Super Family Bible Night

Thumb wrestles & Jacob

2014-03-17T21:29:00.001+11:00

Tonight wrestling played a major part of our family night! Thumb wrestles, arm wrestles & leg wrestles! Kids loved it! Squeeling with delight as wrestles became stacks on daddy!!

The night included many laughs as we read the story if Jacob & his wrestle with God. We were very impressed to hear how much the kids remembered about the background of Jacob, his family and life. Toby reeling off names and locations & stories perfectly! Love it!

We looked tonight about what it means to wrestle with God, things we might wrestle with him included; decisions, things we do or don't want to do, and giving examples of times we have wrestled & questioned.

Asking questions is a vital part of growth, and especially spiritual growth. Giving our kids an environment where they can always ask questions is one of our families key values!

I would like to say that although I lost my thumb & arm wrestles, I did win at leg wrestles!! Even against Adam, to his dismay & my delight!

How's your family going?

Family values & goals for 2014

2014-02-10T19:53:00.001+11:00

After a few weeks break over Summer, we started back today with our Family night!

Rather than starting straight into regular story routine, this year we decided to look at what are the things important to our family and create some values and goals. Each of us took time to think about the things we'd like for our family. This included things like eating dessert, being kind, argueing respectfully, getting personal fish & fish tank, family games nights and some other great ideas.

We came up with some great ideas that we shared together. Then went about voting on our favorites with stickers. We came out with our top 6 values & goals for 2014. What do you think of them?

Looking forward to what 2014 holds for the Butler family.

Advent family style

2013-12-04T23:05:00.001+11:00

Chatting to a friend today and she shared how her family are doing advent. I loved it & asked if I could share it with you! She said yes!! So here it is!

First, grab a reusable advent calendar.

This is the wooden one she uses.

In each day, place a reading of the Christmas story. See below for my friends readings. Add something yummy... Chocolate, lollie, or special something for your family (only little as it's a tiny date box).

My friend has 4 children, so each day a child takes a turn to take out that days reading & eat the surprise. Together after dinner they read a portion of the Christmas story and pray.

I love this idea as it involves all the family, it's simple, practical & reminds us each day as to why Christmas really exists.

Special thanks to my friend for sharing her families idea! It's better than the One Direction advent we currently have up!

Here is the daily readings...

Isaiah 7:14

14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Isaiah 9:6-7

6 For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the greatness of his government and peace
    there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
    and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness
    from that time on and forever.

Luke 1:26-33

The Birth of Jesus Foretold part 1

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.”

29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favour with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Luke 1:26-33

The Birth of Jesus Foretold part 2

34 “How will this be?” Mary asked the angel.

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”

38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Matthew 1:18-21

Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son part 1

18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Matthew 1:22-24

Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son part 2

22 All this took place to fulfil what 2he Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us).

24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.

Luke 2:1-3

The Birth of Jesus part 1

1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.

Luke 2:4-5

The Birth of Jesus part 2

4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.

Luke 2:6-7

The Birth of Jesus part 3

6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

Luke 2:8-12

The Shepherds part 1

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Luke 2:13-14

The Shepherds part 2

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.”

Luke 2:15

The Shepherds part 3

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

Luke 2:16-20

The Shepherds part 4

16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Matthew 2:1-2

The Magi Visit the Messiah part 1

2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

Matthew 2:3-8

The Magi Visit the Messiah part 2

3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’

The Magi Visit the Messiah part 3

Matthew 2:7-8

7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

The Magi Visit the Messiah part 4

Matthew 2:9-12

9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

The Escape to Egypt part 1

Matthew 2:13

13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

The Escape to Egypt part 2

Matthew 2:14-15

14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Herod the jealous king

Matthew 2:16

16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

The Return to Nazareth part 1

Matthew 2:19-21

19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.

The Return to Nazareth part 2

Matthew 2:22-23

22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

God’s Promise

John 3:16

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

NOW READ THE WHOLE STORY TONIGHT. Christmas Eve.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

It's Christmas time...

2013-12-02T23:25:00.001+11:00

Tonight was Lilys turn to lead, she chose the birth of Jesus & read us a couple of stories from her Bible.

She was very excited, although you wouldn't know that from her pout as I took this pic.

Boys of course did their best to enjoy the night.

Lily used the nativity scene to tell us the story & ask us some great questions about why its important that this story is in the bible.

Kids wouldn't let me take a serious photo so opted for the crazy one!

Well done Lily, we had a great night! Great way to start Advent leading up to Christmas!!

