Trans-European Division of Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Children s Ministries

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1 Trans-European Division of Seventh-Day Adventist Church Children s Ministries W I N T E R In a recent Children s Ministry Magazine I read an article about the Global Kids Happiness Index, created by The Marketing Store Worldwide. This survey of kids between the ages of 6 to 12 found that the most important sources of kids happiness are family, friends and play. (globalkidsstudy.com) By the way the happiest kids live in Mexico. If you think about it our churches are geared towards family, they give kids lots of opportunity to make friends and we give them time to play as well. But perhaps as a church we could be doing more to make the three most important things in our children s lives a reality. Family, friends and play something we all can relate to whether we are young or old. As a new year is starting we here at the TED would like to invite you to make 2014 a Family, friends and play year. A year in which we find ways of connecting people into the word of God, through family, friends and play. God bless each and every one of you and may 2014 be a year in which impossibilities become possibilities. God bless, Clair

2 Viking boat in the backyard of the church in Ptuj, Slovenia In August 2013 the church in Ptuj hosted the fifth 'Children's Week'. This year the theme was: Become a Viking. The boat of Milos The Famous, great Viking warrior, landed in the backyard of the SDA-Church in Ptuj. But before children were allowed to enter the boat they had to fulfil a lot of Captain's requirements: they had to come to know the life of Vikings, learn the Viking's song, know the rules how little Vikings behave, they had to cook a real Viking meal, make a suitable dress and they had to find Viking treasure. At the end of the first day as they accomplished all tasks they were accepted in the Viking society. Even dirty and tired they were very happy about it. Many other activities took place during the week: they made their own bows, they lit a fire all by themselves, they cooked an outdoor -open-fire-pot-soup, they walked on a tightrope, they played different games, they competed with paper-boats, they did fishing, they made a volcano to erupt, they had a waterballoon fight But we spent a lot of time to know the values that were important for Vikings too, like obedience, cooperation, courage, curiosity, diligence and gratefulness. We had the opportunity to know these values through different games, songs and conversations. On the last day the parents joined us as well. Children represented their skills to manage the boat, sang some songs, at the end the Captain Milos The Famous gave them diplomas and real cow horns. As the little Vikings prepared a meal for their parents, Zmago Godina held a lecture titled:» How to say 'NO' to a child«for parents. /Nataša Kostanjevec/

3 Liepaja Church Latvia On the first Saturday of October the Adventist church held the second Messy Church event. The theme for this event was Love your closest. 46 kids and 21 parents attended the church on that afternoon. This time we divided the workshops according to age. It is a place where we can be with the whole family, we can work together, have fun and we are pleased that it is held in the Church. - a grandfather shared his feelings. This project brings back people to the church who haven t attended it for many years. This is a great way for the Pathfinders to present themselves. Church members who want to help are divided in groups who have the same task. Kids learn to be polite and help others. Sceptical and who don t like the church they have the opportunity to see that the church is a friendly place. Messy Church is open to all generations. It is such a fortune to be in the middle of all these children to see so much fun, meet families, children discover the love of God through words, songs, prayer, crafts and activities. These are special moments when we realize that these families which we got to know through social service Liepaja s family aid, now come to us as friends. Let the children come to me - written in the Bible. Now we can add: Let yourselves come with the children to me. There are kids who bring their grandmas, mothers and maybe someday even their fathers. /Dagnija Roderte/

4 Messy Church in Kaunas, Lithuania We had 5 tables: an old lantern kids made lanterns from clay and put candles in it. Secret papyrus on wallpaper kids wrote their name with Greek letters with black gouache. Written primer kids made an alphabet caterpillar from egg cartons putting on wiggly eyes. You can imagine how long it was because we have 32 letters in our alphabet. Colourful chalk from plaster and Tempera colours kids have made all colours of big chalk pieces. Sweet mice mice were made from cacao powder and marshmallows. For food we used autumn vegetables with lots of pumpkins. This time we had the biggest number of people since we have started. It was a wonderful time. Our pastor was not with us so we invited young people from Mira to help us and watching them we know they also had a very nice time. We had 3 visitors from other congregations who wanted to see how we do this programme. We also had new kids who were waiting until they turned three years old and will be allowed to come with their brothers and sisters. We asked a girl what she liked best she said she liked everything what was going here very much. One father was baptised this summer. I cannot tell that it is the fruit of our programme but I think it had an influence to the process of this decision, especially for his wife who was very against and even did not allow their daughter to come to these meetings. Now she is not so strict any more. One more woman, I wrote about her before she is the daughter of our member, now she wants to help us with organising the programme and last Sabbath she was taking part in Communion service. I personally see this programme as very successful in making church as a family, real family involving people in service.

