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SSTN # 58 - May 9, 2003


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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:



--> Sword of the Spirit

1) Handling VBS   
2) Turkish Pastor Needs Prayer
3) Finding a church that needs you   
4) Bible Bucks   
5) How do you handle VBS

> Sword of the Spirit - A Sword-Shaped Bookmark

6) Preach it Sister
7) Two and Three Year Olds   
8) Two and Three Year Olds   
9) Two and Three Year Olds   

--> NEW-LIFE PUPPET patterns 

10) Facts From The S-Files?
11) How do you handle VBS?
12) New life puppets   
13) How do you handle VBS
14) Three Day Morning VBS

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Sword of the Spirit - Bookmark

The Old and New Testament books are listed on either side of the sword's
blade. A great Scripture memory tool from ChristianCrafters.Com.

Children can make it and take it home. Print out as many patterns as you
need for a one-time fee of only $3.00. To see a picture and to learn more,
go to the following webpage:

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


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1) Handling VBS   

My rural church with small congregation does a 24 hour VBS.  Parents drop
off (or church members pick up) children at 10:00 a.m.  We use a schedule
that rotates 30 minute sessions each of Bible lesson, craft session, and
play time outside.  As few as four adults have successfully run the entire
"show"--food preparer, teacher, crafter, and outside/inside games
director.  The food preparer usually helps with crafts.  We divide the
children into two or three groups depending on the ages attending.  Lunch,
an hour show from a local "clown with a Biblical message" entertainer, and
a water game session are sandwiched in with the rotating sessions.  The
closing devotional is just before supper.  After supper, the children play
outside, finish crafts, play games, etc.  We have even brought a TV and
VCR and showed Christian videos.  This free time helps us all wind down.
After dark, if weather permits, we roast marshmellows around a camp fire
or make popcorn or cookies.  Parents pick children up the next morning
after we fix breakfast.
       The key to success with our program has been to limit each of the 3
main rotating sessions (craft, lesson, games) to 30 minutes each.  Another
helpful tip would be to have plenty of outside and inside games planned.
The children love the competition type games.
       The children in our neighborhood love this type of VBS.  The
parents appreciate a 24 hour break, and the church workers love having VBS
packed into a single day.
       Best of luck!  Sandy Weathers

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2) Turkish Pastor Needs Prayer

Hello,  I have just read your message about praying for you.  I am from
South Carolina and my heart and prayers will be with you to speak as the
Lord would have you to.  Please feel free to keep me informed.  I would
love to hear how the Lord works. My email address is xebec02@aol.com.  May
God bless you and my prayers will be with you.        Dani Lawson


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3) Finding a church that needs you   

RE: SSTN # 51 - April 24, 2003
To the couple looking for a new church and a new place to serve.  I am a
CE Director, and our church has in place a Safe Sanctuary Policy.
According to that policy, a person must attend our church for a year
before serving, or have an "interview" with the pastor or myself (if
less than a year).  Just take that in to consideration if folks act
hesitant to take you on as a volunteer.  (Although if I had a willing
couple, I'd be talking to you in a minute :)  It goes without saying
that the Lord will lead you to the place where HE wants you, if you're
willing to obey.  My prayers are with you.
Emilya

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4) Bible Bucks   

I have heard of many churches using Bible Bucks and similar programs
(ranging in title from Adventure Bucks to Awana Bucks). The concepts all
seem relatively similar as a reward to encourage children to do certain
things (bring their Bible to class, bring a friend to class, help cleaning
up, help setting up, good behavior, memorizing Bible verses, etc) in Awana
programs I have heard of them being awarded when a child finishes a page,
section, or chapter of their current book. Most of the prizes are simple,
small tokens that children can "purchase" using their Bible Bucks and
range from things such as friendship bracelets to yo-yo's, pencils, candy,
sunglasses, etc. Stores like party supply stores (Party City for example)
and large companies like Oriental Trading Company sell plenty of reward
type items to choose from ranging from bouncy balls to bubble gum,
balloons to beach balls, yo-yo's, fanny packs, and everything in between.
As far as the Bible Bucks themselves, you could use plain play money
(available just about anywhere including Wal Mart, Party City, Oriental
Trading Company, Toys R Us, and so on and so forth, or you can use Bible
themed dollars. A printable set of Bible Bucks is available at:
http://www.kidssundayschool.com/activity2/Activity01WSc.htm, they aren't
the greatest looking things in the world, but if you are on a budget, I
would recommend the pattern or a similar pattern and printing your own at
a place like Kinko's on tag board or cardstock weight paper.
Hope this helps,
Sarah
California


