Yes, I know; that was a cheap shot at getting y'all's attention!
I have not got a new 'bun in the oven'!
But Hubby and I have sort of got a new baby.
And that baby has finally been delivered out of an idea we have been mulling over for months now.
And this past Sunday, at last we we had our first CIA meeting!
The name is one that we inherited from the church, but the concept is new.
CIA is a kid's Bible study.
Not a Sunday School,
not a kid's club,
not a youth group, but a Bible Study, where they look at a Bible passage and with the help of questions, tease it out and examine it.
So, on Sunday afternoons at 3:45 early birds got to devour a yummy icecream sundae (sundaes on Sunday, of course! Diva and I made the most delicious hot choc fudge sauce we have EVER tasted).
And then at 4:00, we got right into the study. We decided to start with the gospel of Mark, as it is the easiest gospel to read.
To begin with Hubby gave an overview of Mark (when it was written, who by etc) and then we read the first few verses.
We split into groups (grades 6-8 with Hubby and other helper, the rest with me) and answered 3 questions.
That was enough really, but the kids were really on board with it.
After getting prayer requests and praying in our small groups, we came back together to do announcements and to paste the study and their calendar sheets into their notebooks.
We gave each kid a CIA bag to put their Bible in to bring each week. The bag also contained:
*a bookmark
*a cool pen with the books of the Bible on it
*a highlighter
*a gluestick
* a pair of scissors
*an A4 notebook (into whcih they paste the studies, calendar dates for CIA activities and write prayer requests
*a devotional book to use with their Bible each day
THis will be what happens 3 weeks out of every month. THen on the 4th month, we do Unknown Zone, where we might take the kids to visit someone who tells us the story of their faith (testimony) or talk about some topical issues that the kids have raised earlier. (We have a Hot Spot question box over at church that the kids can post topical or Bible questions into anonymously.)
And once every holiday we will take the kids for a CIA secret mission.
This holidays we are going to a farm for a hayride and Easter egg hunt, then coming back to have a Menu Mayhem dinner (cryptic menu where cutlery is disguised into the menu. The kids select the order their individual food comes out and may recieve their dessert first without any cutlery!LOL!) and games night.
We are really excited and invigorated by the fact that the CIA is finally coming together. And the wise older Christian man who came up with the title CIA for an older kids Sunday school group he used to run, is helping to run it too.
Posted by michelle ::
12:00 pm ::
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Thursday, March 15, 2007
Frustration
(Ths second post in a row is dedicated to MamaMentor, 'cause I mustered up something to post in response to your kind email!)
I know it won’t happen for ages, especially seeing as I have only had one half day of work so far, but my desire to move a little ways out of town is becoming stronger.
We live on the main street of our tiny town, which makes us conveniently close to all our towns facilities, but there is also a pub (bar) on that street, and that is NOT convenient.
We always expect a bit of noise on Friday and Saturday nights as the masses stagger past our home to get to theirs.
But just lately, it has seemed to escalate.
There is a group that apparently wander around the area aimlessly around, having 'who can shout the loudest' competitions, followed by 'who can fit the most unimaginative swear words into one sentence, whilst also participating in the aforementioned competiton' competiton. If there is still time, they try to fit in at least one round of 'I am going to try to kill you, because you insulted my woman in the pub' competiton. Oh and how could I have omitted the ever popular 'whistle at an impossibly earsplitting pitch for at least 10 minutes to get the attention of our inebriated buddy who left 10 minutes ago, in an attempt to get him to come back and participate in any of the aforementioned competitons' competition.
Oh, and the above are always held always seem to take place right outside poor Topsy’s window. The kids wake up frightened, or worse, have nightmares into which the frightening sounds of these goings-on are woven.
Well last Saturday I had had enough. The rowdy group stopped by our house (again) and decided to loiter loudly as has become their custom, with the accompanying swearing , mock fighting that appears to be their way of communicating.
A couple cars were doing burn-outs down our street (as in, spinning their tyres so hard, smoke comes out).
Then they started with the earsplitting music. Our house was literally vibrating. It flt like it was actually a band in our house.
So after a half hour of it, I figured that none of them were going anywhere, so I ventured to call the cops, who are about 15 minutes away. They took an hour to come (imagine if something had gone wrong!), but the whole shebang stopped after that.
And then last night, at midnight a man screaming fit to die woke me with a terrified start . He sounded like a guy I once saw hit with pepper spray. Up and down the surrounding streets I could hear him crying out, sounding like he was in a bad way. So I called the police again. But he stopped and I fell back to sleep before they came this time.
So folks, I have decided that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
I am determined to win the 'most persistant and annoying caller in to the police regarding drunken disorderly in a small town' competition.
Posted by michelle ::
11:09 pm ::
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Wednesday, March 14, 2007
A together thing
