From the Desk of Intergenerational Ministry – March 2018
February has been a month for sharing God’s love with each other. Our Sunday school students started the month off by creating a video introducing ourselves to the children from Acres of Hope, a school for orphans in Africa. They are all looking forward to more communications to come. At the end of February, the students will get to talk with Patty Anglin, Founder and Executive Director of Acres of Hope. We are very happy to have made this connection.
We continued on our journey of sharing God’s love with a special Valentine’s Day dinner made by the hands of our children for the adults who so generously give of their time, love, wisdom, and financial support. God’s love didn’t stop there. We spread His love to many of the residents at Golden Living Nursing Home in February as well. The Sunday school students made cards for the residents, played parachute games with them, and sang songs for them. They even took a special photo with our dear friend and church member Tom Woods.
This of course is never enough for this spirited bunch of children. They want everyone to know just how much they love this church and everyone in it, so they sang “Love Grows” to the entire congregation on Sunday the 18th.
This month, I introduced our children to the Random Eggs of Kindness Project. I wanted them to start thinking about Easter eggs in a different way. It is my hope that every time they see an Easter egg they will think about performing an act of kindness for someone else. So I have filled plastic eggs with a suggestion for a random act of kindness. Each week the children will select an egg and then perform the suggested act of kindness for the week. We will continue this all through the Lenten season.
As we move into March, we pray that we grow even deeper in knowledge of Jesus’ final journey of suffering and death. Each week one of our Sunday school classes will be presenting a Lenten banner during Children’s Chat. On March 14th, Kate Bernardo will be helping children make Easter baskets for residents at a local nursing home. We greatly appreciate her mentorship to our young children.
To end the Lenten season and look towards the Easter holiday, I am collaborating with the Ashland Chamber of Commerce on ways for our congregation can host Easter games at their annual Easter egg hunt event. It is for sure happening, we are just working out logistics. I will be looking for people to help run the games, make and hand-out popcorn, hand-out Random Eggs of Kindness, serve water and coffee, and make signs. Uniting People Celebrating Christ: that is our motto. This could become our annual event, too!
Important Dates:
March 4th Preschool will present a Lenten banner
March 11th K-2nd grade will present a Lenten banner
March 14th Early release day – Easter basket making for nursing homes
March 18th 3rd – 4th grade will present a Lenten banner
March 25th 5th and 6th grade will present a Lenten banner
March 31st UPCC – Easter egg hunt/lawn games
-Jill Zifko
Intergenerational Ministry