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5) How do you handle VBS

Karen:  I always direct the VBS(Or Kids Krusade) at my church.  We do it
in the evening.  We usually have all of the kids in the sanctuary.  We
start out with prayer and the pledges.  Then we do songs-the kids
especially enjoy the boy vs girl
songs--Like Hallelu, Hallelu.  We have a scale that has 2 ice cream
buckets
on it.  We always have a contest between the boys and the girls on who can
bring the most money.  The kids love it. They save their change.  We have
a
few elderly ladies in the church that just love being the bankers.  We
have
them set up in the back of the church and the kids take their dollars to
them in exchange for rolls of pennies.  It is a lot of fun for the kids to
see who has the "heaviest" bucket.  My husband and I work as a team, so he
naturally cheers the boys on and I cheer the girls on.  The total amount
is
what really counts at the end of the week.  If the boys have the most,
then
I get a pie in the face or if the girls have the most, my husband gets the
pie. Although last year we switched and let all of the girls blast my
husband with water balloons.  Because of course, the girls have NEVER
lost-4
YEARS strong!!!!  (I even have people at work that "contribute".) I use a
lot of interactive stories using kids from the audience, we do puppets,
different contests, etc.  I can give you more specific details if you
like.
We usually break for a snack-While the girls go outside, we do something
with boys and then vice versa.  I usually do a few random drawings every
night for some "prize".  We have a big prize for the boy who brings the
most
kids and a big prize for the girl who brings the most.  Last year, I used
a
circus theme and only did 4 nights worth of lessons.  On Friday night, we
converted our parking lot into lots of games=toss rings, miniature golf,
etc.  We had a prize table set up-(although that was a little
chaotic-we're
changing it this year to let them get a prize or candy at each booth
instead
of redeeming tickets later.)We also had hot dogs, chips and a drink.  They
had tickets to "purchase" those.  After everybody had at least one, then
those who wanted more could have more.  Our church is fairly small.  We
normally have 20-35 kids on Sunday/Wednesday.  However, we usually run
about
100 kids at VBS.
Sorry this is so long, Sarah.  I do enjoy your website!


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Sword of the Spirit - Bookmark

The Old and New Testament books are listed on either side of the sword's
blade. A great Scripture memory tool from ChristianCrafters.Com.

Children can make it and take it home. Print out as many patterns as you
need for a one-time fee of only $3.00. To see a picture and to learn more,
go to the following webpage:

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


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6) Preach it Sister

To Debra (and Dee), Preach it sister!  That little southern gospel church
is BLESSED to
have you there for their kids.  I too am in the south (TN), but have
quite a different experience.  Our church leadership is
"contemporary" with an "old timey" message of the gospel.  Thank you
so much for that message to Dee and the rest of us.  And yes, I will
be dancin' when I see my LORD coming for me!

Dee,
Debra is right.  Kids have to be excited about Christ and it's our
job to get them there!  There's a time for seriousness and a time for
unadulterated joy! Get it... un-adult-erated!   You should see our
Kids Chapel (5 yrs - 10 yrs),  we dance, scream (yes-scream), run
relays, do puppets, and stuff alike that is appropriate to their
ages.  These kids are taught scripture memory, catechism, apostles
creed and even have homework and are excited to come to church every
Sunday.  The overall look on your kids faces will tell you if you're
on the right track or if you need to adjust your program to reach
them.  Don't receive the negativeness if its not constructive.

