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SSTN - Number 248
November 19, 2001


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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:

1) Ideas for a daily devotional?
2) Christmas rap?
3) Cow, Sheep, and Camel
4) Giving object lesson?
5) Animal Costumes
6) Animal Costumes
7) Cow, sheep, and camel
8) Book of Acts and snowmen party?
9) Children's ministry books
10) Jr./Sr. High Material
11) Fashion Show, something novel?
12) Book for children's director


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1) Ideas for a daily devotional?

I am looking for ideas for a daily devotional dealing with Christmas
for about 5 minutes a morning for a week for adults as I have the morning
prayers here at the office the week before Christmas.

Thanks for all your ideas and help - it means a lot - especially when you
are away from the States where resources are a lot easier to come by!
God bless you and your ministry.
Yours in Christ,
Nancy

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2) Christmas rap?

Dear SSTN,
Anyone know of any cool raps that my wise men can perform as part of our
alternative nativity play? They've got one scene in which to rap and tell
their side of the story. There's 5-6 of them aged 8-13 yrs. This is
rather urgent as they have to learn it and perform it by 16 Dec!!
Many thanx!
Mim, UK

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3) Cow, Sheep, and Camel

Dear Lydia:
One year I used an overhead project to "blow up" pictures of a cow, sheep
and camel. I traced the bigger images onto paper, cut them out, painted
them, and attached them to sticks. The students playing the animal parts
held up the paper animals. It was easier than costumes!
Denise


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Make a Christ-Tree!

Bring new meaning to your Christmas celebrations! The Chrismon Snowflake
Ornaments book contains 32 faith designs to decorate your Christmas
tree! To see a video of the Angel Snowflake being cut, go to:

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4) Giving object lesson?

I need an object lesson on "It is Better to Give than Receive"
The children just finished gathering gifts for a shoebox ministry to send
to poor children. I want them to participate in the dedication of these
shoeboxes and have a lesson with it. Help...it is this Sunday....11/11 !
please...any ideas at all?
pat

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5) Animal Costumes

>One problem is with representing the animals, ( in a Christmas Play). I
need a cow,
>sheep and camel. Would you have any suggestion on how we could play
these?"

Dear Lydia..........I too am doing a Christmas Play and our children are
representing a cow, sheep and camels. Our solution is to clothe each child
in an oversized T-shirt as a basic costume and accessorize creatively.
The cow will be in a white Tee upon which we will paint irregular black
patches ( a Holstein). An elastic scrunchie, worn around the forehead,
will have "cow" ears attached. A tail will be attached to the back, and a
big cow bell will hang around her neck on a medium sized length of rope.
The sheep will be in white Tees, white scrunchies with ears, a tail, and
large round jingle bells hung on each neck.
The camels in our play....."The Mouse's Tale" are "HIP" camels and will
wear yellow Tees, scrunchies that hold VERY LARGE sun glasses ( Oriental
Trading Co. out of California) and ears, tails, and gold rope "LEADS" that
have tassels.

Good Luck with your Christmas Play, and I hope I have been of some help.
Love in our Lord.......Heather
Union Grove Methodist
Pittsgrove, NJ



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6) Animal Costumes

In response to those looking for a easy way to do animal costumes - last
year we had the kids all dress in the same colored sweat outfits and they
wore animal masks, the kind that go above the nose and cover their eyes.
I
got most of the masks from Oriental Trading Company and a woman in our
church made the few that we could not find. Effective, yet simple and
easy.
Hope it helps someone.
Stacey Kay
Pacific Beach Presbyterian Church

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Get a free Chrismon Snowflake Star!

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7) Cow, sheep and camel - from #241

Lydia, we did the nativity scene in our small church last year. We took 2
folding screens and covered them with poster board for 2 of the inns. We
set these on each side of the alter stage. We named them Red Roof Inn,
Holiday Inn and for the third we had an innkeeper standing center stage
with a sign that said Betheleham Inn. Mary and Joseph started out in the
back of the church, with a flashlight highlighting them as the Angel came
to them and told them of the coming child. Then they walked to the front
of the church and went to each inn, after they left each inn the screens
were taken away. The third innkeeper left and the manager scene was then
light up behind him. For the animals, we were lucky enough to find
Halloween costumes for most of the kids. but, for the camel just have the
kid wear brown sweats and make a face mask from a paper plate and cotton
balls, The sheep can be a white sweatsuit with cotton balls, and just let
your imagination go. If you have any more questions or want more detail, e
mail me at Jamaciamam@aol.com and I will try to help you. Ours was a great
sucess!