Around the walls of a nursing home

2011-04-09T13:06:00.002+10:00

Tonight was Lily’s turn to lead ‘Super Family Bible Night’ and after last week’s episode of army men mime – I was a little concerned. Lily flicked through her bible and chose her story because she like the pictures, interesting because the story she chose was ‘A wall falls down – Jericho’.

This week was drama week, Lily played the part of Joshua, Daddy & Toby the 2 men sent to check out Jericho, mummy was narrator/Rahab and whoever else was needed along the way. As we read the story we acted it out along the way – although Toby was quite disappointed that he was able to really hid in the roof like the 2 spies did in the story, and disappointed he had to settle for sitting on a table.

For those who don’t know we are currently house sitting a large nursing home, (for about 6 months so - with no residents) so you can imagine the fun and noise we had when it was time to walk (we ran) around the walls of Jericho. Firstly once every day (6 times), then 7 times on the 7th day. All the while shouting and playing our pretend instruments along the way. There are a lot of walls to run around in our mini city and we were exhausted by the end of it and collapsed on the ground to listen to the end of the story and pray.

This week was certainly a week to remember, we had a lot of fun and Lily especially loved being in charge and playing the part of Joshua. Mmm... think there may be a leader in the making there.

Blessings to you and your family!
For more information on bible engagement or Milk to Meat resources please go to http://www.milktomeat.com.au/

Daniel and the army men

2011-04-07T12:07:00.000+10:00

This week was Toby’s turn to lead ‘Super Family Bible Night’ and he was desperate to use his new Toy Story Army Men, so regardless of what story he chose those men were going to play a major role. So with army men set and ready we all sat down for the night and ready for the night to begin. Toby chose to create a ‘show’ for us – illustrating the story of Daniel and the Lion’s Den using a bucket and his army men. What was most interesting and intriguing was that he decided it was going to be a silent show, kind of a mime but using army men which have no facial expressions!

That created a challenge and Lily was totally confused because she had no idea what Toby was on about. I think Toby got the idea from a recent circus incursion at school which had the kids performing mime – however it should be noted that mime does not translate well when using mini army men. But he had fun and we all got to have a ‘turn’ playing out the story of Daniel and in more than one ‘turn’ the story changed and poor Daniel (army man) was eaten alive by the vicious lions (which were Might Beanz --- mmm they are very ferocious).

Summary – sometimes you just have to let the night go where the kids want to take it – they (eventually) got to understand the story and it’s importance but on the way there we had a lot of fun together and hopefully mime with army men won’t be an option again.

Blessings to you and your family.
For more information on bible engagement or Milk to Meat resources please go to http://www.milktomeat.com.au/

The Tower of Newspaper

2011-03-22T11:53:00.000+11:00

Tonight was daddy’s turn to lead ‘Super Family Bible Night’ and what a fun night it was. Tonight began with a little competition, not a fair competition in my opinion but we were split into 2 teams of which Toby chose to go with daddy & Lily with mummy. We had newspaper & masking tape; we had to build the tallest tower that was able to stand on its own when the 5min timer went off. Now personally I thought we were going to lose this one – I know Adam’s played and won these game lots of times before with youth group kids, and his ability to make things stronger and stand easier meant I felt the girl’s team was starting from behind. So resolved that we would lose, sad I know. However what I didn’t take was that while Lily & I plodded along adding each piece to the tower as we went along – the other team where so fixated on making lots of pieces and making them strong that they totally ran out of time and so when the timer went off their tower wasn’t even close to standing – WOOHOOO!! Girls won!! And boy were we excited!!!

So after the excitement died down and we received our prize (a lolly J) we all sat down together to read the story of the Tower of Babel and how and why God confused the language of the people. We discussed what it means to make things and ourselves more important than God. Funnily this week Lily shared with us her ‘Love Chart’ which is the order of the things she loves, which I thought was quite fascinating.

Lily’s Love Chart

1. God/Jesus

2. Sheepy (sheepskin she’s had since birth)

3. Mummy

4. Toby

5. Daddy (poor daddy)

Although the last 3 change daily depending on mood and how she’s interacted with that person on the day. But Sheepy is always at number 2.

Love to hear your stories and thoughts on how you involve your kids in bible stories. Share a comment below.

