Tag: sunday school lessons

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Foolish Things

FOOLISH THINGS

“If 50 million people say a foolish thing over and over is it still a foolish thing?” (E.C. McKenzie, 1800 Quotable Quotes)

We can say YES.  Only God’s word is settled forever.  Anything contrary to his word is a foolish thing.  The most important thing we can teach our kids is that God’s word is true and we are not to be conformed to the world.  We are not always going to agree and we need to accept that.  There is going to be many things that the world thinks is truth and they are going to live their lives by and we are going to go against the flow and say it is wrong, it is foolish thing.

 

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OPEN MINDS

OPEN MINDS 

“The trouble with most open minds is that they are open at both ends.”  (E.C. McKenzie, 1800 Quotatable Quotes)

It is impossible to believe everything because of the contractions that lie in all the different teachings.  People often try to pick and chose what they want to believe.  After reading the book titled “The 100” (The 100 most influential people in history), I realized that for thousands of years people have been trying to figure out the best way to govern people.

From these thoughts have come communism, democracy, and other forms of governance.  I believe it is important to teach the children the word of God so that they always have something to measure every thought against.  For everything they learn they will be able to say, “What does God’s word say about this?”

 

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Saint Patrick’s Day Theme

Saint Patrick’s story is a favourite of mine, especially since I am from an Irish background.

Here is a link to some interesting ideas you could do with your class to celebrate the life of Saint Patrick.

Planning a Kidmin St. Patrick’s Fun Sunday

 

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Create What You Love | 7 Habits of a Good Artist | Andrew Price

Create What You Love | 7 Habits of a Good Artist | Based on Blender Foundation Speech by Andrew Price (view full speech on youtube.com)

Habit # 7 Create what you Love

 

As people who are serving the Lord we have a strong sense that we are called to something unique and special for us.  We are not called to do everything.  It is clear in the scriptures that God has given out gifts and not all of us have the same gifts.

 

Andrew says, “You have intrinsic motivation when you are doing something that you love. ”

 

How this related to me in drawing the cartoons is that I have always loved teaching the word of God in children’s church because I know his word will never return void.  It might take my life time to get this project done but I will never stop because it is what I LOVE to do.

 

Find out what you love and start doing it.  Even if it takes you your whole life time to complete, take encouragement that you will always have something to wake up in the morning for.

 

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Feedback | 7 Habits of a Good Artist | Andrew Price

Feedback | 7 Habits of a Good Artist | Based on Blender Foundation speech given by Andrew Price (view video on youtube.com)

Habit #6 Get feedback

 

Andrew says, “You want true honest feedback.”

 

In my efforts to cartoon the bible, I found the kids I am reading the stories to, to give me the best true and honest feedback.  I would ask them questions after the story and I could tell whether they were getting the point or if they were confused.

 

I have been really pleased with how many times they would correct me and see inconsistencies in the cartoons or the story.  I would realize from their feedback that I needed to go and do some rewriting.

 

Feedback is pure gold. A humble heart is always looking to do better, especially when we are working for the Lord.  Never take feedback as negative.  Don’t be oversensitive about it.

 

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Rest | 7 Habits of a Good Artist | Andrew Price

Rest | 7 Habits of a Good Artist | Based on a Blender Foundation Speech by Andrew Price (You can view full video at youtube.com)

 

Habit #5  Rest

 

Andrew says,  “Take a break from your work then go back and take a look at it with fresh eyes.”

 

He uses the example of the writer, Stephen King who after he writes a novel, packs it away for 6 months and doesn’t look at it.  When he later re-reads it, he sees it with fresh eyes and sees things he did not see the first time.

 

I can attest to the fact that when you have been working on something for so long, with so many re-do’s, you don’t see it objectively anymore.

 

Also when you take rest times your mind somehow sorts out your problems as you rest.  Make sure you bring a recording device or paper and pen, so you can write things down if you get a brilliant idea.

 

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Conscious Learning | 7 Habits of a Good Artist | Andrew Price

Conscious Learning | 7 Habits of a Good Artist | Based on Blender Foundation speech by Andrew Price (view full videos on youtube.com)

Habit #4 Conscious learning – not practice, practice, practice

 

I heard a saying “It is  not practice that makes perfect, but perfect practice that makes perfect.”

 

Andrew uses the example of a time when he was drawing but he was in a rut, not improving – just redrawing the same pictures over and over again.  He realized he needed more training.  He started to re-learn the old things and he realized he hadn’t adopted everything he had learned.

 

How I found this applied to me in my cartooning of the bible was that I recognized pretty quickly my limitations and I enrolled in a night school course for cartooning once per week at my local college.  I totally enjoyed the experience and enjoyed getting out each week with other people who had like interests.

 

If you feel like you need more training in the area you are called to, go and get the training.  Look outside the box so to speak, to see how you could make it happen.

 

Consciously always be improving your skills.  Try not to plateau.

 

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Stealing | 7 Habits of a Good Artist | Andrew Price

Stealing | 7 Habits of a Good Artist |  Based on Blender Foundation Speech by Andrew Price (video series can be viewed on youtube.com)

Habit 3 – Get good at stealing

Andrew says that we build on the stuff we have learned from others.  Find your idols, copy the stuff you love and put them into a file.

He says, “If you steal from one person you are plagiarizing but if you are stealing ideas from 100 people you are not doing plagiarism.”

When I was first learning to cartoon for the bible stories, I had very little background knowledge to draw from.  I had enjoyed the Saturday morning cartoons I watched on television as a child and I drew inspiration from them.  I also started to look at the cartoon section of our local newspaper and even advertising flyers that came in my daily mail.  My eyes were suddenly open to all the cartoons that were around me.

