St. Matthew's UMC Family Ministry

Easter Cookies

2010-04-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

I have not tried this recipe, but I saw it online and thought it sounded like a great family activity for Easter.

Resurrection Cookies
Source: BlessingsforLife.com

Ingredients:
You need to preheat the oven to 300 degrees (this is important--don't wait until you are half done with the recipe!)

3 egg whites
1 cup whole pecans
1 tsp. Vinegar
A pinch salt
1 cup sugar
A zipper baggie
A wooden spoon
tape
Bible

Directions:
Place pecans in zipper baggie and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested, He was beaten by the Roman soldiers.

Read John 19:1-3.

Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 tsp. vinegar into mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross, He was given vinegar to drink.

Read John 19:28-30.

Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life.

Read John 10:10-11.

Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sin.

Read Luke 23:27.

So far, the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add 1cup sugar. Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him.

Read Ps. 34:8 and John 3:16.

Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the color white represents the purity in God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus.

Read Isa. 1:18 and John 3:1-3.

Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid.

Read Matt. 27:57-60.

Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF.

Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed.

Read Matt. 27:65-66.

GO TO BED! Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed.

Read John 16:20 and 22.

On Resurrection morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow! On the first Resurrection, Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty.

Read Matt. 28:1-9

Children's Church - Jan. 24

2010-01-28T09:04:00.000-08:00

Scripture: Psalm 40:1-10
1 Corinthians 12:12-27

Theme: We are the body of Christ - together, we can make a difference

Today we read in Corinthians how we are all a part of the body of Christ. After the Scripture lesson, we read a poem about Starfish. It read;

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed
a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.
Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”
The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean.
The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”
“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish?
You can’t make a difference!”

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish,
and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said…”
I made a difference for that one.”

We talked about how that one little boy made a difference - but what if all of us in Children's Church were there, helping him throw starfish in the ocean. We would make a much bigger difference. Then we decided that if we all worked together, we could make a difference in the world. We decided that we would like to try to raise money for the earthquake victims in Haiti. We wrote that promise on a piece of posterboard, then we all drew starfish and wrote our names on it to glue to the posterboard. To remind ourselves of this promise, everyone took a piece of sea glass home.

Children's Church - 10.11.09 and 10.18.09

2009-10-20T09:44:00.000-07:00

These two weeks went hand-in-hand with each other. On Oct. 11, we talked about being Christian and what it means that we are all Christians. We all traced our hands and put them on the sign that reads "I am the church. You are the church. We are the church together."

On Oct. 18 we expanded on what it means to be a Christian and talked about things we do that show we are Christians. We came up with a great list including worshiping God, loving God, serving others, loving others, and having a good attitude. Then we each drew a picture of ourselves being good Christians and put it on a cross. This will help remind us that we made a promise to God to try and be good Christians every day that we can.

Children's Church - 9.27.09

2009-10-02T07:39:00.000-07:00

Today we talked about the Beatitudes and how we can think of them as the Be-Attitudes. First we talked about how Jesus gave us these Beatitudes and then we talked about what the eight Beatitudes are. We explained them like this:

You are REALLY happy when you:

Want to learn more about God.
When you are sad, don't take revenge.
Don't show off.
Do right instead of wrong.
Show mercy and forgive others.
Stay pure in all your thoughts and actions.
Make peace with others.
Stand up for what you believe, even when people might make fun of you.

Then we talked about attitudes. First we scribbled the word "attitude" on a piece of paper with a pencil. We wrote while thinking about having a bad attitude, so it was dark and had angry scribbles all over it. Then we rubbed our fingers over the word "attitude" and looked at our fingers - we had pencil all over them. Then we rubbed our dirty fingers on a paper with the word "Attitude" written on it. We talked about how bad attitudes can rub off on people, so we need to try and have good attitudes. Then we each got a smiley face sticker to put on the paper with "Attitude" to show that good attitudes stick! (We also each got a smiley face sticker to put on our shirts to show we had good attitudes.)

Then we each wrote one of the Beatitudes on a flower cut-out and created a field of Beatitudes. We each drew a bee and put our names on it to show that these are our Bee-Attitudes and we will try to follow them each day.

We ended by encouraging everyone to try and have a positive attitude this week.

Children's Church - 9.20.09

2009-09-23T13:02:00.001-07:00

On Sept. 20, we had David Hosey, a Mission Intern with the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, in the pulpit. He talked about Isreal and Palestine and his sermon topic was "Patient Windows: Searching for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land." Rather than trying to explain Israel and Palestine to our Children's Church, we talked about mission and why we serve others.

First we talked about helping versus serving and that as Christians, we serve each other with love because that is what Jesus taught us to do. We talked about the fact that Jesus is the most important person, but everyone in the world is important in someway. We each drew a picture of how we have served others and glued it on a piece of poster board that read "Serving others is a key to greatness!"

We ended by singing "Jesus Loves Me" and "Triple Amen." Hopefully we will learn "Triple Amen" over the year and all be able to sing together in church on Communion Sundays!

Family Movie Night

2009-09-04T09:20:00.000-07:00

Join us on Saturday, September 19 for a G-rated movie in Fellowship Hall.

Please bring blankets or low lawn chairs to sit on. We will provide snacks and drinks.

We will also be taking a freewill offering to support our Shelter Committee.

We hope to see you there!

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

We had a great time at our Halloween Party on Saturday! Kids got to decorate trick-or-treating bags and make vampire, witch, or monster bags which were then filled with candy. There was a Halloween Trail for them to follow with prizes at the end! We played Spider Ring Toss and Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin.

All of the families also had a chance to have a picture taken with a backdrop and the pictures all turned out great.

