In November, we will be talking about ways that we can thank God. There are many ways, of course, but we will be focusing this month on thanking God by sharing, thanking God by helping and thanking God by loving and spending time with God (praying).
Another way we can thank God, share and help is by donating food to those that have less. In particular, this month we are focusing on donating food to other babies and toddlers. We are having a baby food drive during the month of November! You can bring your donation in to class or to the Hopelink box in the Fellowship Hall.
Our church has partnered with Hopelink on other donation projects and Hopelink has a food bank in our area, as well as others around the eastside that helps homeless and low-income families, children, seniors and those with disabilities. Next time you are at the store, whether you are a local mustard seed or not, you can buy some baby food - whatever's on sale or if you have a toddler, let THEM pick the kinds and flavors. Talk to your infant or toddler about what you're doing - even if they seem like they don't understand - and keep it simple. Then, you can either donate your baby food (or diapers, or wipes, or formula - if you get the formula samples in the mail and don't use them) when you come to church next or if you aren't able to make it to church, there is a food bank bin at the front of almost every grocery store and you can put it in there. The point is that you're helping and your little one is watching you or helping too and gets to participate in helping others.
In class, we talked about thanking God by sharing! One story from the bible that talks about this is the boy who shared his lunch with all the thousands of people that came to hear Jesus. We read This is the Lunch that Jesus Served, which followed the same pattern as the story "the House that Jack Built", so it was fun to read and have everyone chime in on "Jesus Served" each time.
Our parent question was 'what are some ways that you have shared with others that your child has been able to witness" There are a ton of ways that we share, but some of the answers focused on bringing meals to those that are homebound, giving offering, and giving to food drives.
Our sensory bin this month doesn't have to do with out theme. My girls and I collected leaves (and we had two mini-pumpkins on hand) and since we collected them from the side of the road (but a clean area : ) I had my two year old and I wash them (my 6 year old was busy at the art table with her leaf-bounty). Even though it seems silly and over-protective, I remember when I was a parent for the first time and some of my friends and I would have felt it was unnecessary, but appreciated. The point in telling you this, really, was that as my two-year old washed each of God's leaves in our silver baking bowl, it got me thinking about taking care of the earth and in the minutiae of washing each leaf I remembered how God cares for even the smallest sparrow and how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.
Then we laid the leaves out to dry for the next day's sensory bin...
...where they were promptly put into little mouths, so I am glad I washed them after all! : )
Lastly, our art project was coloring "baskets" to put our "loaves" and "fishes" into. That's a lot of quotation marks, but here's what I mean:
A fun time was had by all!
See you next Sunday where we will talk about thanking God by helping and the story of Miriam and Moses! Thanks to all of you who have already donated to the baby food drive!
- Ruth
