Jesus loves the little children

We had our Valentine's Good News Club yesterday since Feb. 15th is a holiday and Good News Club is on Fridays. The lesson was called "Jesus loves KIDS!" We had a rollicking good time being reminded of the special love Jesus has for children.

Larry is one of my wonderful helpers; the kids call him Grandpa Larry. You can tell they all love him!

Susan is my other wonderful helper. She takes attendance, listens to the kids say the Bible verse from the previous week, and asks the review questions after the lesson. We usually divide the kids into two teams to see who gets the most points (which team answers the most questions correctly).

It's just about time for singing to start. We always begin with the song, "Good News to All the World." The second one we did yesterday was a hit..."Be Strong and Courageous," with a strong beat and hand motions. It's from Joshua 1:9, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

We played a relay race/silly game in the gym to get the wiggles out. One girl missed the group shot; there were actually ten kids present. I've had up to 19 kids in attendance; it varies from week to week. The ones in the photo above are the regulars.

After the story, Susan asked the questions. The child who answered correctly got to roll a die and his/her team earned the number on the die times 100. There's always great excitement during this competition...the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. This time the winning team members each won an extra cookie at snack time. I don't always give a prize to the winning team...just occasionally. The kids always have suggestions, though, for what they should win.

I am trying to gather together the kids for a group shot at the end of our club meeting.

One girl had to leave early, but we did get a photo of me with the nine kids left. Then they went home to practice the last part (in bold) of Mark 10:14-- "But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, 'Let the little children come to me and do not try to stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.'"

I sent home with each child a book I'd put together called "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know." Each page has a statement beginning with "I'm afraid God doesn't love me because...," such as "I'm afraid God doesn't love me because I don't have any friends." Each such statement is followed by a Bible verse to refute the statement, such as "Jesus says, 'Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends.'"

I told them if they brought back the book to our next meeting with a picture drawn on each page to illustrate the words that I would give them a "gold" coin (a chocolate "coin" wrapped in gold foil). There was much excitement about that!