Children's Ministry - ΠΑΙΔΙΑ Praise
Our monthly children's Service known as 'ΠΑΙΔΙΑ Praise' (meaning Children's Praise) happens each month mainly at 4.00pm in St. Stephen's Church, Stephanie Village, Tala. The format is one of music and singing, practical activity and interaction, prayers and a story from the Bible. There is an atmosphere of fun as well as learning about the Christian faith. Afterwards we share light refreshments. All children are welcome.
During the school holidays, mid-week morning Workshops provide popular activities and further opportunities for teaching.
Further details can be requested by contacting Colin and Brenda on 26815384. You would be most welcome at any of our services.
2010
What do we know about God? When we met for our service at the end of January, we decided to look at lots of questions, to see how much we really know about God. So we each started off with a mystery envelope, with a question about God inside, which we tried to answer, with a bit of help from our friends! We also spent a little time drawing some pictures of what we think God looks like. That was not easy, but at least it made us stop and think!
After we had sung some of our favourite songs, we settled down in a group together, to see how many answers we had to the questions. Although we found that we knew quite a lot, we also realised that we have lots more to learn, so it was time to turn to a Bible story which would tell us more about God and how He cares for His world and all the people in it.
Our pictures of God are on display at St. Stephen’s Church, together with some of our difficult questions, to make the grown-ups think as well! We shall all need our thinking caps on for our next service when we shall be talking about ‘Prayer’ or ‘Talking with God’.
If you could join us for our Children’s Service on Sunday 28th March at 4 p.m. at St. Stephen’s Church in Tala, we should be delighted to see you. We shall be celebrating Palm Sunday on that date. Our activities last for just an hour and we welcome all ages, including adults!
For further details of any of our children’s outreach, please contact Brenda and Colin on 26815384. We look forward to hearing from you.
Talking with God - 28th February at St. Stephen's
At our last Service we thought that it would be a good idea to think about ‘Talking with God’ because often praying is not an easy thing to do. We started off with lots of different questions about prayer and, somehow, between us we were able to work out most of the answers. Some of the questions were things like: ‘Do we have to pray out loud for God to hear?’ ‘Is there a special time or place to pray?’ ‘If God knows everything, why do we need to pray?’
We heard an Old Testament Bible story about Samuel and his mother Hannah, who were both very good at listening and talking to God. After our own prayer time and some more action songs, we talked about the special activity we had planned for that day.
To help us to remember who to pray for each day, we looked at our ‘Praying Hands’ and we learnt that each finger and thumb could help us to think of different people. For example, because our thumbs are nearest to us, they remind us to pray for our families and friends, who are closest to us, while our tallest fingers make us think of important people, like kings and presidents, who have to rule their countries. We had fun drawing round our hands and marking in all the different people on the fingers, to help us to remember, as we could take the cards home.
As we look towards the celebration of Easter, we have many different activities planned, but our regular meeting is usually 4 p.m. on the fourth Sunday in the month, when we welcome all ages, including adults! For further details of any of our children’s outreach, please contact Brenda and Colin on 26815384. We look forward to hearing from you.
The Anglican Church of Paphos - Children’s Activities
Easter Celebrations
On the Sunday before Easter, we met to celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday. The church was decorated with big palm branches and, after we had sung some songs and listened to a story, we decided to make our own palm fronds, so that we could act out the story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, with all his friends lining the streets, waving palm branches, as Jesus passed by.
If you had suddenly come into the church, you might have been very surprised to see one of our helpers, acting as the donkey complete with ears and tail, and ‘Jesus’ on his back, leading a palm-waving procession around the church, while we sang the song ‘We have a king who rides a donkey and his name is Jesus!’
We were all given small crosses, made out of palm leaves, which the Chaplain blessed, and he told us that in countries where there are no palms, people celebrate with olive branches or evergreens like fir trees. We were able to take our crosses home with us to remind us all that happened to Jesus on Good Friday.
Since the Greek Orthodox Church and the Western Church all celebrated Easter at the same time this year, we did not meet on Easter Day itself, but during the holiday we were able to hold our annual ‘egg-hunt’ and picnic in Pykni Forest.
We hunted for nearly two hundred bright red ‘eggs’ which were really egg-shaped stones and then, after we had played some games, we were so hungry that we had to have our picnic, before playing some more games and also painting some hard-boiled eggs with really funny faces. At the end of our time together, we each had a chocolate Easter egg, kindly donated by our Chaplain.
The children will be participating in the Church Flower Festival this year by decorating large musical notes, to go with the ‘Songs of Praise’ theme, and also depicting the song, ‘One more step along the world I go’ by making flower arrangements in a variety of shoes!
Our activities are fun and varied and we look forward to our next Service, which will be on Pentecost Sunday 23rd May. If you would like to join us, you would be more than welcome. For further details of any of our children’s outreach, please contact Brenda and Colin on 26815384. We look forward to hearing from you.
Pentecost Celebrations
On Pentecost Sunday we met to celebrate the Birthday of the Church, when the Holy Spirit came to the first disciples in Jerusalem. The name, Pentecost, tells us that this happened fifty days after Easter, when Jesus had gone back into heaven. Another name for Pentecost is Whit Sunday, because in earlier years people always used to dress in white on this special day.
After some action songs, we heard the story of how the Holy Spirit arrived, to turn the frightened, cowardly disciples into strong, confident people, willing to go out into the streets to tell everyone about all that Jesus had done. Because some of the signs of the Holy Spirit are flames, wind and a dove, we wore orange, red and yellow ‘flame’ headbands and used ribbons to show the power of the wind.
Later we made mobiles in the shape of ‘windmills’ and ‘doves’ to take home, to remind us of the Holy Spirit, who can help people today, just as much as he did two thousand years ago.
At the end of the afternoon, we all sang ‘Happy Birthday to the Church’ before sharing a big chocolate birthday cake!
During the summer holidays, we shall be holding a series of Workshops on a variety of Bible themes, the next two being on Thursday 29th July and Thursday 26th August, from 10 a.m. – 12.30 p.m. at St. Stephen’s Church in Tala. At each Workshop we shall cover all sorts of activities from painting, singing, drama, craftwork etc. If you would like to join us, you would be more than welcome.
Our Director of Music at the Church is also hoping to start a Children’s Choir, so we should be pleased to hear of anyone who is interested.
For further details of any of our children’s outreach, please contact Brenda and Colin on 26815384. We look forward to hearing from you.
Παιδíα Praise Services over the next 6 months
All held at St. Stephen's unless stated otherwise
Summer Holiday Workshops in June, July and August
We look forward to welcoming both parents and children!
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