Book Translated and Produced By Archangel Michael and St ... · Pope Shenouda requests from us as servants: “I want from every servant to ask him/herself three things”- 1. The

Book Translated and Produced By Archangel Michael and St Bishoy Coptic Orthodox Church, Sydney Australia

For more information please contact Tasony Sara,

St Marks Festival Cup [email protected]

With the Blessings of His Grace Bishop Daniel, Bishop of the Diocese of Sydney and Afiliated Regions.

ApplicationBook

Year 1and

Year 2

APPLICATION FORM

Name

Church

Diocese

Phone

Servant Name

ACTIVITY FORMName

Church

Diocese

Phone

Servant Name

Sport

Activity

Under the Guidance of his Holiness Pope Shenouda III

The Central Committee

H E Metropolitan

Bakhomios

Special Needs

Competition:

Resea

rch

Compe

tition

:

HG Bishop

Paula

Prim

ary

and

Infa

nt s

tudi

es

com

petit

ion:

HG B

ishop

Be

ttors

HG

Taw

adro

s

Cultu

ral a

nd s

ports

com

petit

ion:

HG B

isho

p Ab

ram

IT &

Ele

ctro

nics

com

petit

ion:

HG Bishop Armia

Media and Engineering Introduction competition:

HG Bishop Morcos HG Bishop Martyros

Church & Ecclesiastical

Activities:

HG Bishop

Bimen

HG Bishop

Daniel Visual

&

Perfo

rming

Arts

Compe

tition

:

HG B

isho

p Da

oud

Chur

ch

Tune

s Hy

mns

an

d Co

ptic

La

ngua

ge

Com

petit

ion

:

HG

Bis

hop

Raf

ael

All Stages Studies & Scouts:

HG Bishop

MoussaHG Bishop

Macarios

We thank God for the eagerness of our children in joining us in the St Mark Festival Cup. This is due to God’s grace and the encouragement and support from H.H. Pope Shenouda the third, who especially rejoices with children’s services, in that it is the church of the future, “The church of the day after tomorrow”. Also on the keen supervision from fellow bishops, each within his diocese and the blessed church fathers and servants in all their services.

The competition this year educates our children in spiritual, ecclesiastical and familial faithfulness, faithfulness in investing their gifts and success in relationships. This is evident in the children’s and the servant’s books utilising suitable stories, inventive teaching methods and practical applications. Through the supervision of His Grace Bishop Tawadrous and the committees preparing for this stage. May the Lord bless the works in his church with the prayers of our beloved father, Pope Shenouda the third.

God’s grace be with us all.

Anba MoussaGeneral Bishop

Introduction

The Children’s Committee of the Festival Cup in the youth bish-opric presented its latest services in the competition, the ‘Chil-dren’s Vision’. Through presentation of artistic events at the 2009 Festival Cup for different childhood stages by staging puppet shows illustrating five stories for each stage.

1. A story of love - on God’s love to us through the annunciation, nativity, salvation and resurrection.

2. A story of prayer - Our Father, Holy, Holy, Holy, Introduction to The Creed and The Creed.

3. A story of invention - T.V., Computer, Internet, Mobile phone.

4. A story of service - The services of the sick, the widows, the orphans and the elderly.

5. A story of success - Nehemiah, Archdeacon Habib Girgis, Ibrahim El-Gouhary and St Shora the child.

This event was attended by almost 20,000 children from Cairo and Giza, over several performances, approximately 1000 child attended every session three times a day over six days. Also in the hall at the St Rewis Cathedral, three daily sessions in the form of various stage productions such as puppet shows, black stage presentations, plays and screening television productions were presented in a way that made the children overjoyed as they had participated in all the performances with the servants.

This service was fulfilled by many groups of servants from vary-ing places in Egypt.

We ask for your prayers that the Lord may help us in repeat-ing this vision once more with stories for every childhood stage through more amazing stage productions.

Children’s Vision

1. It is not just necessary to explain what “Faithfulness” is as such, but to memorise and under-stand it gradually through repetition from the stories so as to grasp its meaning.2. The word ‘Molly’ is taken from the word moly, which means ‘candle’ in the Coptic language.3. It is possible to explain to the children what a lantern is. It is a means of providing light at night, which was used at the time of our grandfathers. It resembles the oil lanterns used in church today, full of oil and placed in front of icons of saints.

Faithfulness of My Heart 1. The aim of this chapter is to have them pray on their own. We try and train the child to con-tinually pray for the sake of others in different places and situations that the child might be in, for instance:• The House – For my brothers and sisters, father, mother and all members of my family• Church: Pope, bishop, the priest of my church, the servants of my church, my friends and colleagues in church• My School: The teachers, students and cleaner• Outside: My neighbours and garbage man.