Of course afterwards we had a newspaper sword fight

More information on bible engagement or to purchase Milk to Meat go to www.milktomeat.com.au

Jesus and the popping sprinkles

2011-03-10T13:26:00.011+11:00

Tonight was Lily’s turn for ‘Super Family Bible Night’ and we also decided to incorporate a special dessert into our Family Nights. The kids have been bugging me about making a special dessert for the family for weeks, but I have been reluctant after the last dessert Toby made for us which was: strawberry jelly & ice cream mixed together with a large dollop of Nutella on the top, then on top of that was marshmallows, Milo, musk stick and sprinkles onto was Star Dust (the kind of sprinkles that pop in your mouth). It was a massive sugar overload and the kids took a LONG time to go to sleep. So as you can imagine I was a little hesitant to allow Toby back into the kitchen again to make dessert. But with some guidelines Toby headed off to make dessert.

So as we all sat around the table, with wine glasses in hand, we began to wonder just what did our 5yo have in store for us tonight? Well, she had prepared well and sent dad off to the supermarket to get some grape juice and she shared the story of how Jesus to water into wine. Dad thought he might have been able to do that miracle too, just like Jesus but he just couldn’t make it happen. But as we sat outside on a warm night we were able to share and discuss the power and miracles of Jesus and that same power is still available today.

Afterwards we all scoffed Toby’s dessert – which was still jelly & ice cream but we did have a hint of healthy food with some fruit salad.

Well done Lily and Toby on a great fun family night.

Moses and the burning craft

2011-03-07T15:46:00.001+11:00

Bunny ears

This week was Toby’s turn to lead ‘Super Family Bible Night’ and he was very excited (although totally unprepared). After sifting through the Children’s bible stories about 6 times he finally came to the story of Moses and the burning bush (I think he like this idea because he could think of an idea for a craft activity). Oh well I guess whatever works for him hey!

I wonder if my burning
bush will burn?

So we sat and read the story of Moses and the burning bush, and Toby asked his set 3 questions that he seems to ask every time he leads 1. What is important about this story? 2. Why is this story in the bible? 3. What prayer points do you have? And the quicker he could get through those questions the quicker he could get to his activity.

His craft activity was cutting out pictures from coloured paper and re-creating a scene from the story. Toby loves being able to do anything involving art – he’s quite talented in the craft area (he doesn’t get this from his mum that’s for sure!!). Although he would have loved to have actually set his craft alight to see whether it really did “burn up” – we decided against that idea. But he loved leading this week and we now have paper craft of Moses and the burning bush hung up around our house. And as you can see from the pics we had a lot of fun too

Why not share your thoughts with us on how your family engages the Bible together we’d love to hear your thoughts & ideas.

For more information on Bible Engagement, Milk to Meat or other blogs go to www.milktomeat.com.au

Boys, boys, boys...

Nought & crosses and 10 commandments

2011-02-28T13:29:00.000+11:00

This week was Adam’s turn for Super Family Bible Night, we moved house this week so I’ve uploaded 2 weeks close together. So enjoy this one and also last week’s Samuel in a bunk bed.

Noughts & crosses

Adam started the night with a game of wooden noughts & crosses, the kids and I played against one another and then Adam played Toby. However, when Toby got 2 of his pieces in a row, Adam would change pieces and announce “I WON”, to which Toby would protest “NO you were circles and I was crosses and you just put down a circle, you didn’t win”. So they played again and Adam again put down one of Toby’s pieces, and announcing “I won”. “No” Lily and Toby shouted. “That’s not the rules”. Adam’s reply: “Who said? Who’s rules?” Lily: “That’s not the rules DAD, you can’t play like that. It’s not fair. You need to play the rules” Adam: “Who said?” Lily: extremely frustrated at this point not knowing the answer pulled out the big one “GOD SAID!”

Thankfully, Adam moved on before a brawl started and asked what would life be like with no rules, of which the kids answered “Cool. Amazing. Fun.” Until Adam asked what would soccer be like with no rules? What if someone took off with the ball or punched someone? Toby: “That wouldn’t be fun at all”. To Lily he asked what would ballet be like with no rules, if people could come into class and just dance whatever they liked and didn’t listen to the teacher. Lily: that wouldn’t be nice. Aaaah – point made!

Adam then read through the story of Moses receiving the 10 Commandments from God and what those commandments meant and what they mean to us today. To give us a framework to help us enjoy life instead of anyone being able to do whatever they want. They aren’t just a set of rules but how God wants us to live – to love God and to love others.

Summary: I was quite concerned early on in the night that Lily was going to reach over and soc her dad one for not playing the game by the rules but they certainly understood the point by the end of the night and I don’t think this is one Super family Bible Night they’ll forget.

It's not fair!!

