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THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER'S NETWORK
A Ministry of Christian Crafters.Com
"For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."
Matthew 18:20

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It will be nice to see who is writing from where! :o)

<>< <>< SSTN-Volume 1-Number 56 <>< <><
May 16, 2000
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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:
* VBS-Olympic theme idea
* Class For the Mentally Challenged?
* Homecoming / Rally Sunday
* Ideas for costumes?
* Prayer Journals
* Puppet Ministry
* Samuel - Serving God
* VBS Ocean Odyssey

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Olympic theme:

I just attended a Church School program with an Olympic theme. They used
the colors of the five Olympic circles as follows....

BLACK - Everyone has sinned (For all have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God Romans 3:23)

RED - Jesus died to forgive our sin. (But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

BLUE - Baptism shows our new life in Christ (We were therefore buried with him through baptism...in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead...we too may live a new life. Romans 6:4)

GREEN - Christians grow through bible study, prayer, witnessing and fellowship. (But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 3:18)

GOLD - God gives Christians a heavenly home on streets of gold. (I am going there to prepare a place for you....the city of pure gold. John 14:2 & Revelations 21:18)

Wendi Prinse - Sunday School Superintendent - Cookes Church, Chilliwack, BC Canada

(From ChristianCrafters.Com-there is a free craft, Colors of Christ Cross, in the Crafters Showcase with this same color theme. You might use it to emphasize this point. Blessings, Sarah Keith.)

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Class For the Mentally Challenged:

Hi,
My name is Peggy Cochran, and we are interested in starting a Sunday school class for mentally challenged in our church.... but I do not know where to begin and what kind of literature to use.... My interest in beginning this class is because I have a granddaughter who cannot go to Sunday School... She does not like being around crowded or loud areas.... We have taken her to Sunday school but she does not sit down and listen with the rest of the children nor participates....She is 7 years old, she is autistic, she doesn't talk, says only a few words. I have talked with our pastor who also shares an interest in beginning a class. He does not know of another church in our area that has a special needs class, and he is interested in starting a class also. I would appreciate any help you could send.
Thank you and God Bless you

(From ChristianCrafters.Com-you might want to check the Archives List, directions below, for info relating to "Special Needs Children".)

If anyone has any additional insight, or suggestions...PLEASE SHARE IT!

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Homecoming / Rally Sunday:

>
In the past our Rally Sunday (first day of Sunday school) has not been that
> exciting. We would like to get the kids really excited.
> Does anyone have any neat ideas?

We have a very large Sunday School program...one at 8:30AM and one at 10:15AM) Our summer programs are always different from the September- June regular Sunday School classes. The children are always excited on Homecoming Sunday because they know that they will be starting their new classes. Balloons are scattered all over the campus and cake and punch is served between the 2 services.

ALSO,
Iris, Thank you so much for sharing the Mother's Day songs. I am
going to try two of them out this Sunday! You're a genius!

God bless,
Joni Wilson
Foothills United Methodist Church
La Mesa, California


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Ideas for costumes?

I teach 5-6 grade. We are entering a float in the community parade and we are using our VBS theme for the float. Our VBS is The Fantastic Good News Ocean Odyssey. Diving into the Depths of God's Faithfulness. We are creating an underwater scene on a farm wagon. We need some ideas for costumes.

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Prayer Journals:

We have a small fellowship in our home and we made prayer journals. the ages are from 6-13 and it went over wonderful with them all.got lots of old magazines from the local library and the children go through all of them and pull and tear and cut lots of pictures.to form a collage onto a folder (the kind you can fasten notebook paper in)suggest they get letters from all different words and form verses and praises.

Thanks,
Lori
Soldotna, Alaska


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Puppet Ministry:

> Our church is rather small - but growing. We are trying to launch into a
> "puppet ministry". Any suggestions?


Our church is Grace Lutheran Church, St. Charles Illinois. We, too are a small
church...membership about 400 families. I started our Puppet Ministry 2 years ago.
Because we are a small church, my budget is somewhat limited. I have collected
many puppets just by checking out local toy stores, children's stores, etc. There
are several web sites that I have also used: www.puppetjungle.com,
www.onewaystreet.com; www.puppetproductions.com.

All of these sites have great puppets, info on stages, skits & scripts.

Many of the skits I write myself or alter in order to fit our congregation, etc.

I currently do all the children's sermons during worship with our Pastor. He
really enjoys the interaction of the puppets with a message for the kids. We do
have a great time with it and while it was started for the children, the adults
love it as well. I would be happy to share any of my ideas or skits.

Gail Peterson, Puppet Ministry
Grace Lutheran Church, St. Charles, Illinois


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Samuel - Serving God:

>
We are doing "Samuel - Serving God" as a VBS theme and our focus is
> for the children to become more of servants. Any ideas?

I would suggest play acting the story with one as Samuel, one as Eli,
one being God's voice. Have Samuel lying on a mat on one side of the
room and have a cardboard between them with Eli on the other side. Have
them act out the story, with someone out of sight acting as God's voice.
They seem to remember those things longer. Also the idea of the things
Samuel did in the temple to serve could be acted out as well.
Emphasizing how Samuel did it willingly and gladly served there. He felt
he was serving God and aren't we all as we do for others.
I hope this might help a little bit. Maybe even if it was done as play
acting after the story to reemphasize the story in their hearts and
minds.
Edith Lance
I have taught Christian school for 20+ years. I have also taught all
ages in Sunday School. We even taught for 5 years in Russia.


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VBS Ocean Odyssey

On the VBS Ocean Odyssey, each Baptist Association should hold clinics on
music, crafts, snacks, recreation, and each age group as a whole. In those
clinics you know only get teaching tips, but some really great craft ideas
that pertain to each day's lesson. I would really recommend every VBS
leader attend one of those clinics. If their association does not provide
such a clinic, I happen to have taught in my association for the last 3
years, and I would be happy to help in any way I can. Each church is
different, some incorporate teaching, crafts, music, recreation and snacks
into one leader's responsibility. Most church's in our area however have
gone to the rotation schools, where each of these areas as it's own leader.
This has been a tremendous load taken off one person, and has enabled people
who are in the workforce to be able to participant in giving 100% to which
ever field they happen to teach.


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IMPORTANT INFO PLEASE READ: (Especially for newcomers!)

Many of the free patterns and ideas in the ChristianCrafters.Com site are from the books I've written, or from books that I'm in the process of writing. If you'd like to know more about my books, email me at: Sakeith@aol.com

I've recently published and released my Christmas-Advent Christian crafting book entitled, CHRISMON SNOWFLAKE ORNAMENTS. You can read more about it by clicking on "Chrismon Snowflake Photos" from my home page. The purchase of this book helps to support the SSTN ministry!
Blessings to you, Sarah Keith.


Don't forget about the availability of free Bible Games and Christian crafts @ ChristianCrafters.Com! If you have a Bible game or Christian craft that you've created, email me, Sarah Keith, and share it with the rest of the world!

You can access past SSTN letters:
Go to www.christiancrafters.com and click on Sunday School Teachers,
then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on 'Archives List'.

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--Copyright 2000 S.A. Keith--
(The opinions expressed in the SSTN e-Newsletter are not necessarily endorsed by ChristianCrafters.Com--SSTN reserves the right to edit and or exclude information from the SSTN e-Newsletter. You can read a short 'bio' regarding Sarah Keith, founder of the SSTN, by clicking on the copyright info at the bottom of the home page of christiancrafters.com)

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