Skip to main content

Making the Word Come Alive

By

Goal for the Children, for the Teenagers, for the Adults of the João Pessoa Congregation:

Study ONE chapter of the Bible each week.

    Since we made this goal in September 2009, we have studied Esther, James, Jonah, Philippians, and now Ruth. After studying a couple of books, we have a congregation wide competition. The last was the James/Jonah Cup with thirty participants.

And the winners were...

Group A: (6-8 yr old) Mathias Hagewood (1st - 56%), 
Lucas McKinney (2nd - 47%)

Group B: (9-12 yr old) Nicholas Newlin (1st - 83%), 
Mariana Campos (2nd - 72%)

Group C: (13 yr to adult) Kamilla Crispim (1st - 90%), 
Vinicios Soares (2nd - 79%)

Group D: (missionary couples) Monica Newlin (1st - 95%), 
Jeremy Newlin (2nd - 89%)

LOCK-IN
    To make the Word more alive, we had a lock-in for the pre-adolescent group on the theme of the "Christian Journey and the Book of Jonah". We divided up the auditorium into sections and the kids journeyed from one place to the next:

The first section was BIBLE READING: we read the whole book of Jonah.

PRAYER: We wrote out prayers at if we were in crisis, like Jonah, needing God. Some of the kid's prayers were touching.

MEDITATION: the kids were introduced to this much neglected Christian discipline, as we meditated on God's greatness.

BIBLE STUDY: They answered questions, having to search the Bible for the answers. All this went on from 7 to 10 pm and then we came to the hardest:

FASTING: We sat around a table full of potato chips, cookies, and cokes, and no one was allowed to touch them. These ten year olds had never been denied food in their lives and couldn't believe they weren't going to eat. Here's a picture of them dying of hunger, begging for food, crawling toward the potato chips:

I found out later that several hadn't had supper.

Then came EVANGELISM: they had to share Jesus, talking about Him to a visitor.

PERSECUTION: When people share Christ, the enemy gets mad and stirs up trouble. They got raw eggs mixed with corn meal thrown at them. Samuel thought they were throwing food and got a mouthful of egg, yuck!

BENEVOLENCE: David McKinney, dressed as a poor beggar, came and collected their money. A couple of kids even gave their bus fare home and worried the rest of the night how they were going to get home.

SINGING: while we sang about Christ coming back someday, David McKinney (again) came with a flash of light around midnight, dressed as Jesus, saying, "I was hungry and you fed me, welcome, my children, to Heaven, and you know what's the best thing about heaven? We have FOOD!" Then the kids tackled Jesus and went through the chips as if they had been in the belly of a fish for three days.



After all the excitement, we had a hard time getting them to sleep.

We'll do anything to get our young people excited about the most exciting Book on the face of the earth.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"What About Baptism?"

By
Edda and I went to a nearby city to study the Bible with a family, Genilda (who is already a Christian), Ana, Mariana, Luiza, and Jefferson. While we were reading God's Word, Ana's husband, Silva, came in and sat down, and then blurted out: "What about baptism?" It took me by surprise because he has barely studied with us, but, most certainly, is already thinking about spiritual matters. Our Bible study then took a lot of detours, answering this question or that. Silva said he still has a lot of questions, and we pray that the Lord will use us to answer them, bringing him to understand the Good News!
Post a Comment
Read more

Weekend VBS

By
           The end of April, my wife, Monica, traveled to Patos with the AME (Adventures in Evangelistic Missions) group to have VBS with the church there.  It was the first VBS for the AME class and for the church in Patos, the first one in about 10 years.              Monica said that there were 24 children on the first day and 26 on the second.  It was a weekend VBS, Saturday morning, afternoon and Sunday morning.              They also did a campaign around the church building inviting people to the VBS, the church meeting, and an adult class on Friday night.  They also had a couples meeting as well as a youth group meetings happening in between other activities.              Needless to say, they were pretty busy.  They all came back exci...
Post a Comment
Read more

One More Goodbye

By
This year has been rough for Borges's family. They lost a pillar in their family, his wife's mother in February. Now her brother has passed, buried today. He was diagnosed with prostrate cancer 18 months ago. A policeman, used to taking care of the family, he had to settle with being taken care of by the family as his body gradually shut down when the cancer metastasized to his bones. Borges and Geilza have spent every free moment taking care of Demilson's needs, and it has been torture watching him slowly wear away. His colleagues in the Military Police carried his casket, played taps on a trumpet, presented his family with a Paraiba flag, and thanked his family for supporting him in defending society for nearly thirty years. It was a nice gesture, but the event that gives us believers hope in the face of death is Jesus winning over the grave. He is our certainty that a grave is not the end.
Post a Comment
Read more