Ripples of Hope: Fill My Net

Posted on by Carol Hulbert
Ripples of hope Youth Worship logoI hope it doesn’t rain today.

I hope I got a good grade.

I hope she’ll be my friend.

Hope is a word which gets a lot of use in everyday life. We sure could use a dose of hope these days!

Hope is also talked about in the Bible. You can find lists of verses about hope. One of my favorites is:

 
There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.  Proverbs 23:18

This weekend is Youth-led worship at FUMC. We will not be holding any workshops on Saturday at Green Wood or downtown on Sunday for grades 1st – 6th, so plan on attending this service!

Youth Worship 2013 banner logo

How about a little preparation? Around the family dinner table? (Or wherever your family is gathered together.)

The focus by the Youth will be hope. This even ties to our current Rotation on Peter’s story! Peter was likely down in the dumps about what he’d done to Jesus. Deciding not to just sit around and mope, Peter chose to go fishing.

a speech bubbleAsk your kids: When Peter went fishing, what do you suppose he was hoping for?

  • A diversion: Something to take his mind off of what he’d done?
  • A net full of fish?
  • Jesus’ forgiveness?
  • Your ideas?

a speech bubbleWhen was the last time you hoped for something?
Did you have to wait for what you were hoping for?

Perhaps Peter chose to go fishing because he was consumed by thinking about what he’d done to Jesus. His mind was probably racing in overtime. He couldn’t stand to be still!

a speech bubbleHow is waiting for what is hoped for, hard?
What do you do while you are waiting for hope?

a speech bubbleOnce Peter had spent time in the boat, quietly fishing, that is when Jesus called. Ask: The next time you are waiting for something, what do you think of the idea of turning to God for some quiet time?
What are ways you could have quiet time with God?

Jesus did offer Peter forgiveness. And because of that, we have hope! Jesus forgives us as well. And Jesus’ forgiveness empower us! We can have hope!

The Youth will be using this prayer in worship, adapted from the book Pray Like Hell. This will be presented in a very cool ripple effect that the youth created!

Bless to me this day the power of God to do good work.
Bless to me the power of Christ to love well.
Bless to me the power of the Holy Spirit to strengthen me for what lies ahead.
Bless to me the power of the Holy Trinity to give me hope.

I hope you’ll attend one of these worship services!


Photo credits:
Ripples of Hope logo design by Deb Wood. Used with permission.
Photos of the youth from last years youth-led worship service used with permission.

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Feed my lambs

Posted on by Carol Hulbert
Linking Bible stories to life: that’s one of the goals of our Cool Disciples program at FUMC. This past week some of our kids got to put into action a key concept they’ve learned from our current Bible story. It had to do with Jesus’ advice to Peter. (If you’re not sure what Jesus’ charge was, ask your kids.)

railing & steps project railing & steps project
Oh yeah, feed some sheep?

Or use power tools and pick axes, rebuild a porch and dig a trench, or fill pots with soil…

Ditch digging crew Greenhouse work
Working on being the all around “church” in the community.

(No actual sheep are necessary.)

We were a part of a crew of 54 people from FUMC – from grandparents to six year olds – on a family mission trip to Henderson Settlement.

Henderson Settlement is a mission agency of the United Methodist Church. It is located in Frakes, KY – a small town in southeastern Kentucky – a place of high unemployment and persistent poverty. Henderson Settlement aims to provide basic needs for people in Appalachia, and one of the ways they do this is through work camps.

Volunteer teams from all over the United States come to Henderson to repair homes in the community. Every year 150 to 200 families are helped with projects that otherwise wouldn’t likely happen — projects like installing a railing on a porch, or installation of steps or replacing porch boards. (Porches are important in this area. Three of our four in-the-community projects involved porches!)
porch railing project

There are also projects on the Henderson  “campus” – projects like digging a drainage ditch or stringing up goat fencing or mucking out the barn or sorting onion sets. (Henderson Settlement also has an agricultural ministry.)