2. Beware not to promote to the child that what they pray for will happen. Rather concentrate on their prayer being from their hearts in all faithfulness. Therefore, God will certainly listen to his/her prayers and that is more important. Also stress on the necessity to continue praying and pleading to God.

3. The story of St Peter and the prayer of the congregation for his sake (Acts 1:12-17). - Also mention the first church (The Upper Room) - Herod Agripas, try to point out that he is a different Herod from the one we know in the days of our Lord Jesus. - James – brother of John son of Zebedee, who was the first disciple to be martyred. - Guarded with four rows of four guards – illustrate to the child how fearful King Herod was of St Peter. This shows the importance of St Peter and the worry of King Herod. - Explain how St Peter after being thrown in jail, went into a deep sleep and didn’t awake until an angel poked his side (shows the inner peace and complete confidence in God, of the great St Peter).

The term diligently needs to be explained and illustrated to the child, as in it is continuous fervent prayer that comes from the heart.

4. Activity in Childrens Book: Organise a weekly program for the school holidays whereby you and the children you serve, pray everyday each week for a certain character from the stickers in their Festival Cup book. The child writes the date and marks if he/she has prayed for that character. The child with the most marks is given a prize.

A Word For Your Ear

The First Form of Faithfulness

1

Prayer From A Young Age

Practical Application: Prepare four candles of varying lengths

and light them in front of the children.

Each candle defines a group of people. The first (longest) candle resembles the person who has been praying to the Lord Jesus since their childhood. So he has had plenty of time enjoying living with the Lord Jesus. The last (shortest) candle resembles someone of old age who remembered to pray to God at the end of their life, when they haven’t had as much time to enjoy life with the Lord as a child would ultimately enjoy it. And so on with the other candles.

Image of candles with different lengths

Pope Shenouda requests from us as servants:“I want from every servant to ask him/herself three things”-

1. The spirituality of his/her children in the service.2. The spirituality of his/her own life.3. The spirituality of his/her service.

Child

Youth

Mature

Elder

2

1

FOR THE SERVANTS

The Most Gifted Artist

Activity: Enlarge and print these images and hand out to children so they can join in acting out the story of St Peter and the congregation

who prayed for him.

The children in this stage want to know the reason behind the strength of the disciples and their authority in performing miracles. Help them to understand that the source of the power and the authority is the Lord Jesus Christ. “And when He had called

His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. Matthew 10:1”.

The children will appreciate the meaning of the miracle and it’s mean-ing as proof of God’s glory and strength, and that the source of all good

things in us is the Lord Jesus.

3

PeterOne of theDisciples

Rhoda

TheAngel

Uncle Sirago

2

FOR THE SERVANTS

The Cube of Stories

Assemble this cube and encourage the child to put it together. This would allow him/her to hang it near them so as to remind them

of the story of St Peter and the congregation praying for him.

Memory Verses: “but constant

……………………………

………………………..”

Children of this stage enjoy learning from the Holy Bible, so do not add or delete any information from the script of the Bible...

4

3

FOR THE SERVANTS

Pray For MeOur church teaches us prayer on behalf of oth-ers, as we have litanies of the sick, the travel-

lers, the offerings and the meetings. Come with our church and let us pray

for one another.

Enlarge this page and have the children colour in the characters whom are our brethren and need our prayers. They would then stick the verses, which show us the urgency and importance of prayer. They would then place the final product in front of them so they can remember the urgency and impor-tance of prayer for others.

Bend to the back and

attach together. 2 Thess 3: 1-5

Bend this seg-ment under the last seg-ment and stick them

together so as

to have 4 seg-

ments only

Prayer

for

those

who

give their

money to

God

Prayer

for the

travel-

lers

Pray

er

for

the

sick

1.Bend to the back

and attach to-gether. John 15:7

2.Bend to the back and attach

together. Matthew 21:22

3.Bend to the back

and attach to-gether. Matthew 7:7

This stage is fundamental in getting the child used to learning and achievement, and gaining self confidence that he is successful... Therefore get them used to taking on responsibilities and succeeding, with proper encouragement.

5

4

FOR THE SERVANTS

Jig-Saw PuzzleMake two enlarged copies of this puzzle.

Divide the class into two groups and have a competition between them. The group that

puts the puzzle together first wins.

In this stage the questions the children have increases dramatically and the child always needs to obtain clear answers. So when they ask, “why does God per form miracles?” The best answer is that miracles declare the glory of God.

