Christmas and the New Year

Throughout the month of December, the Tabernacle of Praise Children's Church studied the Christmas story. Each week we talked about different parts of the events that led up to the birth of Jesus, including the angels visiting the shepherds and the wise men who came in search of the Messiah. We finished our study of the Christmas story with a cute craft project I ordered from Oriental Trading Company. Every thing you needed came in the kit except for the glue. I suggest you have some Elmer's glue or wood glue on hand even though the description for the project says you do not need any. Above is a picture of a few of the projects done by the class. 

For the new year, we began our lessons using Uncovering Bible Treasure by Dave Strehler with the story of Creation. We learned how God created everything from nothing simply by speaking. After our lesson, we had time to show our excitement about the coming year by creating a short video using the FX Guru app on my iPhone.

Giving Thanks

Only one of the ten lepers returned to thank Jesus for his healing (picture from freebibleimages.org).

Central Truth: We should always give thanks to God for everything he does for us.

Scriptures: Luke 17:12-19

With the Thanksgiving holiday upon us, the children and I looked at what it means to be thankful by looking at the story of the ten lepers. In this story, there were ten men who were lepers and, when they heard that Jesus was in their village, they cried for him to heal them. Jesus commanded them to go to the priests to show themselves because it was tradition that anyone healed must go to the Temple and testify about their miracle. On their way to the see the priests, all ten were miraculously healed, but only one of them returned to Jesus to give thanks. When he gave thanks for his healing, Jesus blessed him even more.

To reinforce the idea of giving thanks, I found a fun activity book online that I downloaded and passed out copies to each of the children. It contained scriptures and activities that made the children think of all the things they are thankful for and how to thank God for them.

Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself

The Good Samaritan (picture from freebibleimages.org).

Central Truth: Love your enemies and your neighbors as you love yourself.

Scriptures: Luke 10:25-35

Jesus was asked how to gain eternal life, and Jesus answers him with the story of the Good Samaritan. Along the road to Jericho, a Hebrew man was attacked by robbers and left for dead. As he laid wounded along the road, a priest came along and saw the man but continued on his way. Then a Levite passed by and did not stop to help the man. Finally, a Samaritan, an enemy of the Hebrews, saw the man and stopped to help. He bandaged the wound and paid for a room at an inn for the man's care. When we help others is when we love others as ourselves.

After our lesson, we played a board game I found online called Treasures in Heaven. Last Sunday, we colored the game board and the pieces and I glued it to the file folder. We played two rounds, Destinee winning every one of them. It was a fun game and will be played again. I especially loved all of the good deeds that the children came up with during the game.


This week's lesson comes from the book Children Sunday School Lessons: The Parables and Teachings of Jesus, Vol. 2 by Rev. Stephen R. Wilson.

God Welcomes the Lost: The Parable of the Prodigal Son

The Parable of the Two Sons (image from freebibleimages.org).

Central Truth: God wants all those who are lost to return to him.

Scriptures: Luke 15:11-32

This week the children learned about the Prodigal Son who left his father's house and squandered his inheritance. Much like the Prodigal Son, God also desires for the lost to return to him. Those who do return to God are honored and cherished. God celebrates those who believe in him.

As part of the lesson, I created a video book. I used pictures from freebibleimages.org, a wonderful website of visual materials that can be used for Sunday School classes. I used their synopsis of the story and narrated it using the Book Creator app, and I added the final touches using iMovies on my iPad. The children enjoyed the video and were excited about helping me narrate the next one for Christmas.

This week's lesson comes from the book Children Sunday School Lessons: The Parables and Teachings of Jesus, Vol. 2 by Rev. Stephen R. Wilson.

On This Rock: Peter's Confession of Christ

Central Truth: Jesus is God's son and he came to save us.

Scriptures: Matthew 16:13-18

In this week's Sunday School lesson, we asked ourselves why do we come to church? And what is the most important thing for a Christian to believe? We looked at Peter's confession that Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus wants us to believe but not because others believe, but because we want to believe through our own personal relationships with our Savior. Jesus revealed to Peter that his church is built on the foundation that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God. It is our strong conviction and belief that Jesus saved us, and it is only through his sacrifice that we are saved.

This week's lesson comes from the book Children Sunday School Lessons: The Parables and Teachings of Jesus, Vol. 2by Rev. Stephen R. Wilson. 

Destinee learning the books of the Old Testament.

For the past few weeks, I have been preparing the students to learn the books of the Bible. In an effort to help them, I created a fun game for them to play that will teach them the Old and New Testament. I cut some index cards in half. Then I wrote the name of a book of the Bible on the front, and on the back I gave them a number (the order in which the books are found within the Bible) with some information about that book, including the time period that the events in the book happened, a short summary of the events, the setting, and the author of the book. A trophy will be given away to the children who know the books of the Bible.