Blessings

I've been thinking a lot lately about the blessings God has given me and my family. It's truly amazing! My parents have been blessed beyond belief, still happily married after 30 years, which is not the norm (my extended family is full of divorce). My brother, who wanted to become a cop, walked in off the street (no degree), and became a police officer, a great one at that. My husband, keeps getting promoted in his job. In this economy that is a feat alone, but he is also being promoted above people with more experience. God has blessed me giving me my job here at Bethel. He designed my husband specifically for me; I could not have picked a more perfect man to spend my life with. And now we have the greatest blessing of all, a little boy on the way. This list of blessings only scratches the surface.

It makes me wonder however. Why? God continues to bless myself and my family over and over. He loves His children, and blesses them, though we are undeserving; I do not feel that's the only reason. Is it because the baby I am carrying will be a great evangelist? Or am I supposed to make a huge contribution to the kingdom? I don't know the answer, but my prayer is that I be willing.

When faced with a baby before she was married, Mary said, "Yes Lord. I am your servant."

Think about all of the blessings God has bestowed on your family (they are there). Are you willing to do whatever God asks you in any situation? Are you like Mary willing to say, "Yes Lord. I am your servant" ?

Spiritual Parenting

I was reading an excerpt from a book on Spiritual Parenting, and it posed a great question:
  
"For years I had naively assumed that as Christian Parents, we simply have babies, raise them in a Christian home, then do our best as parents. We expose them to Christ and to God's word, we put them in the community of other believers, and then eventually...don't they just choose to follow Him?" Spiritual Parenting by Michelle Anthony

Is that what you are doing in your household? You can not let this be your only witness to your child(ren). As parents, you must actively teach your child about Christ. Their salvation is to important to merely leave to change that eventually they will choose to follow Jesus.

Thankfulness Activities

Group has a whole page of really awesome Thanksgiving/thankfulness inspired activities. There are crafts, games, snacks, music videos, and even free songs to download. Check it out!

http://group.com/groupmusic

Ministering to Babies

Ministry to Babies and Toddlers You can support infants and toddlers' spiritual growth using these tips.

• Read to little ones about God and Jesus. Simple Bibles for toddlers such as board books about God's creation, animals, and family are great choices.
• Talk often about God and Jesus.
• Tell children constantly that Jesus loves them.
• Use teachable moments to highlight spiritual truths.
• As children learn to talk, help instill words of our faith such as God, Jesus, Bible, and pray in their vocabulary.
• Include infants and toddlers in spiritual activities such as worship and prayer.
• Know that infants and toddlers really do learn at church.
• Invite little ones to special worship occasions such as Christmas Eve.
• Encourage parents to have their youngest children present during prayer times at home.
• Pray with infants and toddlers. Explain that prayer is talking to God.
• Make prayer a part of the routine in your classroom.
• Remember that children discover God from infancy. Paul wrote to Timothy "from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures" (2 Timothy 3:15).


* From childrensministry.com

Make a Difference for Jesus

Saturday, October 23rd is the national Make a Difference Day! Jesus wants us to make a difference for Him EVERYDAY! Here's some suggestions for treating others to a bit of God's love:

• Fill a box with clothing or toys. Find an organization to give the box to (one that gives them to children would be great). Operation Christmas Child is a great one!
• Collect aluminum cans. When you cash them in at a recycling center, give the money to a project like the Angel Tree (who gives toys to children with a parent in prison)
• Collect used books to donate to a woman's/children's shelter.
• Collect canned food to give to a community food pantry.
• Collect new gloves, hats, socks, or blankets to take to a homeless shelter. 
• Gather up some friends and go to an elderly person's house to complete chores, such as raking leaves. 
• Make holiday cards (don't sign them) and take them to assisted living residents for them to mail to their family and friends. Take some stamps too!

* by Lucinda Rollings from Live Wire

TrUnK-oR-tReAt 2010

Looking for a safe, family friendly alternative for Halloween??? Come check out Bethel St. Paul's Trunk-or-Treat on Saturday October 30th from 6:30 - 8:30.

Kids will "trick or treat" through our decorated cars, get lots of yummy candy, play games, grab a snack, and have a ton of fun!