6

5but con

tant prayer was by the church.

offered to Godfor himActs 12:5

FOR THE SERVANTS

The Second Form of Faithfulness

Faithfulness In My Church. In this unit we talk about the mass and the faithfulness and zeal of the child in atten-dance in the following manner:

• Stress on the importance of waking up early to attend the mass. Also during the journey to church the child should recite the psalm “I was glad when they said to me, Let us go into the house of the Lord”.• Do not go into details about the sections of the mass, the liturgy of the believers and catechumens. It is sufficient that the child understands that the mass begins at Vespers and therefore has to prepare for the mass from the day prior to it by:

o Having peace with anyone upset from meo Sleeping earlyo Waking up earlyo Fasting from midnight (12am)

• We do not go into the segments of the mass, but we go through the proceedings and what our responsibilities and actions/responses we have during the mass. The aim is not just for knowledge, but in knowing how to live out these spiritual moments practically.• Concentrate on the mass starting from Vespers and matins. Preparing for the mass through these whilst praying and interceding for God’s blessing of the mass. Also mention to them the hymn of “Efnoty nay nan” and the reading of the gospels in each.• The candle and lighting it during the mass resembles to us that the Lord Christ is the light of the world.• Lighting the candle during the choosing of the Holy Body at the beginning of the mass, signifies the glory, beauty and the majesty of the sacrifice of the New Testa-ment, and this demonstrates to us that it is the light of our Lord Jesus that shines to us through the sacrifice.

• Clarify to the child that the moment of the coming down of the Holy Spirit on the body and blood is one of the most important moments in the mass.• Stress the importance of silence during com-munion and what is the proper approach to take when going to communion.• Talk about the censor and incense and its im-portance in the mass and how everyone should respond when the priest is raising incense around the church.

7

A Word For Your Ear

Faithfulness Is Not By Words, But By Action

Let the child write under each im-age how to be faithful in the pres-ence of these particular sections

of the mass.

The children are in dire need to watch what is happening during the mass, as this helps to draw their attention till the end of prayers.Therefore try to seat them at the front of the church.

8

1

FOR THE SERVANTS

My Behaviour During Communion

Enlarge these pictures and get the child to colour them in and

place them in correct order.

“The spiritual servant is spirit and not just a mind... not just a teacher, not just a bearer of informa-tion transferring it to others... but an immense spirit who has conversed with God, and experi enced life with Him and tasted how sweet the Lord is…. and wants to convey this life to others...” (Pope Shenouda III)

Receiving The Blood

Receiving The Body

ReadingPrayer beforecommunion

going to church early

Making up with my friendsbefore having

communion

Standing quietly

Reading PraryerafterCommunion

Placing sheet on mouth

after The Body

Standing in mass

9

2

FOR THE SERVANTS

The Incense In My Church Is Important

On top of each picture there’s a sentence with parts of it being

incorrect. Can you find and correct the sentence?

Abouna presents the incense in front of the icons so the aroma of the whole place is that of incense.

Abouna presents the incense in the altar and that’s because the deacons are present in the altar.

Abouna presents the incense during the reading of the Agbia, in respect of it.

The child needs to feel loved and wanted from others surrounding him/her. Love is the child’s nour-ishment, provides him with confidence in himself. To satisfy this need there must be unconditional love to the child. Love for his/her person, not associated to his academic per formance, behaviour, appearance or the extent of collaboration with others. This love should not stop no matter what he does.

10

3

FOR THE SERVANTS

Making The Censor of Incense

Enlarge and copy this image twice for your child to make a

censor.

Get the child to colour in the censor. Gather the bottom part which represents the stomach of the censor, then gather the top part and place a small cross on top as in the image. Both parts can be connected by four pieces of thread.

We are not born outstanding servants, nor do we have a factory which produces outstanding servants. We are teachers who are learning to be better and the best starting point is teaching what we have learnt....because he who lacks something cannot provide it.

Final Image

11

4

FOR THE SERVANTS

A Word For Your Ear

The Third Form of Faithfulness

Faithfulness In My Talents

1. In this unit we speak of faithfulness in talents, and since ‘talents’ is not a com-prehensible concept to a child at this stage Therefore we have to explain what a talent is by saying, “A talent is something God has given everyone of us , and we are very good at it, and God asks us to use it as best as we can and increase it so that it would grow. We can also use it for our benefit and for the benefit of serving others.

2. The child of this stage does not know his/her own talents or gifts, and they need your help to discover it. Talents are not just acting, drawing, music, but also sports and academic excellence, obeying parents, calligraphy and others.

