Hello there! I’m Liza Goodner, Children’s Minister and school co-chaplain here at St. Martin’s. Although I’ve been working remotely, I’ve documented some really fun and challenging times, and made wonderful memories with Sunday school children, preschool students and my own kiddos over this past spring.
We’ve done fun Sunday school and chapel lessons using Zoom. I took turns teaching chapel lessons for our preschool kids with Serin Stanford, our amazing school director. My favorite lesson even helped my own children, whom I discovered were listening in every Tuesday morning from the background! We had focused on the liturgical calendar using Psalm 24:1 for Earth Day; “The Earth and everything in it belong to the Lord.” The lesson, “I take care of the Earth” was one of the most relevant lessons we taught. I applied the Earth Day symbolism to my own kids to challenge them to recycle, and to plant vegetables and flowers.
A lesson I also particularly liked used Deuteronomy 31:6 “God will go with you. He will not leave you or forget you.” I feel this is so important for children to know. How are children feeling relevant to the church while we aren’t in the building? It’s been important to me to teach them that there are ways we can still take care of each other, serving God and the community and churches while at home. The Holy Spirit is not only present in a church building!
Another home challenge for my son: 4th grade math word-problems. *Breathe, there has got to be an easier way to teach this…ah ha! Think back to my childhood fractions learned from my own mother while baking in the kitchen.* Solution: We baked a vanilla pudding cake for the first time as a family, all from scratch. Result: he learned better visually and it actually tasted really good!
Because I’m not already busy enough, I also serve as Cubmaster for St. Martin’s Troop 937. Last weekend we participated in a contactless drive-through food drive at St. Martin’s to help 4Saints Episcopal Food Pantry. It was a wonderful experience for all. Scouts and adult leaders wore masks and gloves while transporting food from car trunks to work tables. We were able to deliver two SUV’s full of food items and $500 in donations! It was great to see familiar faces again and also see new faces from the community. Thank you to all who donated! Way to go scouts! The Fort Worth Star Telegram wrote about 4Saints Food Pantry, you can read that here if you’re interested.
For more information about Troop/Pack 937, please contact liza.goodner@stmartininthefields.org, or chrisdec@sbcglobal.net.
Children’s Sunday school meets via Zoom at 9:30 am on Sundays. Email liza.goodner@stmartininthefields.org for the Zoom link.
Until then, may God bless you and your families! Blessings, Liza G.
Tales from the Quarantine: Week Eleven