Thanks to all who came - we hope you had as much fun as we did!

You can see pictures from our party here.

Families as "Little Congregations"

2008-10-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

In one of my classes at Wesley Theological Seminary, we are reading a book called "The Godbearing Life" by Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster. One chapter talks about families as little congregations where Christian formation occurs for children.

According to Creasy Dean and Foster, research shows that children are more likely to grow up and be active church participants if they are exposed to positive Christian experiences inside the home, as well as attending church and Sunday School.

According to Robert Wuthnow, quoted in the book, "It is religious training in the home that appears to [best predict adult church attendance]: family devotions as a child are the best predictor of adult attendance, followed by seeing one's parents read the Bible at home, and after that, by parents having read the Bible to the child." (p. 77)

How are you setting this example for your children?

Thanks for coming!

2008-09-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

We had a great time on Saturday watching Disney's animated "Robin Hood" for our movie night! We ate popcorn, drank lemonade, and danced around to the songs. We hope to have another family movie night in the future. If you have any ideas or requests for movies, let us know.

We hope you'll join us on October 25th for our Halloween Party. We'll see you there!

Family Ministry Movie Night

2008-09-12T08:29:00.001-07:00

Are you ready for a REEL fun time?

St. Matthew’s Family Ministry is hosting a Family Movie Night!

Join us Saturday, September 20 from 6pm-8pm for a G-rated Disney movie in Fellowship Hall.

There is no admission and we will provide popcorn and drinks at no charge.

We will be taking a freewill offering to support our Shelter Committee.

Bring blankets, low lawn chairs, or something else to sit on.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Spanish Classes for Children

2008-09-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

I just received a flier for Spanish Classes for children hosted by the Bowie Community Center.

Spanish Opens Doors - Spanish Lessons for Children

Fall classes are available at the Bowie Community Center. The 8 week sessions cost $10 per class.

For more information, call 301-464-1737 or 301-395-3362 or email tutors@puertasabiertas.com.

Photos are up!

2008-09-10T08:13:00.001-07:00

Check out our photos from the Back-to-School party! Click here to go to the webpage.

Back-to-School tips

2008-09-09T07:42:00.000-07:00

I found this website and thought there were some good ideas for back to school:
Back to School Organization from Christian-Parent.com.

I especially like Tip #5 about getting outfits ready for the week: "Try this idea from Tandy, a mom of four. She bought a 5 compartment sweater hanger for the closet and helps the child choose the wardrobe for the whole week. Even socks and underwear get put in each days "cubby" Sunday afternoon."

Thinking outside of the lunchbox

2008-09-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all who came to our Back-to-School party on Sunday! We had a great turn out and everyone had a great time!

One of the things we handed out was a way to "think outside of the lunchbox," adapted from this page on the Whole Foods website. We also incorporated ways to make lunch fun...

Cucumber, carrot, and tomato smiley faces

Fruit kabobs on plastic straws - easy to pack in lunches!

Sandwiches cut out with cookie cutters are more fun to eat!

Cooking for kids

2008-08-29T08:16:00.000-07:00

I found two websites today on cooking for kids that looked really helpful and interesting!

The first one is a blog called Mommy, What's For Dinner? This site has recipes that take 30 minutes or less to make. She includes options for making the recipes healthier and ways to get kids involved with cooking as well.

The next website is Easy Kids Recipes which has lots of recipes that are kid-friendly and easy to prepare. You can even sign up for a free newsletter and they will send you recipes, un activities for cooking with children, educational information, nutrition lessons, kid food articles, kitchen safety tips, table etiquette, and more.

Make Your Own Crayons!

2008-08-26T10:57:00.001-07:00

At our Back-to-School party, we will make our own crayons. Here is a step-by-step guide for you to do this at home!

First things first, make sure you're using all the same brand crayon. Apparently different brands melt at different temperatures and times. I bought brand-new Crayola's because I don't have any sitting around broken up.

The first thing you need to do is peel the paper off the crayons. I found the easiest way to do this was to score the paper with a pair of scissors, cutting into the wax, and then peel the paper off.

Next break up the crayons into small pieces.

Then fill up small silicon cups backing cups (like for mini-cupcakes) with the crayons. They melt a lot more than they look, so fill it pretty far up.

After I did this one, I realized it ruined the silicon cups. I experimented later with lining it with foil, which worked well. I also realized that boys might not like heart cups, so I tried making some shapes (circle and square) and that worked just fine. The foil left little ridges in the wax, but I'm thinking/hoping kids might think that's cool! I made sure to put foil under the cups and the foil shapes so that if any of the wax spilled, it would not wreck a cookie sheet.

Put them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until the wax is all melted. I put them in the fridge for about 10 minutes after taking them out of the oven (since I need them to cool fast) and that worked great.

When they are all the way cool, peel off the foil or the silicon cups and...tada!

Crayons!

Back-to-School Party

2008-08-22T07:30:00.000-07:00

Come celebrate the end of summer with us!

Who: All families at St. Matthew’s

What: Back-to-School Party

When: Sunday, August 31, after the 11:00 service

Where: Fellowship Hall

Why: To eat lunch, decorate lunch bags, folders, and pencil cases, and have a scavenger hunt for other fun school supplies.

You will also have a chance to register your child for the MD Child Identification Program (CHIP) free of charge, sponsored by the Masonic Lodge.

Welcome!

2008-08-22T07:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our Family Ministry Blog!

I will be posting upcoming church events, creative kids ideas, parenting articles, and discussions on Christian parenting. We hope you'll check back and see what is going on!

Please check the Family Ministry page on our website for a calendar of events.