3. Try to discover each child in your classes’ talent. Record it in your book next to his/her name and try to invest it and improve it so that they may be successful youth in the future.

4. Focus that by the end of the lesson, that every child has attempted every as-pect of life in all faithfulness to discover their own talent. He/she has a role to play at home, a role to play at school a role to play at church and a role to play in his/her country. By knowing the role to be played in every situation in faithfulness, he/she will be able to know what their talent which God has given them is.

5. We have taken the examples on the importance of the child undertaking all roles in faithfulness and that we all complete each other, “the story of the building of the ark of covenant and how each person had a role to play in making it”

6. The aim of the story is not that the child memorises it or learns how the ark of covenant was made but the concentra-tion should be completely on the fact that everyone had a different role to play and they all did it faithfully, therefore the work was completed.

7. Explain that playing sports is important and, but it has its time and place.

12

The Gifted ArtistTo discover your child’s talent in drawing, train him/her to firstly copy some images that are divided into squares just like the image below, so as to copy the

image exactly the same. Then train them to draw incidents from their own lives.

Discover your child’s talents and what they like (drawing, music, sports, reading, hymns etc...). Then facilitate him/her to exercise these talents by competing in activities (Choir, learning hymns, craft etc…). Also provide them with the materials they need and offer a positive reaction regardless how simple the drawing is.

13

1

FOR THE SERVANTS

The Talent of Memorising

Try to work out this code which will give you a verse.

2

Children of this age excel in that they love playing games that involve connecting num bers and words. Therefore prepare games out of the Holy Bible which use words and numbers.

14

FOR THE SERVANTS

Know Your TalentDivide your class into two teams, then choose one team and ask them to choose the name of a talent from a list you have.

The importance of playing for a child-• process of growing • process compensation method• process of expressing • process of learning• process of discoveryTherefore the servant carrying out the activities needs to be• convinced and enthusiastic • inventive• reaching towards a goal • a good planner• a good leader • responsible

15

3

Then let each group ask a quoetion where the answer is either ‘yes’ or ‘no‘. If they anas-wer ‘no’ the other group has 10 points de-ducted from 100 points they began with. The winning group is the one with th emost points at the end. This way the children will get to identify different talents.

FOR THE SERVANTS

You Are Special And Have A Role To Play

Distribute a rectangular paper, as in the image below, to each child in the class.

Let all the children write their name on it and anything they feel they are particularly good in (whether a special talent, having a role to play at home, school or church or in his/her neighbour-hood). They can draw or cut and paste images of that special talent. Then let them to write “The Lord made me special in....” and complete this sentence, then collect the papers and stick them on a large board so they always remember they are special and have a role to play.

Children of this stage love activities that are non-competitive. Therefore avoid winner-loser activities.

16

4

Mina

Mark

Mariam

Marina

Anthony

Michael

George

FOR THE SERVANTS

A Word For Your Ear

The Fourth Form Of Faithfulness

Faithfulness With My Family

1. The purpose of this unit is the child’s faithfulness with his/her family. Reinforce in the children how they should be active members within their family through role plays or stories of recurring situations within the family, (e.g. obeying parents, visiting family and relatives consistently, looking after the elderly within the family and grandpa and grandma too and the relationship between siblings...etc…)

2. The faithfulness Ruth had in her love for her mother in law is a good example of the faithfulness in the family.

3. Do not go into detail of the beginning of the story, as it is sad for the children (the death of Elimelech and then his two sons). Concen-trate on the details of the rest of the story on what Ruth did for her mother in law and the rewards she received for caring for her. Con-nect this to everyone who provides love and faithfulness within their family or to anyone.

4. Do not mention the relation between Boaz and Ruth (that he was her second husband); it is sufficient to tell the children that they were related.

5. You can give some facts about barley and how we make food from it through milling it and making it into bread. They may also know that the barley may be used just like wheat in making bread.

17

Enlarge this page and have the child bend it at the lines to make the family’s house. Figures can be

made for mum, dad, brothers and sisters by mak-ing paper faces and bodies on an ice-cream stick,

as in the image below.

One of the most important elements in growing the zeal to help others in children is “en-

couragement” which is considered the biggest driving force for doing any form of work.

Some words of encouragement and praise drive the children to do more work whether

personal or academic leading to a deep joy, which fills their heart,

especially if the praise is in front of family members or friends.

From the beginning, it is strongly advised that family members avoid

revealing the faults in the child’s performance, as consequently this

will cause the child to cease all work and lean towards laziness.

