So who are we and what are we doing?
The Riversdale-Waikaia Presbyterian Church is a smallish rural church in Southland, New Zealand. We have a Sunday School (CrossFire) of around 20 children, aged 1 - 10 years. We are currently journeying through the WHOLE Bible, Genesis to Revelation, without skipping anything! We spent 2013 on Genesis and Exodus. 2014 covered Leviticus through to Ruth, and 2015 covered the first two kings - Saul and David. 2016 was a rapid ride through the rest of the kings - from Solomon to Hoshea (king of Israel), and Zedekiah (king of Judah)! 2017 saw us leave the Israelites in 'Time Out' (aka exile) while we backtracked in time to study the Writings - the books of poetry from Job to Song of Solomon (In term 1) and the Prophets (Terms 2 & 3). We finally finished the Old Testament in term 1 of 2018 - studying the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. The remainder of 2018 was spent with John the Baptist in the desert, and then (finally!) with the miracles, teachings, and nature of Jesus. Through 2019 we continued the amazing story of Jesus, and what it looks like to follow Him. 2020 has focused on Acts & the amazing stories of the brand new Church.
So many Sunday School curriculums are based around common stories told in a disjointed way. Our goal is for our children to understand the Bible as a whole, to know the basic timeline of biblical history and how everything fits together. And most importantly to understand what it means for us as Christians. Alongside our journey through the Bible we are also learning and practicing spiritual disciplines - such as different ways to worship God, memorization of key scriptures and praying for one another. It is fantastic to see the children connecting to God in different ways and incorporating their faith into the rest of their week!
The Riversdale-Waikaia Presbyterian Church is a smallish rural church in Southland, New Zealand. We have a Sunday School (CrossFire) of around 20 children, aged 1 - 10 years. We are currently journeying through the WHOLE Bible, Genesis to Revelation, without skipping anything! We spent 2013 on Genesis and Exodus. 2014 covered Leviticus through to Ruth, and 2015 covered the first two kings - Saul and David. 2016 was a rapid ride through the rest of the kings - from Solomon to Hoshea (king of Israel), and Zedekiah (king of Judah)! 2017 saw us leave the Israelites in 'Time Out' (aka exile) while we backtracked in time to study the Writings - the books of poetry from Job to Song of Solomon (In term 1) and the Prophets (Terms 2 & 3). We finally finished the Old Testament in term 1 of 2018 - studying the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. The remainder of 2018 was spent with John the Baptist in the desert, and then (finally!) with the miracles, teachings, and nature of Jesus. Through 2019 we continued the amazing story of Jesus, and what it looks like to follow Him. 2020 has focused on Acts & the amazing stories of the brand new Church.
So many Sunday School curriculums are based around common stories told in a disjointed way. Our goal is for our children to understand the Bible as a whole, to know the basic timeline of biblical history and how everything fits together. And most importantly to understand what it means for us as Christians. Alongside our journey through the Bible we are also learning and practicing spiritual disciplines - such as different ways to worship God, memorization of key scriptures and praying for one another. It is fantastic to see the children connecting to God in different ways and incorporating their faith into the rest of their week!