Look at all the fun we had last year, and it was raining!

Cookin' With the Kiddos

Here's a cute fall idea to involve the kids in the kitchen. (It's even great for preschoolers)

Make caramel apples together. Dip apples (on sticks) into melted caramel and roll them around in toppings: nuts, sprinkles, coconut etc. Let the apples dry on a waxed paper lined cookie sheet.

While you're making the yummy treats, talk to your kids about the harvest, since fall is officially here. Check out Psalm 65:9.

Happy Fall!!!

Biblical Command for Families

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.  Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”         Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Recap:

Talk about them when you sit at home

and when you walk along the road,

when you lie down

and when you get up.

Family Devotion Time Rhythm for Busy Families

Sit -> meal time

Walk -> traveling (to school, grandma’s, etc)

Lie Down -> tucking in at bedtime

Get up -> morning routine

Holy Spirit At Home Devotion

We've been talking about the Holy Spirit during Junior church on Sundays. Here's a great object lesson to do during bath time with your younger kids, or maybe while doing chores and washing dishes with older kids. 

You'll need a cup, paper towel, and water.

Fill the tub with water.  Take a paper towel and put it in the cup.  Ask your kids what will happen if you put the cup in the water–will the towel get wet or will it stay dry?  
First show them how the paper towel stays dry by placing the cup perpendicularly in the water.  The air in the cup will force the water to around the cup keeping the paper towel dry. As you are showing the dry paper towel, explain to the children that we don’t see the air and that everything in the room is surrounded by the air but it would appear that the air does not take up any space.  However, the air took up space in the cup so that water could not get it.


Even though we can’t see air, we can see that it has properties that can be seen.  This is true of the Holy Spirit.  Those who have the invisible Holy Spirit living inside them will have visible evidence.  At this point, take the opportunity to share Gal. 5:22-25.

New Church Year

A new church year is about to start, and boy have I been busy!!!!

• New Sunday School classes will start next Sunday!!! Make sure you're there! A new attendance challenge starts too!

• WNL kicks off in 3 weeks!!!! I am working to make WNL much more hands on and active. We are also having a huge attendance and bring a friend challenge!!!! Make sure you're there September 8th at 6:30pm!!!

• In Junior Church we've been learning about the Holy Spirit in a very hands on way. It's been great! The kids have been very engaged. Ask them what we've been learning!!!!

I'm looking forward to a new year; It's going to be a great one!

Camp - Day 4

O.M.C.!!!!!!!! Today the kids experienced for the first time Organized Mass Chaos. The kids raced to earn as many points for their team as they could by completing task cards. Such as: run around the rec field mooing like a cow, switch shoes with someone and run around, give 3 people a shaving cream high five, and so on. No one was left dry or uncovered in shaving creme, but they had a great time. Just look:

We'll be headed back tomorrow morning!!!!

Camp - Day 3

We got a little wet on day 3 (Ms. Amber got REALLY wet), but it didn't stop the fun! Kids had a great time at Bible Study, learning how Peter became and how we can become a new creation in Christ. They played crazy fun games at recreation, hung out, and even had a visit from the Ice Cream Fairy after tonight's party!!! Jackson and McCauley got to go up on stage and compete at the party; and Jackson won the Fiesta Explosion for his team! Some of the kids have had some bad attitutes today (lack of sleep and a lot of sugar), but some have been asking great questions! If only I could get them to show up on time....

On tomorrows agenda......O.M.C.!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Camp - Day 2

Day two of camp is almost over - we worshiped, we Bible studied, we recreation-ed, we had fun tracks, we swam, and we partied....WE HAD FUN!!!!

Camp

Today is the first full day of camp and we are pumped!!!

We arrived safely yesterday. Though, we did have some minor car trouble, with James' jeep overheating because it was low on coolant, we were out of water to fill it and there were no gas stations close. BUT, God answers prayers. A truck pulled over and gave us some, and refused to take money. A great opportunity to show the kids' prayers being answered!

We had a great worship session, got our rooms and comfy, and at the party last night, Rachel and Brett got called up on stage to compete!!!