Paste this part

Paste this part

Paste th

is part

Paste this part

Paste this part

Paste this part

Paste this partPaste th

is part

Paste this part on the base

Paste this part on the base

Paste this part on the base Paste this part on the base

18

1

A Model of my house

FOR THE SERVANTS

The Family TreeTogether let’s make an imitation of a family tree.

Enlarge this page and get the child to stick on it the names of his/her family members. Then the child can place it near to remind him/her of them and

their role towards them.

Name:

Date of Birth:

Place of Birth:

Names of Siblings:

Likes:

Interesting story about your family:

The first steps for the child in assisting his/her family may start at age six. This may come about by learning to make their own beds, pack their books, toys and clean the plate that they used etc... There’s no need to mock or make fun of them, by comparing the duties of boys and girls. Your role is to encourage them to help their mother around the house.

19

2

FOR THE SERVANTS

Place The Pictures In Order

Enlarge this page and get the child to put the images in order to complete the story of Ruth.

In this stage, the child may be proud of themselves or exaggerate. Accept what they say but gently explain to them that they are exaggerating and praise their good behaviour.

20

3

FOR THE SERVANTS

The Faithful Person Is Always A Winner

Enlarge this game. You will need dice and game chips to move around with. Start at the beginning and follow the instructions

as you go.

Do not expect the child to sit without moving around, for it is unrealistic and against their nature. But we have to teach them, to reduce their movements and noise level as our Lord

Jesus is present with us and wants to hear our prayers. This will en-sure lower noise levels and movements and they will get used to that, and gradually that will decrease.

Advance 3 Spaces

TV too Loud

Go B

ack 2 Spaces

Visited sick people

Talking on the

phone for 1 hrGo back 4 Spaces

StudyingAdvance 3 Spaces

Threw my foodGo back

4 spaces

I did tricks on my friends

Go back 5 Spaces

Advance 3 Spaces

21

4

1

2

3

4

5

6

78

9

10

11

19

12

18

17

1615

14

13

20

21

22

23

Helped Mum

Play with

my friend

Advance 2 Spaces

FOR THE SERVANTS

A Word For Your Ear

The Fifth Form Of Faithfulness

Faithfulness To Those Who Are Different From Me

1. The purpose of this unit is to teach the children how to behave with those who are different to them in any way (white, black, taller, shorter, on crutches, in a wheelchair, missing a limb/s etc…)

2. Avoid the use of the word “disabled” but rather “specially gifted”.

3. Children at this stage do not know how to react to people in this catego-ry and tend to avoid playing with them or befriending them. Try to explain to the children that the other specially gifted children are very much loved by our Lord as they are His creation. Therefore we must love them and help them if they need our help and must consider them like us and involve them in all that we do without fear in dealing with them.

4. Consider the story of David and Mephibosheth as it is the most ideal example to serve this purpose. Consider the feelings in the story of Mephi-bosheth, how he watched his friends play and he was unable to play like them. And his feelings when David gave him a lot.

5. Notice that David did not do this because Mephibosheth was crippled, but as a form of faithfulness in his love to his friend Jonathan and his fam-ily, but we take that example from the Holy Bible to teach the kids that we should treat those who are different as normally as possible.

22

Make It YourselfMake a copy of this image and allow the child to stick it together to create a car. They would then present it to a friend

with special needs if possible.

Final Image

Children of this stage love to play with others. Try to organise activities in which they can do this together.

23

1

FOR THE SERVANTS

MazeHelp David find his way through the maze to get to our friend Me-phibosheth so he can help him.

Children of this stage want to become older. For this reason, avoid using the term “little” but replace it with other descriptions such as clever, well-be haved...etc.

24

2

FOR THE SERVANTS

Who Does Jesus Love?

Enlarge and display it to the children. Allow them to identify each character in them (e.g. thin, tall etc…).

They can then stick a photo of themselves or write their name on it, then ask them: “If the Lord Jesus loves these people, how would you react if you were with

them?”

short

tall runs

can’t runblackwhite

Can See

Can’t See

Old

Baby

Your Photo

Children of this stage love non-competitive activities, therefore avoid win/lose activities and because they tend to be selfish, teach them to think of others.

25

3

FOR THE SERVANTS

Colour In and Learn The Verse of The Lesson

Get your child to match up the words and place them in the correct order starting with the A col-umn and then the B column and so on. They do this until they have completed the verse, written

it , coloured it in and memorised it.

Children of this stage have a very good memory, therefore teach them Biblical verses so as to utilise their memory in learning verses from the Holy Bible. Furthermore, you should always keep promises you have made to them as they don’t forget these promises.

AB

He who

in what

faithful

much

(Luke 16:10)

also in

is faithful

in least is

26

4

FOR THE SERVANTS