ChM Winter 2014Trans-European Division of Seventh-Day Adventist Church
WWWWWWWW IIIIIIII NNNNNNNN TTTTTTTT EEEEEEEE RRRRRRRR 2 0 1 42 0 1 42 0 1 42 0 1 42 0 1 42 0 1 42 0 1 42 0 1 4
Clair
In a recent Children’s Ministry Magazine I read an article about the Global Kids
Happiness Index, created by The Marketing Store Worldwide. This survey of
kids between the ages of 6 to 12 found that the most important sources of kids’
happiness are family, friends and play. (globalkidsstudy.com)
By the way the happiest kids live in Mexico.
If you think about it our churches are geared towards family, they give kids lots
of opportunity to make friends and we give them time to play as well. But per-
haps as a church we could be doing more to make the three most important
things in our children’s lives a reality. Family, friends and play something we all
can relate to whether we are young or old.
As a new year is starting we here at the TED would like to invite you to make
2014 a Family, friends and play year. A year in which we find ways of connecting
people into the word of God, through family, friends and play.
God bless each and every one of you and may 2014 be a year in which impossibili-
ties become possibilities.
God bless,
In August 2013 the church in Ptuj hosted the fifth 'Children's
Week'. This year the theme was: Become a Viking. The boat of
Milos The Famous, great Viking warrior, landed in the backyard of the SDA-Church in Ptuj.
But before children were allowed to enter the boat they had to fulfil a lot of Captain's re-
quirements: they had to come to know the life of Vikings, learn the Viking's song, know the
rules how little Vikings behave, they had to cook a real Viking meal, make a suitable dress and
they had to find Viking treasure.
At the end of the first day as they accomplished all tasks they were accepted in the Viking
society. Even dirty and tired they were very happy about it.
Many other activities took place during the
week: they made their own bows, they lit a
fire all by themselves, they cooked an outdoor
-open-fire-pot-soup, they walked on a tight-
rope, they played different games, they com-
peted with paper-boats, they did fishing, they
made a volcano to erupt, they had a water-
balloon fight…
But we spent a lot of time to know the values that were important
for Vikings too, like obedience, cooperation, courage, curiosity, dili-
gence and gratefulness. We had the opportunity to know these val-
ues through different games, songs and conversations.
On the last day the parents joined us as well. Children represented
their skills to manage the boat, sang some songs, at the end the
Captain Milos The Famous gave them diplomas and real cow horns.
As the little Vikings prepared a meal for their parents, Zmago Godina held a lecture titled:
» How to say 'NO' to a child« for parents.
/Nataša Kostanjevec/
ber the Adventist church held the sec-
ond Messy Church event. The theme
for this event was “Love your closest”.
46 kids and 21 parents attended the
church on that afternoon. This time we
divided the workshops according to age.
“It is a place where we can be with the
whole family, we can work together,
have fun and we are pleased that it is
held in the Church.”- a grandfather shared his feelings.
∗ This project brings back people to the church who haven’t at-
tended it for many years.
∗ This is a great way for the Pathfinders to present themselves.
∗ Church members who want to help are divided in groups who
have the same task.
∗ Kids learn to be polite and help others.
∗ Sceptical and who don’t like the church they have the oppor-
tunity to see that the church is a friendly place.
∗ Messy Church is open to all generations.
It is such a fortune to be in the middle of all these children to see
so much fun, meet families, children discover the love of God
through words, songs, prayer, crafts and activities. These are spe-
cial moments when we realize that these families which we got to
know through social service Liepaja’s family aid, now come to us as
friends. “Let the children come to me”- written in the Bible. Now we
can add: ”Let yourselves come with the children to me.” There are
kids who bring their grandmas, mothers and maybe someday even
their fathers. /Dagnija Roderte/
made lanterns from clay and put can-
dles in it. Secret papyrus – on wallpaper kids wrote their name with Greek
letters with black gouache. Written primer – kids made an alphabet cater-
pillar from egg cartons putting on wiggly eyes. You can imagine how long it
was because we have 32 letters in our alphabet. Colourful chalk – from plaster and Tempera
colours kids have made all colours of big chalk pieces. Sweet mice – mice were made from ca-
cao powder and marshmallows. For food we used autumn vegetables with lots of pumpkins.
