"The Spring in Review!"

Hello Good News Club Families!

We loved seeing your kids smiling faces in their t-shirts ready to have fun today!  That we did!  The kids started off with memory verse unscramble.  The groups got one colored set of cards that had one of our three verses on the cards.  They had to speedily put the words in order. Then, the groups would pass the next verse around, and so on. We'd love for you to keep enforcing those verses.  

2 Timothy 4:7 - “I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith!”

Ephesians 4:2 – “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love…”

Psalm 139:14 – “I praise you Lord for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

Next, We asked our awesome 5th and 6th grade helpers to come up in front of our group so we could thank them for their excellent servant's heart as they have helped in the small groups consistently thru the fall and spring!  Then, we saw if they learned the moves and words to the songs as we did our worship!  Our kids should have some great words of truth floating thru the tunes we learned this spring. 

We also recognized our kids who took the Challenge to Walk with God!  They should have a pencil that says excellent work.  I hope this exercise inspires them to want to continue spending regular time with God and His word and praying.   

Thanks to our Watermark Children's team that came today to help and especially lead our review 4 corners game!  All the kids were given a sheet with questions and multiple choice answers.  The speaker, D.K., read the questions and answers and the kids would go from the middle to the corners deciding if it was A,B,C, or D.  All the corner folks were dressed up in costumes that reminded us of our Godly characteristics we had studied this spring.  We had scuba girls with porpoises on shoulders to remind us of purposeful,  camo army girls for perseverance, tie dye guys and wigs for peace, white snow princess for purity, and red light lady for patience.  The kids were hysterical listening and running around the gym to their correct answers of the Bible story review of Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, Enoch, and Noah.  

Then we summed it all up with small group time where we tried to ask reflective questions about what all these stories mean to the kids.  We had the kids act out the main characters of the Bible and their Godly trait they learned about while we asked their questions.  Here is an example:  Even when it’s tough – Read James 1:2-4 “My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything.” – Why should we want to persevere even when it’s tough?- Ask your kids.

Devotionals!  The little green book should have come home with your kids form GNC.  The theme is Jesus, God's Son.  This goes along with our desire for the kids to live like Jesus and see His characteristics that the kids can model in life.  Please take the time to encourage your readers to independently do this quiet time each day or as a family read it out loud at dinner time.  Our focus is for your kids to know that Jesus is the Son of God who died for their sins and to grow in this truth by spending time reading, praying, and learning God's word.

Lastly, look for information on the spring family picnic.  This will be on a Tuesday at 5PM after spring break so we can warm up a bit.  

Thank you for letting us love on your kids in Jesus' name!

Good News Club Team!

Walking with God!- DO THE CHALLENGE!

The focus through Tuesdays club was not only knowing God but walking with him.  What does that look like?  We take it  several levels.

*First, we reviewed our memory verse Ephesians 4:2 "With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love..."  The kids had verse scramble on cards on snack time and we did motions to it in bug group.  Knowing God's word and how to treat others was the start.

*Second, we played a game called "God Says..." like Simon says is about listening to God's instructions and obeying them.  Being aware if God did not say to do something.

*Third, we worshipped in song and our 4th graders did a super job leading us!

*Fourth, we heard from Jenny Bindra who from the Bible walked well with God- Enoch in Genesis 4:16-5:29.  For 365 years, the bible recorded that Enoch was faithful and had a close peaceful relationship with God.  Jenny had Mrs. Bone & Mrs. Keaton (twin sisters and best friends 30+ years) demonstrate through questions how well they knew each other and how they could could walk well together in a three legged race.  Then, Jenny had Mr. Silva & Mr. Gentile (barely know each other) demonstrate how little they knew each other and how they could not figure out how to to do the three legged race well at all.  Jenny concluded her talk with the emphasis of learning peace from God when we walk with Him and  a challenge to spend every day this week doing a devotional with God.

*Lastly, Small groups, showed pictures of things that draw us to God and distractions from him.  The kids need to figure out the right balance.  Ask them!  We handed out the challenge devotional cards to encourage the kids to read God's word by themselves or with your help and do the application question.  Please encourage them in this effort.  You and your child will be blessed to have God as your focus!

Two more weeks left.  We hope your kids will be a part of both weeks.  We have loved having them!

Love in Christ, GNC TEAM

What is Pure White?

The kids started with bean bag hot potato to review of our verse.  Psalm 139:14 " I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."    

Carrie asked "What is Pure White?"  Purity was our Godly Characteristic that we focused on today.

This week in Good News Club we focused on the story of Adam and Eve from Genesis 2-3:24.  Carrie taught the kids a song about the beginning of heaven and earth.  Then, God created the Garden of Eden and Eve to be the companion for Adam.  Sadly, next we see the serpent tempt Eve and introduce sin into the world.  What had been been pure and lovely in the garden is now destroyed by sin.  

Sin is anything we say, do, or think that does not please God.  First we had pure white, then darkness was added by sin in our hearts.  But, the Good News is Jesus died on the cross to be our blood covering for our sin.  When we believe that He was the Son of God and ask for forgiveness of our sins, He will cleanse us and make us pure white.  

