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 Welcome to the Kidsreach email
Communique sent to you by David Goodwin and the team at Kidsreach
Welcome to the Kidsreach email Communiqué sent to you by David Goodwin and the team at Kidsreach.
You will be really blessed by this week's quote from Dianne Reistroffer: ‘Let the little children come to Me. Don't stop them'. In the article, Dianne talks about the importance John Wesley put on discipling children.
God Bless.
David
Object Lesson: Helping children (and adults) make sense of hard times.
The objects to use are a piece of coal and a diamond. A diamond is one of the most expensive and precious gems. Do you know how a diamond is made? It starts with a piece of coal, just like this. How could this piece of coal ever become a diamond? Deep in the earth, extreme pressure and time compresses and makes a diamond. A diamond is the toughest of gems and is just as useful to industry as it is useful and beautiful as jewellery. If we want to become a diamond kind of person, then we must let our trials shape us to become a better person.
2009 Children's Ministry Resources on CD  This Children's Ministry Resources on CD contains thousands of resources that will help you in your ministry to children. Each category is set out like a book in chapters. They are:
- Children's Ministry Ideas
- Children's Ministry Object Lessons
- Children's Ministry Stories
- Children's Ministry Websites.
- Ice Breakers for Cell Groups
- Children's Ministry Quotes
- The Handbook on Children's Ministry
- Children's Ministry Video Clips
- Devotions and Articles
- Jokes
- Riddles
- Things Kids Say
Price is $25
To open this resource you will need a PC. The files are in two formats: Microsoft Word and PDF files so almost everyone will be able to access these files. Also, can this file be opened by a MAC
Sri Lanka Update
If you are interested in being part of the 2009 missions team travelling to Sri Lanka and Nepal , please register your interest by replying to this email. The trip will take place 15 -29 August Sri Lanka, 29 August to 6 September in Nepal . We are in the planning stages of this trip. We will have at least 4 conferences and one likely camp in Sri Lanka .
School of Children's Counselling
If you have a heart to help hurting children or are a chaplain, kids pastor, parent or caregiver then you would benefit from attending the Kidsreach School of Children's Counselling. Remaining courses for this year are Adelaide , Indonesia , Nepal and Hamilton . If you want further information, please reply to this email.
f you have attended the same course previously, you are allowed to attend the second time for free.
Joke : What Kids Say
A father was at the beach with his children when the four year old son ran up to him, grabbed his hand, and let him to the shore, where a seagull lay dead in the sand. "Daddy, what happened to him?" the son asked.
"He died and went to Heaven," the Dad replied.
The boy thought a moment and then said, "Did God throw him back down?"
Quotable Quote
Dianne Reistroffer is the Assistant Professor of Ministry, Director of Graduate Studies and Dean of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Her ministry focuses on many issues of peace, justice and child advocacy. She wrote a inspiring article in 1999 about John Wesley and the Methodism and their attitude towards children. It is called: Let the little children come to Me. Don't stop them.
Methodism was born among the impoverished of eighteenth-century England .
Children and their total needs were of particular concern to early Methodists. Wesley was especially concerned that poor children not only learn "to read, write, and cast account, but more especially (by God's assistance) to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent."
Whenever a Methodist society included the children, the preachers went to establish a bond and meet with them twice a week. Some preachers hesitated, claiming, "But I have no gift for this." John Wesley was adamant. His response to such objections was firm: "Gift or no gift, you are to do it, else you are not to be called Methodist preachers." John Wesley believed in Jesus' words: "Let the little children come to me. Don't stop them."
Unlike many churches today, Wesley's commitment to children and the poor went beyond friendship and proclamation. He sought to provide holistically for their needs. he acted!
Wesley and the early Methodists provided education, opened free health clinics, established a sewing cooperative for women in poverty, provided a lending agency, visited the imprisoned, and through women like Mary Bosanquet and Sarah Ryan established orphanages and residential schools.
Sadly by the middle of the 19th century the Methodist Movement in America began to shift its focus from the poor to the more affluent. American Methodists sought to compete with other churches for the ‘weightier folks' the more wealthy.
Gradually the church distanced itself from the poor, who became objects of mission rather than part of the life of the church. In my denomination, the United Methodist Church , that pattern has continued to this day, to the point that the poor are seldom in our worship and fellowship. Our church is experiencing an alarming loss of not only poor children, but middle-class children as well. Not long ago the United Methodist Bishops stated the matter bluntly: ‘The decline in church school enrolment and attendance among children in our churches precisely at a time when children are increasingly at risk is a judgment upon us and a call to immediate action.'
Every child in this world-male or female, black or white, yellow, red, or brown should grow up believing three things about themselves: they are loved, they are capable, and they belong.
In teaching this lesson we in the church convey to our young people that each of us has a precious work and our story has a bigger story which frames our entire life's journey. In each community of faith to which we belong, we bring stories and retell stories. We teach our young that our most important and fundamental tasks as believers is to learn God's story and to participate in that story. All our beliefs, values, experiences, and actions are dependent upon making God's story our story and embracing God's people as our people. Jesus says, ‘Let the little children come to me. Don't stop them.'
Published in Family Ministry Empowering Through Faith, Volume 13 No. 3 Fall 1999, pp. 32-34.
About Kidsreach
Kidsreach Mission Statement is to: Resource, train and encourage those who minister to and counsel children.
Kidsreach has a large number of resources and training opportunities available to those who minister to children including one day and five day seminars scattered throughout New Zealand during the year. Through partnerships with Tabor College (Syndey) and Laidlaw College (Auckland) we offer accredited courses in Children's Ministry.
There are offices in NZ, Australia, and Sri Lanka. We have a working relationship with similar organisations in Ethiopia, PNG and Indonesia. For more information, visit the websites: Aus: www.kidsreach.org.au NZ: www.kidsreach.org.nz
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New Zealand
Kidsreach Charitable Trust
PO Box 305, Waikanae, NZ
P: 04 904 1217, F: 09 904 1217
W: http://www.kidsreach.org.nz/
E: Resource Orders admin@pleroma.org.nz
E: Training, Events and Courses david.kidsreach@gmail.com
E: Administrative Oversight mail@kidsreach.org.nz
Australia
Kidsreach Children's
Services Inc
PO Box 265, North Richmond, 2754
P:
02 4571 4276, F: 02 4571 1789
M: 041 485 9020
W:
http://www.kidsreach.org.au/
E: david.kidsreach@gmail.com
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