CHILDREN'S MINISTRY 2011/12 LAUNCHED

This past Sunday, September 18, our Godly Play storyteller, Mr. Matt, resumed the weekly routine of stories and play during worship. Simultaneously, we launched a trial program for an older group of children. Angie R. led the first session of this new program Sunday with four children, telling the story of Noah, remembering Adam and Eve, and how God began to make his Covenant known to us. Here is a schedule of stories for the next several months; following the schedule you can also read the story Angie used this past Sunday. After dwelling in the bible around the theme of the Covenant, the stories will begin to be drawn from the Lectionary around the middle of December.

Story Schedule: 2011-2012

Week 1 – September 18th: God's covenant with Noah - a little background starting f/the Garden (Gen 6-8)

Week 2 – October 2nd: God's covenant with Abraham – the story of Isaac (Gen 17)

Week 3 – October 16th: God's covenant with Moses – a little overview, the 10 commands

Week 4 – November 6th: God's covenant with David - some overview of David's life

Week 5 – November 20th: Overview of the prophets - “God's Rescue Plan” - prep for Advent

Week 6 – December 4th: Zacharias & Elizabeth – story of John the Baptist (Luke 1)

Week 7 – December 18th: The Nativity (f/lection, Luke 1:26-38)

Week 8 – January 1st: Jesus is blessed by Simeon (f/lection, Luke 2:22-40)

Week 9 – January 15th: Jesus calls the disciples (f/lection, John 1:43-51)

Week 10 – February 5th: Jesus heals Simon's mother-in-law (f/lection, Mark 1:29-39)

Week 11 – February 19th: Transfiguration (f/lection, Mark 9:2-9)

Week 12 – March 4th: Jesus rebukes Peter (f/lection, Mark 8:31-38)

Week 13 – March 18th: For God so Loved the world (f/lection, John 3:14-21)

Week 14 – April 1st: Palm Sunday (f/lection, Mark & John)

Week 15 – April 15th: Doubting Thomas (f/lection, John 20:19-31)

Week 16 – May 6th: “I am the Vine” (f/lection, John 15:1-8)

Week 17 – May 20th: Selection of new apostle (f/lection, Acts 1:15-17, 21-26)

Week 18 – June 3rd: Nicodemus (f/lection, John 3:1-17)

Story for September 18: God's Covenant with Noah, including A Little Background from the Garden

We're going to start at the beginning. Well, not all of the way at the beginning, but you guys probably know that story already. We're going to start with God's first covenant to his people. Does anyone know what a covenant is? Or what the word covenant means? Well, basically it's a promise – a really serious promise.
It all began with a piece of forbidden fruit. You remember that story, how the serpent tricked Eve into tasting the fruit, and how Eve shared that fruit with Adam, and then how God found out about it and told them they couldn't live in the wonderful garden anymore? How things would be different after that, how they would have to work hard for their food and everything that they needed? Well a lot of time passed since Adam and Eve had to leave the garden, and things had just gotten worse. There were now many people all over the place, and everyone had forgotten about God and were doing bad things all of the time. All of this made God's heart full of pain. The beautiful world that he had created was being destroyed by the people that he had created to love him.
But there was one man, Noah that still loved God. One day when they were talking (did you know that God loves to talk to us?), God told Noah that he'd had enough. Things had gone terribly wrong. God told Noah that he wanted him to build an ark. That God was going to send a big storm to wash away all of the hate and the sadness, and make everything clean again. God told Noah that he would rescue him, and that the ark would be big enough to hold two of every kind of animal. Noah was going to have to trust God. And he did. He started building that big boat in the middle of the desert with no water around, while everyone was watching him and laughing at him. Have you ever had to do what you knew was right even though you knew that everyone was laughing at you? Well, if you know how that feels, then you know how Noah felt. But Noah just kept doing what God had told him to do. He decided that listening to God was more important and that it didn't matter that people were laughing at him.
Pretty soon the ark was ready. Noah, his family and all of the animals (2 of every kind) loaded into the ark and waited. God closed the door and then it started raining, and raining, and raining. It didn't stop raining for 40 long days. (And we think it rains a lot here...!) But God was with them the whole time. He never left, and even though the whole earth was covered in water, God didn't forget Noah and his family. The ark landed on the mountain of Ararat, and after the last dove sent out did not return, Noah knew that there was dry land. He opened the doors, and the first thing he did was to thank God for rescuing them just as he had promised. Then God made Noah a promise, the first covenant he made with his people. He promised never to destroy the world again, and to make sure that Noah knew he meant it, he put a rainbow in the sky – just where the storm meets the sun. It was a new beginning in God's world and he'd sealed it with a promise, a great covenant with Noah and his family.
It wasn't long before things went wrong and people had forgotten about God again, but God knew that would happen. That's why he had another plan. A plan not to destroy the world, but to rescue it by sending his own Son, the Rescuer.