For more ideas and resources on Bible Engagement or to buy Kylie’s ‘Milk to Meat’ book go to www.milktomeat.com.au

Samuel in a bunkbed

2011-02-28T11:23:00.000+11:00

This week was my turn for Super Family Bible Night... well actually it was 2 weeks ago but we moved house and I didn’t get a chance to upload the last 2 weeks, so finally here it tis.

This week’s was based on the story of Eli & Samuel, we headed to the kids bedroom to use their bunk beds. I thought it’d be fun for them to swap beds for this drama – but unfortunately drama is what I got! Toby: “I don’t want to be in Lily’s bed – her bed’s pink!” Lily: “I don’t want to be here mum, I want to be in my bed, Toby’s bed stinks!” Mum: “Tough! Lily you’re Eli and you’re on the top bunk. Toby you’re Samuel and you’re on the bottom bunk! End of discussion!” Response: humf – sulk. This was not quite the start I’d planned for Super Family Bible Night, mmm.

Not happy Toby

I read out the story with dad playing the voice of God, and Toby and Lily quite reluctantly playing their part – that was until Lily got to tell Toby to “go back to bed” cause Samuel had woken Eli up 3 times (she enjoyed that part). I think in the end they enjoyed it, even if it was reluctant joy.

Afterwards we played a game of Chinese whispers – I started off and chose the tongue twister “Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers”, in reality I should have known better and that was way too much for a 5yo to handle, and it came back to me as “poo, poo, bum, bum”. The kids then wanted their turn but the saying didn’t get much better than “poo poo bum bum”. So it ended soon after that.

We did thankfully have some interesting conversations about it means to listen to God and different ways that we can hear from God, which the kids really got into. So was it a successful night – well they keep asking to play Chinese Whispers again – is that a success??? I’m not so sure!

Cheeky Chinese Whispers

Moses and the parting of the bath

2011-02-03T10:44:00.000+11:00

Tonight was Lily’s turn for Super Family Bible Night and boy was she excited! She’d been looking forward to this night all week. There were a lot of secret talks happening between daddy and Lily as they began their preparations, Toby & I weren’t allowed to venture past the lounge room until they were ready.

Suddenly there was a ring of a bell and we were all ushered into the bathroom – mmm... just what did our little girl have in store for us?

The room was dark, with candles lit all around and we were instructed to take our shoes off and sit in that bath (decided this was not a good option in clothes so opted to sit on the side of the bath J). And so in the dim light of the candles Super Family Bible Night began – we read the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt. Adam read the story, and Lily pointed out that the candles were the pillar of fire that led the Israelites at night, and that the bath water was the red sea. Lily tried so very hard to part the red sea (bath water) but much to her dismay it just wouldn’t stay parted. Toby was imagined himself walking along the bottom of the ocean and pictured himself reaching his hand into the side of the wall of water grabbing a shark or starfish out with his bare hands. “How awesome would that be mum, I could have my own shark!”. (mmm I’m not happy that he’s saving his pocket money for a pet Gecko so the thought of having a pet shark.... NO!)

Lily did a great job, very creative to have us all in the bath for this night – and even thinking of the candles – she’s really outdone herself this week! However, more than once I was very worried that we’d all end up soaked from the bath water. But thankfully we all left the bath relatively dry and memories of a fun night together!

An Ark made of clay

2011-01-18T12:20:00.000+11:00

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

2011-01-12T07:46:00.003+11:00

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

2011-01-04T08:59:00.000+11:00

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.

A wedgie from a donkey

2010-12-21T10:32:00.000+11:00

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?

2010-12-17T11:30:00.000+11:00

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!

3 Wise Men and googly eyes

2010-11-30T14:57:00.000+11:00

This week is was Adam's turn to lead 'Super Family Bible Night' and the kids always look forward to Adam's night – they are always very clever, creative and fun! And this week's was no exception. Although it didn't start off so well (or end so well for that matter). Toby (8) has been learning piano and we'd printed off some music for him to learn how to play some Christmas Carols, however I got a little over excited and decided it was about time that I learn how to play the piano too – or at least learn how to play Silent Night. So the first 10minutes of Super Family Bible Night was with me and the kids trying to play and sing Silent Night together – completely out of tune much to the delight of us 3 and with Adam smirking and rolling his eyes at us all. Mental note – don't try and learn piano on a 'Super Family Bible Night' it will only end in singing – lol.

