"Feature: We'll Teach, You Train"
Micheal C. Harris
by Micheal C. Harris, children's pastor, East Hill Church, Gresham, Oregon
The night is not even close to Halloween as the Penguin, Bumblebee, and Ladybug approach our front door. They are followed by some stars and a moon, flowers and plants, fish and an Adam and Eve (tastefully clothed in fig leaves). I'll explain to the neighbors later that we are having a Creation Party, and these are families coming dressed as various days of God's creation. When everyone has arrived, we sit on the floor and sing songs of God's greatness. I read Genesis 1, families standing as their day is mentioned. Then they get 10 minutes to compose a commercial advertising their day in some creative way. A refrigerator box has been made into a giant TV, and each family performs its commercial on the "big screen." .Through all the songs, dancing, and terrible puns, we laugh with each other as Creation Week is unforgettably presented. Next, the kids use colored pens to draw each of the seven days on blank postcards. Mom and Dad address these back to the young artists, and I collect them. They will be mailed the following week one day at a time, in order. We finish the evening with snacks and prayers of thankfulness for God's wonderful creation. It's been fun, and both parents and children will long remember how our world came to be. I arrived at East Hill Church as children's pastor in 1976. At that point, we had an extensive Sunday school, children's church, and midweek activities. We are a large Foursquare congregation and were then pressed into a less than adequate facility. The classes were packed, and potential teachers weren't volunteering. Fortunately, I was blessed with a pastor who commissioned me with "Micheal, this is your area of ministry. Do ...
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