This is just a friendly reminder that the annual Confirmation Brunch is this Saturday morning, from 9am to 11am in Fellowship Hall.

For those who aren’t familiar, the Confirmation Brunch is put on every year by the families of the first year confirmands.  It’s a great way for us to congratulate the graduating confirmands on all their long hours of hard work.  Plus: breakfast!

If you’re going to be with us this Saturday, please RSVP with the Church Office (612-721-5768, office@bethlehemcov.org).  Because no one wants us to run out of coffee.  As always, contact Dave with any questions.  Hope to see you there!

Join us on Sunday, May 6th for our annual Silent Auction!  After worship, we’ll fill Fellowship Hall with dozens of items up for bid.  Mill about, have a gander… and the furiously try to outbid anyone who gets in your way!  All proceeds go towards our trip to CHIC2012 this coming July.

You can donate items for the Auction any time before the start of the auction; just drop your item off in the Church Office.  As always, call/email Dave with any thoughts of questions.  Thanks for your support, and we hope to see you then!

What a beautiful day we have been blessed with, for kids club tonight we’ll be playing outside on the playground and having a jungle-jim chat about the vine and the branches.  In John 15 Jesus teaches us that he is the vine and we as his disciples are the branches, God the father is the gardener and prunes the branches to bear fruit for the kingdom of God.  We must be connected to our source of life and remain in Christ to bear fruit and live in God’s love.

Next Wednesday, May 9 we will be having “Camp Night” with a representative from Covenant Pines Bible Camp.  The children will see a video of camp highlights and get excited about camp opportunities this summer.   There will be great prizes from camp, great food, and a lot of fun.  We’ll also be doing our “Every kid a camper” fundraiser to raise money for camp scholarships.  Please join us and show your support for our campers and for Covenant Pines, the fun starts at 6pm next Wednesday.

This Sunday Cindy Bergstrom will be teaching the children a song to be sung during the gathering service next Sunday.  Make sure your child is on time this Sunday for Sunday school at 9:45am in the fellowship hall downstairs so they can learn the song and sing with the choir during the Gathering Service in a week and a half.

Thanks for checking out Bethlehem’s children’s ministries, be sure to catch an event or two as we wind down the church year.

Blessings,

Pastor Derek

“After his suffering, [Jesus] presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.” Acts 1:3

Every year my kids end up with huge piles of candy. They nobly contend for goodies in our congregational Easter egg hunt. Grandma always sends Peeps- those ooey-gooey marshmallow bunnies coated in neon yellow granulated sugar. Grandpa is usually good about sending the kids a chocolate bunny. Of course Amy and I have to keep up with the proliferation of junk food. What kind of parents wouldwebeifwedidn’tslipsomethingsweetintotheirEasterbaskets? Theygetsomuchcandyfor Easter it would take them over a month to eat it all.

In the past I have done my best to limit the kid’s candy intake by consuming some of the goodies myself. I am especially helpful at getting rid of Peeps. There must be something addictive in those radioactive rascally rabbits! I done my best to stop the candy train before it reaches the month of May. I even pat myself on the belly and congratulate myself for being such a good parent. After all, I am taking a candy bullet for my kids. Why should children consume chocolate eggs a month after Easter?

But hold on! Don’t pull those pastel decorations quite yet. Easter isn’t over after April 8th. Easter is more than a one day celebration. The Season of Easter lasts a whopping fifty days! That leaves the kids plenty of time to polish off their candy stashes. When Easter Sunday has come and gone I am prepared to get rid of bunnies by any means necessary. But the festivities last for another 49 days.

It’s funny, but everyone knows that Lent lasts for forty days. Forty days with no chocolate. Forty days with no television. Forty days with no red meat. But who remembers the fifty days of Easter? Fifty days with no fasting. Fifty days with no mourning. Fifty days of celebration of the new life in Jesus Christ. It’s odd that Christians remember the season of sorrow and forget the season of joy. Augustine put it this way, “These days after the Lord’s resurrection form a period, not of labor, but of peace and joy.”

Just imagine fifty days of the peace and joy we are promised on Easter Sunday. Just imagine fifty days of “JoyDawnedAgainonEasterDay!”stuckinyourhead. Justimaginefriendsspendingthenextfiftydays asking you why you are in such a good mood, and telling them about the love you found in Jesus. Just imagine leaving your kids candy bags alone so they can enjoy the Easter celebration for fifty days. Buy your own candy this year. Keep the celebration going all season long.