With piano practise aside we officially began the night. Adam's story was of the "3 wise men" a great idea to look at the stories around Christmas – I can't believe it's only a little over 3 weeks until Christmas. I do love the Christmas season. Adam read and discussed how the wise men saw the large star in the sky, and followed it to Bethlehem. What was doubly brilliant was that Kids Church this week spoke about this same story and so Toby was able to share lots about what he'd learnt in Kids Church. Toby & Lily had even been playing with our Nativity scene the day before, and so Toby had been teaching Lily about the 3 gifts that the wise men had brought for Jesus. Kids Church had even found mirth and Toby shared how disgusting it smelt – although Lily kept calling it "Perth." (I love my church!) This made it easier for Adam to talk about the story because the kids already knew lots about the story.

After the story Adam's creative side shone through again. He'd purchased some little gold boxes and he pulled out the craft box, and spent some time decorating our little gifts to remind us of the gifts that the wise men had brought to Jesus. There was pipe-cleaners, glue, stickers, sparkles and even some googly eyes (left over from our week on ladybirds ***blog insert here***) that was until the googly eyes decided they didn't want to stick onto the gift boxes and kept sliding off. Thus begins the tears... "My eyes won't stay on... sob... my eyes won't stick mum... bigger sob and the beginning of anger... why won't my eyes stick?" At first I was able to contain my amusement of how upset Toby was getting about his googly eyes and give him some thoughts on how to get his googly eyes to stick on his gift box but when he began hitting the googly eyes with his fists – my small hidden smirk – came out as a little giggle and then a good ole belly laugh. I know I shouldn't laugh at my children but sometimes they are so funny and I can't help it. So after some more tears, anger and a few camera shots Toby was able to calm down and I had to promise not to put up any photos of him having his googly eye tantrum. Of which I will keep. We then finished off our gift boxes and hung them on the Christmas tree for us to remember of the gift of Jesus.

So in summary how did the night go? The story was a fantastic idea especially leading up to Christmas – the craft idea was perfect especially since we'd just put up the Christmas tree the day before. The only downside of the night was the distraction of Silent Night piano practise and those rotten googly eyes. Mental note – consider throwing googly eyes out!

Moses & the placemats!

2010-11-26T12:24:00.000+11:00

This week it was my turn for 'Super Family Bible Night' and we decided to look at Moses, the baby in a basket. I considered for a split second that we could do a dramatised version of the passage but then thought about the use of water and children and thought that combination wasn't a good choice just before bedtime. So I went with a crafty option.

I grabbed the Kids Bible and read them the story of Moses being placed into a basket as a baby. I purposely chose not to show the kids the pictures as I wanted them to be able to use their imagination for the 2^nd part of the night. After I'd finished reading the story everyone chose a coloured piece of paper and we spent some time drawing a picture about the story of Moses. Lily of course was infatuated with the princess – and made sure she was the first part, Adam being the very creative one in the family included the Pyramids and heaps of detail, me – well, I drew some blue lines for water and some reasonable stick figures. Toby on the other had created a magnificent picture. However, I am a little concerned, as you may be able to see in the photo – there is 2 sharks in the Nile River. Now I'm pretty sure there weren't any sharks in the story I read and I'm pretty sure there aren't any sharks in the Nile River – so that made for an interesting discussion (although they are pretty smart drawings of sharks).

So after some time, and a request for more time - we each presented our pictures and explanation of what we'd drawn. I was surprised at how much the kids got into drawing a picture of the story and we've decided to laminate the kids pictures and they can use them as placemats (I decided put mine in a very special place - the recycling bin J).

This week worked really well and it was super easy! And Toby & Lily have a lasting memory of Moses on their placemats!

The ‘exercise ball’s’ been rolled away

2010-11-18T07:45:00.000+11:00

Tonight was Lily's turn for 'Super Family Bible Night', and she was super excited. She been planning for awhile – this was her 'most favourite' story and she couldn't wait to do it. The story required a grave, a stone, grave clothes, swords, a cross and angel, mean people and friends. Can you guess what story she chose – yep – Jesus' death and resurrection!

Tonight was a bit cooler so we stayed indoors – and headed for the kids bedroom, we created a grave with the kids bunk beds with a sheet and a large blue exercise ball to create the grave, an old sheet to become the grave clothes, we found some of dads wood and string to create a cross and of course fairy wings for the angel – however we had a dilemma – 'no sword' (I know I can't believe it either) – what were we going to do?? Thankfully Lily had an idea – Barbie dolls!! I have no idea how Barbie dolls could also be a substitute as a sword. But it was Lily's night so I didn't bother questioning.

