An Ark made of clay

Well what a distressing week it's been. This week has seen massive floods in Queensland, NSW & Vic and bushfires in WA. It's been a week full of disturbing images on the tv which our kids were exposed to as well, when national disasters happen it's really hard to shelter your kids from such events and so we in the evenings we prayed with them about the people, the homes and stories they'd seen. But I think it is these terrible circumstances that led to Toby's choice of bible stories for this week's 'Super Family Bible Night' – Noah's Ark.



Toby reading bible story


Toby had prepared well this week, he spent the evening before reading the bible and thinking creatively about his topic. After reading for much longer than usual, he promptly said "Mum I need clay for Super Family Bible Night". Interesting I thought, what does clay have to do with Noah's Ark but I went along with it anyway and so we spent about 2hours the next day trying to find baking clay. Thankfully, we eventually found some (I wasn't looking forward to having to make baking clay to appease an 8yo).



And so the night began, Toby read the story of Noah's Ark, asked some questions and prayed. He then produced a well constructed plan of just what we were going to do next. He had drawn the Ark, with explanation of the type of roof, the door shape, the amount of animals and how it was to be created. I was astonished as the amount of detail we were going to have to create with CLAY!!! (Maybe he's got some architecture in him??)



Toby's in depth explanation of clay Ark making



And so the creativity began... well.... the boys were extremely creative and made fabulous Ark's and animals, on the other hand... Lily & I decided to work together and make something that at least resembled a boat. It was a fun night and we had clay everywhere. Toby had done a really great job of unpacking Noah's Ark and letting us all get involved in the night.



I think Adam might be impressed with his creation



Toby's ark



On another note, you can now sign up to receive this blog via email, just fill in your email in email subscribe box to the right and you'll never miss our 'Super Family Bible Night' blog J

Enjoy your family and God this week.

You can also check out our other blog on bible engagement - tips, tools, and resources here
http://milktomeat-journal-kyliebutler.blogspot.com/

3 sauce bottles in a furnace

This week's 'Super Family Bible Night' was one to remember – a bit of pantry and video fun!

Toby with his angry men



Angry men are stuck onto 2-min noodles



It was Adam's weeks and he had a draw faces: 3 happy men, 3 angry men, 1 little king, 1 big king and an angel – and we were all interested as to what he was going to get up too. Obviously from the pic above Toby chose to draw the 3 angry men. We were even more intrigued when Adam pulled out 3 packets of 2-minute noodles, 4 sauce bottles and 2 Milo containers. Just what did he have in store?



Milo statue and Milo king



Sauce in a firery furnace



Well this week we started with the kids seeing how loud they could make their armpits burp and ended with video posts done by Toby & Lily on the story which are hilarious but unfortunately I can't upload them because a certain little 5yo refused to wear pants.

Thankfully, we were able to convince her to do it again the next day, with pants, so we could show you.

However, Lily did give an interesting retelling of the story (so please remember this is a 5yo retelling). The re-enactment goes a little bit wrong towards the end. But check out Lily's video of Super Family Bible Night, based on the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (or as Lily calls it Shadrach, Bendigo and Indigo).

Enjoy God's Word with your family this week and we'd love to hear about it! Send us a comment or email on your experiences.

Esther and a flute

We hope you had a great Christmas and New Year and during the break were able to spend time with your family and friends and especially able to connect with God during this season.

We've had a busy season, but have spent lots of time together swimming at beach, pool and enjoying BBQs with friends. One special adventure we headed to the Sand Sculptures for a picnic and family day which was great fun (although we all got burnt). The Sand Sculptures are well worth a trip if you're on the Mornington Peninsula this summer, however my kids are wondering why I can't do sand castles like them.

This week 'Super Family Bible Night' it was my turn and I decided to do one of my favourite stories in the Old Testament, 'Esther'. I did some internet searching and printed off the story with colouring pages. After reading the story together and asking a few questions about the story, we set about colouring the pages and putting it together into a book that we could put in the bookshelf to read again later. I thought it would be a good idea to have some boiled lollies on the table to be able to nibble on while drawing together but they were more interested in seeing how many lollies they could eat than on colouring.

Both Toby & Lily love making their own books and I often find my stapler missing because they've raided my stationary stash to create another book or "creative art". Being able to make a book was a great way to get them involved in the story and to understand it more.

After finishing our colouring we all prayed – Toby thanked God for his Christmas money and being able to buy a game and Lily prayed for her Auntie Jenny cause she's got a flute (flu).

So how'd the night go, well apart from the distraction of the boiled lollies, the kids really enjoyed the story and colouring in the pages of the story and putting the book together.