Happy New Year!  We are so excited to get back into learning about the Bible & God! Our first lesson for the year has been on the “Greatest Commandment”.  To remember that God wants us to love God & others, we each made a mezuzah & put it in a mezuzah case made out of clay! A mezuzah is a piece of parchment inscribed with specific Hebrew verses from the Torah, which Jewish people affix in a small case to the doorposts of their homes. Whenever passing through the doorway, many people touch a finger to the mezuzah case as a way of showing respect to God.  

We also baked & decorated heart shaped cookies to share with others to learn more about the story & to put action to our words of “Love God, Love Others”. 

We’ll be finishing the Greatest Commandment rotation by using fabric markers to decorate a bag that shares the message with others to “Love God, Love Others”. They can use the bag to take snacks along, put library books in or any other ideas they can think of. Wherever they go with their bag, they’re sharing God’s message of love.  

Preschool/Kindergarteners have been busy learning about the story of the wise & foolish builders & how following God’s word helps us weather the storms of life. The kids sang & did actions to “The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock”, played a cup relay game to build a tower that fell down & made a House on the Rock & House on the Sand craft! They also learned about the parable of the Good Samaritan. They watched a video, sang songs, made handprints to remind us that our hands are made for helping & played a helping/turn taking game to learn that we can help each other too! 

Our new mission will begin at the end of January & will be our National Mission. We’ll be raising money for the Wisconsin Conference to support the Church World Service fund to help those in California that have lost their homes to fire. CWS’s Emergency Preparedness, Response & Recovery team provides resources to people in need, limited temporary housing & technical assistance to organizations on the ground. This is another way for our kids to learn that we can help people outside our own communities. Please give what you can.