Enjoy this slide show of some of the photos from our trip.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

group photo of mission trip attendees
The group from FUMC (some missed out on being in this photo)


Photo credits:
All photos used by permission: Trench digging by Richard Rupp; thanks also to photos by Amy Unsworth, Wendy Everett, Ruth Ann Church, Mary Danforth, Jeff Wason, and the staff at Henderson Settlement.

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Peter is Forgiven — Workshops we’ve used to teach this story

Posted on by Carol Hulbert

Nurturing your child’s spirituality is a big job; here is help! Subscribe so as to not miss the support you need. Enter your e-mail address to have a post sent directly to your inbox. Or click on the orange RSS icon to subscribe in a reader. (Not over-whelming; usually one post a week.)

The Workshop Rotation Model of Christian Education at FUMC rocks! Here are a couple of reasons why:

  • A Bible story is explored in-depth through a variety of creative teaching mediums (“workshops”) over a period of 5 weeks.
  • Kids from age 3 to 6th grade, whether attending Sunday’s downtown or Saturday’s at Green Wood, are all focusing on the same story, which allows families to share learning at home.

In April, we are continuing our study of Jesus’ forgiveness of Peter.
Can you imagine how Peter felt when he heard the rooster crow?

An angry-looking rooster

What had Peter just done? What was it that Jesus had told Peter about a rooster crowing? Ask your kids! Read our story in John 13:33, 36-38 and John 18:15-18, 25-27 and John 21:1-17.

For Saturdays at the Green Wood location, here is the schedule…

Date Workshop Activity
4/6 No workshop Worship with your family.
4/13 Art Workshop Create a positive space/negative space cut-paper or a stencil collage using symbols from the story.
4/20 No workshop It’s youth-led worship!
4/27 Games Workshop Participate in a quiz game.

For Sundays at the downtown location, here is the schedule of workshops…

Date Our workshops…
4/7 Enjoy worship and Communion with your family
Games Drama Cooking Video Art
Room 211 Room 215 Social Hall Pine Room Room 212
4/14 3rd grade 5th & 6th grade 2nd grade 4th grade 1st grade
4/21 Youth-led worship! Attend with your family.
4/28 4th grade 2nd grade 1st grade 5th & 6th grade 3rd grade

What’s happening in each workshop?

  • In the Drama Workshop students will enact the story of Peter’s denial and restoration using shadow drama.
  • In the Art Workshop students will create a cut-paper collage using symbols from the story and the Japanese design principal of “Notan” (dark and light).
  • In the Games Workshop students will participate in a quiz game (using the game wheel) to reinforce their knowledge of story details.
  • In the Cooking Workshop students will create Peter’s Trail Mix and tell the Easter story with each ingredient.
  • In the Video Workshop students will watch portions of the live-action video The Gospel of John, exploring the story of Peter’s denial and restoration.


If you are in the area please join us for the fun learning at First United Methodist Church in Ann Arbor, MI


Photo credits:
Click here for info on banner photo (not visible in readers or email).
Rooster by Christopher Craig, who licensed this photo on Flickr under a Creative Commons License.

Easter & Beyond: Peter is forgiven

Posted on by Carol Hulbert

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At FUMC on Saturday nights and on Sunday mornings, our Christian education for children is based on the Workshop Rotation Model. This means that kids spend six weeks learning a particular Bible story, each week encountering a different kid-friendly multimedia workshop. When they are done they really know the stories!

In March, we are studying an Easter related story. Easter comes once a year, allowing us the chance to focus on a different aspect of Easter.
(View the last couple of years of Easter stories here and here.)

This year our focus is on Easter through the eyes of Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples. The big question to ask your kids:

What happened to Peter that gives us a powerful message
of what Easter is all about?

Jesus and his disciples share breakfast on the beach (John 21)
Jesus & his disciples have a post-Resurrection breakfast on the beach

Reading all the various parts of our story takes lots of jumping around in the Bible. (Good practice!) Read our story in John 13:33, 36-38 and John 18:15-18, 25-27 and John 21:1-17.