Lily had all the parts allocated for the night – she was (of course) Jesus, the rest of us swapped between friends, mean people, guards, angels and then friends again. We began with Jesus praying in the garden and his friends falling asleep and Jesus had to keep waking them up (Lily loved being able to wake us up over and over again). Then Judas arrived to betray Jesus. Toby was thrilled with the idea of being Judas until we told him that Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss (meaning that he had to give his little sister a kiss on the cheek) he was repulsed at the thought and didn't want to be Judas anymore, but after some coercion he reluctantly gave Jesus (Lily) a kiss. Jesus was then taken to the court to be judged and then crucified. Although I think Toby enjoyed the 'nailing Jesus to the cross' part a little too much. After Jesus (Lily) died (a quite dramatic death might I say) we wrapped Jesus up in the grave clothes (old sheet) and moved Jesus into the grave (bunk bed) and rolled the stone (exercise ball) into place. On the 3^rd day and 'angel of the Lord' appeared (aka Adam) and informed the friends that Jesus was no longer dead but was alive – the friends were thrilled to see Jesus again.

Lily loved being able to lead this week, she especially loved being able to play the part of Jesus – it was really interesting to see how excited she was. She even told me this morning that her favourite stories in the bible – 1 Jesus death & resurrection and 2 Jonah & the whale. Interestingly both of those were ones that she led in 'Super Family Bible Night', and it made me realise that she was really engaged in the nights but she was especially loved it when she was the one in charge. It made me realise how much my kids were learning and loving these nights.

Summary – although I was a little concerned about how the re-enactment would go on the death of Jesus the kids did a really good job of it, and I think they actually began to understand the sacrifice a bit more. It was a big one to cover – and I think our little 5yo did a pretty good job of it. She even had a magnificent prayer time afterwards thanking God for the cross, for the bible and for her family – priceless (and a tear jerker). The only problem was that most of the night I had that song "The Stone's been rolled away" in my head but instead of stone – I kept thinking "the exercise ball been bounced away" – didn't have the same ring to it.

Talking Donkey & a cricket bat

2010-11-16T10:46:00.000+11:00

This week was Toby's turn for 'Super Family Bible Night' and he was very excited – that could have something to do with the fact that it involved a cricket bat and a donkey - Or maybe it was just the Word of God – mmm but I'm guessing for an 8yo boy it was the former. As you may have guessed Toby's choice was the passage in Numbers 22 about the talking donkey.

We were directed onto the grass in the backyard but we were missing someone, Toby couldn't be found. It was his night to lead 'Super Family Bible Night' where on earth was he???

Little did we know that hiding behind the trampoline was a little boy dressed as a donkey. So with all family members accounted for, 'Super Family Bible Night' began. But just what did Toby have planned... yet again we were acting out the story. Toby played the part of the donkey, (I don't know about you? But don't own a donkey costume, so Toby held a hobby horse and covered up with a brown sheet) Lily was Balaam (which looked totally funny in her nightgown and gumboots), Dad was narrator and Mum was king and also marvellously transformed into an angel.

The story began with the king commanding Balaam to put a curse on God's people, and Balaam agreeing (glad we were reading from a kid's bible that explained a curse much better than I would have). So Balaam left on his journey with his donkey, to curse Gods people but then an angel (amazing transformed from a king) appeared, and the donkey saw it and went ballistic. Balaam was so angry...

Lily knew this bible story and was looking forward to her part which involved a cricket bat and her brother (I mean a donkey, or maybe it was her brother). We had strictly advised her to only hit the donkey's head (the hobby horse) not Toby. Thankfully she listened, but I think it took everything within her not to hit her brother with a cricket bat. And so she gave that poor little hobby horse a hiding.

Back to the story... cowering the donkey, spoke to Balaam and asked why he was beating him, then suddenly to angel appeared to Balaam and instead of cursing he blessed God's people.

Summary: a very fun night, however it could have been a very dangerous night with the inclusion of a cricket bat and permission to hit a donkey. Mmm very thankful that it turned out as well as it did.

Next week is Lily's turn, and just what will a 5yo have in store for us??

Jesus heals ‘Big Ted’

2010-11-03T13:21:00.000+11:00

This week was Adam's turn for 'Super family Bible Night' and we decided to do it on Tuesday this week as we had a day off (love having a public holiday for a horse race – thank you horseys). The kids were thrilled when Adam asked them for all their stuffed toys to be able to use in the bible story, that was an easy task for Toby as he sleeps with more than 20 stuffed toys – Lily is the opposite and only sleeps with her 'Sheepy', so she had to go searching for her stuffed toys (and was very disappointed that 'Sheepy' couldn't be involved).