5 Messy Church in Liepaja, Latvia 2 November 2013 After the sketch, orchestra and the worship it was time for the regular workshops. This month we celebrate Latvia s birthday and in the workshops the children were able to cut and draw a variety of things which are naturally occuring in Latvia: bees, fish, flowers, etc. The children were very happy and keen to participate in the proposed activities they made their own magnets, a collage to show how beautiful is Latvia, butterflies out of maple leaves, charted the depths of the sea, helped bees get to the hive and recognized the animals. After all these activities the pastor pointed out that we have to care about each other, about the land and creatures. Our pastor Līvija says, welcoming changes can be seen throughout the event as parents are becoming more active in workshops and helping their children, watching and supporting them. It is hoped that this trend is only bound to expand, and that they not only have had a nice afternoon, but also valuable conversations at home about the church experience.

6 CHILDREN S DAY AT WREXHAM AND NEWTOWN Love, joy, peace and patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, these are the fruit of the Spirit! By the time we had sung this over and over in Wrexham on Sabbath morning 16th November, we all knew it off by heart! The children joined in the programme by reading this Bible passage to the adults and then participated in a lively discussion as to how we can live out these fruits in our lives. We decided that we don t want to be like a lunch box fruit snack that is only 55% fruit, but more like the pack of raisins that is 100% fruit! Following the morning programme on 23rd November in Newtown, the children (and adults too!) enjoyed making wall hangings and fruit prints to remind them about showing the fruits of the Spirit in our lives. We all agreed that you can t make fruit you have to allow it to grow, and like the farmer who provides the right environment for healthy fruit trees to grow good apples, we can provide the right environment to allow the Spirit to work in our hearts, developing these positive characteristics. /Pat Eastwood Children's Ministries Sponsor, Welsh Mission/ New Messy Church leaders Marica Prvulovic from Pula Church, Croatia Suzana Majnaric from Maribor Church, Slovenia

7 "Jump! Jump and help!" Messy Church in Maribor All mentors of second messy workshops encouraged children and their parents to think about who is our neighbour through the story of the Good Samaritan and through carefully prepared activities. In the workshops, the children produced masks, sandals, trained hitting the target, learned about the flags of the world, ate snacks in the workshop "travelers snack", continued to the first aid and cared for the wounded bear. The drama show of story of the Good Samaritan encouraged everybody to help our neighbours and think about our lives. Messy Church music team impressed children and their parents and raised them on their feet with song: "Jump! Jump up and help!". At the end, the Messy kitchen team filled our stomachs with delicious veggie sausages, which we called "robbers čevapčiči". "Messy Church is a blessing for children and their parents and for all organizers. I wouldn't miss it for the world" - Messy Church leader Susan Majnarić enthusiastically explains. /RC_Press/

8 Children s Ministries This newsletter is addressed to the Children s Ministry Directors of the Unions in The Trans-European Division. Others who would like to be on the mailing list can send their address to zkovacs-biro@ted-adventist.org in order to be added to it. Children s Ministries Department Trans-European Division of Seventh-day Adventists 119 St Peter s Street, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL1 3EY England csanches-schutte@ted-adventist.org zkovacs-biro@ted-adventist.org Please send stories and ideas you want to share to To subscribe or unsubscribe please reply to this . zkovacs-biro@ted-adventist.org For Union Training of Coaches and Presenters contact: csanches-schutte@tedadventist.org The Funny Side of Parenting The Sunday School teacher was describing how Lot's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt, when little Jason interrupted, 'My Mommy looked back once while she was driving,' he announced triumphantly,'and she turned into a telephone pole!'