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SSTN  # 105 - October 16, 2002


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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:


--> FREE PATTERN: Get your Christ-filled Snowflake!

1) Born Again?
2) Children's Activities during Church-ATTN Carrie
3) Teaching Senior High?
4) Children's Musical Christmas Program
5) Christmas play?
6) Christmas Musical for Children   
7) Rake & Run Mission Project
8) Afghanistan followup   
9) Faith Vs. Belief?
10) Jonah ideas
11) Help from SSTN
12) Instant Christmas Pageant


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FREE PATTERN: Christ-filled Snowflake

Get your FREE Chrismon pattern. Go to the following page to print it out:

http://www.ChristianCrafters.Com/page8.html 


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1) Born Again?

I have to give a lesson on being "Born Again" for 7 year olds. I was
thinking about the seed that Jesus plants in our hearts and I am trying to
find a lesson that will tie in with it. Any suggestions will be a
blessing.
Because of Grace,
Pat

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2) Children's Activities during Church-ATTN Carrie   

Carrie I finally got the exact wording on the box at my mom's
Church for the cloth bags the kids can use during
worship: "Please feel free to use the fun supplies in
these bags during our worship service. Return bags and
all items (except used paper and things marked special
treats for you to keep) and deposit in basket below."
I thought there were two boxes; forgot about the
basket, but you could use either one. I asked a friend
at the church to write this wording down for me. Sorry
it took us each awhile to get this done. Hope it's
helpful. Carol


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3) Teaching Senior High?

I need ideas for teaching a class of senior high students.  Right at the
moment I do not follow a quarterly since they complained about the
repetition involved.  Any reasonable subject suggestions will be
considered.  An added help would be for places where I might research the
subject.
Thanks! Al

--from SSTN: there are some great resources in our Bookstore-Christian
Education section:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/bookstore.html 
In particular: "Don't Check Your Brains at the Door", "Everyday Object
Lessons", "More Than A Carpenter" (for a book study), and "Destination
Unknown" to name a few.

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4) Children's Musical Christmas Program

http://www.carey.ac.nz/drama/  has a ton of scripts. Most are free.
www.Fishersofkids.com also has a mix of puppet and drama scripts.

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5) Christmas play?   

Hi. I'm in desperate need of a Christmas play that I can use for a very
small, mostly pre school group.  We have very few older kids but would
like to incorporate them as well.
Thanks! Angel F.

--from SSTN: check out our Instant Plays in the Skits section of the
Bookstore:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/bookstore.html  
They are great for young kids!

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6) Christmas Musical for Children   

Several years ago, a church we attended did a production of  "G.T. and the
Halo Express" that was tremendously well received and extremely easy for
the children to learn. The story was from the point of view of children.
There were only a few children that had speaking parts (and these were the
least shy and best readers); all the rest sang. The props were very easy
to make. Everyone was amazed that the children had learned 10+ songs for
the musical but the key was that each family with a child(ren) in the
musical received a tape that was the actual musical from start to finish
with the admonition to listen to the tape daily until the program. After
about a week, most of the kids new all the songs and where in the play
they went and the director spent most of practice time working with the
kids who had speaking parts and working on group entrance and exit for the
songs.Rose, Cottondale, Alabama



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7) Rake & Run Mission Project

Our youth group is doing an in-house mission for the infirm and elders of
our Church. It is called Rake & Run. We will load up cars with teams to go
to someone's home and "Rake & Run", leaving the bags, in biodegradable
bags
that most towns pick up, curbside. If the town does not pick up, it should
not be hard to recruit a few parents to take them to the proper location
for leave disposal. There are rakes made for smaller kids, and with the
help & support of the families, it should be fun. It could even be
marketed as a "Me & My Mom/Dad/Gal or Guy Rake & Run".

Good luck! Christine, Stoneham, MA

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8)Afghanistan followup

Dear Mike and Linda:
I had just received an email from a missionary family who ministers to
Afghanistans the same day I received this  SSTN #100 newsletter -- I
figured I needed to share information of this new video with you.

Also, a note to Arathi Devotta, I don't have any suggestions, but I would
really like to hear more about your work  you can email me directly at
starrd616@juno.com


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9) Faith Vs. Belief?

Does anyone have any suggestions for creative ways to teach the difference
between faith and belief for 7th and 8th graders?  Thanks for the help,
Dawn

--from SSTN: the two words are closely related. An analogy which I like to
make is with a chair. I point to a chair and ask, "Do you believe this
chair can hold me up? I might think, "Yes, it will hold me up. But I
cannot know for sure unless I sit down in it. Right?" (Then I sit on the
chair) By sitting on the chair, I am showing that I trust, or have faith
that the chair is strong enough to hold me up.  In the same way, you can
believe in your mind that God exists, but you must TRUST in him, or have
FAITH in him, to save you. The Bible tells us that even the demons
believe, yet tremble (James 2:19). Demons do not trust in, lean on, or
have faith in Jesus to save themselves. When one trusts in, or leans
totally on Jesus to save him or her, this is saving faith.

See also: Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and
certain of what we do not see." (We can be sure of what Jesus has told us,
because he has proven himself to be trustworthy.) ysic, Sarah Keith <><

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10) Jonah ideas

For our art project we made fish from CD-roms - go to
www.dltk-kids.com/animals/mcdfish.htm. for pattern, then go to
http://craftsforkids.about.com - under down by the sea - fish craft
projects -cd rom fish for actual project and to see a picture.

Instead of using construction paper we used craft fish paper (paper that
has fish scales already printed on it) I ordered it through an art
catalogue I borrowed from my son's school, you might be able to find it
in an art store.

Just ask the congregation to start collecting those free internet cd's
that come in the mail constantly.  You will need 2 per child.

Kids loved them and we make extra that still an in our art room window!
Luanne Payne, Hampton United Church, Hampton, Ontario

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11) Help from SSTN

Re: SSTN # 100 - October 5, 2002   
Dear Marion , I get this newsletter quite often and I have found it useful
to say the least when I have a chance to read it. look at item 5
to-day...I know you might write a book one day but perhaps some clever kid
could help you out with a copy...one of your over-seas children!
Love Gill.

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12) Instant Christmas Pageant 

I am over our Christmas Program at our Church.  Last year we used "Fumbly
Bumbly Angel."  This is an Instant Christmas Pageant where all voices and
songs are on a CD and it is pantomine.  It was great!  This year, we are
doing another Pantomine play called "Operation Baby King."  It too will be
really good--not as funny as Fumbly Bumbly Angel--but it tells a great
story!  I found them by typing in Instant Christmas Pageants in the
search. Good luck with your play.
Denise
Louisiana

-- from SSTN: you can find them in our bookstore:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/bookstore.html 

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