There are general guidelines available here: Rules to support the return of Sunday School service to the church facilities

Dropping off:

During Vespers (6:30-7:00) in church Sanctuary
After Vespers (7:00 onward) use the back door (we will be in the gym). If you are late, an usher will direct you to your class

Picking up:

Once we are done, we will take all the kids to attend the praises in church. Please pick up your child 8:30 sharp from church.
If you will not attend the praises, please line up at the exit door towards the crying room and call me so we can send your child out.

There are general guidelines available here: Rules to support the return of Sunday School service to the church facilities

Specifically for High School:

• Entrance will be at the back door (by the gym)
  • Hand sanitization and mask station will be available there.
  • Masks are required at all times while in church.
• Exit after Sunday School will be at the back door (by the gym)
• All parents are asked to pick up their kids @ 8:30pm sharp, to avoid congregating in the hallways of the church.
• Please no congregating in the hallway or parking lot

For Kids:

General Sunday School Rules:

• Masks will be required as servants and children enter and move around the church.
• Sanitize hands upon entry to the church buildings. There are sanitizer stations positioned at rear and front entry doors.
• Register your name with the servants or ushers.
• Respect and follow all the rules and obey servants or ushers’ directions:
  • Always maintain a 2-meter social distance.
  • No moving around the church facility unless directed to by class servants or ushers.
    • Remain seated in your assigned spot unless directed by the servants or ushers.
    • No food or drink are allowed during Sunday School time. If necessary, please bring your own water bottle as water fountains will not be accessible.

Washroom rules:

• Only one person is allowed in the washrooms at any given time.
• Sanitize hands after returning from the washroom.
• Return to your assigned seat.

Dismissal rules:

• Once dismissed, please exit the church building as directed by the servants or ushers (no waiting in the hallways, gym, classrooms, washrooms etc.)
• Please use entry and exit doors assigned for your group and follow servants or ushers’ directions.

For Parents/Families:

• Please refrain from bringing your child to church if he/she is sick and/or experiencing any one of the following symptoms: coughing, sneezing, runny nose, fever, problems breathing etc.
• The ushers are directed to not admit a child who exhibits any of the above symptoms.
• Drop-off and pick-up times will be staggered for the different class groups and communicated by the class servants to families in each group. Please arrive on time for drop-off and pick-up to avoid crowding.
• Please wait in the car to drop-off and pick-up your child from Sunday School. Waiting area designated as the rear parking of the church.
• Families and parents are not allowed into the church premises during Sunday School and if they must enter, a mask is required.
• We all miss our friends and our normal social life. However, we must ensure the church facility adheres to guidelines provided by the health authorities. Please refrain from waiting and socializing in the church parking lot and only use for drop-off and pick-up.
• There are outdoor public park facilities close the church which families can use to socialize while they wait for their children to finish Sunday School.

For Servants and Ushers:

General Admission:

• Register all servants and children as they are dropped-off and provide names lists at the end of the day to the designated servant for record.
• Observe children as they are dropped-off to ensure no obvious symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, runny nose, fever, problems etc.
  • Use the provided non-contact thermometer to take body temperature.
  • If in doubt, do not admit the child and ask the class servant to talk with the parents.
• The coordinator for each group in collaboration with the group servants will provide an occupancy plan. Direct kids to their respective location accordingly.
  • Location the group will be meeting in (Gym, church, food hall, playground etc.)
  • Entry and exit points for each group.
• Masks to be worn during the service inside the church buildings.

Sanitization & End of Service Cleaning:

• Spray all seats
• Spray any high touch areas as needed (door handles, sanitizer handles, back table, crying room bench if used etc.)
• Fill all empty spray bottles with more cleaning solution (15mL disinfectant per 1L water)
• Check stock and levels and inform responsible servant as soon as possible:
  • Hand sanitizer dispensers 
  • Portable hand sanitizers 
  • Chemical solution 
  • Masks 

Dear Servants:

During this difficult times and since we do not know how long this isolation will last, we need to strive and continue our Sunday School services as much as possible. Here are things we all need to do and please feel free to discuss with your stage coordinator as needed.

