​Hi Reign Forest Friends,
 
For September 2022, the children are learning about TRUST. Each week they learn about the connection between Trust and God’s character, as shown through God’s Big Story (the Bible).
 
In week 3, we meet Isaac’s sons, Jacob and Esau, in Genesis 25, 27, and 28. Jacob and Esau always had a complicated relationship from the moment they were born. Jacob eventually took advantage of Esau’s moment of exhaustion. Of course, Esau was angry, and Jacob might have wondered how God felt about him after tricking his brother’s birthright and blessing out from under him. But in a dream, God reminded Jacob of the promise to his grandfather, Abraham. God loved Jacob and could be trusted. God renewed the covenant that started with Abraham. God always keeps a promise.
 
Bottom Line: You can trust that God has a plan. It can be difficult for kids to understand how God has a plan for their life. They’re at the phase where they hardly know their dinner plans, much less what they hope will happen weeks or months from now. However, this doesn’t mean they don’t need a foundation to understand how God can play a significant role in their plans. We pray that through the story of Jacob and Esau, they can see that God is constantly working to bring something great from our lives.
 
Memory Verse #2: “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 NLT
 
Have a great week!
The Reign Forest team

​Hello Reign Forest friends,
 
For the Month of September 2022, the children are learning about TRUST.
Throughout history, God has been faithful to us. God kept the promise to send Jesus to save us. When we remember that God will continue to be dependable, we can choose to trust God no matter what we face in life. The Bible shows examples of people who knew firsthand what it meant to trust God in many circumstances. This month, we focus on three of them who happen to be part of the same family: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Through their stories, we’ll discover how we can trust God no matter what we face.
 
We pick up where we left off last month and continue with Abraham’s story for week one. In Genesis 15, 18, and 21, we discover that God’s promise to Abraham takes longer than Abraham might have thought. This tests Abraham’s trust in God, but God renews Abraham’s covenant. Abraham learns that he can trust God. Eventually, Abraham and Sarah have a son and name him Isaac. God’s promise to Abraham is coming true.
 
Bottom Line: Trust God even when you have to wait. Waiting can be difficult. When we find ourselves in a moment where we have to wait, it can be easy to complain or get angry. However, we can discover a different way to wait. When we remember how God has been faithful to us in the past, we can find the strength to trust God with our current situation. We pray that kids understand they can trust God with whatever they’re experiencing.
 
During our class, children participated in 2 games that talked about waiting. We then did a craft. Older children were given a printed trust journal, which they were encouraged to fill out. It includes fill-in-the-blank parts of how God encourages us to trust Him in our life.
 
Have a great week!
The Reign Forest team

​Hi Reign Forest Friends,
 
This week, we circled back to the lesson that we missed the Sunday we were enjoying our service at Woodcrest. We took a look at Luke 10:25-37 and our last Fruit of the Spirit - kindness. When a religious leader questioned Jesus about the sorts of people we should love and show kindness to; He told the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan. With this story, Jesus completely changed how people who follow Him should look at showing kindness to others – it’s not just for people we know or like, but for everyone we meet.
 
Bottom Line: Show kindness to everyone. Everyone is someone who God created and loves. We pray that our kids start to realize that everyone deserves kindness. We’ll help them discover simple ways to put God’s love into action with the way they are kind to people they meet.
 
We look forward to celebrating with everyone this coming Sunday during our Memory Verse Celebration. We want to celebrate everyone’s hard work memorizing God’s word, whether that was here in RF, at home, or at school this past year. We have a fun morning planned and hope everyone can join us!
 
Blessings!
The RF Team

​Dear RF Friends,
 
On Sunday in RF, we finished up the 9-week series on the Fruits of the Spirit by looking at James 3:1-6 and discussing self-control.  Our words have power.  James uses practical images like a horse's bit, a ship's rudder, and a flame to show us just how powerful they are.  Our words can hurt, or they can heal, and controlling them can sometimes feel impossible.  Thankfully, we can count on the Holy Spirit to help us practice self-control with our words. 
               
Bottom Line:  God gives you the power to have self-control.  Self-control can be tricky, especially when we want something really bad or when life doesn't go our way.  This can also be true with the words we use.  We pray that the kids will begin to see that they don't need to do this all independently.  God can help them show self-control. 
 
The attached take-home paper includes a fun coloring page to review the Fruits of the Spirit! 
 
Blessings,
RF Team 

​Hi Reign Forest Friends,
 
We will have our Bible Memory Celebration on Sunday, Aug 14, in Reign Forest during the Worship service!
 
We are very proud of ALL the children and their efforts to memorize God's Word!!! If your child has not met the goal yet, they can feel free to keep working on memorizing verses, and we would love to hear them on or before Sunday, Aug 7. Aug 7 will be the last Sunday for the kids to say Bible verses to a Reign Forest leader to count towards this year's challenge.
 