(PDF version here) Star April 2012 Joy Dawned Again on Easter Day

There will be nursery care available during both worship services Sunday but there will not be children’s church or Sunday school.
Blessings,
Pastor Derek

There are a lot of great things happening for children at Bethlehem as we approach Palm Sunday and Holy Week. In Pioneer Club tonight the children will have the option of coloring Easter coloring pages, watching a Veggie tales take on Easter, or building their own empty tomb. We’ll also talk about what Easter is all about since we will not be together next Wednesday during Holy Week.

On Sunday there will be a palm processional at the beginning of worship where the children can wave palm branches or the Palm Sunday branches they made in Pioneer Club last week. Both of the children’s choirs will be singing as well. Since the passion reading takes the place of the sermon this week there will be no children’s church.

On Easter Sunday we’ll have our famous Easter Egg hunt at around 10:30am, weather permitting the eggs will be hidden on the child care center’s playground. We’ll have a brief telling of the Easter story upstairs in the youth room, and then the children can “cash in” the empty egg shells they find for a prize bag full of Easter goodies. On a personal note, my daughter Molly will be baptized during the 11am service so Easter will be even more special than normal for me.

Be sure to check out the great programming we have lined up for your children this week and next as we celebrate our savior’s journey to the cross and glorious resurrection.

Blessings,
Pastor Derek

Hopefully March showers bring April and May flowers. Last week in children’s church the children learned one of the most famous Bible verses: John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life. In one verse we see the amazing love of God for the world and for humanity and God’s purpose of salvation through his Son Jesus Christ.

In Pioneer Club this week Blake Christiansen will be leading our session and its sure to be a lot of fun. This Sunday in Sunday school we’ll continue to learn Psalm 8:7 and sing some songs that reflect on the meaning of Lent.

In children’s church we’ll be talking about Jeremiah 31:31-34 and how Jesus started a new covenant or relationship between God and man where God’s laws are written on the hearts and minds of people and cannot separate us from God but empower us to live for God.

Please mark your calendars for a family game night on Saturday April 28 at 4pm at church. We’ll have a party sub from Subway and other treats and refreshments, some games will be available but you’re welcome to bring your own games as well if you’d like. These family events are a lot of fun and a great way to have a night out that won’t cost you a penny.

Have a great week,

Blessings,
Pastor Derek

Last Sunday Cindy Bergstrom led a banner making session for children Pre-K – 5th grade in which the kids designed, sketched, cut, and glued a banner for lent with the donkey Jesus rode in his triumphal entry and a palm branch for the palms the people waved as Jesus entered Jerusalem, it was a fun time.

This Sunday the children will be back in their individual Sunday school classes and in children’s church we’ll study John 3:14-21 which teaches why Jesus became a man and entered into our world, because Jesus loved the world so much, he became human and laid down his life for his friends.

Thanks for staying current with children’s ministries at Bethlehem, enjoy the beautiful week on tap.

Blessings,
Pastor Derek

Last Wednesday we celebrated the beginning of Lent in our Ash Wednesday Service, we talked in Sunday school and Pioneer Club what Lent is all about.  It’s a time we think about the mistakes we make in a solemn effort to search and purge our souls of evil and celebrate God’s grace as we look forward to the cross on Good Friday.  In Pioneer Club tonight we’ll continue to look at families; tonight specifically what it means to honor our parents as the Bible calls us to do.  Children will be encouraged to write or draw one way they will honor their parents this week on a coupon that they can give to Mom and Dad.

In Sunday school we will be moving on to verse 7 in Psalm 8, “all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,”  In verse 6 the Psalmist writes that God put all things under the control of humanity, in verse 7 the Psalmist details the many things humanity has the privilege to take care of.  This week Sunday school begins at 9:45am in the Fellowship Hall.

In Children’s Church this week we’ll look at God’s promise to Abram that started it all, the birth of a great nation that would be a blessing to all nations.  Abram became Abraham, Sarai became Sarah and in the name changes their identity changed as they covenanted with the true and living God.

Blessings,

Pastor Derek