Sunday, May 4th

Hi family & friends!

What a blessed Sabbath.  I found myself continually surprised today, and love the way God spoke to me through the worship service, Summer's message, Sunday school lessons, rainy weather, and especially our kids!

My prayer for us all this week, is that we would recognize and celebrate the many ways God is surprising us.  Maybe it's the incredible, sometimes subtle and sometimes obvious, ways our children are growing and changing; reminding us of how fearfully & wonderfully we are made.  Perhaps it's 40 degree swing from sunshine to cloudy-drizzly-blah; reminding us of His power and control over nature. Or even a kind word spoken or heard; reminding us of our call to be a light in darkness.  Let's be ready to see, hear, taste, & touch Him this week.

2s & 3s
Today our 2s & 3s learned about the church.  Reba shared about it being more than just people at Sanctuary.  It's actually a collection of God's people all around the world!  The craft of was of many people from all over the world holding hands, as one unified body.

PS/KG
Just a week after hearing the story of Jonah ourselves, our preschoolers & kindergarteners had a chance to listen in and experience his story as well.  Each of the children got play a role in the story as they retold it to each other and to the teachers.  They loved it :)  They asked questions like: "I wonder how it made God feel to see Jonah run away and hide? and, I wonder why Jonah thought a boat would be a good place to hide from God."

2nd-4th

Our passage today came from Matthew 25 and the parable of the talents.  We spent some time in prayer thanking God the gifts and abilities He's granted us.  Next, we acted out the story with the kids (i.e. Lola) acting out each of the 3 servants and what they did with the money.  We discussed why the master was so cruel as to ban the last servant from his property and then give his money to the one who had the most.  Certainly a tough question!

The point I hoped to take away was how God wants us to take risks for him.  Perhaps with our money, as any good entrepreneur would agree, but also with our gifts and abilities.  We shouldn't be scared to use what we've been given to do His kingdom work.  The two servants who invested their money (talents/gifts) could have easily lost it all, but I believe we're called to trust God with the results.  We are called to "take risks" with what's been entrusted to us.

We also began our new memory verse - Romans 6:23 and took communion with the congregation following our lesson.  It was a great day!