Week Two: Peter Walks on Water

The bottom line of this week was:

I have to keep depending on God's power in my life. 

Our Bible story this week was from Matthew 14:22-34. Jesus sent away the crowds and told the disciples to take their boat across the sea of Galilee so that He could pray and spend time alone. During the night, a massive storm raged and the disciples were stuck amidst the waves and wind. In the morning, they were frightened to see a figure approaching them on the water. When Jesus saw their fear, he said "Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid." and Peter replied, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." The Lord called Peter and he stepped out of the boat. As long as Peter was focused on Jesus, he remained safe, but when he lost sight of God's power, he began to sank. 

We did an experiment with a diet and a regular Coke and learned that even though they look the same, the diet Coke will float because of what's inside. This helped us realize that our hearts must be in the right place. We also made apple sailboats for snack and sponge sailboats for craft to remember that focusing on God is the key to plugging into His power. 

Here are some pictures from this week's festivities:

Watching the next installment of our Zapped videos!

Learning that what's inside can make a big difference

Sailboat craft

Caleb playing with his food!

Sarah's masterpiece

Emilie and Hannah at craft time

Mady helping Hannah and Kaitlyn

Luca showing off his final product

Week One: Jesus Calls Peter

Each week we have a bottom line that pulls together the Bible story and the real life application, this week the bottom line was:

God wants to do something with me that's bigger than just me!

We talked about Jesus calling Peter to follow Him. After fishing all night without catching a thing, Peter, John and James returned to the shore exhausted and frustrated. Jesus, who had been preaching to a crowd on the shore of the sea of Galilee, asked Peter to take him out in the boat so that He could reach the entire crowd. After delivering His message, Jesus told Peter to go to the deep water and cast out his nets. Peter responded in obedience and pulled in more fish that he could handle. After seeing God's power and providence, Peter cried to Jesus, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord", and Jesus called Peter to follow him and become a fisher of men. The story was from Luke 5:1-11.

To illustrate these points, we learned how static electricity can pull unlikely things together, much like how Jesus called an unlikely fisherman to be zapped by His power. We also had a snack that taught us how to fish with patience and reap the reward!

Here are some pictures from the week:

Stations to get things started!

Cup stacking wreckage

Watching the videos of Pete, the Professor, and Roger the Robot!

Practicing making the choice to follow or to stay

Fishing snack!

Craft of the week, Sarah decorated hers with the summer's memory verse!

Joshua using static electricity to connect unlikely things!

Here's a little peek into what the kids of Creekside Covenant Church have been up to this summer! We are following the journey of the disciple Peter and learning how to plug into God and get "Zapped!" by His awesome power. We are working through the Zapped curriculum produced by Orange, for more information check out the website: http://whatisorange.org/summerxp/. Thanks so much to all of the volunteers, leaders, mentors, parents and kids involved!

Here's a piece of art done by one of the students, it illustrates our summer so well!