Sunday, August 23, 2015

Faithful Families Resources August 23 2015


Good parents love their kids. Great parents build their families.

Family Closeness
Game
Buckerk
Everyone puts their hands on their eyes making fake glasses with thumb and forefinger. Someone starts by moving their right hand out and saying “buck” (like a chicken), the person to their right then does the same, this continues around the circle until somebody moves both hands away from their face at the same time and says “BUCKERK” (like a crazy chicken). The person to their left then moves their left hand away from their face while saying “buck” and the pattern continues. One hand in the direction and “buck” to continue along, and two hands and “BUCKERK” to change the direction.

Sharing:
Questions for stimulating discussion in your family.
  • What is the worst tasting food you have ever eaten?
  • What food would you never eat? Why?
  • What food do you think it is wrong to eat?

 Story:
With your family read Mark 7.1-8, 14- 23
(for a way of explaining/talking about this reading with children look at
Questions for Discussion:
  • What were the disciples doing that upset the Pharisees?
  • What did Jesus say about the Pharisees?
  • What did Jesus says makes a person unclean? What they eat or what they do?

Prayer and Celebration
Give each family member a piece of paper and some pens or pencils for drawing. Either in silence or with some quiet music on, invite your family to draw on the paper, the people and things they want to pray for. This could include drawing the outcome that you might desire for particular situations. As your family draws encourage them to do so in silence so they may listen to what God has to say to them. At the end of the allocated time encourage everyone to share what they have drawn and what they are praying for.

Service
Family volunteering allows parents, children and other family members to spend time together while contributing to the community and causes they care about. It’s a great way for families to enjoy quality time with each other and introduce family members to the benefits of volunteering. Family volunteering can be a practical way to express values to children and young people.

Volunteering provides parents and other family members the opportunity to be a positive role model by demonstrating how to be involved with the community, and how to make a difference and enjoy it. People who volunteer when they are young are more likely to continue to volunteer throughout their adult life.

Volunteering in your family group can also improve communication among family members, strengthen family bonds and be a lot of fun.
(excerpt from Family Volunteering: Information for Families)

Family Time
Picnic at Home


If you have a back or frontyard pick a nice spot and have a picnic at home. If it is raining move the picnic inside. Make sure you do it just like a normal picnic with a blanket spread on the grass and food in a basket. Play some outdoor games together.

(This material is based on and draws from earlier Faithful Families emails by Stephen Harrison and Richard Browning: An Unless Ideas Production.) Unless otherwise noted all material on this blog is copyright Stephen Harrison and Richard Browning

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Faithful Families Resources August 9 2015


There is an interconnectedness among members that bonds the family, much like mountain climbers who rope themselves together when climbing a mountain, so that if someone should slip or need support, he's held up by the others until he regains his footing.
Phil McGraw, Family First

Family Closeness
Game:
...a few of my favourite things
Everyone  at the dinner table says five of their favourite things. This could be a  favourite colour, number, tv show, movies, animal, friend, toy, food, book. The following night you can test your memory and see if you can remember the 5 favourite things that all the family members told you the previous evening.

Sharing:
Questions for stimulating discussion in your family.
  •  If you could be any animal, what animal would you be? Why?
  • What is the bravest thing you have ever done?
  • Have you ever wanted to grow up faster? Why? What is good about the age you are now? What would be good about being older?

 Story
With your family read John 6.51-58
(for a way of explaining/talking about this reading with children look at http://www.sermons4kids.com/bread-of-life.html
Questions for Discussion:
  • What upset the people listening to Jesus?
  • What do we get from eating Jesus body and blood?

Prayer and Celebration
Intercessory Prayer

A useful image used for intercessory prayer is a stretcher.  From Mark 2.3-12, some people lowered their paralytic friend through the roof into the presence of Jesus.  This is a good image of the work of intercessory prayer.  That is, don’t labour too hard with the words  to use, simply do the hard work of placing or ‘lowering’ the person into the presence of Jesus.