If your child has met the 30 Verse Challenge, he/she will be awarded a gift card to their choice of place during our celebration. Please let Anita know your child's choice of gift card by Sunday Aug 7. If your child does not reach the goal but has completed a set of 5 verses (5, 10, 15, 20, or 25), he/she will be able to pick a small prize from the treasure box on the morning of our celebration.
 
Thank you! We look forward to the celebration!
The Reign Forest Leaders 

​Hi Reign Forest Friends,
 
In week three, we jump back to 1 Samuel 18-20 and 2 Samuel 9. We dive deeper into the amazing friendship between David and Jonathan. Jonathan was a faithful friend to David when King Saul chased David and tried to kill him. David was faithful to Jonathan and kept an important promise to care for Jonathan’s family.
 
Bottom Line: Be faithful so others can count on you. Faithfulness will look different for each of us. Some of us will be faithful to family members who need encouragement. Others will faithfully help friends who struggle a bit. We hope kids learn that God can do some amazing things through them when they are faithful to others. 
 
Memory verse: There is no NEW memory verse. But please encourage your children to work on memorizing and reciting their verses if they still have ones left to say from the 30 verse Bible Memory Challenge here at Reign Forest.
 
Have a great week!
The Reign Forest team

Hello Everyone,
​
Last Sunday in Week 4, we spent time discovering more about Proverbs 15:18. Waiting can be the worst! But something Solomon wrote in Proverbs can help us remember why patience is so important. A person with a bad temper stirs up conflict. But a person who is patient calms things down. When we have to wait, it’s important not to let impatience get the best of us. We can trust God to give us the strength to have patience and keep our cool.

Bottom Line: Be patient with each other. We all face moments where we’ll find it difficult to have patience. From waiting in line to get a seat at your favorite restaurant to sitting in construction traffic on your way to vacation, how can you have patience when you want to get a move on? We pray that kids will start with prayer and ask God for help. God can give us patience in any situation!

Tomorrow we will be at Woodcrest Retreat Center for our annual church picnic. We hope to see you all there!
The Reign Forest Team,

Cheryl, Anita, Angie, Christine and Val

​Hi Reign Forest Friends,
 
In week three, we jump back to 1 Samuel 25:1-35, where we find a story about a woman named Abigail that starts with King David. He was furious with a man named Nabal, who mistreated his soldiers. David decided to get revenge until the man’s wife, Abigail, used her peacemaking skills and stopped something that could have been horrible. Even though she was not responsible for her husband’s offense, she realized she could play a role in making peace.
 
Today we listened to the Fruit of the Spirit is not a Coconut song. We reviewed Bible memory verse #30 given on the 1st Sunday of June 2022. We did a pass the fruit matching game on the foam mats to music. Then children had a choice to do a Father’s Day card or a Fruit of the Spirit-themed paper.
 
Bottom Line: You can help others make peace. Peace is often about helping stop an argument before it can escalate into something worse. Acting as a peacemaker between others will take time and energy, but God can give us the strength to help others make peace. Sometimes our outside perspective is what someone might need to see a peaceful solution. We want kids to know that with God’s help, they can make waves by helping others make peace.
 
Memory verse: There is no NEW memory verse. But please encourage your children to work on memorizing and reciting their verses if they still have ones from the 30-verse Bible Memory Challenge here at Reign Forest.
 
Have a great week!
The Reign Forest team

​Hope everyone is having a good week!
 
This past Sunday, we wrapped up our month on resilience in Hebrews 12:1-3. Resilience might not be easy, but the author of Hebrews reminds us of something important: all sorts of people have gone before us. They give us an incredible example to follow of what it means to have resilience, even throughout the most challenging moments of life. We can focus our attention on Jesus. He is the ultimate example of someone who endured death itself to accomplish the rescue mission God set out for Him.
 
Bottom Line: Keep going because of what Jesus did for you. Knowing that Jesus persevered through His death and was resurrected is the best encouragement for us to keep going when life gets hard. When we focus on Jesus, we remember that nothing is impossible, and God will help us show resilience through whatever we face in life.
 
Bible Verse #29: And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith (Hebrews 12:1b-2a).
 
Blessings!
The RF Team

​For week four, we spent time in Hebrews 11. The author of Hebrews reminds us that when life gets hard, we can look to the heroes of the faith and see how they trusted God through some tough circumstances. We use Abraham, Joseph, and Moses to help kids understand how to show resilience through difficult circumstances.
 
Bottom Line: Trusting God can help you get back up. It’s comforting to know that others have made it through to the other side of difficult times. When we see how God helped them, it helps us trust God more with our circumstances.
 
Bible Verse #28: “The Lord helps the fallen and lifts those bent beneath their loads” (Psalm 145:14, NLT).
 
Have a Great week!
The Reign Forest Team