Here's a fun nod to Seuss for children and perhaps parents too!
Available as a powerpoint or video ...

We have been running an Alpha Course with a children's programme too.  Since we can't meet together now, Helen made this video for the children who were with her and Lesley in the Alpha Kids programme to go alongside the adults' session on healing.

Hey kids - we can't meet together at present, so I made a video for you.  Hope you enjoy it.

Hey everyone, here are some fun Easter crafts with what you might have at home.

Hi Kids,  You might like this Easter Song - Wendy.

On Thursday, we invite you to conduct your own Christian Passover meal at home. 
Passover has always been a family celebration at home.  It was originally about protection from a plague.  It is therefore particularly apt for us at a time when we are confined to our homes out of concern about an epidemic.  Then Jesus took this ancient festival and gave it new meaning for us.

Read on for details and what you need to prepare and cook.

I hope this finds you happy and safe in your bubbles.  

I would imagine that many of you are working through the question of "What to do about Easter when the churches are closed?" 

No doubt things will be different this year, and we may need to wait for celebrating a few traditions, but the one thing many of us have right now is time- to spend on our own relationships with God, and to encourage our children to do the same.

I'd like to pass on a couple of resources you can share with your children if you find it helpful. 

Something that I shared with my children was the Easter bubbles resource from STRANDZ.  (Also available below as a PDF.)   It includes a video link to a Bible story for each day of Holy Week, to help children understand our time of leading up to Easter starting with today, Palm Sunday. 
[By the way - the video about Jesus and the children deliberately does not use narration :-)]

Then there is the fidget prayer spinner - see the pdf below.

If you would enjoy reading the stories to your children, Auckland library's website currently has a Jesus Storybook Bible e-book that you can download. 
 
If there is anything I or other members of St Stephen's can do to support you during this time, please do let us know. We'd love to hear about the blessings (as well as the challenges) going on within your bubbles.

God Bless You All,
Wendy Fowler  
Children & Families Minister
wendyf @ ststephenswgp.org.nz

Download the file, print it out, cut out the pieces - and they can be arranged different ways to tell the story of Easter.  Give it a go!
Hope you enjoy it - Wendy.

We have had the Teddy Bear hunt as we have looked for teddies in the windows and letterboxes of people's houses.  The Prime Minister suggested an Easter Egg hunt - putting drawings of Easter Eggs in the window.

Here are some Easter Egg outlines you can colour and stick up in the window.  They remind us that the Easter Egg represents the empty tomb.  When the chick hatches and leaves the empty shell it is like Jesus coming out of the tomb.

Part 3 of the story leading up to the Passover....

Part 4.  This is what it was all building up to. ....

Hi Parents,  A note from me about Passover, how you might tell your children the story and why it is relevant especially now.  Blessings, Ian

Here is part 2 of the story behind the Passover meal.

To understand the Passover story, we need to know what led up to it.  Helen is telling the story over these three days, starting with the birth of Moses.

We have been running an Alpha Course with a children's programme too.  Since we can't meet together now, Helen made this video for the children who were with her and Lesley in the Alpha Kids programme.

Hey kids - we can't meet together at present, so I made a video for you.  Hope you enjoy it.