This time we had the biggest number of people since we have started. It was a wonderful
time. Our pastor was not with us so we invited young people from Mira to help us and watching
them we know they also had a very nice time. We had 3 visitors from other congregations who
wanted to see how we do this programme. We also had new
kids who were waiting until they turned three years old and
will be allowed to come with their brothers and sisters. We
asked a girl what she liked best she said she liked every-
thing what was going here very much. One father was bap-
tised this summer. I cannot tell that it is the fruit of our
programme but I think it had an influence to the process of
this decision, especially for his wife who was very against
and even did not allow their daughter to come to these
meetings. Now she is not so strict any more. One more wom-
an, I wrote about her before she is the daughter of our
member, now she wants to help us with organising the pro-
gramme and last Sabbath she was taking part in Communion
service. I personally see this programme as very successful
in making church as a family, real family involving people in
service.
time for the regular workshops. This month we
celebrate Latvia’s birthday and in the workshops the
children were able to cut and draw a variety of
things which are naturally occuring in Latvia: bees,
fish, flowers, etc. The children were very happy and
keen to participate in the proposed activities—they
made their own magnets, a
collage to show how beautiful
is Latvia, butterflies out of
maple leaves, charted the
to the hive and recognized the
animals. After all these activities
the pastor pointed out that we
have to care about each other,
about the land and creatures. Our
pastor Lvija says,
welcoming changes can be seen throughout the event as par-
ents are becoming more active in
workshops and helping their chil-
dren, watching and supporting them.
It is hoped that this trend is only
bound to expand, and that they not
only have had a nice afternoon, but
also valuable conversations at home
about the church experience.
2 November 2013
CHILDREN’S DAY
Love, joy, peace and patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control,
these are the fruit of the Spirit! By the time we had sung this over and over in Wrexham on
Sabbath morning 16th November, we all knew it off by heart! The children joined in the pro-
gramme by reading this Bible passage to the adults and then participated in a lively discussion
as to how we can live out these fruits in our lives. We decided that we don’t want to be like a
lunch box fruit snack that is only 55% fruit, but more like the pack of raisins that is 100%
fruit!
Following the morning programme on 23rd November in Newtown, the children (and adults
too!) enjoyed making wall hangings and fruit prints to remind them about showing the fruits of
the Spirit in our lives. We all agreed that you can’t make fruit – you have to allow it to grow,
and like the farmer who provides the right environment for healthy fruit trees to grow good
apples, we can provide the right environment to allow the Spirit to work in our hearts, devel-
oping these positive characteristics.
Marica Prvulovic
aged children and their parents to think about who
is our neighbour through the story of the Good
Samaritan and through carefully prepared activi-
ties. In the workshops, the children produced
masks, sandals, trained hitting the target, learned
about the flags of the world, ate snacks in the
workshop "travelers snack", continued to the
first aid and cared for the wounded bear.
The drama show of story of the Good Samari-
tan encouraged everybody to help our neigh-
bours and think about our lives. Messy Church
music team impressed children and their par-
ents and raised them on their feet with song:
"Jump! Jump up and help!".
At the end, the Messy kitchen team filled
our stomachs with delicious veggie sausages,
which we called "robbers evapii".
"Messy Church is a blessing for children and
their parents and for all organizers. I would-
n't miss it for the world" - Messy Church
leader Susan Majnari enthusiastically ex-
plains.
/RC_Press/
Hertfordshire, AL1 3EY
To subscribe or unsubscribe
please reply to this e-mail. zkovacs-biro@ted-adventist.org
This newsletter is addressed to the Children’s Ministry Directors of the
Unions in The Trans-European Division.
Others who would like to be on the mailing list can send their e-mail address
to zkovacs-biro@ted-adventist.org in order to be added to it.
For Union Training
of Coaches and
describing how Lot's wife looked back
and turned into a pillar of salt,
when little Jason interrupted,
she was driving,' he announced
triumphantly,'and she turned