So with arms full of stuffed toys we headed outside to our pergola, where there was a ladder and a box tied up to the roof with a pulley system. As soon as Toby saw it, it yelled in delight "I know what the story is, it's 'Through the Roof', it's 'Through the Roof'" and sure enough when Adam opened the bible the title in the kid's bible was 'Through the Roof'. Before we started we needed to decide on who was going to be the sick person – Big Ted from Play School was chosen. The next choice was which stuffed animal was going to play Jesus – and 'Flames' the flying Dragon was chosen because he's the most powerful and he can beat & kill anyone (mmm interesting choice but let's go with Flames).

And so the story began, all the stuffed toys were gathered around Jesus (Flames) listening to him teach, when 4 friends brought their sick friend (Big Ted) to the house in a box to be healed by Jesus, but they couldn't get near Jesus, so the friends carried Big Ted up a ladder in the box, and lowered him into the roof (well when I say lowered – I really mean – Big Ted had a carnival ride into the house – similar to the 'Giant Drop' at DreamWorld, you know the one... where you are slowly taken up very high and then when you least expect it are dropped at a ridiculous speed and stopped just before you hit the floor. Poor Big Ted, I think he was injured more from being lowered into the house than he was beforehand). So when we got Big Ted in front of Jesus, it was met with cries of 'let's do it again, let's do it again – I want Beanie Teddy to have a go'. After letting Toby & Lily know that all the stuffed toys can have a go after the story – we got some focus back.

Thankfully, we eventually got to the part of the story where Jesus healed the sick man and Big Ted was all better. We were able to chat to the kids about the importance of caring for our friends, how these people cared for their sick friend – enough to dig through the roof of a house to get to Jesus and after he was healed they were very thankful & praised Jesus for healing the man.

After some time sharing and praying, the kids got back up the ladder and gave each one of their stuffed toys a carnival ride, some stayed in the box – most fell out – which they thought was hilarious!!

Summary, the kids loved being able to involve their favourite stuffed animals in the bible story. Whether they got the point - not so sure - but they'll forever remember taking their toys for a ride on the Giant Drop.

And on the 7th day God created... cars

2010-10-28T13:22:00.000+11:00

This week 'Super Family Bible Night' was my night and I thought we'd do creation! Genesis Chapter 1 ... [Insert singing here ... "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start"]. It had been a very crazy busy week, and so my prep time was limited to 20minutes beforehand, although I had thought about it during the week.

I collected my supplies (I thought we had a blow up ball with a map of the world printed on it – but it turns out I'd chucked it whilst on one of my 'cleaning sprees' to the horror of my kids. Oops, who would have thought a large blow up ball of the world would actually come in handy). So we had no globe. But I found toy animals, sea animals, cows, sheep, fish etc.. I found a blue bath mat for the sea, a bed-light for the light, darkness was pretty obvious – just turn off the light. And so we began...

We all sat on the floor in darkness and I had memorised the first few sentences of Genesis (until the part where God created light) so that we could hear and sense the idea of the universe being blank and dark, kids thought the darkness was funny and an excuse to be silly. So we moved quickly to the first day, where God created 'light' so I could actually see what the munchkins were up too. As we read through each of the days we brought out items that reflected that day and as with each new day we went back over the days before so by the end they remembered what God had created on each day.

Day 1 – light (used a bed-light)
Day 2 – sky (swung hands in the air – couldn't figure out an item for this)
Day 3 – water & land, trees, fruit & flowers (we had a blow-up palm tree – go figure???)
Day 4 – sun, moon & stars (if you have those glow in the dark stars that'd work really well here)
Day 5 – sea animals, birds (we have plastic animals of these)
Day 6 – land animals & humans (thank you to Fisher Price for farm animals & Little People)
Day 7 – rested (sleeping)

This was a pretty simple but fun night – although I did leave the box out that I'd collected the land animals out of, which it also had the trucks and cars in it and every new day Lily would ask if she could play with the cars, and each time we said 'no'. And so by the 7^th day when God rested Lily was very disappointed that God didn't create cars because she wanted to play with them. Toby asked 'So what day did God create cars? Why didn't he do it instead of resting?'

In summary, a really fun night, with lots of laughs and the kids actually remember the order and days that God created the universe & earth. Love it!!

