Love the LORD with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy 6:5-7

 

As Christians, we believe that through Jesus Christ the laws God wrote on tablets of stone to His people, the Israelites, are now written in our hearts. They are no longer laws but a way of life in Christ Jesus – an expression of love to God and to others around us. What an awesome calling we have as parents and a church body to the children God has placed in our care. Besides the teaching we provide in our homes, the church offers the Church School or Sunday School. Here, interacting with their peers and friends, they can learn about the moral character of God and the wonderful love He has for all people as experienced by men and women in the stories of the Bible. As we teach our children, both at home and Sunday School, we provide for them the opportunity to experience for themselves this same God that laid down His very life for them that they may have life – abundant life.

 

At Almonte Presbyterian Church we use the One Room Sunday School program put out by Abington Press to teach our small group. Here children of varying ages meet together for singing, games or activities and a bible story based on a theme for about a month. Follow up activities or crafts for the different age levels are provided to support the lesson. The children start out in church for a short while and are called to the front by the minister for an object lesson followed by prayer before coming downstairs to the hall. We have two female teachers at present to meet the needs of the children who attend. Ages range from 15 months to 12 years and activities vary depending on the number and ages of the children who come each week.

 

Our Church family supports a young boy from Sri Lanka through Christian Children's Fund to which the Sunday School children contribute each week. Letters and pictures are sent on special occasions and we receive letters in return.

 

During Communion services which take place about 6 times a year, children who have come to an age of understanding return to their parents to take part in the sacrament.

 

For many years our Church School has offered special programs - at Christmas with a potluck supper, at Easter with a breakfast and the games or activities at the outdoor service and picnic in our church backyard