Over the summer the children will be taking pictures of people after the Sunday morning service.  Those pictures will become part of our “I am the vine, you are the branches” bulletin board outside Fellowship Hall. The children learned that Jesus' love binds us together as  a church family.

Rev. Hughes shows the children one of the tomato plants that they will take home to grow over the summer.  When the tomatoes are ripe the children will sell them during coffee hour and the money will be given to Heifer Project International.

Dave Marshall shows one of the children how to repot her tomato plant.

“I am the bread of life.”  The children learned that sometimes you can be bored with life and spiritually hungry.  That doesn’t happen though when you fill yourself with Jesus’ love and share it with others.  Here, Nancy Parsons teaches the children how to knead and shape a loaf of bread.

The children got right to work and had fun making their bread.

Nancy Parsons gets ready to put the children’s breads into the oven to bake and take home for lunch.

When it’s dark outside it’s easy to get lost.  Sometimes we get lost in life.  Jesus is the light who helps us see where we should go and what we should do.  That’s the lesson that children learned with the help of Helen Bigham and Cidy Weeks who showed the children how to make stained glass Crosses.

Helen Bigham and some of the children with their finished stained glass Crosses.

On July 30 the children learned that Jesus is the Good Shepherd and is always there to care for us and watching over us just like a shepherd does with his sheep.  So, to help the children understand that, our guests from McDonny’s Farm set up a petting zoo.  There were bunnies.

The children were thrilled to pet and hold the animals. 

There were chickens and ducks, but clearly the star of the day was….

Coco the baby goat who at one point jumped out of his pen and frolicked on the lawn with the children.

The children learned that goats like to climb when Coco suddenly jumped onto the slide and headed for higher ground.

Coco enjoyed playing with the children and getting all the TLC.

Coco took a special liking to Alice Sadlow who joined the children after church to pet a few of our special guests.

Mr. Romo introduces the children to some of the basics of the Jewish faith.  Here he shows the children how Jewish men wear a prayer shawl and wear a yarmulke when they pray.  The children learned that God’s name in Hebrew is Yahweh which means “I AM.”  Mr. Romo who is married to a member of our church choir explained that the name Yahweh was given to Moses when he saw God in the burning bush.

The children learned how to write God’s name Yahweh using Hebrew letters and how to say the Jewish Shem’a.

The children also got to taste some matzoh which is the unleavened bread that is used in the celebration of the Jewish Passover seder.

The final day of Summer Sunday School included a very special moment; the release of our butterflies.  The journey began in early August with the arrival of our caterpillars.  Over the next three weeks we watched them spin their cocoons and slowly transform into butterflies. It was a very hands on way of helping the children understand what Jesus meant when he said, “I am the resurrection.”  The children learned that the butterfly is a symbol of the resurrection.

We all watch the butterflies fly off to their new life in the church’s garden.