Jonah and the whale and a gumboot in the head

2010-10-20T17:03:00.000+11:00

Tonight was Lily's turn to run 'Super Family Bible Night' and she'd been looking forward to it all week. And of course she chose Jonah and the whale (which she was going to do last month until 'Window biscuits' – if you haven't read that one have a look here http://milktomeat-kyliebutler.blogspot.com/2010/09/jesus-likes-window-biscuits.html ). Lily had lots of ideas for telling this story and the most important aspect was that she was going to be Jonah. The night began with Adam and Lily locked away in

secret meetings discussing ideas for the night – Toby and I were very excited to see what they would come up with – and as Adam ran into our backyard and Lily stood guard at the door refusing to let us see out - we became even more intrigued as to what this night would offer.

Once everything was ready – Lily instructed us that we all needed to rug up – coats and beanie's on – Super Family Bible Night was going outside!! All rugged Adam began the story inside with Jonah (Lily) hearing God tell him to go to Nineveh and Jonah running away, with that we all headed outside to our boat shaped cubby (did I mention that I have a very handy hubby who made the kids a cubby out of fence paling). Once inside the 'boat' (very cramped – and cold) the storm came and we acted out being on a boat in stormy weather (including some pretend sea sickness – which Toby loved – and continued to 'faux vomit' a little bit longer than we'd have liked).

Then we came to the part where Jonah was thrown overboard and so we tried to 'throw' (climb out) Jonah out the window of the boat, unfortunately Lily got a little excited with the 'acting out' of being thrown into the sea – she swung her foot a clocked Toby in the face with her gumboot – which resulted in many tears and we had to put Super Family Bible night on hold for some TLC.

After TLC, we came back to Jonah being tossed around by the waves and then being swallowed by a whale – which was very cleverly created by pegging a tarp over the top of our trampoline – we read and acted out the remainder of the story from the belly of the whale (on the trampoline) until Jonah is spat out of the whale's belly (enter 'faux vomit' noises again). We then tried to go to the more serious part of the evening, however as we were chatting about obeying God and sharing God's love with other, the temptation of the trampoline was all too tempting (especially with the tarp on) and so we cut that part short and had a jump on the trampoline together.

Summary – this was a very fun and creative night. Being outside added a great element to the night and I think this is one night the kids will definitely remember. A very fun night – well except the part where Toby got a gumboot in his head.

For more ideas and resources on Bible Engagement or to buy Kylie's 'Milk to Meat' book go to http://www.milktomeat.com.au/

And the answer is... Moses...Noah... God... Jesus... pray more...

2010-10-12T21:06:00.000+11:00

Well after such a great 'Super Family Bible Night' last week I was thinking we were getting the hang of it but tonight I had to hold my tongue and allow my newly 8yo (Toby) fumble his way through the story of Mary and Martha. We (mum & dad) had so many great ideas of what Toby could do with this passage, different locations, different ideas and angles but as we started to share them we were shut down 'Mum, dad I already know what I'm going to do' and so a little unsure we began Super Family Bible Night.

Toby had dad read the story and the rest of us were to act it out; Lily as Mary, Toby as Jesus and mum as Martha (mmm is there anything in that??). The scene was set, actually it was quite literally set our dining room table seemed to look strangely similar to the table in the kids picture bible. It was not long after this point that we soon realised that Toby had spent most of his preparation time working out how he could copy each picture in the bible rather than thinking about the actual story. So we had flowers in a vase, a mortar and pestle, a broom - but very little attention was on the actual wording (note for next time get Toby to read from a bible without pictures first).

We did 'act out' the story and it was really fun but when it came time to look at what it means and how to pray we abruptly stopped. Toby was stuck – and as we tried to help – we saw the pout begin, the arms cross and he slouched into the couch. He's forgotten that we needed to not just tell the story but also to see what God is saying to us today through this story and to pray together.

And so I asked Lily what is God saying to you in this story about Mary and Martha? – Lily "I should love God... that we should pray more" – true but the way she said it reminded me of how kids often answer Sunday school questions "Moses"... "Noah"... "God"... or "Jesus".

Eventually we got to sharing about the importance of spending time with God, not just doing things for God (which is important) but spending time with God is more important.

In summary, a good fun night but I need to spend some time helping Toby (& Lily – who is next week) with the passage and reminding him about praying afterwards.

For more ideas and resources on Bible Engagement or to buy Kylie's 'Milk to Meat' book go to www.milktomeat.com.au

Jesus Visits Martha and Mary

Luke 10 38 As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.39 Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what he taught.40 But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, "Lord, doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me." 41 But the Lord said to her, "My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details!42 There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her."