Tomorrow most if not all of us will get together with family and friends and celebrate Thanksgiving. It is a time of reflection and remembrance, a time when we remember those pilgrims of long ago and their journey in search of a new land, but why did they come? They tell us plainly in the governing document they signed, the Mayflower Compact: “For the Glory of God and the Advancement of the Christian faith, and the honour of our King and Country.” They wanted to worship the Lord in the way their consciences and their understanding of Holy Scripture led them, which included building a community in which they could daily live out their faith in Jesus Christ. They called their dangerous effort “an errand into the wilderness.” Sadly, many of them died in that first terrible year. Hunger and disease took their toll. But the Pilgrims are honored because they did not give up.

When their little ship, the Mayflower, returned to England, not one of their little band abandoned the call. They called on God to sustain them. And they accepted the timely help of the Wampanoag Indians, especially the English speaking Squanto. Without this help, they might all have died.

The story of Plymouth Rock also reminds us of the Israelites in the Old Testament. They would place standing stones in key places to help them remember how God had led them, how He had watched over them. The Pilgrims identified most strongly with the people of God in the Bible. There may never have been so highly literate a community. All the Pilgrims eagerly learned to read words so that they might read the Word.

This Thanksgiving is a good time to remind our children of the many blessings that Our Lord has showered upon us in the past year. Even in this time of war and of deepening economic hardships, the harvests of our fields are still abundant. Our people have been spared further terrorist attacks, and we passed through a hotly contested election without the violence that too often mars political conflict in less happy lands.

Most of all, we give thanks for the joys of family life. When we gather around a holiday table, the faith, love, and commitment of mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers bind our family circle. Let us also remember to give thanks to God for the brave young men and women who stand guard for us and our blood bought freedoms in distant lands.

And let us resolve in this season to live as “living stones [who] are being built into a spiritual house.” (1 Peter 2:4-5).

God bless you and Happy Thanksgiving.

Each week in November we have explored a multitude of ways to praise God. Although God can be praised anywhere and anytime, most of us share a time of praise and worship as part of our weekly church services.

This weekend the children learned the Biblical account of Ezra and how he worked to lay the foundation of the new Temple. The old Temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians and it layed in ruins. The book of Ezra tells us about the Jewish people return to their homeland and how they felt when they encountered their Temple.

In this weekend’s Bible study we see how after much effort and a lifetime of waiting, a new foundation for a restored Temple was laid. This was a moving experience for God’s people, it was a symbol of their devotion to God.

The people of God were soon to again have their special place of worship. Celebrations were many and powerful!!! Some chose to celebrate with trumpets and cymbals. Many celebrated with singing and chanting, using their voices loudly. Others wept loudly, especially the elderly, who had memories of the fall of their Temple almost a lifetime earlier. So our focus this weekend was that we can praise God anytime, anywhere, and when we are in any mood.

This week, help your children explore different ways and places they can give God praise. Have fun using the tools and resources God has placed before you. Remember God loves to hear our praise!!!

“Let everything that breathes praise the Lord, praise the Lord” Psalm 150:6.

This month we continue to teach kids about praise and worship. The stories in Scripture about praise teach us many different ways to praise God. We can do so in many ways. Our first week of the month we learned that we can praise God through different means, especially through musical instruments. The second week the lesson let the kids know that is OK to praise God through dance and movement.

The lesson this last weekend was about sharing our praise with our voices. There is no more versatile an instrument of praise than the human voice, and the kids learned that this weekend. No two human beings have the exact same voice. This allows for an amazing variety within the use of the human voice.

The Bible lesson illustrated how our voices can be used to give God praise. We can shout as one loud and powerful voice. Or, we can sing in any number of ways, singing a multitude of songs or psalms. Our voices are excellent instruments with which to praise God.

So this week allow your children to explore the use of their voices to praise God. God created our bodies and made them so we can dance , like we learned last week, and God created our voices to sing and shout praises to Him. We can use what God has given us to live a life of continual praise to Him.

“Let everything that breathes praise the Lord, praise the Lord” Psalms 150:6

Imagine having something very dear to you become lost. Imagine, after a long time of not having it, you find it. Can you picture the joy you might have once you have found it? These were questions the kids were asked this weekend during their lessons. They learned about the ark of the covenant and how king David reacted when they finally got it back.

The ark of the covenant was very special to the people of Israel. It represented the presence and power of God. At one time, the ark was away from the people of Israel and their leaders in Jerusalem. It had the effect of practically being lost. King David assembled a massive army to retrieve the ark and with God’s help, he was successful in doing so.

Two strong themes emerge in this lesson. First, we must give God praise in our joy. It is often when we are most joyful that we naturally give God our praise. Second, we learn that dancing and movement are very good ways in which we can praise God. Most children as well as adults like to dance to the beat of “groovy” music. Can we not also dance in joy and praise to our God? The answer that the kids learned this week and is from Scriptures is a resounding yes.

Ephesians 6:17 is our verse for the Kids Camp In this year. The camp-in is only for kids from grades 1-5. Please grab a registration card at the info booth and fill it out front and back. Return it with your payment of $25 per child to the bookstore. If you have 3 or more children in your family, then maximum charge is just $50 per family but we still require a filled out registration and medical release form for each child. Don’t let your kids miss this opportunity to learn biblical principles while having fun with their friends. The camp is from Friday December 5 at 5pm to Saturday December 6 at noon.

Hello CCk family, we just had another awesome weekend in our Kidz Ministry. The Lord continues to bless us with more and more kids every weekend. We continue to set attendance records, Praise God.

This weekend we started a new theme which is “The Story of Praise”. This is our story, the story of God’s people whose very purpose is to praise God. The Bible contains many stories of people praising God, and Scripture itself has been used as a way to praise God. In fact, the Hebrew name for the psalms is tehilim, which means “praises”.

This weekend’s lesson centered on Psalm 150, the exuberant symphony of praise that includes instruments, dance, and the voices of “everything that breathes” (Psalm 150:6). The children made different instruments in class, and just to warn you parents throughout the rest of the month they will be making some more. So we encourage you to ask your children what they learned and to go over with them the take home pages that we give them. We are excited about teaching the kids how to worship and what it means.

By the way the memory verse this month is “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord, Praise the Lord” (Psalm 150:6). We welcome and encourage any comments or feedback. May the Lord continue to bless you and your families.