Churches Help Children Prepare For Christmas

Charity is another word for love, Kristi Button told children at First United Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville last Sunday.

Although commonly understood as an act of giving, the word’s deeper meaning is goodwill toward or love for humanity. Button is using a cloth mouse - Charity the Church Mouse - to help children understand the depth of God’s love and ways they can share that with others.

Charity is a 3-foot-tall wall hanging with an Advent calendar sewn onto her dress. Each Sunday and Wednesday, children of the church gather to draw a paper hand from her pockets. On the hands are words associated with the season, such as prepare, hope, light, love and joy.

Button, director of Christian education at the church, talks with the children about those words and concrete ways to live them out.

“We’re taking them along through Advent and giving them a sense of what Advent means,” she said.

Older church youth also are preparing by buying Angel Tree gifts, caroling for homebound elders and exchanging previously used gifts. The youth chose the regifting idea fi ve years ago and it has stuck, Button said. Teens donate the $5 they would have spent to charity.

Sherry Pianalto, directorof the youth group at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Tontitown, said her teens will distribute Angel Tree gifts for 14 families with 44 children on Sunday. They delivered food to the same families for Thanksgiving.

Church members bought the gifts and brought them to the church already wrapped. Youth will gather the various items - each child receives a shirt, socks, underwear, slacks, shoes, coat, two “Santa presents” and a hat and gloves - and write gift tags “from Santa.”

After they’re delivered, youth will visit elderly church members’ homes, serenading them with carols.

The activities are a way to involve youth in the spirit of Christmas and share their good fortune with others, Pianalto said.

SERVICE FOR SPECIAL NEEDS FAMILIES

First United Methodist Church in Bella Vista is reaching out to families with special needs children this Christmas.

A special worship service last night aimed to accommodate those needs, said Carrie Drish, director of children’s ministry at the church.

“Special needs people are not always able to go into a service, particularly as a family,” she said. A typical worship service can be overwhelming for children with certain types of disabilities, such as autism. The loud noises, bright lights and swirling activity deliver too much sensory stimulation, she said.

Other churchgoers don’t understand why a child might need to wander around thesanctuary or play a Game Boy in the pew, she said.

“(This way) they can go, be part of a worship service theymight not get to weekly.”

The church has three special needs children in the congregation, Drish said. Herhope was to reach families in the larger community, as well. The service incorporated children’s needs with a contemporary worship format familiar to adults, she said.

Some special needs children have a hard time with abstract concepts, Drish said. She and her team came up with ways to make the Christmas story concrete.

Children were able to smell frankincense on a cotton ball and hold a piece of pyrite to simulate gold, she said. Strips of cloth helped them comprehend swaddling clothes and a bundle of straw conveyed the manger.

Worship was followed by snacks, activities and fellowship with other families.

Drish hoped the evening helped introduce special needs children to the love of Christ.

“Some (special needs) children don’t go to services,” she said. “They’re not able to learn about the love God has for them - that they are created in his likeness, no matter what their likeness is.”

Religion, Pages 8 on 12/15/2012

Upcoming Events