If you are looking for something bible based to do with your toddlers -this is the place for you.  This week we learnt about Jesus and the Children.  For our craft we got a series of shapes from around the house: corks, bottle tops and bits from a broken shape sorter.  We then used these to dip in paint to make body shapes for all the different children.

Here are the results:

If you don’t have any paint that is great because that is another project!  Just make some.  Here is a simple recipe:
https://tinkerlab.com/salt-and-flour-paint/
 
Alternatively, you could just draw around the shapes. 

This week’s snack is a family favourite:
AFGHANS
INGREDIENTS

• 200g butter, softened
  
• ½ cup Sugar
• 1 and a ¼ cups standard flour
• ¼ cup cocoa
• 2 cups cornflakes
• Icing Sugar
• Toppings (walnuts/hundreds and thousands)

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC. Grease or line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift flour and cocoa. Stir into creamed mixture. Fold in cornflakes.
3. Spoon mounds of mixture onto the tray, gently pressing together.
4. Bake for 15 minutes or until set. When cold ice with chocolate icing and decorate.  We put hundreds and thousands on ours and a couple even had marshmallows on top.
   

Ka kite
First Steps

Philippians 4:6,7:     In everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Every Wednesday the Intercessors Prayer Group met in Barnies at 4pm.  Our aim was to seek God's purpose, wisdom, knowledge etc for the way to pray and ask within His will not only for Nativity and the various situation, people and things required but the community, nation, world, current events i.e. the Covid-19 situation.  I would encourage anyone who would like to learn with us, or enjoys this type of prayer to come on by and join us when we are free from the lock-down.

However, this does not suit everyone and even the time can be a deterrent.  There are so many different  ways we can pray, corporately as a large group or smaller ones, twos, threes and so on.  (These days with messenger, Skype, zoom and FaceTime we can keep in touch face to face.) Why not start your own prayer group with friends at a time that suits you all.  There may be people with similar interest or ways of praying you can meet with.  Having groups of people praying in houses all around the town would be awesome.  I heard of one group of 3 people who meet every three months at the change of the season to pray for their street and surrounding area which includes a school. Not an onerous task but awesome to think that it is happening.  God loves faithfulness. You may like to meet and pray more regularly for your school, workplace, church, current events or families.  The list is endless.

As individuals the list is also endless.  You may take a quiet time, and pray daily, this is great for our spiritual feeding. Other ideas are:

• When ironing, pray for the individual whose garment is being ironed
• When cooking, pray for members of the family you are cooking for. Give thanks for God's provision.
• When gardening pray for the people who will enjoy your harvest or enjoy seeing your beautiful flower garden.
• When making beds, pray for God's Holy Spirit to speak to the people in dreams and visions, pray salvation, healing deliverance, whatever is needed.
  
• When driving pray safety for yourself and passengers, for others on the road, for alertness at all times.
• When passing schools, churches, businesses, pray God's blessing on all the people there, for learning, for faith, for godly practices.
• When out walking pray for the people in the houses you pass, pray to be able to share your faith with someone, even if it is only a genuine smile and hello.  Let people see the joy of the Lord in your face.
• When at work pray blessing on your fellow workmates or for the things that are a concern for the business.  Pray for the employer and employees to work together for the common good.
• Pray for the people who come to your house to know the saving power of Jesus.
• As you hear sirens of fire and ambulance or the rescue helicopter overhead, pray that Jesus would be in that instance for safety of life and limb. 
• At sports events, with children and friends pray blessing on all present for safety and enjoyment. Pray off the shock and trauma of accidents for those on the field of play.
• Pray and ask the Lord of the Harvest to send more labourers into the field....               
  We are all called to be those labourers.

A Prayer:
Dear Lord, I rejoice in you.  I will be joyful in God my saviour. Thank you for this gift of prayer, for listening to my heart, for speaking to me of your grace.
In Jesus name. Amen.

Reccommended by an ex-parishioner living in lockdown overseas for 10+ weeks.  A 5 day on-line retreat:
https://trustinggodretreat.com/

Trusting God in Crisis Online Retreat
We’re all suffering the negative consequences of the global pandemic right now. Perhaps you are feeling stressed, anxious, or isolated. You might be experiencing fear, uncertainty, a loss of income, and a dramatic change in your day-to-day routine…
trustinggodretreat.com​

Another week has gone by.  Thankfully we have still had lots of sunny weather and been able to get outdoors.  This week we learnt about Jesus Rising Again.  You can find the link for this craft here:
http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/Easter-EmptyTombActivity.htm
 
Here are some hard workers giving it a go:

We were busily rushing around in our everyday lives when Covid brought New Zealand to a grinding halt. Someone in high places pushed the ‘pause’ button, and we were caught unprepared for the imposition of lock-down. As a linguist, I research language, and the frequency of usage of phrases around ‘speed’ signify the pressure we apply to daily life. We run errands, drive impatiently in rush hour. We hurry up, and race through chores. We appreciate fast food, and drive on expressways. We live our lives on ‘fast forward’ – until we’re run down.