Everyone is a little tired right now, we had early breakfast today, but we're ready for the day. The kids are all excited for thier tracks today (even if some of them didn't get their first choice)....more to come

Zoo Scavenger Hunt

On Saturday, I took some of the kiddos to the zoo on a scavenger hunt. Using these clues, they had to find the animals at the zoo listed in the Bible. They had a GREAT time figuring it out! It even works for little kids, getting them more familiar with the Bible. If you go as a family, try reading the verses after visiting that habitat.

1.   Balaam heard this animal talk. __________ Numbers 22:28

2.   Daniel was not eaten by a ___________. Daniel 6:16

3.   The animal was the second plague on Egypt. ____________ Exodus 8:2

4.   Aaron threw his staff on the ground and it became a slithering _____________. Exodus 7:10

5.   The reptile is mentioned in Leviticus 11:30. ____________

6.   A nocturnal creature in Isaiah 2:20 _____________

7.   Peter’s net was full of ______________. John 21:16

8.   The ____________ was standing by the throne. Revelation 5:6

9.   King Solomon’s ship had this animal in it. ____________ 1 Kings 10:22

10.                Confidence leans on a ___________ web in Job 8:14

11.This spotted animal lives in the hills in Song of Songs 4:8. ___________

12.                _________ howl in the ruined city of Babylon’s fortresses. Isaiah 13:22

13.Those that trust in the Lord soar on wings like ______________. Isaiah 40:31

14.David takes care of his father’s lambs when __________ come to steal them. 1 Samuel 17:34

15. **BONUS** Find and list any animal mentioned in the Bible not found already:

VBS

We had 110 kids throughout the week at VBS!!! Woohoo!!!

Day 5's theme was to "GET GOING!" Summer is an awesome time to do just that with your kids. Review that day's Bible story with them: Matthew 25:14-30 and the Bible verse: Colossians 3:23. Plan a service project with your kids and GET GOING! Do you have an elderly neighbor who needs help with yard work? Do you know someone who could use a little cheering up with a batch of fresh baked cookies? Any parks need cleaning up? Want to make birthday bags for kids living in shelters? Plan a service project with your kids, then do it. Serving together as a family is an amazing time to grow!

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." Colossians 3:23

SonQuest Rainforest Vacation Bible School

Today is day 3 of our VBS, and the kids are having a blast!!! Yesterday we had 91 kids!!!! Woohoo!!!

Let's try to make it to 100 kids this week! 

Come and check out our VBS from 9-Noon this week at Bethel St. Paul Church!!!

PICNIC!!!

 Tomorrow we are having our annual picnic with the Seniors at Hounz Lane Park at 11:30. Bring a side dish or a dessert to share, and come out for a great time of fun and fellowship!!!

Preschool Praise Song

Here's a cute preschool praise song from Children's Ministry Magazine Online:

Lift, lift, lift your hands,
Lift your hands in praise.
Singing, dancing, praising Jesus,
Do it every day!

Fold, fold, fold, your hands,
Fold your hands in prayer.
This is how we talk to God,
And tell Him that we care.

Clap, clap, clap your hands,
Clap your hands for Joy.
Jesus is alive and He
Loves every girl and boy!

Road Trip Talk Kits

This past Sunday, we distributed our Road Trip Talk Kits. With summer vacations coming up, hopefully families will put them to use. The kit contains in the car games (paper battleship and bingo), Bible games (Who Am I, Alphabet Thankfulness), Trivia Games, God Sighting Ideas (from Children's Ministry Magazine), and more.
Deuteronomy 6:1-9 tells parents that they are to talk about God with their children at all times! 7: "...and talk about them when you sit at home and walk along the road..." When you're stuck in the car with your kids for 14 hours on your way to Florida, why not use some of that time to not only bond with your children, but to talk about/to God!

Vacation Bible School

Our Vacation Bible School is coming! June 21st-25th from 9am - Noon. Register now!!!

Visit the church's website to download  the registration form and parent letter.
http://www.bethelstpaul.org/page5.html 

Welcome!

Welcome to Action Zone Ministries' brand new blog!!!

This is a trial experiment. As Bethel St. Paul's Director of Children, I will be posting event opportunities, family ministry ideas, devotion ideas, and all sorts of stuff to help parents in shepherding their children!