Sharing Our Faith Together

Holiday Club, Sunday 31 July 2022

by Sue Muessig 31 July 2022

Good morning and welcome to Holiday Club Sunday!
We have had a fantastic week looking at stories from the book of Luke using Scripture Union’s Resources “Diary of a Disciple” as we read and watched videos about the life of Jesus.
We are going to start with a recap of Day 1, 2 and 3 with a few photos for you to enjoy as well.

Day 1
On Monday we had a Christmas theme in Church as we thought about the visit of the Angel Gabriel to Zechariah and Mary, the birth of Jesus and the Angels visit to the Shepherds.  After the initial surprise of Christmas trees and Christmas music we had some interesting discussions as we discussed the story afresh.

After the story, the children gathered in their team groups to discuss the question “Who is Jesus?”, you can see the Yellow Team’s answers in the poster below. Our Memory Verse for today was “He is Christ the Lord.”  Luke 2:11

Day 2
Our question for the day was “What did Jesus do and say?” and so we heard stories of Jesus’ healings, parables, and miracles. We retold some of the stories using puppets.  Lots of games and team cheering were enjoyed today!On Tuesday we had a sporting theme as we discussed teams that we support, the women’s football and the coming Commonwealth Games.   We then went on to think about being a part of Jesus’ team and our memory verse was “Come and follow me” Luke 18:22.

Our question for the day was “What did Jesus do and say?” and so we heard stories of Jesus’ healings, parables, and miracles. We retold some of the stories using puppets.  Lots of games and team cheering were enjoyed today!On Wednesday we had an Easter theme, including bunnies and chocolate! We looked at stories from Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, Jesus dying on the cross through to Jesus coming back to life and meeting the disciples again.  Our Memory Verse today was from Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.”

The teams had very interesting discussions about why Jesus had to die and what difference the Easter story might make to their lives. The question for today was “What happened to Jesus?” and below you can see our youngest group’s poster.  Our final reflection was to pause and reflect after all they have heard this week and ask themselves “Who do you say I am?” Luke 9:20.

Day 3

On Wednesday we had an Easter theme, including bunnies and chocolate! We looked at stories from Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, Jesus dying on the cross through to Jesus coming back to life and meeting the disciples again.  Our Memory Verse today was from Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.”

The teams had very interesting discussions about why Jesus had to die and what difference the Easter story might make to their lives. The question for today was “What happened to Jesus?” and below you can see our youngest group’s poster.  Our final reflection was to pause and reflect after all they have heard this week and ask themselves “Who do you say I am?” Luke 9:20.

Song – Jesus is the King

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This morning we will be thinking about communication and about prayer.  Our Question for today is What did Jesus say about me and God?

At Holiday Club we have enjoyed fruit shoots and custard creams (generously provided by Morrison’s) in the morning, and fresh fruit in the afternoon.  The children brought their own packed lunches.  Imagine if you opened your lunch box to find a snake inside, what would you think?  I didn’t see any snakes this week, but I saw lots of yummy snacks that parents had lovingly provided for the children to make sure they were happy and well fed.  Jesus told His listeners over 2000 years ago that God is not like a bad parent who would give His children a snake if they asked Him for fish, or a scorpion if they asked Him for an egg.  Rather, God is the most loving and good Heavenly Father who delights to give good gifts to His children.

Luke 11:1-13 - Jesus' Teaching on Prayer
11 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say this:
‘Father: May Your holy name be honoured; may Your Kingdom come.Give us day by day the food we need. Forgive us our sins, for we forgive everyone who does us wrong. And do not bring us to hard testing.’”

And Jesus said to His disciples, “Suppose one of you should go to a friend's house at midnight and say, ‘Friend, let me borrow three loaves of bread. A friend of mine who is on a trip has just come to my house, and I don't have any food for him!’ And suppose your friend should answer from inside, ‘Don't bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.’ Well, what then? I tell you that even if he will not get up and give you the bread because you are his friend, yet he will get up and give you everything you need because you are not ashamed to keep on asking. And so I say to you: Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For those who ask will receive, and those who seek will find, and the door will be opened to anyone who knocks. 11 Would any of you who are fathers give your son a snake when he asks for fish? 12 Or would you give him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? 13 As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Some questions for you to consider.

  • How does hearing what Jesus said about prayer make you feel?
  • Do you think His words are important for us today?
  • Do you think God hears you if you talk to Him?
  • What would you like to say thank You to God for today?
  • Is there anything you would like to talk to God about?

There is an order to the prayer, first Jesus praised God and then He made His requests.  Praising God first puts us in the right frame of mind to tell Him about our needs.  Forgiveness is also an important part of prayer.  Jesus died on the cross so that we can be forgiven when we say sorry and we must also forgive others who have wronged us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father,
We thank You that You are a loving, caring Father and that we can bring our prayers to You at any time of the day.  We praise You because You are mighty, gracious, powerful and You are our provider. 

Father, we thank You for Your compassion and Your forgiveness and we want to say sorry for the ways we have let You down this week…

Father, we thank You that You promise to provide for our physical needs, our emotional needs and our spiritual needs and we pray that You would be with those people we know who need Your help today…

We thank You that You reign over our lives, and we pray that You would lead and guide us daily to walk in Your way that we may be able to share Your word and love with other people we meet. 

We ask all these in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Song – Great Great Brill Brill

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Our Memory Verse for today is “Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you”.  Luke 11:9

We just sang in the previous song, “He always hears me when I talk to Him”, and we know that God always hears our prayers.  We have already said that God is the most loving and good Heavenly Father who delights to give good gifts to His children.

Jesus told us that we can ask God for what we need, and He will give it to us.  That doesn’t mean that we can ask Him for things that we don’t need, like lots of money, or a trip to Disney Land.   It does mean that we can ask our Heavenly Father for what we really need, and He will give it to us.  God always answers our prayers but He answers in the way that He knows is best for our lives.  So sometimes He says yes, sometimes He says no, I have a better plan for you, and sometimes He says wait, keep asking, keep knocking on the door and at the right time I will answer that prayer.  God loves it when we spend time with Him in prayer, we don’t only have to pray when we need something.  What we may not realise is that one of the things that we need most of all is the gift of the Holy Spirit, who comes to live within us to help us follow Jesus each day. So today, can I encourage you to ask our Heavenly Father for what you really need, especially for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

This week our Holiday Club leaders have seen God answer our prayers for all the children who have attended, for strength for each day and for His protection that we had lots of fun together with no problems.

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Dear God,
We thank You for a great time at Holiday Club, please help us to remember all the amazing things we have heard about Jesus.  Please bless all the children and families who have attended and help us all to continue to grow in Your love. 
Amen