A wedgie from a donkey

This week it was Lily's chance to lead 'Super Family Bible Night' and being a few days before Christmas, she wanted to do 'Jesus being born'. So Lily and Adam headed off to discuss secret 'Super Family Bible Night' preparations and came out bearing sheets, angel wings and a hobby horse. And so... it was a night for dramatic interpretation.

Lily of course played the lead role of Mary, Toby was Joseph, Mum was the angel Gabriel (Lily made sure I knew that "that angel is a boy mum, but you'll be okay") and poor Dad got relegated with reading the story and being the inn keeper. The hobby horse was the donkey and Lily's dolly 'Olivia' played the part of baby Jesus. So with all parts assigned the story began...

The angel appeared to a very surprised Mary (I think Lily has some acting ability) and then Joseph took her on a donkey to Bethlehem. Toby's role was to lead the donkey while 'Mary' was riding it however the temptation was too much and he decided to give 'Mary' hobby horse wedges the whole way (Lily was not impressed). On arrival to Bethlehem, there no rooms available so we headed to the kids bedrooms (aptly named the stable). In the stable was Lily's doll cot and all kinds of stuffed animals playing parts of the stable animals.

The big moment arrived and Jesus was born, and there was a very proud mother 'Mary' who made sure Jesus was snug and warm, well fed and that Toby looked after him, although she was not impressed with Toby holding baby Jesus at all.

Lily finished the time with a shy awkward prayer – but it was prayer.

So how was this week – Lily had been preparing her story for a couple of weeks and was very excited to be able to finally lead her story. There are always some interesting and funny parts to Super Family Bible Night and tonight was no exception.

We hope you and your family have a wonderful and blessed Christmas and able to celebrate and remember the reason of Christmas – Jesus.

Merry Christmas

from our family to yours

Holy, holy, holy – wouldn’t that get boring?

Well it is the silly season and things have been a little crazy with kinder concerts, school concerts, and Christmas production rehearsals and so I'm a week behind on writing this blog – and we've even missed a week totally. So here is last week's blog... J

This week's Super Family Bible Night was run by Toby and he had been planning it since his last one, my only concern was that he wanted to do a story in Revelation. Now I love (and get totally confused by) Revelation and so how was an 8yo going to lead us in this bible story?? Well, thankfully, Toby was working off the Kids Bible which was a lot tamer and understandable.

Toby read the story of John's vision of heaven, of how the doors of heaven were opened and he saw what heaven would be like. When he got to the point in the story where the flying creatures looked too Jesus and fell down at his feet singing "holy, holy, holy", Toby stopped and stated – "wouldn't that get a little boring if all you did all day was sing 'holy, holy, holy'?" We had to laugh at the honesty and bluntness of an 8yo.

Toby had some creative ideas for this week - we'd make paper doors to open and inside we would each draw what we thought heaven would be like. We got the paints and paper out and with all our creativity set about painting our picture of heaven. Each person painted their own idea of heaven – Lily & I painted Jesus on his throne with a rainbow, Adam painted a new earth (amazing) and Toby packed his page full of ideas of heaven- Jesus on his throne with some red carpet, the flying creatures singing, a new earth and interestingly Toby playing on his skateboard! How great would it be if we could all skateboard in heaven!! lol

Afterwards, Toby had planned what questions to ask us each about heaven, our pictures and what we'd like in heaven and then he had thoughtfully written down his prayer and prayer points, and prayed an amazing and caring prayer.

So how'd it go? Well, our kids now really look forward to each week of Super Family Bible Night and they particularly like the weeks that they are leading it. I'm amazed at how much they remember from these nights. So as we come to the end of a year and look back on these nights I am thrilled, amazed and have to laugh at how each week went – but what is important is that we spend this time together getting into God Word in a fun, interactive and applicable way. Why not have a go in your family!