This lesson was continued with our small group time when the kids had to pick the color swatch of pure white. (We had various shades of white, but only one matched the pure white color paint swatch.)  The pure white reflected absence of blemish, defect, or sin.

Just like in the story, we are like Adam & Eve because we have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  Rom 3:23

 

God gave up His only Son to make YOU AND ME pure. 

“For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”2 Corintians 5:21

Because..."For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

He loves you THAT MUCH! He gave up His son FOR YOU!

What do we have to do to be pure and live forever with Him? Believe that Jesus Christ came to die and take the punishment for your sins. 

This is our sole desire for each of the children in Good News Club to believe and grew in His grace!

Happy New Year! - 2010

Glad to see all of your kids at Good News Club yesterday! We had a great turn out, in fact, we are at our cap enrollment.

The kids began club with our Jesus chant/hug song. This works on our counting, coordination, cooperation with others, praising God, and singing all rolled up into one song. Fun to watch too with our 3rd grade girls helping with the motions. David & Lynn led us in worship and our new song this semester will be the "Happy Day Song".- "It's happy day that Jesus washed my sins away and we'll never be the same!"  See the Lyrics below.

"I am...Somebody!" Steve Faris impressed upon the kids that we are purposely created in God's image and we are a wonderfully made by him. We are not somebody because of how fast we are on the soccer or football field, how good looking we are, how smart we are, how many friends we have. God made us and designed us just the way He wanted in order to know Him and worship Him. He is the creator. We reviewed Genesis 1:1-2:4, the story of the creation of the world. Steve emphasized the Godly characteristic of purposeful.










Our memory verse is Psalm 139:14 " I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Please work on this with your kids as our goal is for them to memorize it. We will do this verse one more week. Thanks to Kathryn Keaton leading us and her student helpers- Kaitlyn, Luke, Ella, and Webster.

In small groups, we talked about how God created the earth out of nothing. “Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” Genesis 2:7 He was very purposeful in all of His creation. The kids were given Wiki sticks and they created something out of nothing. Ask them what they made. As they worked, their leaders talked about how God made man to love and worship Him. It is the most important difference between man and all other creatures. We are chosen and loved by God.

Help your kids focus this week on the character of God. What does it mean that,"We are God’s workmanship, created in Chirist Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."? Ephesians 2:10 “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

Thanks, Good News Club Team!

HAPPY DAY

VERSE 1

The greatest day in history                       

Death is beaten, You have rescued me

Sing it out Jesus is alive           

The empty cross the empty grave                       

Life Eternal, You have won the day

Shout it out Jesus is alive, HE’S ALIVE

CHORUS

Oh happy day, happy day                       

You washed my sin away

Oh happy day, happy day                       

I'll never be the same

Forever I am changed

VERSE 2

When I stand in that place                       

Free at last meeting face to face

I am Yours Jesus You are mine

Endless joy perfect peace                                   

Earthly pain finally will cease

Celebrate Jesus is alive,  HE'S ALIVE

CHORUS 

"Slap that verse in their minds and hearts!"

Our Last club was fun and plenty eventful! We started off with a balloon relay with Daniel trivia asked intermittently to whoever held the balloon. The Red Cardinals triumphed again being our overall winners! All the teams were acknowledged for the following- Yellow Jackets- Best Listeners and quickest to obey! Navy Seals- Best spirit and enthusiasm- some cheerleaders sure to come from this group! Best Cooperation between younger and older kids went to Green Dragons! The slap bracelets were handed out as a prize for their great team efforts! The verse on the bracelet was Philippians 3:14 "I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength." We had lots of playing with the bracelets during our club but hopefully, it will slap that verse in their mind!

The kids did a super job singing and we got some fun video of them. We love how they have some great Bible truths and groovy moves from the worship songs we sang this semester.

Jenny Bindra created a fun skit with the help of Carrie, Catherine, and Julie telling us about including new kids and not leaving them out on "pigtail Tuesdays". Then, our guest men- Blair, Kyle, and David acted about not going against our parents' rules and heading to the high water creek. Jenny pulled lessons together from our Bible story in Daniel 6 about King Darius and how he was tricked by some officials to get his people to pray to him for 30 days. The officials caught Daniel praying to God and sadly King Darius had to put Daniel in the lion's den. But, God was faithful and protected Daniel for his obedience to pray only to God. The whole point is we must be steadfast and faithful to God and what we know to be right, unswerving by our peers' influence.

We had only a few minutes in small group to focus on how prayer is one of the main ways to talk to God and know what He wants us to do. Your kids should have brought home a bookmark that teaches an acronym for PRAY. P=Praise and Thanks to God, R= Repent, ask forgiveness for things that don’t please God, A= Ask for others with their needs, Y= Yourself- Ask for help for yourself to do the right thing and for comfort and Strength and wisdom

We want them to know how to stand firm for what God wants. Our devotional book we sent home is all about this theme and carries the kids through 2 months. We would love for you to do it as a family or encourage your kids to do it on their own.

