Live Stream:
6th September 2020View past Sundays

This week we are going to be thinking about how God made all the birds.

Verse ‘God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.’ Genesis 1v31

Book God made me this way by Hayley Down (see link here). If you don’t have a copy of this book then have a look at this video of the story (see the video here).

Songs Who’s the king of the jungle - Creator God - If I were a butterfly - God's love is big (see the videos here).

Activity 1 Guess the bird game - hide some bird toys/pictures of birds in a bag. Choose one of them keeping it hidden and give clues to describe it (noises, colours, where they live etc). Once the type of bird is revealed ask “who made the…?”, encourage your child to say “God”, then together respond with, “and it was good”.

Activity 2 Create birds by using yellow paint to make a handprint on white card (see example here). Then cut out a small orange triangle for the nose. Stick the nose, googly eyes and feathers on the bird. Cut two strips out of orange card and concertina them to make the legs. Stick these and a lollypop stick/straw to the back to finish. Remind your child as they create that God made the birds.

We are starting a new series called – Telling God’s Story.

The aim is for children to spend some time meeting or revisiting important characters in the bible, and learning about their story. Each week we will aim to link it to children’s lives now.

Game: Hide and ssssssssseeeeekkk.

Play a game of hide and seek around your house/ garden. The person sssssssseeking can act like a snake to try and find Eve, alternatively One person hides an apple in the room, and the others have to find it – whoever finds it first is the winner. Play a few rounds as this gives a clue to what our first story will be this week.

Bible verse: Genesis 2, 17 “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.” Have a read through the bible verse, can they guess who they will be learning about today? Throughout the series try to encourage children to get involved finding the verse for the week with you. 

WATCH VIDEO 

Have you ever done anything wrong? Did you blame anyone? What should we do when we have messed up? People have always got things wrong and they have always blamed other people for their mistakes. Even the very first people that God created made a mess of things.

Even after God warned them they still messed up.

I can think of lots of times when I have messed up, even this week.

We will make mistakes – even the first humans made mistakes. But Jesus came to make a way for us and to die on a cross so we could be forgiven. Today, use time during the craft or reflection to think about some things you might want to say sorry for. Give those things to God. 

WORSHIP:

KING OF MY HEART 

GOOD GOOD FATHER 

PLAYDOUGH: God created Adam and Eve, can you use playdough to create a man and a woman? Perhaps to create an apple and a snake? Whilst creating talk about times you have made a mistake and how you felt. Let children watch the stop motion to get ideas here 

CRAFT Using resources that you have available, find a creative way to make a snake. You may use a toilet roll cut up and decorated like this, or perhaps a paper plate like this, or if you have card you could try this, if you have pasta and string you could try this – As you create your snake, write the bible verse on and discuss the story. Talk about the difficulties of making good choices every single day, and how God loves us no matter what - we can say sorry when we have made a mistake.

REFLECTION

Have slips of paper ready, and a container in the middle of the table. Have a think about the questions at the end of the video, talk together and for those that can write down the answers on the paper. Any things we want to say sorry for, put in the container and choose a way to give them to God – perhaps throw them in the bin, or rip them up together, you could possibly find a way to safely burn them – to signify that whatever we need to say sorry for, God hears and loves it when we bring it to him. Adults, I encourage you to join in and model this process. 

Questions:

What could we say sorry for this week?

Why is it important to be honest with God the Father?

Will God always love us, even when we get it wrong?

What does God think about me?

Is what happens in this story the end of God's big story? 

How did Jesus make a way for us to be in God's family? 

PRAYER

God, thank you that you created me. Thank you that you always have a plan, even when we get it wrong. Thank you that you sent your son Jesus to save us. I pray you will help me this week to do good things and to come to you and say sorry when I get it wrong. Amen 

We are excited to be starting back next Sunday - 13th September - at 7.30pm on Zoom! (Each Sunday of Leeds School term) 

We've put a bunch of ideas on here to inspire you in your journey with God during those sun-filled (maybe) weeks. Maybe you could try one idea and repeat it each Sunday? 

Remember: we are not meeting as Oak Youth, on Zoom or otherwise, in the summer holidays. We are planning to restart Oak Youth on Sunday 13th September 2020, starting with a session talking about Oak Youth values and welcoming new youth in. We will be on our Sunday evening Zoom and using this resource page unless we let you know otherwise.

TAKE PART

NEWDAY ONLINE: Keep watching Instagram @newdayevent for more information on Newday online events over 2nd-7th August that will be released any day now.

OAK COMMUNITIES: Find out through your parent/guardian if there are any events in their local Oak Community and join in if you can - see here. 

TLG BOXES OF HOPE: If you’d like to support families who would struggle to feed their families over the summer you can do this through supporting our new Boxes of Hope outreach. Your parents/guardians, if church members, will have an email about it showing how you can pray, serve or give (if you want to know more, email chris@theoakchurch.co.uk). You can find out more about boxes of hope from the TLG website here

WATCH

The Chosen (parental guidance required), a film retelling of John's gospels. It is on Youtube or viewable via an App. There is an Imdb (note - like Wikipedia, made by the public) parental review of the content here.

PRAY

Try the five finger prayer - come back to it regularly:

1. Your thumb is nearest you - pray for family and friends. 

2. The (next) index finger is the pointing finger - pray for those who teach or help others (teachers, nurses, ministers)

3. The (next) middle finger is the tallest finger - pray for leaders (people in government, business owners)

4. The (fourth) ring finger is our weakest finger - pray for those who are weak, in trouble or in pain. 

5. And lastly our little finger - pray for yourself. Because you have prayed for others first, this helps you to pray for yourself with a more balanced perspective.

SING
The Newday Youtube channel has songs from previous years, like this one. 
Here is a link to a Youtube playlist of songs we sing at our gatherings.

READ
Try opening up the Bible and looking up the book of John. 
Either go from the start or find a section with an interesting title, and read it.
To help you understand what happened...
...Make a drawing/drawings of the section you read - or even a lego/drama version!
...think of three words that people might have used to describe Jesus in that section.

DO
Go out on a walk/run/sit somewhere outside and think about God as creator of the heavens and the earth (see Genesis 1:1).  What places do you like most, rivers, woods, or beaches, and why? You can talk about this with God (pray) too.

SHARE
Please feel free to share about what you've done from these activities with your church family - on the post-Sunday church zoom, on WhatsApp (if you have that), or just with your own family.

A big shout out to all you young people and your families who have weathered such a weird and challenging school year. We are praying that you get to let God carry your troubles and grow more in knowing Him. See you soon!

The Oak Youth Team