First Reformed Church of Bethlehem

Sunday School

Sunday School is available for children from age three through middle school from early September until mid-June. Older teenagers are welcome to become assistants, helping the teacher with the younger children. All children begin in our worship service and stay until after the children’s sermon, aka the message for our youngest disciples. We teach our children that even the youngest of them can follow Jesus and, therefore, are disciples. A favorite of both the children and the members of the congregation is passing the peace of Christ. Some of our older members delight in a smile, a handshake, and the words “May the peace of Christ be with you” from our littlest children. When we celebrate communion, our children are welcome at the Lord’s table, so the children return to worship in time to sit with their families.

We use a one-room approach to Sunday School using the Deep Blue One Room curriculum as a basis while supplementing with simply telling the stories of Jesus and providing multi-age level games to reinforce the lessons. We sometimes do service projects, such as making a dessert for the Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless. There are three days in the year that are particularly special for our children: the opening day of Sunday School in September, the Christmas pageant in December, and Children’s Day in June.

Thankful Pumpkins

Our Sunday Schoolers came together to decorate Thankful Pumpkins. Socially distanced, masked, and outside; but being together felt the same- happy, full of love, and thankful for each other and this space!

Sunday school update from mary jane brown

While we cannot meet at church, I’m still committed to keeping in touch with our Sunday School. Each week, I send a message via e-mail in the middle of the week and then an “at home” Sunday School activity on the weekend.

The scripture on April 19 described Jesus saying “Peace be with you” when he first met the disciples after Easter morning. It made me think of all the times we pass the peace at our worship services saying, “Peace be with you” as we shake hands. What will we do if we can’t shake hands? With that in mind, I sent Sunday School students a video to teach them to use sign language to wish “Peace be with you” and respond with “And also with you.”

So, when we all return to church, we’ll teach everyone there how to pass the peace using sign language.

Sunday School Students Prepare for Mother’s Day

If we were meeting for Sunday School, our children would be making something to give to their mothers. They might plant some marigolds or give out carnations.

That wasn’t possible this year, so the Sunday School sent crafts to students at home with instructions to make a gift for their moms. Here are two of the items that some moms received. Some children also made a key ring and others made a “Best Mom” certificate with coupons they could give their moms for tasks, such as helping with the dishes. We hope all the moms had a Happy Mother’s Day!

Sunday school in the time of covid-19

It’s difficult to know how to keep Sunday School active when our church building is closed to all activities and events. Nevertheless, I’m committed to keeping in touch with all our children and young people. To do that I send an e-mail to them via their parents in the middle of each week to try to encourage them and assure them that whatever they are feeling (e.g. scared, frustrated, worried) are feelings that are normal and shared by adults as well as children and young people. At the end of the week, I send an “at-home” Sunday School activity. I avoid worksheet type activities for two reasons: 1) they may already be getting such activities from some of their teachers as they do school work at home, and 2) I want these activities to be things they can do without too much assistance from their parents who are already trying to keep them up-to-date with school work and may be trying to work from home as well. For example, I sent them paper palms during the week prior to Palm Sunday so that they could wave palms as they watched Pastor Matt’s service on FaceBook.

During the week after Easter, the activity was based on the scripture for April 19, John 20:19-31. In this reading, Jesus appears to his disciples for the first time after rising on Easter morning and says, “Peace be with you” three times. Since our children enjoy passing the peace on Sunday mornings and since shaking hands may not be an option when we return to worship in church, I sent them a YouTube link teaching them how to say, “Peace be with you” and then “And also with you” in sign language. I asked them to practice so that we can teach the congregation when we return to worship. Sometimes the activities are based on scripture and sometimes they are just for fun, such as an “in your house scavenger hunt.” Whatever I send, I want the children to know that I think about them, care about them, and pray for them, and that we will eventually be back together.

Mary Jane Brown

Sunday School Teacher

kfc cLASS "JOURNEYS THROUGH LENT"

The KFC class has created a path along a large sheet of paper. The path represents the journey through Lent from Ash Wednesday to Easter. Each week, the class reads scripture that helps them consider a symbol to place along the path. For example, in Mathew 4:2-4, Satan tempts Jesus to change rocks into bread, and Jesus responds saying “man cannot live by bread alone.” Our symbols for the first portion of the journey are a rock and bread.

Before we started our “journey,” we discussed the importance of prayer and ways in which we can pray during each week of Lent. Each student was given a copy of the Lord’s Prayer and was encouraged to pray with their families each day, as Pastor Harlan suggested in the last newsletter, Then each student created a “prayer cup,” decorating a cup and placing craft sticks that list various ideas for prayer in each cup. They are to remove one of these sticks each day and pray for the person listed or thank God for whatever they wrote on the sticks.

Learn More

New students? Call 767-2243 for information about our Sunday School!