Our kids know that every Friday night we have cell-group (basically a party for the kids & a faithful attempt for parents to have Bible study) with our neighboring church friends…not that we don't see each other enough. It's always 'Uncle Daniel's house' with 20+ rambunctious kids vs. the very outnumbered, exhausted from a long week, mommies and daddies. It's crazy, but I think we all walk into the evening knowing that there will be some crying, whining, yelling, and a whole lot of disciplining. Our group time is interrupted without fail...and dinner time feels like a zoo! I don't know if this is where you would want to be on a Friday night…but we wouldn't miss it for the world!!!
Towards the end of the evening, we share our prayer requests…for our lives…work…family and children. And when it comes to our kids, we all know that beyond our wishes to change their misbehavior or bad attitude…we desire for them to know the relentless love of our Lord and Savior. So with Easter right around the corner, it was a perfect opportunity to focus on the kids for a week, and dedicate a Friday evening of remembering Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection!
Some of the men. Thank you for BBQing!!!
The tomb ;)
A reverse Easter Egg hunt! The kids might have been disappointed to find that there were no candies or prizes in these eggs. They were empty…just as the tomb was empty…He is Risen!!!
Each child found a dozen empty eggs...
Good job, boys!!!
12 eggs…each represents an event in Jesus' life during Holy Week
We had to split our kids into 2 groups…here are our older ones awaiting the egg hunt!
The little ones went into the "empty tomb" first!
Inside each egg was an object that represented the Easter story: palm branches (mark 11:8), silver coins (matthew 26:14-15), bread (mark 14:22), praying hands (mark 14:32), whip (matthew 27:26), crown of thorns (mark 15:17), nails (john 19:16), dice (mark 15:24), spear (john 19:34), cloth (matthew 27:59), stone (mark 16:4), empty egg (matthew 28:5-6)
Story Time!!! This was my favorite time of the night--the older kids had some great (theological) questions…so we spent the evening in this "tomb" to ask, share, and answer questions~ What a blessed time it was!!!
The angel said to the women, "Don't be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here! He has risen, just as he said he would! Come and see the place where he was lying. (Matthew 28:5-6)
dirt + grass seed + some pebbles + a rock + twigs + pot + potting tray
The kids went out to find their own twigs to make 3 crosses. I still think the Easter story is conceptually hard for some of our younger ones to understand…but questions about the cross, sin, mean soldiers, and His resurrection have been coming up in our home this week...
What an amazing God we have. He is Risen, everyone!!!
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