Each year our Girl Scout Service Unit does a all day craft day called "Winter Fun".  I usually have some part in it, because well… I love crafts.  Here is one of  my crafty designs from this year.

Here's what you need:

• Fleece.. (we cut 100 fleece scarves that were 5.5" across.. on the fold)
• White felt for snowmen and women
• black felt for hat
• red felt for heart
• brown felt for arms
• orange for carrot nose
• glue (we used Tacky Glue)
• embroidery thread and needles (for older kids to embrodier the eyes)
• tiny black pom poms for the younger kids to use as the eyes

We couldn't get enough of one color fleece.. so we bought a couple of different colors.

Here's our diagram of the original.. we put on the board for the girls to make.  I thought it was kind of cute that Mr. Snowman is giving Ms. Snowman his heart and she has her eyes closed.

To save time, we drew the the designs on the felt, and let the girls cut them out, and glue them on.   Winter fun has all ages of girls from Daisy (Kindergarten) to Senior (High School).

Winter Fun isn't just for Girl Scouts.. we let #4 come and craft too!

I did this lesson recently with my youth group.  It was pretty successful.. Here's what I did:

The Ingredients for Spiritual Growth

What are the ingredients for growing in our spiritual walk with Christ?  The goal is that students would be challenged to implement one or more of these ingredients. Spiritual growth is the process of growing closer to God. God’s Word gives us the ingredients to help in that process.

Bible Verses

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

Acts 2:42-47; Philippians 1:6; Colossians 3:17; Hebrews 10:24-25

What’s in your food.. Game

On each table I have a list of ingredients of several popular food items. The youth will  guess what each item is.

  ·     Milk Chocolate (Milk Chocolate contains Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Chocolate, Nonfat Milk, Milk Fat, Lactose, and Soya Lecithin and PGPR (as Emulsifiers), Peanuts, Sugar, Dextrose, Salt, and TBHQ and Citric Acid (to Preserve Freshness)  (REECES)

·       Carbonated Water; Imperial Pure Cane Sugar; Caramel Color; Phosphoric Acid; 23 Artificial and Natural Flavors; Sodium Benzoate (Preservative); Caffeine.  (Dr. Pepper)

·         Chopped pork shoulder meat with ham meat added, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder, and sodium nitrite as a preservative. Spam's gelatinous glaze, or aspic, forms from the cooling of meat stock. (Spam)

• UNBLEACHED ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE {VITAMIN B1}, RIBOFLAVIN {VITAMIN B2}, FOLIC ACID), SOYBEAN OIL, SUGAR, SALT, EMULSIFIERS (MONOGLYCERIDES, SOY LECITHIN), DEXTROSE, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE (FLAVOR ENHANCER), ONION POWDER, BAKING SODA, DEHYDRATED COOKED CHICKEN, HYDROLYZED CORN AND YEAST PROTEIN, SPICE EXTRACTIVES, DISODIUM INOSINATE AND DISODIUM GUANYLATE (FLAVOR ENHANCERS). CONTAINS: WHEAT, SOY.

·         Talk about how each ingredient is essential for the item to be fabulous.

·         If you were to leave out one of the ingredients, the item would not be the same. 

·         It is just the same with our walk with Christ—there are ingredients for growing in our relationship with Christ that are essential. Without any one of these ingredients, we would be missing out on the full experience of growth.

Discuss the following questions:

1. What are some ingredients that will help you grow in your relationship with God?

2. Which ingredients are the most important?

3. Which could you really do without?

4. What would your relationship be like without ___________________________[list any ingredient] being a part of it?

Conclude by stating that today you will be looking at some essential ingredients in the process of growing in your relationship with God. In the following section, you’ll be looking at the ingredients for spiritual growth found in Acts 2:42-47. This is not an exhaustive list of growth ingredients, but it is a great passage on this issue. Feel free to add any ingredients not talked about in this lesson. Because of the amount of time you’ll have, you will not be able to spend a great deal of time on any one ingredient. So be sure to define each ingredient, explain its importance, state how the ingredient applies to the students’ lives, and then talk about its impact on your own relationship with God.

Read Acts 2:42-47.

I. God’s Word (v. 42)

A. Spend personal time in God’s Word.

B. Listen to God’s Word being taught.

II. Fellowship (v. 42)

A. Develop relationships in small groups for accountability.

B. Build relationships for the purpose of growth.

III. Prayer (v. 42)

A. Practice adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication (or asking)—ACTS.

B. Listen for God’s answers.

IV. Community (v. 44)

A. Care for each other.

B. Share your life and your material possessions.

C. Encourage others.

V. Serving (v. 45)

A. Serve people within the group and your church.

B. Serve those outside the church.

VI. Worship (vv. 46-47)

A.      Give God His rightful place in your life.

VII. Evangelize (v. 47)

A. Share your faith with others.

B. Love the lost.

Actions.

The following discussion starters will help students personalize the ingredients for spiritual growth. The key will be in giving real-life examples of each ingredient and challenging students to apply one or two of the ingredients to their lives. Give students examples from your life. By opening up your life to them, they will feel more comfortable in talking about their own lives. Offer insight into where they are now in their spiritual growth processes and how they can get to where they want to be. In addition, offer accountability to the group members in helping them live out one or more of the ingredients.

·         What is the difference between salvation and spiritual growth?

·         How does Philippians 1:6 relate to spiritual growth?

·         If someone is feeling spiritually dry and far away from God, what advice would you give him or her?

·         What has helped you grow the most in your relationship with God?

·         Who has been the greatest influence in your own spiritual growth?

·         What has that person done to encourage you to grow?

·         Read Hebrews 10:24-25. How can we help each other in growing closer to Christ?

·         Which one or two of the ingredients is the toughest for you? Why?

·         If you could work on one spiritual ingredient in your life, which one would it be?

·         What they will do during this coming week to work on this area.

Wednesday September 22, was See You at the Pole day.  If you haven’t heard about SYATP.. it’s a unique opportunity for kids to meet around the flag pole at their school and pray for their country, schools and each other.

Unless you are homeschooled, then you meet at your towns

courthouse. Our Youth Group participated this year for the first time.

I was planning on hanging out at the High School with our Youth

Group… but instead I hung out with the Homeschoolers.

#2 volunteered to be the leader for the homeschool pole.  Which

means he lead the prayer.  He was pretty nervous, but did a great

job.  The man and I are super proud of him for leading.