Happy Easter

Port of Call - Elementary

Main Point  I Will Be Prepared In Everything I Do!

Bible Verse  “Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.”  2 Timothy 4:2 (NLT)

Bible Lesson  Paul preaches in Athens - Acts 17:16-34

Family Activity:  Better Prepare

Always be prepared to answer questions about God or about your church and to tell people about Jesus. Preparation makes things go better. Have your family imagine some fun things that they would like to do. Write those things down. Now think of some things everyone would need to do in preparation to do that fun thing. Make a list of those things under each fun thing.

Examples are below.

▶ Go on a ski trip: Pack warm clothes. Make travel plans. Make a hotel reservation.

Rent equipment.

▶ Have a picnic: Make some delicious food. Pack a comfy blanket. Pack dishes

and utensils. Pack fun outdoor games. Pack sunscreen.

How would these fun things go if we weren’t prepared? (Not good. We would freeze on the ski trip. We would be bored and hungry on the picnic.)

Things go better when we are prepared for them. One thing we should always be prepared for is telling people about Jesus. One way to do that is to think of answers to questions people might ask us about church or about Jesus.

Go over these questions with your family to make sure they are prepared in advance to invite people to your church or tell them about Jesus if these questions come up.

Who is Jesus? (God’s Son.)

What did Jesus do? (He showed us how to live and took the punishment for our sins.)

Why should I come to church? (We have fun while worshiping God and learning more about the Bible.)

What time are your church services? (____________________________________)

What is something that you learned at church this week? (_______________________)

Are there any special events coming up at your church? (________________________)

Port of Call – Pre-K and Toddlers

Main Point: I Will Have Courage.

Bible Verse:  “You must be careful to obey all the commands of the Lord your God, following his instructions in every detail."  Deuteronomy 5:32b (NLT)

Bible Story: God takes care of Noah during the flood. - Genesis 7:11 - 8:1

Help your child practice having courage by playing the Have Courage Game.

1. Pick two family members to stand up. Each will hold a piece of paper or a paper plate in front of his or her face. One of them will be the Happy Face and one of them will be the Boo Face. (You will need to change this up for each round of play.)

2. When the game begins, each person will take a turn picking one of the faces to be revealed. If the Happy Face is picked, the person will drop the plate and make a happy face. If the Boo Face is picked, the person will drop the plate and say boo at the player.

3. Talk about how no one knew what kind of face would be behind the plate. Each person needed to have courage even though they didn’t know what would be revealed behind the plate. When they picked a plate they were showing courage.

4. Wrap up your time together by asking God to help each family member have courage in all situations.

Optional: You can reward the person who picks the happy face in each round with a sticker or piece of candy.

This Week in NewLife Kids

Port of Call - Elementary

Main Point  I Will Do What Is Right No Matter The Circumstances!

Bible Verse “Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you.” 2 Timothy 4:5b (NLT)

Bible Lesson  Paul and Barnabas in Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe - Acts 14

Family Activity:  Good Spaces And Bad Spaces

Gather your family to play a board game that uses one or two dice (Examples would be Trouble, or Sorry.) Use a pen and some masking tape or sticky notes to add some “good spaces” and “bad spaces” to the board. A good space would be, “Take an extra turn” or “move forward two more spaces.” A “bad space” would be “move backward two spaces,” “start over,” or “lose a turn.” When you are done with this, make a list of six things that everyone knows are things that God wants you to do. A suggested list is below.

▶ Pray for your friends.

▶ Tell people about Jesus.

▶ Read your Bible.

▶ Sing to worship God.

▶ Do kind things for others.

▶ Honor your parents.

When someone rolls the dice, he or she might land on a space where something good happens, or on a space where something bad happens. But whether a good thing happens or a bad thing happens, he or she will do the action that matches the number rolled on the dice. (If using two dice, decide before each roll, whether to act out the higher number or the lower number.)

After the game, remind your family that just like you did what was right no matter what was happening in the game, we should do what is right in our lives no matter what is happening. Whether good things or bad things are happening, we need to keep doing the right thing.

Port of Call -  Pre-K and Toddlers

Main Point: I will take care of God’s Creation.

Bible Verse:  “You must be careful to obey all the commands of the Lord your God, following his instructions in every detail.”   Deuteronomy 5:32b (NLT)

Bible Story:  Noah obeyed God and took care of the animals on the boat. - Genesis 6:17-21, 7:1-10

To help your children learn about taking care of God’s creation, you can have them be the caretakers of a pet or plant for the week.

1. Assign each child a job to do. These jobs might include feeding the pet, giving the plant or pet water, feeding and walking the pet, or moving the plant outside to get some sunshine.

2. Each time they do the job, remind them that they are taking care of God’s creation.

3. At the end of the week, talk about all the ways your family took care of God’s creation.

Take time to thank God for all the things He created.

Next Sunday is Easter.  See you at NewLife.

This Week in NewLife Kids

Port of Call – Elementary

Main Point: I Will Help Others To Learn!

Bible Verse: “Pay close attention to what you hear. The closer you listen, the more understanding you will be given - and you will receive even more.” Mark 4:24b (NLT)

Bible Lesson: Paul confronts Elymas Acts 13:4-12

 

Family Activity: Who Can Learn It?

Divide your family into two teams. (Get with some family friends if you need more people to make two teams.) Have one person on each team work to memorize a Bible verse of your choosing. As the person tries to memorize the verse and repeat it out loud to his or her team have the other team try to distract the Memorizer by singing songs, tickling, talking to the Memorizer or use other methods of distraction.

