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SSTN # 56 - May 6, 2003
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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:
--> Graduation Gift
1) Three on Three Tape?
2) Creation Science and hominid
3) Scuba VBS
4) Elephant Director of Music
5) SCUBA ideas
--> Buggie For Jesus - I'm A BEE-liever!
6) Creation, the Bible and insects
7) SCUBA vbs
8) Discipline Problems
9) Faith in "Evolution?"
--> NEW-LIFE PUPPET patterns
10) Creation Science and Hominids
11) SCUBA vbs
12) Lord is my shepherd teaching
13) Jesus Calms Storm & Feeds Disciples?
14) Evolution - Creationism
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Graduation Gift
Give your graduating class, FaithShapes! ® - the premier card game of
Christian symbols. The 64 cards are beautifully illustrated with
historical explanations and Scripture verses. Shape their faith with
"FaithShapes" ®.
http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html
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1) Three on Three Tape?
Hello Everyone,
This is my first time posting.
My daughter loves to sing and we bought some audio tapes from Children's
Bible Hour a few years ago. Now, I wish I had bought the split-tracks as
well, because she would like to sing some of the songs at our church with
the accompaniment. CBH does not have the split tracks of these tapes
anymore. The one we are interested in is called, "Three on Three". Does
anyone own the split-track to this tape and would you be willing to sell
it
to us?
Thanks for your help,
Renee M.
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2) Creation Science and hominid
I would care to respond to one sister who wrote in about "Creation Science
and hominid". I agree that subjects can be sensitive when teaching
children, that is why we must seek God in prayer and let his word be our
guide so that we can hear from heaven to be able to deal with these
matters. Some issues I agree the parents should talk to the children about
, but as people of God we need to equipped to answer. The apostle Paul
said "study to show yourself approved "so that should these issues &
others come up we are able to answer them not according to opinion , but
in line with the word of God. I also agree that people do differ in
opinion about some things , but a Christian is simply a follower of Christ
so when it comes to these issues we need to look at what Jesus and his
apostles said not opinion so that we cause people to rely more on what
they think than on what God says. God knew opinions would differ so we
have the bible to go by because he's going to judge us according to
biblical principals that he gave us in his holy bible . Jesus said to
follow him, his teachings, his examples, NOT OPINION! Teaching is a
critical position in the kingdom of God because we are not just
accountable for what we believe, but what we lead others to believe so it
is so important to stay with the WORD.
Last but not least you said the bible didn't mention insects in creation
in the new testament book of Colossians Chapter 1 verse 16 says "For by
him were all things made that are in heaven and that are in the earth,
visible and invisible" ( the word all means excluding nothing) book of
Genesis Chapter 1 verse 25 and 26 I'm paraphrasing but you can look it up
let the earth bring forth cattle after it's kind and things that Creepeth
upon the earth etc. The bible doesn't say don't smoke or do drugs but it
says "Cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh" so that covers a
wide range of things.
I hope this can be of some help.
Be Encouraged my sister
trinamarie2@juno.com
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3) Scuba VBS
Just wanted to let Lori know that if she goes to Group's VBS website she
can check out their message board. There are hundreds and hundreds of
great ideas for decorations, fundraising, craft alternatives, etc....
We're doing SCUBA this year also and I couldn't make it without it. Just
go to www.groupvbs.com and click on message board. There is also another
site http://www.gbgm-umc.org/harrodcharge/scuba/DirectorInfo/default.htm
This lady's name is Peggy and she takes ideas from everyone and puts them
on her site. Both are great resources. By the way, I'm getting most of
my decorating and craft supplies from oriental trading They have some of
the best prices for bulk items. Hope this helps some. I'm sure others
have ideas they will post too. P.S. Just a tip on what we will be doing.
At our church the kids must go down a stairwell to reach the hall with
the classrooms. We are going to put up the shiny tinsel door covering
that the kids will have to walk thru to make it look like they are going
underwater. Then all of our walls in the hallway will be covered with
blue paper or sheets. We will then have inflatable or plastic fish or
other sea life hanging from the ceiling or taped to the walls. This way
it looks like they are totally underwater. I'm debating about how to make
a frame to put on the ceiling to make it look like the bottom of a
glass-bottom boat. I will have cutouts of kids looking down thru the
glass at all our VBS kids in the hall. Nikki
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4) Elephant Director of Music
If a child is shy but needs to interact by helping the teacher:
Draw an elephant HEAD with a hole for a nose cut out in the middle of the
HEAD onto poster board. Glue, tape, or staple a sweater sleeve into the
hole. stitch the wrist part closed. Paint and decorate the elephant HEAD
the way you want. make it fun with ric rac and or flowers around the ears,
puffy cheeks on the sides of the sleeve nose.
Now it is ready for a child to stick their arm in to the sleeve nose and
move their arm in the nose to the music. There you go an elephant director
of MUSIC and fun, fun for the kids.
