Children’s Ministry Parent Letters
.
May 1, 2020
Dear Families,
What a crazy month it has been. We’ve all been taking time to adjust to this new way of life. I have missed you all, and am praying for you.
We are going to continue to do the reading log and bingo sheets that I sent out last month. Here are the ones for May. For the Bingo game, it’s all prayer. Prayer is such an important part of your faith, allowing us to share our heart with God, and join him in his work in their world. I would encourage you to join with your kids in praying for our families, our church, our country and our world. Feel free to take time and help your child think about how to pray for the item listed, and then spend time praying with them. Kids so often learn from watching, and this is a great opportunity to model your prayer life for you kids, and have them join you.
If there is any other way I can support you, or pray for you, please let me know.
Beth Duvall
EBC Children’s Ministry Director
.
March 24, 2020
Dear Parents,
What a strange time we are living in! The lasts few weeks have been quite a roller coaster of uncertainty, changes in our routine and normal, with a bit of fear mixed in. It’s been weird not meeting with the church body for worship. I’ve missed seeing the kids for AWANA and Children’s Church. While my classrooms have stayed amazingly tidy, I feel so sad seeing the quiet, empty church building!
However, having school out, and staying home presents you with an amazing opportunity. I’m sure that, as a parent, there is no greater joy than watching your kids grow in their knowledge and love of God! I know that you send time with your kids, teaching them about God, and pointing them to him! But you also rely on us at the church to do that. You have the opportunity to fill the void left in your children’s lives by the lack of meeting for corporate worship. You get to step in a fill my role in their lives.
I love my job! I get to spend my days teaching kids about Christ, and supporting our members in doing that!!! But with no kids coming to the building, I get to help you point your kids to Christ.
I am starting two activities for our kids while we are not able to meet together. The first is a Bible reading incentive chart, and the second is a game of Bingo.
This is similar to the summer reading programs that schools or libraries do. I have included a calendar. Have your kids read a Bible story. Each day that they read one, initial that day in the calendar, and write what Bible story they read. My definition of reading is very loose, as we have young kids who aren’t yet reading, and various reading styles. They can read it in a normal Bible; they can read it in a story Bible. They can listen to it being read to them, or in an audiobook app. I’m flexible on this. The point of the activity is to get them into God’s Word, hearing about God and connecting with him. For each 10 days that they read, they will get a prize. The prize will get larger with each 10 they achieve. Yes, the prizes will stack, so if they read 20 days, they will get the 10, and the 20 prize! Return these when we are able to meet again. For now, I have our calendar going thru April. If we go into May, I will send out a May calendar.
The Bingo Game is a bingo chart of various activities that they can do. There is a column for worship, service, Bible, prayer, and other. As they complete activities, put an “X” in the box that they completed. For every “bingo” that they get, they will get a ticket for a raffle. I will have several smaller prizes, and 2 big prizes. The big prizes will be to get an action Bible, or hit Miss Beth in the face with a pie! The Action Bible is a comic book Bible, Illustrated by a DC/Marvel comic book artist. It’s great for our older kids, and for kids who have a hard time sitting and reading. It takes the words straight from scripture, and illustrates them, making them come alive! (If you want more info on the Action Bible, check out their website: https://www.theactionbible.com/) The pie in the face is just fun!!! We will do it at the service you regularly attend, and record it and post it on our website for all the other kids to see! If your child completes every activity on the chart, they can be entered into the raffle 12 times!
These are just two tools that you can use to help your kids continue in their spiritual development. They are more formal programs that I am doing, but there are other things I want to point you to – other resources that might be helpful.
Youtube! Yes, Youtube can be a great resource. I actually use it all the time. There are a few channels that I love using. Kids on the Move. They have great videos of Bible stories, plus worship songs, and many other things! Saddleback Kids also has great Bible Story videos. They even have them in Spanish! They have worship, and puppets, and lots of other great videos!
Books! I have several books that I love to use!
The Jesus Story Book Bible! This is my favorite story Bible. It covers many of the main stories in Scripture. But my favorite part is that at the end of every story, it tells how that story connects to God’s larger story: the story of Jesus.
Another fun book is a devotional book by Louie Giglio called Indescribable. It’s got 100 devotions for kids about the God and Science. These aren’t science experiments, but they are short reads about something in the natural world, and what we can learn about God thru that. They point us to God, using science. They take 5 minutes to read, but are fun and get kids thinking about the connection between the creation and the creator.
Another fun book series that could be fun to take some time and explore with your kids is Narnia! Our current plan is to do a Narnia themed VBS this summer. However, it’s going to take a lot of prep, and with the current situation, meeting, and prepping is hard to do. So, honestly, it’s up in the air right now. We might have to postpone it until next summer so that we can do a good job with it. I would rather wait another year (sadly) and do a great job, than rush to get it together, and do a mediocre job. But that doesn’t change the fact that the Narnia books are great for starting conversations about our great God. CS Lewis filled those books with so many pictures of Christ, and parallels to God. And if we are able to do our Narnia VBS, taking some time to read them together now would prepare your kids for what they will learn this summer. And if we don’t do Narnia VBS until next summer, the books are just awesome anyway!!!
I will also be doing video Bible lessons! I will be teaching through the Exodus. There are many great truths in there, that can be very applicable to our situation. And, I miss the kids, and would like to have a way to stay connected to them, even if it’s just posting a video Bible story. So, be on the lookout for that!
If there is any way that I can continue to support you, please let me know! I can be reached at my email: bduvall@evergreenbible.com.
Beth Duvall
Children’s Ministry Director