Stephanie

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7) Two and Three Year Olds   

This message is to Brenda concerning material for Sunday School classes of
two and three year olds. First of all, I would say to check the archives
by subject for whatever lesson, craft, recipe, story, game, etc that you
are looking for. There are so many great ideas in the archives that can
help you out every Sunday or when you are in a pinch for that little extra
something for your lesson. Secondly, I would say that the Internet is an
excellent resource for ideas...and all though the amount of information
can seem overwhelming if you have a starting point, you can pretty much
find what you are looking for. May I suggest that you decide what Bible
stories you wish to cover before you start searching for information as
this will make it allot less like looking for a needle in a haystack, and
all of your searches will be more successful. A good starting point for
searching would be a search engine such as http://www.google.com , you can
type in Sunday School story ideas, Sunday School craft ideas, Sunday
School indoor games, etc...you will literally get thousands of results. If
you would like to save some time, and receive a list of sites with
activities geared towards younger children (I teach pre-k, but also
provide the three year olds with curriculum), please feel free to e-mail
me, and I will send you the list of links that I have. I do not want to
post them here, because I would rather not promote a ton of websites on
here, but I will be more than happy to send you any links that I think
would be useful to you. In addition, if there is a specific topic that you
are looking for too, please let me know that as well, so I do not waste
your time with dozens of sites that are irrelevant to your
situations/ideas.
Love in Christ,
Sarah in California
living_life_my_way@earthlink.net

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8) Two and three year olds   

>I teach two and three year olds, if you can help me I would
>appreciate it.

Brenda:
I've been teaching this age group for a long time now.    A couple of
things come to mind:

a. They have a very short attention span: 10 minutes maximum for 2's
and 15 minutes maximum for 3's for a lesson.   Anything more is
asking too much of them.  Longer than that and you'll lose them and
then they won't remember anything you said.
b. Sit them down and offer crackers and water during the lesson and
you'll get them to listen better.
c. Make sure they go potty before their lesson.
d. Free play for first ten minutes after arriving, worship and prayer
time, potty, snack, lesson, then craft.  These may be 15 minute
segments but believe me this works for this age.

Most importantly pray with your helpers before the children arrive!
Children this age love routine too, so whatever you can do that could
be routine would be a good idea.  If it ever becomes one of those
weird Sunday's when things aren't working right, it's ok to just go
with the flow.  Sometimes I just have to play games.  Playing freeze
with a boom-box is cheap and fun for this age group. (When the music
stops, they have to freeze).   This is a challenging age to teach,
but my favorite.  Enjoy them while their this age.  They grow up so
fast.

Stephanie

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9) Two & Three Year Olds
   
Re. SSTN # 52    
Brenda,
  I did a search on the computer for Children's Sunday
School Lessons and it gives you some really good
places.Here are just a few.. www.akidsheart.com,
www.daniellesplace.com www.kidology.org
www.sermons4kids.com ,www.kidssundayschool.com
Good Luck, Kathy

--from SSTN: these and others are also on our links page at:
http://www.ChristianCrafters.Com

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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) Facts From The S-Files?

Hello all,
I have posted once before about the VBS packet that my
church is using. We are using the Facts From The
S-Files packet.  The lessons are all on salvation.
They are all great lessons.  This will be my first
time teaching a VBS class, and I want to make sure I
do a great job.  I will be teaching the preschool
class.  If anyone has any ideas on these lessons I
would appreciate it.  The lessons are as
follows:
A Man Saved:  Nicodemus
A Couple Saved:  Aquila & Priscilla
A Family Saved:  The Phillipian Jailer
A City Saved:  Nineveh
A Nation Saved:  Israel

Thank you,
Cindy De


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11) How do you handle VBS

You might look at a Friday night, 1/2 a day on Saturday and end with a
special recognition on Sunday and potluck lunch afterwards. I've always
thought that would be a fun way to do it.

Sabrina

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12) New life puppets   

I purchased  the new life puppet patterns from Christian Crafters for my
Sunday School class and for Children's Church. I made them today and I
just l-o-v-e them. It was a great investment. So for all of you out there
that don't have these you need to buy them. Thanks again Sarah. I also
bought the Armour of God cube pattern and the praise- amations. I'll let
you know what the kid's think of them when we use them.
God Bless You!
Your Friend in Christ,
Sandy Cryar
Bay minette, Alabama

--from SSTN: Dear Sandy, thank you for saying so! It is always a blessing
to hear how my work is being used! For anyone else that's interested, you
can learn more on this page:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html

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13) How do you handle VBS

Karen
I was in charge of our VBS last year (and this year). We had VBS one day a
week for 5 weeks from 9:00AM to 12:00. It worked out great Hope this
helped.God Bless Robin

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14) Three Day Morning VBS

Try a short, 3 day morning VBS. Check out the Psalm Series at:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/sermons.html

Add song time, memory time, and snack time too.


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