The Sunday School Teacher's Network Newsletter - Great ideas for children's ministry!



Issue #15 - Volume 13

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May 3, 2012 Ideas? Questions? Opinions? Articles are listed, below. When replying, highlight the text that is pertinent to your response, then hit reply. Title your message to reflect the content. 1) National Day of Prayer 2) Perfect Attendance 3) Lesson: God knows you and loves you 4) Handling Registered Sex Offenders	No Memorization Required Perfect for summer camps!



1) National Day of Prayer Prayer, America's Hope No ocean can hold it back. No river can overtake it. No whirlwind can go faster. No army can defeat it. No law can stop it. No distance can slow it. No disease can cripple it. No force on earth is more powerful or effective than the power of prayer. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you. Psalm 33:22 Today, Thursday, May 3rd, is the 61st Annual Observance of the National Day of Prayer. Please join with millions of others in prayer for America. You are invited to be part of interceding for our nation, leaders, communities and families. One prayer, one heart at a time, can change our nation! Pray for our leaders in government, in churches, in schools and in our homes.


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2) Perfect Attendance Re. Using Lights, Camera, Action, Bible Skits "The kids LOVED it! One girl brought two friends for the entire year!! One of her guests was totally unchurched and knew nothing about Jesus or the Bible. She had never heard of words like disciples, parable, etc. She begged her mom, whom I’ve never met, to let her skip volleyball so she could be there for the Jesus rising from the dead drama! The kids whipped up crazy and sometimes a little outrageous ideas for the stories. We had a fan whipping a plastic blue table cloth across the floor for the calming of the storm. We had a spray bottle for the baptism of Jesus. Our music guy offered to cut down an old stage piece to a shorter height (only 5 inches) so we had an actual stage. One of our properties guys went to Lowe's and spent $12 on an 8’x4’ piece of dry erase board and mounted it on the wall so the kids could draw scenery behind the stage. We were the only class (grades 4-6) that maintained perfect attendance all year. Praise the Lord! I was given one of those VHS camcorders (the size of a small suitcase--ha) so we recorded all of the skits on a VHS tape and then at the end of each drama we turned off the lights and popped the tape in the VHS players on our TV. I think the kids liked this part the best. I went to Goodwill and stocked up on bathrobes, white lace curtains (used for everything from angel costumes to heavenly clouds), and scarves. I loaned out the tape to the kids during the week so they could play it at home. They wanted to show it to the congregation and/or adult Bible class. I opted to play it during our Easter breakfast so people could watch it at their leisure. Thanks for this great resource! It has reached 6-10 kids during the past two years and introduced one little girl to Jesus for the first time in her life." ~ Karen K. (Grades 4-6) --from SSTN: Karen, your testimonial makes me cry--tears of joy and thanksgiving! Your webservant, Sarah Keith



3) Lesson: God Knows you and loves you (You'll need a magnifying glass, and a sheet of paper with a small circle drawn at the center of it, approximately 1/4" in diameter. Inside the circle type or write "God Knows You" using the smallest text possible. Tape the paper to a wall opposite of where you'll present the lesson. If possible, give each child a small plastic magnifying glass to keep as a lesson reminder.) The Psalms are a collection of prayer and praise songs written mostly by David, the King of ancient Israel, and were used during worship services to sing praises to God. Even today, many of our modern praise songs use portions of the Psalms in their lyrics. In today's lesson we will learn that God knows us and loves us. (As you say the Bible point, have children use these motions: Knows: Point to your temple. Loves: Hug yourself.) What does it mean to examine? (Listen for answers) Examine means to inspect, or to look closely at something. (Direct the children to look across the room at ... to get the rest of this lesson,* visit our Bible Series, Clubs & VBS Resources page: http://www.sundayschoolnetwork.com/lessons-Bible-series.html and then follow the link to Psalm Series 1.



4) Handling Registered Sex Offenders > ...we wondered how other churches handle this. Our church was just required to show a video from our insurance company. Definitely check with your church advisors, board members, church leaders or Pastor, and see if your insurance requires the same thing. Everyone that signed our sign-in sheet agreed to have a background check done. However, I had already seen the video before when I was helping another group of churches, with their nursery workers at a community tent revival. These are all places to start and then you must seek legal advice as this is something that could fall back on your church if everyone is not made aware of your situation. Not only that, if you know this information and have not shared it, you will be held accountable for endangering the children and face many legal charges. Be sure your leaders know. Seek help. Good Luck Vickie






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