Place on the stretcher, someone you know who needs help.
Silence
Lower on the stretcher someone who you can love better this week.
Silence
Put onto the stretcher a place that needs peace.
Silence
Put onto the stretcher one who needs healing.
Silence
Put on the stretcher a hope of yours for your life.
Silence
Lord in your mercy, receive our prayer.

Family Time
Family Time Line
To help your family think about good things God has  given you, work together to make a family time line. Draw a line in the centre of a long sheet of paper. Choose a starting date to write at the left end of the line. Your time line may cover a week, a one  month period, or the school holidays, or a year. To help family members think of time line events, ask questions such as: "What was something we did that we really enjoyed? How did someone help us in a special way? Who are some new friends our family made?"Display the time line on a wall or door. Allow younger children to enjoy drawing pictures to illustrate the time line. (Adventures for Growing Families. Wes & Sheryl Haystead.)


(This material is based on and draws from earlier Faithful Families emails by Stephen Harrison and Richard Browning: An Unless Ideas Production.) Unless otherwise noted all material on this blog is copyright Stephen Harrison and Richard Browning

Monday, August 3, 2015

Faithful Families Resources August 2 2015


For me, nothing has ever taken precedence over being a mother and having a family and a home.
Jessica Lange

Family Closeness
Game:
Tapping hands
Each person crosses their arms over those of the person next to them and places their hands on the table. One person starts by tapping once and others follow in order of hands in one direction. When someone else taps twice, the direction reverses. If you tap out of turn, the game starts over. How many times can you go around the table?

Sharing:
Questions for stimulating discussion in your family. 
  • How many people from different countries do you know? When might it be difficult to be friendly to someone who is different from you?
  • What is the best thing that happened to you this week? What was the worst?
  • What unexpected thing happened to you this week?
  • What is something new you learnt today or this week?


Story
With your family read John 6.35,41-51
(for a way of explaining/talking about this reading with children look at http://www.sermons4kids.com/bread-of-life.html
Questions for Discussion:
  • Why do you think people were upset that Jesus said he was the bread of life?
  • What does Jesus say will happen in we eat the living bread?
  • What does Jesus say is the bread that he gives? What do you think this means?

 Prayer and Celebration
Actions for a variation of The Lords Prayer
Our Father in heaven, [finger pointing up]
You are a holy God. [open palm pointed high, head dipped reverently]
Come and rule our hearts.[open palm brought down to rest over heart]
Do what’s best on earth [finger pointing down]
as in heaven.[rotate arm to point finger upwards]
Please keep us alive with food.[hand as bowl, 
other doing a scooping action to mouth]
keep us forgiven with you[closed hand warmly rotating over heart]
and forgiving with others.[same hand, finger pointing to all around in sweeping action]
Keep us holding your hand[one hand into the other hand]
and safe from all wickedness.
[two hands up, elbows straight and a firm shielding action]
You’re in charge![strong action, two hands pointing up]
You can do anything you want!  [both palms open out, raised]
You are God, for ever and ever. 
[hands get further apart like measuring something bigger and bigger]
Amen. [closed fist brought down on an open palm].

Service
Anglican Board of Mission – Australia
One mission organisation in Australia that does fantastic work is ABM-A. Their vision is: ABM wants to see people everywhere experience the wholeness of life God offers in Jesus Christ, and to this end support our Partners as they participate in God's mission.
Their website is worth checking out and in particular under their resources menu is a section called “watch” that has videos of some of the work they do. Some of these videos would be appropriate to show family members around the table.

Family Time
No electricity night.
This is a great idea to help your family think about their dependence on electricity and also how they might be able to reduce their energy consumption to help the environment. It also might help you all to think about how many people live throughout the world.Have a night at home where you cannot use anything that requires electricity. This includes cooking the meal and lights and everything else.


(This material is based on and draws from earlier Faithful Families emails by Stephen Harrison and Richard Browning: An Unless Ideas Production.) Unless otherwise noted all material on this blog is copyright Stephen Harrison and Richard Browning