Afterwards talk about how difficult it was to memorize the verse when the other team was distracting the Memorizer. Remind everyone that as Christ followers we need to help others learn about God and not be a distraction to them. One of the most important places to not be a distraction is at church. If we are a distraction to others at church they will not be able to learn about God. Talk about ways that you can help those around you learn about God when you are at church.

Some examples are:

▶ Don’t bring toys or other distracting things to church.

▶ Don’t talk to your friends when you should be singing or listening to

the teacher.

▶ Help your friends to learn by reminding them to listen.

 

Port of Call – Pre-K & Toddler

Main Point: I WILL FINISH WHAT I START!

Bible Verse: “You must be careful to obey all the commands of the Lord your God, following his instructions in every detail.” Deuteronomy 5:32b (NLT)

Bible Story: Noah kept working until he finished the job. - Genesis 6:14-16, 6:22 - 7:1

 

Family Activity:

In order to help your children remember to finish what they start, play together using some blocks and plastic animals (or toys).

1. Ask your children to help you build a shelter for the animals.

2. Tell your children that the shelter will help protect the animals from the rain.

3. Before you finish building the shelter, tell your children you are tired of building the shelter.

4. Leave the blocks and animals and get a spray bottle. Use the spray bottle to spray the animals with “rain”. Talk to your children about what happened. You can use the following questions:

“What happened when I did not finish what I started?” (The shelter wasn’t finished. Our animals got wet.)

If I had finished what I started, what would have happened to the animals when the rain came? (They would have stayed dry.)

Remind your children that it’s important to finish what we start even when we are tired of or bored with what we are doing. When we finish what we start, things will go better for us.

This Week in NewLife Kids

Port of Call - Elementary

Main Point: I Will tell others about Jesus everywhere I go!

Bible Verse: “And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere- in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Acts 1:8b (NLT)

Bible Lesson: Saul and Barnabas in Antioch - Acts 11:19-26, 13:1-4

Family Activity: Messengers

Have your children serve as messengers between you and your spouse or another adult. Have them start with one adult who is the Sender. The other adult will be the Receiver. The Receiver will sneak to someplace in the house and hide. The children have to find the Receiver, deliver the message, and then return to the Sender. All of the messages should be good things. (For example: I love you, you are a sweet person, Jesus loves you.) Then the Receiver will move to a new place. Continue as long as you wish, then gather all of the family together. Ask the children where they took your messages. Explaining that just like they had to take messages all over the house, God wants us to take His message everywhere. No matter where we go, we should be taking God’s message of love with us.

Port of Call Jr. – Pre-K and Toddlers

Main Point: I WILL FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS!

Bible Verse: “You must be careful to obey all the commands of the Lord your God, following his instructions in every detail.”   Deuteronomy 5:32b (NLT)

Bible Story: God’s Instructions to Noah. - Genesis 6:11-22

Family Activity:

To help your children see the importance of following instructions, make some cookies with them.

1. When you make the cookies substitute wrong ingredients for the right ones. For example use sand instead of flour, pebbles instead of chocolate chips, and dirty water instead of milk.

2. Once you have mixed up the cookie dough, ask the children if they think the cookies made with pebbles, dirty water, and sand would taste good.

3. Remind them that when we don’t follow instructions the way they are given to us, things will not go as well.

4. Wrap up the activity by making cookies following the correct instructions.

Pray and thank God for His instructions in your lives and then enjoy those cookies

This Week in NewLife Kids

Port of Call - Elementary

Lesson Goal: The children will learn that we should communicate and share good news with others, especially the Good News of Jesus. Main Point: I will share Good News with others! Bible Story: Paul and Barnabas preach in Lystra (Acts 14:8-20) Bible Verse: "We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too." (1 Thessalonians 2:8 NLT).

Family Activity: Good news is hard to find

Meet together as a family and tell everyone to be on the lookout for good news for a set length of time. (Any amount of time from one day to a whole week.) Have family members take a pencil and a small notepad or piece of paper with them to write down stories. Some places you might get good news are from a friend, in a newspaper, on TV, on the radio, on a billboard while driving, or at school. After the designated time, meet and tell each other all the good news that you have collected. Point out that good news can be hard to find. Most newspapers and news casts are full of bad news. Also point out that some good news is better than other good news and that the Good News of Jesus is the best news of all. Because of this we should always be willing to share the Good News of Jesus with others. Have each family member write down the facts of the Good News of Jesus.

      *Jesus loves us.

    *Jesus took the punishment for our sins.

    *Jesus will take us to Heaven one day.

Make a commitment to share the Good News with others. It might be the only good news some people hear.

Port of Call - Pre-K and Toddlers

Main Point: I Will Do What Is Right! Bible Story: Noah did what is right when no one else did - Genesis 6:5-10 Bible Verse: "You must be careful to obey all the commands of the Lord your God, following his instructions in every detail." Deuteronomy 5:32b (NLT)

Family Activity:

One of the best ways for your children to learn to do what is right is for them to see you doing the right things.

1. One day before you head out to run errands, pick one or two things you want to focus on. It might be something as simple as thanking the person who checks you out at the grocery store or following the speed limit and stopping at all the stop signs when you are on the road.

2. Talk to your children about the action you chose and then let them see you do it while you are out.

Setting the example for your children will help them learn what is right and how to do the right things in their lives as well.