Saturday, March 31, 2012

First Communion Class

I know, I'm posting kind of late today.  I woke up kind of late this morning, 7:45.  I'm more of a 6:00 a.m. kind of gal so I was pretty startled to see the time.  It's even weirder because I slept much of yesterday, having worked the night shift Thursday night.  I think I slept 16 hours out of 24!  Anyway, I was teaching a class this morning so I had to get myself cleaned up quickly and out the door.

The class I was teaching was preparation for children about to have their first communion.  The students were grade school age and their parents came along as well.  Two years ago I worked up 4 lessons about communion and put them in worksheet form.  The parents work with their own children at home to do the first 3 lessons.  Today was the final lesson so we went through what they'd already done and did a craft as well.  Mike (aka Pastor Mike) then worked with the children, helping them know what to expect and explained some of the procedural things.



I loved this class!  We discussed how God watched over them and helped free them.  When Jesus first taught his disciples about communion it was when they were having the Passover meal, which is why it was important for the children to know what that was.  So, we discussed how the Jewish People were held as slaves and how God freed them.  All that happened before Jesus' earthly life so it was fun to see the children realize how it related to what Jesus was then teaching so many years later.

As we discussed Jesus as sacrifice for us, forgiveness of sins, God's love and the community of Saints these children had some great insights to share.  They and their parents made the discussion lively and thought-provoking.  I love it when that happens!  We tackled questions such as, "Do you think we are meant to have communion alone or as a group?" or "Is it ok to be joyful when taking communion or must we all be solemn?"  If anyone wants copies of the lesson plan, just leave a comment here or e-mail me at onlythemanager@yahoo.com.  I can send it to you via e-mail.

Their craft was a picture frame.  I asked them to paint it with symbols or words that represented something they'd learned about communion.  I received permission from parents so that I could show some of their work. Enjoy!
















The children will then put a photo of themselves in the frame, reminding them they are also chosen by God.



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