I recently had a heart health check which involved both riding an exer-cycle and walking on a treadmill. The latter sped up and I was outpaced, running hard to stand still. It made me think that much of our busy-ness in life is equally ineffective in helping us move forward. The doctor’s stethoscope identified that I’m still alive, but his wry comment was “I’m getting the busy signal!” He also advised me to use more brake and less accelerator at my age!

I recall my Grandma Gertrude had an embroidered wall hanging which read:
“THE HURRIEDER I GO THE BEHINDER I GET”

I told her that some words were incorrectly spelled! Now I understand the sentiment, the pointlessness of frenetically rushing around. So much of modern life is under pressure. We dash from one appointment to another, squeezing the maximum events and duties into every twenty four hours.
Then came COVID. Almost immediately, our engines were reduced to idling. There’s no place to be other than home. Living alone, widowed with an ‘empty nest,’ I’m under no pressure to perform or please others. I had plane tickets and a bag packed ready to spend Easter in Matamata with some of my grandchildren. Thanks to Covid, the brake has certainly been applied to travel, even movement locally. Compulsory isolation imposed is curbing our social and sporting, professional and family life. While we mark time, we appreciate those essential workers who are clearing our trash, delivering mail, treating our sick and keeping the wheels turning through the trials. (My three sons are all working through the pandemic in essential services.) We owe these upright citizens our lasting gratitude.
Confession time. I have yet to change my alarm clock from summer to winter time. Evidently my body requires more sleep than I’ve hitherto allowed myself. My animals are happy about this, they don’t want their mealtimes moved by attempts to manipulate time. I am not alone in my bubble; God is Head of my home and life. He is with me in my bubble, which we share with my dogs, cat, and many rescued birds.
Slowing down is good for us all. Being still give us time to think more deeply. Leisurely walks with fur buddies enables us to observe more of the beauty of autumn. We’re living more simply and cheaply. We’re recognizing what is energy-sapping. We become more aware of our homes, what improvements we can make, what routines we should change, which chores need to be done, what maintenance we have neglected. Without shops open to provide conveniences, we begin to be more innovative. We set our own pace, accept our limitations and find things every day to thank God for.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me….” (Psalm 23.)
Enjoy extra time with God.
Blessings,
Rosemary Francis.

The Chosen Complete Season One (Episodes 1-8) - the complete Season One series can be found at this link on YouTube:  www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwjoqDa8kUBL_trCMU-TzEFE1Sm7kYuP6
or else you can view them below.

The Chosen is the first-ever multi-season show about the life of Christ.

Episode 1 - I Have Called You by Name
Episode 2 - Shabbat
Episode 3 - Jesus Loves the Little Children
Episode 4 - The Rock on Which it is Built
Episode 5 - The Wedding Gift
Episode 6 - Indescribable Compassion
Episode 7 - Invitations
Episode 8 - I Am He

There were 6 desperately ill men in the cardiac ward, waiting for a death, and hoping it would not be their own.  “What does it feel like knowing that for you to live, someone has to die?” I asked David.  He lay back against the pillows, his face as white as the linen.  “I am already praying for that person”, he whispered breathlessly.  “And I’ll pray for him every day for the rest of my life”
 
I glanced around the ward of mostly middle-aged men who were hoping for a suitable donor heart to be found before their own tired hearts completely failed.  (Around Christmas is a good time, they tell me, with lots of young hoons involved in terrible road smashes.  Healthy hearts from brain-dead donors are what would save these patients.)  All were on Dialysis (as was my father,) while they waited for a saviour kidney.
 
How would you feel having the heart of a donor beating in your chest?  What about a donor’s kidney filtering your blood?  Would your life take on a new level of significance? a sense of responsibility? an appreciation of the high price of your health?  Perhaps, an indebtedness to the one who had died, so that your life could be renewed?   I would thank God daily for His provision of a new organ when mine was unable to support life!  Even so, however advanced surgical skills become, organ transplants can still only extend the life of the human body for a limited period of time.
 
The Bible speaks of another death which brings unlimited life to the recipient’s heart and soul; -  the death of  our Lord Jesus.  While amazing medical advances make heart transplants possible, this procedure only prolongs our life until organ rejection, or age wears us out.  The reprieve from a heart or kidney transplant is temporary.  But the death of Jesus is effective not only for this life, but for all eternity!
 
Because Jesus died as the perfect sacrifice for our sins., He died in our place the death we deserve. His death gives us the opportunity to be reunited with God.
 
How should we respond to this amazing gift of life?  Firstly, we can only receive it by faith and repentance.  Just as the heart or kidney patient will not benefit from the death of the organ donor unless willing to receive that organ, so we will not benefit from the death of Jesus unless we accept His gift of love and forgiveness.
Having received our new life, how then should we live?  With gratitude, humility, and obedience to the One who made it possible for us to live a full life,
 .
The result – suddenly there’s a new meaning and deeper purpose in life.  This is the real renewal;  the change from ‘waiting for death’.  to ‘preparing for our new life.’  What’s more, it takes us through to Eternity.
There’s no better time to receive this gift than at Easter time.
 
By His death and resurrection our sins are forgiven  (Ephesians 1:7)

Rose Francis