I hope this helps you
jan
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5) SCUBA vbs
Lori, We did SCUBA VBS in February - unfortunately due to the weather we
only did two days, but here are some suggestions. We decorated the Nave
and Narthex with all sorts of water toys, life boats, flippers, snorkles,
beach balls, etc. We covered the windows with blue and green cellophane
to appear we were underwater. We cut out all sorts of fish and taped them
to the walls and hung them from string. We find that congregation members
love to help out and loan things to us for this wonderful ministry. For
crafts we did a water globe out of baby food jars and made a foam whale
with Jonah in the center of his belly. We had toy boats and made clay
figures to put in them. We had some very creative snacks. Whales: we
had heart shaped bread (tipped on it's side) spread with jelly, then
sprinkled with corn flakes. Place a raisin near the point of the heart
(this is the whale's eye). Jesus calms the storm: Color white frosting
with blue food coloring and spread on a 1/4 of a graham cracker. Cut
apples into quarters and remove the seeds. Set the apple on the blue
frosting. Place a toothpick sticking up out of the apple and place a
triangle shaped piece of american cheese on the toothpick. (The blue
frosting is the water, the apple is the boat, the toothpick is the mast
and the cheese is the sail). Then we placed cubed cheese on a toothpick
with a grape on top (these were the people) and stuck them on the boat
(apple). If you have the director's manual, read through carefully as it
has lots of good information and suggestions. We do the rotation method
at our VBS . Each group was named for the characters. We coordinated
name tags with pew labels so that the children knew where to sit each
time. Feel free to email me at dringer@nycap.rr.com with any questions.
I am happy to help in any way that I can.
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Buggie For Jesus - I'm A BEE-liever!
Reproducible buggie crafts, games, lessons, and yummy devotions
to coordinate with your summertime VBS programs, or midweek classes.
In the Curriculum section:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html
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6) Creation, the Bible and insects
>"those types of questions (about a young or old earth) are best left to
>parents to instruct their children about, along with other controversial
>subjects such as end-times beliefs, divorce, creation, gifts of the
spirit
>etc... "(The Bible) does not even mention the creation of insects."
>SSTN 50.
Parents should be teaching their children about such things, but not their
own personal opinions - which will vary widly - but rather what God's Word
says.
What it all really comes down to is what do we take as our final Authority
for what we believe (and hence our conduct) - Human reason or the Bible?
Many types of creatures are not specifically mentioned in the Bible (e.g.
Dinosaurs), but every Bible commentry I have seen would agree that insects
are included in the "Creatures that move along the ground" (Genesis 1.24).
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7) SCUBA vbs
Go directly to www.grouppublishing.com and join the discussion group.
Tons
of info and ideas there. Can find information about Peggy's website
(http://www.gbgm-umc.org/harrodcharge/scuba/directorinfo/) for directors,
where she posts pictures and alternate ideas. She came up with wonderful
trading cards of all the VBS characters last year.
Sherri
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8) Discipline Problems
I was glad to hear from Louise and Heidi re their objections to some of
the attitudes in the content of this ongoing discussion. I agree with
them whole-heartedly! I spent 18 years as a Child & Youth Worker, working
with the most difficult children and adolescents. If there is disruptive
behaviour, there could be any number of reasons for it....no food at home,
a difficult home life, different learning styles, different levels of
ability to concentrate or understand the material, or to function in a
room full of distractions, it could be the only place where they receive
attention, or they may have learning disabilities that have not yet been
flagged. To humiliate children, as some have suggested, is degrading,
teaches them nothing about Jesus' unconditional love for them, and is
considered abusive. For those of you struggling, please try things like
using many modalities for learning (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, etc.),
jazz up the curriculum to catch their interest, or catch them being
focused and on task (catch them being good!) and praise them. Anyone with
basic psychology knows that negative punishment rarely works, but positive
reinforcement works forever! Thanks, Sarah for posting some different
views on this problem.
Melody, Canada
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9) Faith in "Evolution"
Evolution cannot be proved by using the scientific method. Additionally,
evolution does not propose there is a God. However, no one can prove that
the Bible is the Word of God by using the scientific method either. It
takes faith to believe that God exists and that his Word is true. I would
rather place my faith in God and in his Word as to how I was created, than
to trust in the "science" of evolution to tell me how I got here. Faith in
God and in his Word is what we need to be teaching our kids. The Bible
says, "God created..."
Sam in Florida
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NEW-LIFE PUPPET patterns
When assembled, New Life Puppets turn inside out to change from a tadpole
to a frog, or a caterpillar to a butterfly. They're easy-to-make and
children will learn about becoming new creatures in Christ! Get a free
puppet skit too! In our Curriculum section:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html
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10) Creation Science and Hominids
>" If anyone really wants to know what "old earth creation
>science" people believe, all they have to do is go to the "Reasons to
>Believe" website".
