Joshua’s House

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As the weather warms up, kids love to be outside. One place that can make kids really excited is the zoo. Even if you don’t have a zoo nearby, you could visit a local petting farm. Chances are, if there are animals, your kids will love it.

With a little pre-planning a fun zoo trip can become an amazingly exciting excursion. There are a lot of steps listed below. Feel free to try them all, or simply pick the steps your family will enjoy most.

Step #1 Pick a Location
This may be easy if you live in a place with lots of options. If not, check a phone book, or ask around to see if you can find someone with a farm. Once you’ve found a place to go, call ahead or check the facility’s website to find out what animals will be there.

Step #2 Pick some animals
Sit down with your kids and let them all pick out a few animals they want to learn about. You can even do this with younger children. You will have to work with them one-on-one, but even a four-year-old would love to learn about new animals.

Step #3 Research
For this step you will need old magazines, a computer with the internet, or a fun trip to the library. First of all, find pictures of the animals your kids are going to see. Take some time to find out as much about the animals you will see as you possibly can. (See the list of helpful books and websites below.)
Step#4 Find out what the Bible says
Some animals aren’t mentioned in the Bible, but there are a bunch that are! Take some time to find out what the Bible says about the animals your children have chosen. If the animal isn’t in the Bible, what lessons can we learn from these creatures about God and His World?

Step#5 Draw and create
Have your children draw, write or create something to share with the rest of the family what they have learned about their chosen animals. Let your kids pick how they want to present it. They can make posters, write a report, draw pictures, make a book.

Step #5 Take a trip to the Zoo
Now that you’ve done some pre-work, your kids will be super excited to see their chosen animals live and up close. Make sure to bring a camera - let your kids take some of the pictures. As you visit all of the animals you studied, talk about where their stories are found in the Bible. Discuss some of the deeper meanings of the stories (depth, of course, will depend on the age of your children.) For example, when you visit the lions you can talk about why the Bible refers to both Jesus and Satan as a lion in different places.

You and your kids will have a blast!

Helpful Websites

• Animals of the Bible - An e-book with loads of information (not super kid-friendly, but loaded with info)
• Animals of the Bible Quiz - A fun online quiz to test your knowledge about popular animals in the Bible
• Animal Planet - Search this website to find lots of pictures and information about hundreds of animals
• Biblical Proportions - An online Bible dictionary and more - search for animals in the Bible
• National Geographic Kids - Find fun facts at this kid-friendly website
• The Scripture Alphabet of Animals - Just that, an animal for every letter of the alphabet
• WebBible Encyclopedia - Animals of the Bible - An online Bible encyclopedia with a special section for Bible animals
• Wikipedia - Find out about all sorts of animals at this online encyclopedia

Helpful Books

• All God’s Creatures: Spiritual Lessons from the Animals of the Bible - Written by a Christian zoo keeper, you may find this book to be tremendously helpful.
• Animal: The Definitive Visual Guide to the World’s Wildlife - Full of pictures, this is a great reference for your family to have around
• Animals of the Bible - A classic with pictures of animals in the Bible with the Bible verses (KJV) about them
• Bible Dictionary - Gives background information on animals (and many other things) from the Bible
• Big Book of God’s Amazing Animals: Kids Sermons and More - Even though it says it’s a book of sermons there are tons of great object lessons you can use as a parent
• Concordance - Look up each animal to find all the places it’s found in in the Bible
• First Animal Encyclopedia
• My 2 in 1 Animal Picture Dictionary: A to Z and Habitat Pages
• A New View from the Zoo - A lighthearted book by the author of All God’s Creatures with spiritual lessons to glean from funny experiences
• Noah’s Ark: An Annotated Encyclopedia of Every Animal Species in the Hebrew Bible - this book is a little heavy, but very thorough (great for teens or if you want to read it first and share what you learn)
• Where to Find it in the Bible - This is a handy reference for finding all sorts of things in the Bible

We are holding another round of auditions. If you or anyone you know is interested, give us a call!

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“Pray without ceasing” ~1 Thessalonians 5:17

“It was at this time the [Jesus] went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.” ~Matthew 6:12

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” ~Martin Luther King Jr.

Prayer is a very important part of our relationships with God. Jesus went away to pray many times. Moses talked with God, and again and again Paul tells us the importance of prayer for one another. Why don’t you pull your family together and have a fun prayer meeting. You can even invite other people to join you if you’d like. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Prayer in the Bible
Pull out a concordance and look up the word prayer. Go through a few verses every night for a couple weeks to find out what God says about prayer. Make sure to write down everything that you learn.

Pray for One Another
It is so important to pray for all of your family members. Take some time to listen to each family member. What is on his heart? What can everyone thank God for? Have someone be the scribe. After everyone has had their chance to share, let each family member pick someone else to pray for so that everyone is being lifted up to God. Example: dad prays for Suzie, Suzie prays for mom, mom prays for Scott, Scott prays for dad.

Prayer Box
Keep a box with a slot on the top in a prominent place. Whenever someone has a prayer request or a praise, she can place it in the box (for children too young to write, they can draw a picture of their praise or prayer request.) Each week you can get together and go through your box. See what requests God has answered and thank Him for all that He has been doing in your lives.

Journal
Keep a family prayer journal. Have a scribe in the family write down all of the things you would like to take to the LORD. Each time you get together, look back over your previous entries. Make sure to make a note of all of the prayers God has answered.

Prayer Picture Book
Gather pictures of family members, friends, co-workers, school mates, church members, you name it. Also, find a small photo album. Fill the album up with as many pictures as you can. Each week, pray for the next person in the photo album. Flip albums work great because then you can set the picture where everyone can see it and be reminded to pray for that person. You may even want to write letters to those people with encouraging pictures and Bible verses to let them know that you are praying for them. Make sure to get the whole family in on this part.

Prayer is an important part of our spiritual journey and it is important to teach kids to make it an integrated part of their lives at an early age. They will begin to turn to God in prayer more as they see you doing the same.

Enjoy growing in prayer.

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