hope this helps.
Peace...Tina

--from ChristianCrafters.Com: you can also purchase 'Chrismon-Kids' which
has 32 silhouette patterns of basic Christian symbols that are
reproducible and may be enlarged to whatever size you need. (Link on the
home page.)

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7) Kids involved in missions

I am Christian Ed Director of our church. The whole church ( and
especially the children) bring canned goods and non perishable foods to
church every sunday. The teachers sometimes use this as another incentive
for points that children can earn. Once a month or so we take one class,
they pack the foods up and we take them to a shelter for abused women and
children. I feel that this is a hands on mission project that each child
can participate in and see it through from the gathering of the foods to
the distribution. We also bring certain candy, cereal, & gum the mission
children overseas cannot get. We make up birthday boxes and send to all
the mission children on their birthday.

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ChristianCrafters.Com!

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8) Contests for children?

Does anyone have any ideas on contests for children ages 9-11.
thanks a lot. char from cleveland, tn

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9) Kids involved in missions

Our church kids got very involved with the Millennium Kids for Jesus
project, which is co-sponsored by the International Network of Children's
Ministry and Bible Mission International. This project trains Christian
children's leaders in the former Soviet Union, provides materials, and
runs summer Christian camps for children over there, using former
communist youth camps for their sites. It is a very worthwhile project.
They provide small cardboard banks for your children to save quarters in.
When the kids have 100 quarters, they have $25, enough to sponsor one
child for a week at camp. For $1.50 they can send a child a picture
Bible in Russian. BMI provides excellent visual aids - video tapes,
children's pictures, and bios. You can find out more about the project
and even order an information kit at their website, www.biblemission.org.
Our children loved helping other children, and it was so easy to do.
Blessings, Kit MacLeod, North Palm Beach, FL

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10) Pastor is leaving gift

> Our pastor is leaving our church, and I need ideas for a gift my preschool

Our pastor is also leaving and we had our preschool do their handprints
with finger paints on a sheet of colored paper and then took their
pictures, glued to the page along with the date. We then put them in a
photo album. Our older kids wrote short letters or notes (in envelopes so
no one else could read) to the pastor with their pictures and also put them
in the album. Actually the whole church did write a short note or letter
to include. Hope this helps. Cindy McDaniel

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--Copyright 2001 S.A. Keith--All Rights Reserved. ----

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