I did and was shocked. The whole purpose of the site seems to be to
undermine the simple truths of the Bible in an attempt to get God's Word
to fit with their unproveable speculation that the earth is very old.
If anybody wants to know what "young earth creation science" people
believe, all they have to do is go to the Bible.
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11) SCUBA vbs
We are doing SCUBA, and our first step was to purchase the starter kit
from Group. It is full of good ideas and helpful suggestions in all the
areas you mentioned. If you already have the kit, the Group website
www.groupvbs.com also has some great ideas, as well as information on how
you can attend a SCUBA Splash party in your area, if it is not too late -
many of them have already been held. They also have special section for
SCUBA directors, sections on fundraising and decoration, and a message
board, so you can interact with others who are using SCUBA. Hope this
helps! Kit MacLeod, North Palm Beach, FL
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12) Lord is my shepherd teaching
Doris Locklear asked help on teaching the Lord is my Shepherd. When I
taught this, I found a picture of a sheep and made enough copies for one
word of the 23rd Psalm to be printed on each sheep. Then as you teach line
the sheep up on the board.
Another time, I made flashcard visuals for the 23rd Psalm. If you do not
have pictures of shepherds, sheep, folds, etc, try images.google.com. Use
pretty calendar pages for backgrounds and print verses to match each page.
If the children are small, dress one like a shepherd and let one be the
sheep. You can make an easy headpiece by sewing lamb ears on an old white
cap and gluing
cottonballs all over the top of it. As you tell the story, the little
shepherd can look all over and finally find the sheep when he gets near to
hear it bleating.
Helen Setser
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13) Jesus Calms Storm & Feeds Disciples?
"We are in the planning stages of our Vacation Bible School for this year.
We're going to use Group's SCUBA program. We would like some
supplemental craft ideas for two of the lessons - for the account of Jesus
calming the storm, and the account of Jesus feeding the disciples
breakfast on the beach after His resurrection. We would need one craft
for preschool age, and another craft for 1-6 graders for each lesson.
Thanks for any help you can give."
Cathy Bodell
Frankfort, Michigan
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14) Evolution - Creationism
I am going to respond again to Linda N., because this relates to youth
ministries everywhere. I don't want to change anyone's mind about a
religious belief, but to explain again why I think this "line in the sand"
creationism is not appropriate to teach to youth. We are specifically
called not to put up artifical barriers to salvation and I would like to
make the case that this is an artifical barrier. I am writing this in
more
detail to make you all understand that you don't have to be "for or
against" evolution, that it is not the product of conspiracy-crazed
scientists, and whether you personally can resolve it with your beliefs
does not erase the fact that it is the current best working scientific
explanation for evidence in nature.
First of all, the "evolution is just a theory" argument is meaningless.
Science IS theory, which just means an idea, equation, or model that
attempts to describe some natural phenomena. Just being a theory does not
have anything to do with how accurate a scientific model is! I "believe"
in
the theory of gravity, due to experience, even though scientists are still
modifying and expanding the theory. The fact that evolutionary theory is
modified as new evidence is presented indicates a strength, not a
weakness.
Compare this to creation science, which is a religious and advocacy
outlook
that searches for and presents evidence against evolution and does not
pretend to be a neutral summary view of all evidence.
Second, the all or nothing belief: I work in earth science and deal with
environmental issues in which knowledge of the earth before human
influence
is important, and this day to day research and experience has given me the
working model that the earth is very old, and evolution happened and is
happening. I did not hear this on a tape or radio show or read this in a
book, but have come to understand that the current scientific theory
explains much of what I see. Ask yourself if you are doing the right
thing
to tell me that I cannot believe in the Bible because I believe that the
Genesis story is an outline without details? What are the odds that a
human
author, 2000 years ago, could have been able to visualize the earth being
created in this order, with all of its deep ramifications? How else could
God describe his work, other than in a timeless human context? Do we have
to believe that God's "day" corresponds to our "day" in order to believe
in
him? The Bible gives a simplified description of the hydrologic cycle,
but
you don't have to decide between believing in evaporation or God!
Third, the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics/entropy argument. To use your
wording,
Linda, I guess the sun only shines on evolutionists and not creationists
:)
Creation scientists say that evolution is impossible because it would mean
that the earth is increasing in order and energy, which violates the laws
of
entropy that says that energy in a closed system can only stay constant
and
in reality decreases. Why does your refrigerator not violate this law?
Because it is not a closed system & you plug it into a power outlet, and
energy is indeed lost in the cooling process. In the same way, the earth
is
far from a closed system, and the sun is the power. We would certainly
lose
energy without input from the sun! We know humans have become taller &
smarter in the last 100 years, and I know my children are certainly better
looking than my generation - if they just wouldn't dress like we did - my
17
year old is trying to find a leisure suit!
Jami Nettles
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