Here are the schedules of workshops for March

For Sundays at the downtown location…

Date Our workshops…
3/3 Enjoy worship and Communion with your family
Drama Art Games Cooking Video
Room 215 Room 212 Room 211 Social Hall Pine Room
3/10 3rd grade 5th & 6th grade 1st grade 4th grade 2nd grade
3/17 1st grade 4th grade 2nd grade 5th & 6th grade 3rd grade
3/24 4th grade 2nd grade 5th & 6th grade 3rd grade 1st grade
3/31 Enjoy Easter worship with your family!

What’s happening in each workshop?

  • In the Drama Workshop students will enact the story of Peter’s denial and restoration using shadow drama.
  • In the Art Workshop students will create a cut-paper collage using symbols from the story and the Japanese design principal of “Notan” (dark and light).
  • In the Games Workshop students will participate in a quiz game (using the game wheel) to reinforce their knowledge of story details.
  • In the Cooking Workshop students will create Peter’s Trail Mix and tell the Easter story with each ingredient.
  • In the Video Workshop students will watch portions of the live-action video The Gospel of John, enjoy popcorn (can’t have a movie without popcorn!) and explore the story of Peter’s denial and restoration.

For Saturdays at the Green Wood location, here is the schedule…

Date Workshop Activity
3/2 Puppets Wrap up the story of Joseph and his brothers by acting out the story with puppets.
3/9 Cooking Workshop Create Peter’s Trail Mix and tell the Easter story with each ingredient.
3/16

Update!

 Due to a plumbing problem Green Wood is closed this weekend.
3/23 Video Workshop Explore the story of Peter’s denial and restoration while watching the scripture come to life in the live-actor video, The Gospel of John.
3/30 Cooking Workshop Focus on the Resurrection story of Easter making “resurrection rolls.” Experience the empty tomb, just as the women did on the first Easter morning!

What did you think of doing six-week Rotations? Please, give us your feedback!

If you are in the area please join us for the fun learning at First United Methodist Church in Ann Arbor, MI

Photo credits:
Click here for info on banner photo (not visible in readers or email).
Jesus eats breakfast with his disciples an illustration by O. A. Stemler and Bess Bruce Cleaveland from the Standard Bible Story Readers: Book 4 (in the Public Domain).

Using a salad bowl to spark family stories

Posted on by Carol Hulbert

“Do this to remember me.”
Love, Jesus

Communion chalice and bread

Remember the time… Jesus told us to remember?

You have it memorized. It was during that dinner that Jesus had with his disciples. You know. The last one. The one where Jesus invented Communion. Now every time we share the bread and the cup we remember what Jesus did for us.

What do you suppose would happen if we stopped telling stories to our children? Pretty soon, they’d forget! When the very first Passover occurred, God instructed Moses to tell the people to not forget this event. Every year on the anniversary of the first Passover, they were to tell their children the story of God’s intervention and their freedom from slavery in Egypt. (Read about this command in Exodus 12:24-27).

Are we finding enough occasions to tell our stories? How about around the family dinner table? Here’s an easy way to make sure that telling our stories happens.

Let’s make a salad!

Zoe made Bunny Salad

Not that kind of salad. But our “recipe” does call for a salad bowl!

Before dinner take some slips of paper and write on them storytelling prompts. Things like…

  • A summer story
  • A school story
  • I was embarrassed when…
  • A celebration or holiday
  • An adventure
  • A food story
  • A family joke
  • My first memory
  • I was afraid when…
  • i knew God was involved when…
  • I trusted God when…
  • A question I’d like to ask God
  • Add your own ideas!

Mix up all the pieces of paper in the salad bowl and place the bowl on the table during dinner. At the appropriate time, have each family member take a turn drawing a slip from the bowl and telling a story.

Jesus was celebrating a remembering-Passover-supper when he gave us new instructions to remember a different sort of event: Jesus’ death for us. May we never forget to tell the whole story!


