When We Think Of Christmas...
Last Sunday, the youth group and I were asked by the church to run the second Advent Sunday of the year. This was the first time that the youth had been asked to do this so it was something very new. In the weeks proceeding this I tried to get an idea from the youth about what they would like to do for the service. I wanted to make sure that the service was edifying to anyone who might come to the but most of the teens just wanted it to be fun. We needed to find a balance; a program that the teens would have fun being a part of but one in which the gospel was clearly presented. Even up to the week of the service, the only thing that we knew was that the youth band would lead the worship, but besides that, nothing. At that point I was beginning to get a little worried. The program suggestions that I had gotten from the teens were a bit crazy so I came up a couple of ideas myself and prayed that the teens would agree to the ideas. Thankfully they did and we were able practice the skits that I had come up with so that they would be funny for the group but still understandable and funny for everyone else. The plan was to connect some of the general thoughts that society has about Christmas with those same thoughts but from a biblical perspective. The ideas we chose were expectation and hope, gifts, and joy. The plan was to have the teens act out a short skit about one of the principles, then I would give a short five minute sermonette on the subject, which would then lead us to worship. We would end the service with an auction to raise money for needy children in Nepal. The Lord was merciful and the service went very well. People of all ages enjoyed the service and the Lord was given glory He deserves. Here are a few pictures from the service.
Skit #1
Students talking about what they are looking forward to doing over the holidays.
Eliška teaching the lesson for children.
One of my sermonettes, Matouš translating
The band preparing to lead worship.
Skit #2
Children playing and parents discussing what gifts to get the children for Christmas.
The family cat.
Skit #3
Children, joyful over their Christmas gift.
Kuba was the happiest.
Auctioning Eliška's crafts just in time for Christmas
Helping The Children With Crafts
This past week, I was asked to help Adriana, a young woman from the church with the children's craft that she leads once a month on Saturdays. I spoke with the children for about 5 minutes to tell them a little bit about how God has worked in my life. Matouš was brought in to help with the translation. Afterward the children made some Christmas crafts and I helped to prepare them. When I was leaving I was stopped by one of the parents. This parent was Radka's husband. I have never spoken much with him, I assumed that he couldn't speak English but in fact he can. We spoke for more than an hour and a half about all kinds of things. It was great to get to know him a little bit. Below are a few pictures from the afternoon.
As the Christmas holidays are right around the corner pray that people here in the Czech Republic would consider the reason for the holiday and seek the person of Jesus Christ.
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