Sunday 22 March 2020 Dear Junior Church Families, Despite being cut off from one another physically and not being able to worship and learn together, we would like you to still be able to have the resources and some ideas if you would like to spend time on Sunday as a family exploring the Bible readings for the day. We Junior Church teachers work with resources from a website called Roots on the Web, when we are not doing a special project. The site follows the same lectionary readings that the congregation uses. Here are the resources for Sunday, 22 March. There should hopefully be something there for everyone. A short introduction on how Roots on the Web structures the material might be helpful. The teaching session is split into four sections: Gather, Open the Word, Explore & Respond, Send Out. While this may be a bit too formal for a family setting, the flow can be helpful. Each section offers several ideas of which the idea is to choose one or maybe two. The material generally focuses on one passage. Gather has an introduction prayer and some ideas on how to introduce the topic of the week. Open the Word has ideas and resources to tell or experience the reading. Explore & Respond offers different ways to feel, think about, or experience the topics opened up in the reading. Send out then closes with a prayer and topic appropriate things to do during the coming week. Additionally, there are work and coloring sheets for younger children and an extra sheet for older children or teenagers (aka Young People). The second sheet has additional ideas following the same pattern. Please let us know if this is helpful or if there if you have any other ideas. Hope you and your loved ones are safe and healthy. We miss seeing you and keep you all in our prayers. Yours in Christ, John From all that material for this week, here is what I might have picked, as an idea of what a weekly session might look like. This week the focus is on Jesus healing a blind man by putting mud on his eyes from John 9:1-41: GatherSuggested prayer or one of your own: God our Father,
Open the WordSense the story Invite the children to close their eyes and listen to the sounds they can hear in the room. Then ask them to imagine they can hear Jesus' voice talking, as you read from the passage. Encourage the children to keep their eyes closed as they hear the story of what happened to a man who could not see, focusing on all their senses except sight. (Read John 9:1-41 or the retold version in the attachments) Talk together (Connect faith with everyday life)
Explore & RespondShake and settle Understand how we need God to help us see things more clearly You will need: a large plastic bottle with lid, soil, parcel tape.
Send outJesus, light of the world,
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