Photo credits:
Click here for info on banner photo (not visible in readers or email).
Chalice and bread by James Emery and Zoe made bunny salad by Michael Newton, both licensed on Flickr under a Creative Commons License.

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The Last Supper, with apologies to Leonardo

Posted on by Carol Hulbert

Here it is! The pictures created in our Photography Workshop for our Rotation on The Last Supper. (Just the 4th, 5th and 6th graders visited this workshop.)

The 6th Graders (and their Shepherd) create a tableaux of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.

Students start off this workshop talking about what dinner time is typically like in their home, and what is done differently at special times, such as birthdays. Then they review the story about Jesus’ special last meal that he shared with his disciples on the night before he was killed. Something happened at this last supper that makes us still talk about it more than 2000 years later! Jesus gave his followers a way to remember him. Today, we still practice this same ritual!

The 4th graders re-enact Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, The Last Supper
There weren’t very many there that day, but the 4th Grade (plus their Shepherd) create their version of Leonardo’s painting.

What’s the process involved in creating this picture? Students are randomly assigned to portray the participants that were at the first Last Supper. They study art prints (with magnifying glasses!) of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, The Last Supper. Then it’s into costumes and recreating da Vinci’s painting using a technique called “frozen picture” or tableaux.

The workshop leader at work with her camera
The Shepherd gets everyone into postion and the Workshop leader snaps a few photos of the 6th graders.

After the photos are shot, the students look at the pictures on a TV screen and choose the best shot. For further learning, the student who portrayed each disciple reads a blurb about that disciple.

students view the resulting pictures on the TV.
Which picture turned out the best?

The 5th graders create a tableaux of The Last Supper
And here are the 5th Graders on the week when they visited the Photography workshop.

From notes made by da Vinci we can identify each of the disciples in his painting. From left to right it would have been: 1– Bartholomew, 2–James the Younger, 3–Andrew, 4–Judas, 5–Peter, 6–John, Jesus, 7–Thomas, 8 – James, 9– Phillip, 10–Matthew, 11-Thaddeus, 12–Simon.

For comparison, here’s a look at da Vinci’s The Last Supper…

da Vinci's The Last Supper

How did they do?

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Photo credits…
Photos of kids portraying The Last Supper by Alice Nuttall. Used with permission.
Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper is in the Public domain, the picture shown is via Wikimedia Commons.

Studying the Last Supper

Posted on by Carol Hulbert

At FUMC our Cool Disciples experience Rotation Model Christian education, as they learn about Bible stories and concepts through kid-friendly multimedia workshops.

In this season of Lent we are studying the story of the Last Supper. Since Easter happens annually, we get to spend time on a different aspect of the Easter story every year. In other years we’ve covered the Garden of Gethsemane, the Empty Tomb/Resurrection Appearances, Easter through Peter’s eyes, and the overall sequence of the events of Easter week.

The Last Supper is the last meal that Jesus and his disciples share prior to Jesus’ death. Read about the story of the Last Supper in Luke 22:7-20.

A frozen picture of da Vinci's Last Supper
From the Photography workshop from the last time we did this Rotation. These kids have now graduated from high school! They were in 6th grade in 2005.

Here is how we studied this story:

  • In the Art Workshop we discussed the celebratory meal that Jesus shared with his disciples. Kids decorated a glass plate; a plate to use at your next special meal.
  • In the Cooking Workshop students will help make and experience a “mini” Seder meal, the meal that Jesus’ and his disciples were sharing at the Last Supper.
  • In the Photography Workshop students will use a technique called “Frozen Picture” to experience the Last Supper (as painted by Leonardo da Vinci).
  • In the Video 1 Workshop (for 1st – 3rd graders) students will watch a video with puppets called How Can I Celebrate Passover? A Young Christian’s Introduction to the Seder.
  • In the Video 2 Workshop (for 4th – 6th graders) students will watch the live-action video The Last Supper.

This Rotation comes around again in 2018. I wonder what workshops we’ll use this year?

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Photo credits:
The Last Supper re-created, copyright 2005, by Alice Nuttall.