I started to recognize that there are certain styles of cartoons that I like and I started to try to copy them.  My limited drawing experience required me to rely on reference material.  I would cut out from the newspaper all of the cartoons with unusual facial expressions and make files of various things I felt I might need to use as inspiration.  Now of course with the internet, you have it all at your fingertips.

 

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Volume Not Perfection | 7 Habits of a Good Artist | Andrew Price

Habit #2  Work on Volume not Perfection

7 HABITS OF A GOOD ARTIST based on Blender Foundation Speech by Andrew Price
(You can find the series on Youtube.com)

Habit #2 is to work on Volume of pieces and not perfection of each piece of art that you do.  Andrew Price uses the example of Picasso and how he did a huge volume of artwork, thousands and thousands of pieces, but only a few pieces became famous.

Apparently the more compositions you make in 5 years, the higher your chances become in making a “hit”.

How I found this related to me in my cartooning of the bible is that, because each story required 10 to 15 pictures, I couldn’t afford to do “perfect”  artwork, as the upcoming Sunday service only allowed me a certain amount of time to get the story presentable. Fortunately since kids are so forgiving, I just made the pictures as best as I could and over time my art work started to improve.   Probably most stories have been done 2 to 3 times to get them to their current level.  I can attest that volume of work makes a difference.  You get better as you do it.  Don’t slow yourself down trying to be perfect.  Just keep on moving.

I also have come to ACCEPT that my work WON’T be perfect.  Before I even started the project of cartooning the bible, I was at a church and the pastor called me out and said that he felt God had a message for me.  He said God was going to give me a work to do and that I was not to compare myself to others and say that others could have done this job better.  I accept the job given to me and I am doing my best to develop the talent given to me.  I encourage the same for you.

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Do A Little Every Day | 7 Habits of a Good Artist | Andrew Price

Do a Little Every Day | SEVEN HABITS OF A GOOD ARTIST based on Blender Foundation Speech by Andrew Price.  (You should be able to view the full series on Youtube.com)

Habit #1 is “Do a little bit every day”.

If you are reading this blog, you most likely know that I am attempting to cartoon the entire bible (at least all the parts that have a story to illustrate).  A few times I have felt overwhelmed to the point of tears at how massive this project was, but I have learned that doing a little bit everyday does add up.   I am amazed at how much I do get accomplished when I block a certain amount of time each business day of the week, and stick to my schedule.

The old Chinese proverb is true that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single footstep.

Use your little moments that you do get.  Use the technology you have.  Record ideas on your cell phone.  Don’t lose time.  Don’t lose a thought.  Even if you don’t have time to develop your thoughts at this moment, at least they are recorded for the future when you do have time.

 

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Orphanage and Home for Aids Affected Children India | Mission Moment #4

Mission Moment #4 | Orphanage and Home for Aids Affected Children

In the next few weeks we will be focusing on some of the children the home cares for.  All of these stories were provided to me by Simon David, the director of the home.  You can reach him at blessingchild2002@yahoo.com

Pavani lost her father when she was 3 months old. Her grand parents chased the mother and the girl out of the house, because they said we have nothing to do with the child as our own son is no more. Hence Padma and her daughter Pavani had to live alone, and that is when they knocked our door and we kept her with us. Pavani was suffering with terrible fits and God healed her.

This girl is our branch Pastor’s daughter. She was in incubator and Doctors gave up hopes and told only a miracle can save her. When we came to know we went and prayed for her. God heard our prayers and saved this child. Pastor promised God that if she survives I will leave her in our home. That is the reason why she is with us.

 

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Orphanage and Home for Aids Affected Children | Mission Moment Part 3

Here is a letter from the American pastor whose church sends a team each year to the Home for Aids Affected Children.  He recounts how his church came to be in contact with Mr. Simon David, the Indian businessman who founded the Home for Aids Affected Children.

Here’s my story —

At Bear Valley Community Church we decided we needed to do something about the AIDS crisis in the world. So we asked around if anyone knew of any ministry that we could support anywhere in the world. As God would have it: here’s the crazy thing that happened. A guy in our church had just returned from India where he had been standing on a curb trying to get across a 10-lane street with traffic buzzing around. So an Indian man, S.V. David, took him by the hand and helped him skirt through 10 lanes of traffic without getting killed. My friend told me that the man, S.V. David had an AIDS home and orphanage for children whose parents died of AIDS leaving them orphans. That’s how we found out about El-Rohi.

 

So a few months later our team left for India to visit this home – El Rohi. Once in Hyderabad, India, we drove on a 4-lane road for about an hour, then we drove on a 2-lane road, then we drove on a 1-lane road, then we found ourselves driving down a dirt path. Who knew where this road would take us? We finally arrived at a gate, and we entered. The children were in the middle of a worship service when we arrived. They were singing, they were all dressed up in their native garb, the children were dancing to the energetic music, and there was preaching.

 

To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect when we arrived at the home. I assumed it would be a bunch of little poverty kids who were just trying to survive. Instead in the midst of the beautiful children, the heart-felt music, and the gorgeous scenery with palm trees, my first thought was this — “Is this what heaven is going to be like?” It’s hard for me to describe the sensation I had from the Lord and the feeling of God’s overwhelming presence there in this little tiny spot filled with these precious kids, but I saw the Lord there that day, and I’ve never been the same since.

Here is a photo of me a few years ago with a little girl, Leah, who was saved from a mother who said she didn’t need any more children and so was going to terminate the baby’s life when born. Leah is now in the 2nd grade and is number one in her class in school. She loves Jesus and is a trophy of God’s grace.

Pastor Lee Johnson, Ph.D.
Bear Valley Community Church
7900 Precinct Line Road
Colleyville, TX  76034
817-485-9910
lee@bearvalleychurch.com

 

“We give our lives helping people and families find their place in God’s story.”

 

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