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8) Book of Acts and snowmen party?

I am looking for a curriculum for teaching the book of Acts to 5th and 6th
graders. Also, would like ideas on doing a Holiday Party with snowmen for
the theme. Thanks!
Bette Lowry

--from SSTN: Hi Betty, check out the Club 56 lessons on Acts in the
Curriculum section: http://www.christiancrafters.com/kt_kit.html

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9) Children's ministry books

Some helpful books that I have found are:
Spiritual Growth of Children by John Trent, and Rick Osborne, editors
(focuses primarily on age level needs and information for families about
spiritual formation)
Follow Me as I Follow Christ ­ A Guide for Teaching Children in a Church
Setting
by Cheryl Dunlop (an excellent book about teaching scripture to children ­
including lesson planning, storytelling, age group characteristics, etc.)
The Complete Handbook for Children's Ministry ­
How to Reach and Teach the Next Generation by Rober Choun and Michael
Lawson (more program oriented how to organize, run and evaluate a
children's ministry)
The Nuts and Bolts of Christian Education by Delia Halverson (a how-to
book geared to lay people, but useful for seasoned leaders as well)
Blessings on your ministry,
Jaymie Derden
Bristol, VA

--from SSTN: to find these, type the titles into the search box of the
Bookstore:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/bookstore.html 


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TWO FREE CHRISTMAS CRAFT PROJECTS!

Get the Clay Nativity Set and the Christmas Cookie Tree. Go to:

http://www.christiancrafters.com/crafts_Christmas_Advent.html 


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10) Jr./Sr. High Material

I looked at various material for Jr/Sr high and decided upon Life Together
by Augsburg. It is not the usual sit and learn lessons for this age group
and also is completely relevent to the current lifestyles. It involves
the lessons of the day from church, modern movies and music, and mission
opportunities for the youth.

We are a Luthern Church in a small town and this group seems to be growing
as kids are bringing friends to class with them as they all can relate and
experience God's word. Most of the youth are not members of our church.

Also, for churches with budget contraints this material is relatively
inexpensive compared to others. There are samples of this lesson program
at
www.augsburgfortress.org.
Jean

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Invite your friends, pastors, and coworkers!

"Get em' in the LOOP!" Have them join
our discussion in SSTN.

http://www.christiancrafters.com/page3.html 


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11) Fashion Show, something novel?

DEAR SARAH HELP! HELP! WE R HAVING A ANNUAL CHILDRENS PROGRAM ,SO
USUALLY THE CHILDREN HAVE TO SAY THE VERSES
LAST TIME WE HAD THEM SAY IN ALPHABETIC ORDER ,THIS TIME I NEED A IDEA
LIKE BIBLE CHARACTERS OR FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT (BUT THERE ARE 25 CHILDREN
)KG1- KG2. ANY IDEA FOR A FASHION SHOW OR SOMETHING NOVEL
ANY IDEA EVEN FOR THE CHRISTMAS TABLEAU WOULD BE APPRECIATED
WE CANT HAVE REAL ANIMALS COZ WE LIVE IN A DESERT (DUBAI) MIDDLE EAST LOL
SO ANY SUGGESTIONS ARATHI

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12) Book for children's director

I too am Director of children's ministries at our church. we have been
learning as we go also. The change we are making is documenting
everything we do. I have a large 3 ring note book and keep everything we
do in there. Anyone coming into the job will know what to do. we had to
write our own job description and the horror we experienced after the
first year planning the budget is now we believe actually going to get us
through the whole year! (No one told us we were planning budget for the
whole church's educational materials!)
We have also changed how we do sunday school and are uaing the Rotation
Model ( everyone loves it!)(www.rotation.org)There are several teacher
help books out there that i found some good ideas in ( Teaching tips for
terrified teachers....cokesbury) You didn't say if it was up to you alone
but we have two doing the job and with the rotation we have 4 others
planning and doing various things. Get someone you can count on to bounce
things off of and help with the job! Hope any of these ideas help. Email me
anytime bdwrightsman@kconline.com
Dian
Hugs Dian

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