We will start back to club on January 12th on Tuesdays for another 6 weeks! Your permission slip is good for the whole school year. Please do let us know if your children will not be returning so we know if there is space for other kids.

Our verse for today was, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.” Ephesians 6:10- We definitely had to be strong as we got this group shot. The one that came out best was the crazy shot. We guess that reflects that we had alot of fun this semester as we talked about knowing God and growing in His truths!



Happy Thanksgiving Good News Club Families!

"Did Mrs. Silva Hit Mrs. Davenport's Car?"

Thank you for letting us have your kids to teach! They have been so fun and really every week things go smoother. We will have to video next week with our music because they have the moves and words down!

We started club with snacks and memory verse review. Your kids should really go home knowing the three verses of our focus- Philippians 4:13, salm 56:3, and Ephesians 6:10. Ephesians says, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power." We hope our older kids will stick Deuteronomy 31:6 too.

Game time brought us back to Farkle with Daniel, Lion, and King. Fun to see kids jump when the music stops and make a lion pose, praying hands, or royal king. The Navy Seals had the most remaining kids standing. Great Job! But, I think Yellow Jackets had best listening and quick to obey!

Third grade boys lead us well in music with "Waves of Mercy", "Romans 16:19", and "Do Everything in Love". Thanks Mrs. Keaton for choreographing with them! They even won outside small group priviledge!

The Daniel 5 lesson presented by Jenny Bindra, made the group wonder if Mrs. Silva had hit Mrs. Davenport's car on the way into school. (Not True, but it held their attention.) Mrs. Silva was trying to get away with not being caught, but Mr. Silva captured the accident on his handy dandy i-phone. This carried over to God catching King Belshazaar being caught by the handwriting on the wall when he mockingly used God's sacred cups for a party and worshipped idols. Daniel explained with God's help that the king would die soon for his sins as he did the next morning. The whole point is we cannot hide from our sin because God sees and we will always have consequences. Mrs. Silva had to recognize her sin and go confess to Mrs. Davenport.






The Small groups explained how we too must acknowledge we are all sinners and we need Jesus as our Savior to receive forgiveness and eternal life with God. God is faithful to forgive us when we confess our sins and He wants us to choose to live with His strength and wisdom to make right choices.










The kids were given scenarios to test how they would handle the sticky situation of being tempted to sin and not being caught by others. We talked about how the Bible will guide us to do the right thing, just like a level for building will help things stay straight. We gave them levels to play with so they could try and be straight and calm like a sturdy building done with the right tools.








Lastly, many of your kids came home with devotionals to use and stay at home. Please encourage them to read these each day. This will start such a sweet habit of daily wanting to pray and read God's word. Some groups did not get to this and will hand them next week.

We hope we get to see all of your kids next week for our last club this fall!
In Christ, Good News Club Team!

Nebo’s Prideful Fall

Club started with Lily Jenkins and Lauren Moran telling us how they told someone this week why Christains are like pumpkins. Challenge from last week. Thanks for stepping out! (I know Jessica Batson also told her family too!)

Jesus chant, hug game.- The kids chant "Jesus Loves Me" and then get in groups of what ever number is called out. They have to listen, work together fast, count, and freeze. Amazingly, we had a three way tie with the Yellow Jackets, Navy Seals, and Red Cardinals! Great team work!

















Music was hosted by our fabulous 3rd and 4th grade girls as we sang "Romans 16:19 Says", "Mercy is Falling", and " Do Everything in Love". We also had a guest lead vocal with Mrs. Bindra.

Good participation and self control was awarded to a number of kids! Thanks for your eagerness to obey and contribute!

Our Lesson took us back to Daniel 4 where King Nebo finally gets that God is in control and he must obey God! Daniel, with God's spirit, interprets a dream that predicts Nebo's mental illness for 7 years. Nebo had a pride issue that had to be taken care of by God. Carrie Patterson directed Scott (King Nebo), and Emily Day and Holden Tucker (prop people) as she guided us through the story.

Memory verse is “When I am afraid, I will trust in You.” Psalm 56:3- The kids learned motions to this so ask if they can remember it. Audrey Stone and Grayson Dalton stood up in front and said Philippians 4:13 by themselves!
The older groups have a challenge of Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you, He will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Small Group brought the focus of how we can deal with pride=thinking you are better than other people and not giving God the thanks He deserves for the way He made you (ie. Fast runner, good musician, good dancer, etc.) in a healthy way that points us toward humility=Putting other people before yourself is a humble person and not thinking you are better than someone else.

We all played with sports balls as we talked to remind us that sports is an area we need to acknowledge our strengths and skills area from God. The kids talked about different scenarios as either boastful or humble.

God says you are to be “clothed with humility”. When you give God the credit for all He does in your life, He is honored. Then as a result, He promises to honor and bless you (Proverbs 29:23). The next time proud thoughts come into your mind, be strong in the Lord. Refuse those thoughts and think about God’s greatness and His goodness to you. The worst kind of pride is when we think we can take care of our own sin problem and make right with God on our own.