saint nicholas of japan, pray for us! - orthodox christian...
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Saint Nicholas of Japan, pray for us!
The Children’s Word is a weekly bulletin for Orthodox Christian young people. Copyright 2016 Alexandra Houck.
Email is orthodoxchildrensword (at) gmail.com. Find it each week at myocn.net.
“Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for to such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Mark 10:14
Sunday, July 31, 2016 Volume 4, Issue 31
Working as a teamWorking as a teamWorking as a teamWorking as a team Do you watch sports? Maybe you are on a
team yourself. If you watch a good team playing,
you probably notice how each player is good at
something different. In basketball, usually the
shorter players are good at dribbling down the
court and shooting from far away. Some other
players are best at blocking other people from
shooting, or even dunking the ball in the hoop!
Each player has his own talent, doesn’t he?
In the epistle reading today, we hear Saint Paul
saying the same thing! But Saint Paul isn’t writing
about a sports team; he talks about how we all
work together in the Church. Some people are
teachers. Some people help people who really need help. Some people are
rich, and give money. Some people get other people to believe in Christ
too! We all have different ways of serving Christ and the Church. Saint
Paul calls these gifts! He writes that we should use these gifts as much as
God has given us.
Let’s always remember that our Church is a team. When we work as a
team, everybody (yes, everybody—kids like you, priests, teachers, singers,
businessmen, mothers, fathers, grandparents, everybody!) has a role to
play!
A Ministry of the
Orthodox Christian Network
A team works together!A team works together!A team works together!A team works together!
On page 3, you can see a photograph
of Saint Nicholas of Japan.
But here is an icon of him. Do they
look alike?
Remember, icons aren’t supposed to
look just like the real person.
What’s in the icon?
WORD SEARCHWORD SEARCHWORD SEARCHWORD SEARCH
Can you find these words in the jumble? CULTURE
GIFTS
JAPAN
NICHOLAS
RUSSIA
SERVING
SPY
STPAUL
TOGETHER
J G L T J O K N K L B K G Z E
A H I X D W I T U Q G V E M R
P O M T P C G A R U S S I A U
A Z E Z H Y P N W Y P V I E T
N U X O M T G Z I Y U Y Q Z L
X S L D S I O I X V L Z A L U
I A Z I A I Z J F V R L K D C
S O B H M T F Y R T F E Z I R
W F E L R O B M A N S Q S Q B
A N G S A A K L O J O R Z A J
H E I T J P N F E X S L L L I
D Y M V A F A N I N T R E F E
A N F E H H T Q C M I K F A F
R E H T E G O T N V K Q S F W
V X Q P U M M N W F S V Z V K
Have you ever learned
about a country you’ve
never visited? Some of their
customs might have seemed
strange to you!
About 150 years ago, a young man
named Nicholas left his home in
Russia. He traveled thousands of
miles through the mountains and desert to reach the country of Ja-
pan. He wanted to tell the people there about Jesus Christ, because
most of them had never even heard of Him!
But when Nicholas got to Japan, the people didn’t want to hear from
him. They thought he was a spy, who hated Japan. But Nicholas al-
ready loved the people, whom God had made. For 7 years, Nicholas
learned the Japanese language. He tried to understand their religions
and culture too. Saint Nicholas translated most of the Bible into
Japanese, and also some of our church service books too.
Many people began to listen to Nicholas. Thousands of people were
baptized as Orthodox Christians. Saint Nicholas built 219 churches
and made many men to be priests and deacons. Now there are about
30,000 Orthodox Christians in Japan. If you ever visit, you can find a
church too. And you can thank God for Saint Nicholas of Japan!
SAINT NICHOLAS OF JAPAN WHO BROUGHT ORTHODOXY TO JAPAN
We celebrate this feastday of Saint Nicholas tomorrow, August 1st.