Our interim minister, Heather Lynn Hanson, visited the Faithful Journeys (6 to 9 year old) class as well as the Toolbox of Faith (10 to 13 year old) class.  She told the older kids a story about a boy who learns to defend himself from a bully with Aikido and eventually becomes his friend.  With the Faithful Journeys class, Heather Lynn talked about becoming and being a minister and showed the kids her stoles — they even got to try on their favorite one!

One of the activities that the Faithful Journeys class has been doing all year is adding footprints to their Faithful Journeys path, a road that symbolically shows the things that they have learned and faithful actions the children have done, both in and out of their Sunday classes.  We recently ran out of footprints so the class made some more in the kitchen of the Chrysalis, an activity which everyone enjoyed doing.  They even got a free foot washing out of the deal!

Finally, a very good time was had by all 20+ folks at the Friday Family Potluck this past month — since it fell on a Friday the 13th, we hosted a brief game show (sans cameras, unfortunately) entitled “Superstition,” in which contestants attempted to identify which of three superstitions were real and which were fabricated.  In true UU fashion, teams needed extra time to vote on their table’s answer.  The night ended with a discussion on what difference, if any,  people think there are between superstitious beliefs and religious beliefs.  Our next potluck is 6:00pm – 8:30 pm on Friday, February 10th — check out the calendar for details.  Hope you can attend!

A thank you letter from the Center for Human Services, who received 193 books from the 6 to 9 year old class’ book drive.

Bookerflies are here to help
To put the books upon the shelf

Bring your books for all ages
So we can share our favorite pages

The Faithful Journeys class tells the congregation about their new club

The Faithful Journeys class (5-9 years old) created their own club recently: The Bookerflies!  Their club will help collect quality children’s books to be given to families that can’t afford presents this year.  Their book collection box will be in the hallway for the next two Sundays, December 11 and 18.  Please bring any children’s books you can donate to church by December 18th — after this date, the books collected will be going to Center for Human Services (a great organization that, incidentally, was a recent recipient of our church’s monthly social justice plate share) to be distributed to children and families who need them most.  Thank you for helping these children along in their faithful journey!

On the day before Halloween, children gathered together to think of different reasons people wear masks and to make their own masks.  They then crept into the sanctuary to see who they could surprise during the closing song!

In the 10-13 year old Toolbox of Faith class, the kids heard a funny story about a town where the people were too rigid in their way of thinking and talked about ways they’ve had to be flexible and change their minds as they’ve grown.  Afterwards, they explored the theme flexibility by making wallets from a very versatile and unexpected material — duct tape!

The youth group’s annual pie sale found them at the helm of making FORTY SEVEN PIES!  It was a big task but with the help of loud music and a giant pack of licorice they completed the job and raised over $300 from the baking extravaganza!

And closing out two months of holidays that often have a big focus on food (and candy), two members of the congregation talked with the kids about a healthy diet, what the labels on food products mean, and the idea of moderation and balance.  The adults and kids made french toast together while talking about all the ingredients that went into it, then had a fun breakfast to end the day.

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Stay tuned in the next couple of days for more info on THE BOOKERFLIES, the club formed by the Faithful Journeys (5-9 year old) class that’s working to get children’s books to families that can’t afford presents this holiday season!

While you are here, please check out our calendar of upcoming family events at SUUC.  In addition to the monthly potlucks and Food Lifeline service visits, there will be information about special services, special children’s programs, and so on — why not bookmark it?

Also, if you or your kids didn’t hear about Camp Quest NorthWest from Eliza Sutton last week, click below to find out more about it.  Thanks for reading and stay tuned, I’ll be updating this blog every couple of weeks.

From Eliza:

Camp Quest is a national organization of regional, locally-organized summer camps for kids of families who want to encourage critical thinking including about religion (whether the kids or families identify as freethought, humanist, atheist, skeptic or something else).  CQ’s motto is: “It’s beyond belief!”  The camps are typical summer outdoorsy camps, with addition of fun activities aimed at enhancing critical thinking.