update on Sunday school for August

Update on Sunday school for this Sunday as well as the whole month of August.

I am trying to mix things up this season with different ideas and activities that will charge our kids with creativity as well as their spirituality. I am hoping these ideas will springboard new questions, thoughts and discussion amoung our kiddos. and we can also share with the adults in our congregation.

Here is my write-up for August as well as my thoughts.

August is month of no official holidays, but plenty of fun and opportunities to learn! The Christian faith celebrates The Transfigurataion of Christ in August, which is when Jesus met with Elijah and Moses on the mountain top. He had taken John, James, Peter and their eyes were popping out. Peter wanted to say there forever. The activites that I will outline will help helps understand that just like Peter, we need to remain in this world and sometimes do things that arent' fun. Our transfiguration is a promise from that day that we can enjoy while we wait!

The closing of the Olympic games is August 12th It's time for rewards after years of hard work. Those rewards are a lot like what we look forward to in heaven, so we're offering activities that show these likenesses.

Martin Luther King gave his famed "I have a dream" speech on August 28th of 1963. I will be providing activities to help celebrate what some consider a speech inspired by the Holy Spirit. This should help out kids understand that God made us all equal, but he also made us very diverse. As Christians, we should celebrate unity with diversity.

Finally, for the past few years, August has been named Water Quality Month. I will be providing ideas on how to raise money for countries where the drinking water is so foul that kids show symptoms of illness just moments after drinking what they need to survive. Fresh water is desperately needed, and I am providing ideas so that our kids can help other kids obtain the most basic essentials.

I will also be sharing some stories written by or about children, so they can focus on critical world situations that kids can put in their language.

This Sunday's lesson is "The Transfiguration of Christ".

Idea: In this World you will have Tribulation

Many wonderful messages can be garnished by the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor. We don't know what was discussed in this meeting with Moses and Elijah. But we know that it gave three weary, confused and anxious disciples a little peak at heaven's eternal beauty and awesome power. It was the first plave in a long journey where they felt utterly at peace.

It was so wonderul to be in the midst of it that Peter suggested they stay there forever, building temples for Moses and Elijah. However, the meeting wasn't meant to be eternal; it was only meant to be respite = and a promise for the future.

Peter was probably very disappointed to hear that he had to go back down to the dusty grimy villages where they had been laughed at, stared at, argued with, and condescended to.

Theme; What's Good Enough for Peter is Good Enough for You!

Our activities, in honor of Apostle Peter in the toddler steps of his Christian walk: God promises us a beautiful transfiguration in heaven when we believe in Jesus. In the meantime, the message for us is the same as it was for Peter. We need to be here in the world and continue in faith while performing mundane, or stressful or not-much-fun tasks that occur every day, believing God is with us and will someday fulfill his promises. Kids generally do not like chores or homework or other responsibilities. They like to be free to play. Responsibility is their grimy village. Play is their heaven on earth. This week, the kids will play ganes where the hardest worker is "transfigured". We will play transfiguration tag and create a transfiguration cloud. We will also talk about caterpillars and butterflies and how it is transfigured.

The scripture covering the Transfiguration, which I will be reading to the kid is Mark 9:2-10.

I have also broken the the lesson such as Object Lesson: A Light Doesn't Change Strengths, Transfiguration game: Follow the sound of my voice, The song that they will learn for the first time is Play, Work and Purpose to the tune of Old Macdonald, and if we have time Transfiguration Craft, Magic Glasses. I really like this, as we a picture is drawn and with their "magic" glasses, the figure of Jesus will he invisable, but when the glasses are off, he will be visable.

Each of these will have conclusions.

To give you an idea: the conclustion behind the magic glasses is:

The Transfiguration gave the disciples a chance to see the true glory of God. There were seeing things differently than they ever saw things before. Just like them, we have to go on in a world where it's hard to see that Jesus is near us. We need to remember....the problem is only in our earthly eyes! He is very much with us, even if we have trouble seeing him down here on earth. He is with us every day, forgiving us, renewing us, and transfiguring us, by faith. (Matthew 17: 1-9)

Thanks.

Lisa