2020 03 19 Coffee with Chris How to Have Fun and Grow Closer to Your Family

During a virtual coffee session, Chris shares ideas on how to have fun and bond with family during social distancing. He suggests reading the Bible together using apps like YouVersion or eSword. Playing board games and video games with kids can also foster connection. Learning new skills like playing guitar or knitting is encouraged. Chris also recommends discussing family history and phoning older relatives. He mentions virtual choirs and playing with Lego as additional activities. Chris emphasizes that the Book of Revelation offers hope and reassurance in uncertain times. Good afternoon, everyone. This is a little coffee with Chris with some ideas on what you guys can do to have fun and grow closer to your family during a time of social distancing and uncertainty. I'm just going to test real quick that I am coming through properly. I'm just going to wait for a few seconds for someone to join, just to ensure that my audio was working correctly, as I did not do this correctly the first time. Welcome, Pastor Ralph. If you could just confirm that you can hear me before I go on. Oh, I've got myself over on the other screen. So that is good to know that I am. Great. Well, a few things to just encourage you guys with today. You know, again, this is Coffee with Chris right now. If you missed yesterday's Coffee with Pastor Ralph, you can find it on our Facebook page right here. You can also find it on our YouTube channel. I'm going to give you some encouragement today as we have a conversation over some coffee, which I've miraculously been able to make. Anybody who knows me well knows I'm not good at making coffee, but this is not too bad. So, again, I wanted to give you guys a few ideas about what you can do from home with your family during this time. It's just fun relationship building stuff. Number one, and of course I'm going to say this, is read the Bible together. You know, there's nothing like reading the Bible to bring people closer together, and it's a great family activity. And as a resource that I would suggest to you, you know, if you're thinking, my kids are always on the phone, they don't read books. I'm going to suggest to you then that you use the YouVersion Bible app. You can get it from the App Store on iOS or the Google Play Store on Android. You can use it on tablets. Great resource full of devotionals. You can do as a family, family devotionals, devotionals that you could do as a couple. It's got pretty much any topic you could think of. They've got a devotional. They call them plans. There's a whole tab for that. Another great digital Bible reading source is called eSword. That's an app that you can use for your computer. You can also use, you know, Bible Gateway. There's a whole bunch of great ones, or the good old traditional Bible that's never going to run out of its battery or have any issues with Wi-Fi connection. So that's a great place to start. Have that with your family. Another great thing you can do, you know, is play board games. Maybe you're not a family that normally plays board games, but you will find, you might find that you actually enjoy doing that together. So a great recommendation there, yeah, would be to play board games together. Also, you know, maybe your kids are really into video games, and maybe you're like, I'm not so much into that, but it's a great way to connect with your kids on something that they're familiar with in a time where it's filled with a lot of unfamiliar things, you know, a lot of lack of certainty. So that is a great thing you can try as well. Play some of those games with them. It's also a great time to learn a new skill. You know, maybe you've been saying, I've got a guitar. I want to learn to play guitar. And, you know, one of these days when I have the time, well, now is one of these days. Lots of great resources on YouTube and other sources for free where you can learn how to do new things, whether it's knitting a sweater or playing a guitar. There's lots of things to learn. And now's the time to give that a shot. Also, for your family, you can look up, there's great sources all over the place of icebreaker questions, you know, questions that you can ask each other, you know, you know, or that you can share stories with your kids about, you know, where you grew up, family history. You know, I love family history. And I, I didn't, you know, there's, I know a lot of families that don't know a lot about their family history. And so if you know about some of your family history, or you have an older relative that you could phone in this time, it's great chance to learn about family history. And that leads me to the next thing. Phone relatives, especially older relatives, who, you know, would love to get a call at a time like this. You know, if you've been meaning to call your mother, now is the time. So great thing there. And if anybody has any suggestions as we're going that they'd like to comment in on the side, please feel free to comment those suggestions. I'd love to hear what you guys have been doing during this time. I've also been in touch with some people who've been doing bridge games over like FaceTime and that kind of thing. So there's a lot of ingenuity and creativity that we can do. You know, there's virtual choirs that I've heard about, too. People who love choir, they're into that. But they can't do that with the social distancing because huge crowds, you know. But there's people who've actually been doing virtual choirs. I would encourage you to take a quick look on YouTube when this is over at virtual choirs. It's an amazing thing that people have been doing over distance at this time. Also, if you have kids, another fun thing that I've seen people doing is just playing with Lego with them. You know, when I was a kid, I loved Lego, you know. And it's a great thing to do with kids. And if you're worried about your kids, maybe not getting a lot of educational information in this time, as there is talk of, you know, closing schools longer than March break, this is a great actual educational kind of toy because, you know, it teaches you creativity. It teaches you problem solving. And it's a great way to have, you know, something to do with your kids while you're trying to have conversation with them, while you're trying to make a connection with them in a way that you have something to fall back on in the laws of conversation. And just to echo what Pastor Ralph just mentioned in the comments there, that if anyone needs a call or help, you know, let us know at the church. You can give us a call there. That information is all on the about page of our Facebook page here. They reach out to us if you need anything at all. One last thing is, you know, earlier I was talking with a number of people who do children's ministry at different churches across our district and, you know, and some homeschoolers and things like that. If you're looking for some educational things for your kids to do as well, it's good to connect with other parents during this time, you know. And one parent might be good at doing a fun science lesson that'll keep the kids entertained and learning. And you guys could tune into that, trade those skills. So if those are any things that interest you, feel free to comment, reach out to us. Anyways, just want to encourage you guys through those times. And just a quick, quick, quick spiritual thought for you. I don't want to delve into this too deeply because I know people can take this to strange extremes, but in times like this, people often talk about the book of Revelation and thoughts about that and times and all those things. But please don't worry or put stock in fear things. You know, the book of Revelation even is written as a book of hope, that no matter what happens in life, in the world and everything, that God is the ultimate victor. He has the ultimate victory over anything. So no matter what we're faced with, just remember that the Bible is filled with hope that God is in control. So just keep that present in mind, drink a nice cup of coffee, and have a great rest of your day. God bless.