1. Please pray daily for our kids, families and church.
2. We know each servants group has started some form of bible readings, memorization, quizzes through Kahoot and similar. Thank you! Please continue to give your kids something to do on a regular basis.
3. This is also a time where each home needs to affirm its position as a Church. So, we need to encourage the families to be active participants in their kids spiritual life and learning.
4. Please remember the scriptures: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). We need to encourage families to ensure the Word of God is always read in their kids ears and let it do its work. This has been and will always be the best method.
5. Continue following the curriculum as much as possible. Each class servants group to structure the curriculum lesson such that it has:
1. Bible reading which can read alone or with their parents.
2. Activity to do where possible.
3. Some memorization verse, psalm or similar.
4. If possible, prepare something to share with the kids over a weekly online conference (More on this later).
6. Each class servants group to divide all kids among themselves and ensure we call them once every one or two weeks to ask how they are doing and if they praying and reading their bibles. Encourage the kids to all pray our Lord allows this time to pass safely.
7. When we call, encourage the parents to read with their children their assigned bible reading.
8. For the older groups (grades 7-University), they are finding it exceptionally difficult, being bored with lots of time on their hands. This can lead to dangerous idle activities. We are especially asking the servants of these grades to keep in touch with their kids, encourage them to stay safe, have patience and recommend suitable bible readings.
9. For the Coptic Identity team, please arrange with each group coordinator on how to reach out to each class or group.
10. We have decided to use ZOOM App as a method to reach out to our kids in groups. It is fairly easy to setup and we have access to a free version (limited to 40 minutes per session) and we also have also purchased paid subscriptions for sessions which need to be more than 40 minutes. These will need to be scheduled because they have to be used for one meeting at a time. Separate communications and instructions on how to set it up will follow.

May our Lord allow this time to pass and return us to his church in the near future.

The following message will be sent to all the church congregation via email:

A message from Sunday School services:

As we go through this difficult time of isolation and since we are not sure how long it will last, it is important for us to affirm our homes as small Churches for our Lord and continue our Sunday School services, albeit in a different format.

Please remember the scriptures: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

So, first and foremost; we are encouraging all families to ensure the Word of God is always read in their kids ears and let it do its work. This has been and will always be our best tool to bring our kids to Christ.

We will evolve this as we proceed but here are some things which we are planning and asking families for help to support the spiritual growth of all of our children:

1. Please read the Bible and pray together daily with your children. No matter how young or how old, it is never too early or too late to start.
2. Class servants are structuring each Sunday School curriculum lesson such that it has:
1. Bible reading which can read by the child alone or with the parents.
2. Activities, quizzes or similar to do where possible.
3. Some memorization verse, psalm or similar.
4. Where possible, something to share with the kids over an online conference. To that end, each class servants will be reaching out to their kids/families as appropriate.
3. There has been and will continue to be communication from each classroom servants group for Sunday School sessions and/or activities for your children to participate in. Please continue to monitor this communication and encourage the children to participate.
4. If you have any concerns, please reach out to your child’s classroom servants and discuss as needed.

Please pray for the Sunday School services and may our Lord Jesus Christ allow this time to pass and return us to his church in the near future.

God Bless and Best Regards,

Sunday School Services Team

Dear Servants:

As Sunday School coordinator servants and Abouna, we discussed the Coronavirus and COVID-19 fast spread in the recent days and it's potency.

In the interest of safety and as a precautionary measure, we have decided it is best to put Sunday School on-hold effective this Saturday, March 14, until the situation is under control. This will include other services such as Servants Preparation and Friday youth social night.

Although this may seem a bit drastic, we all need to do our part to protect our beloved children and congregation. We pray our Lord protects us from all danger.

Please forward to all your class groups and there will be a general church email accordingly.

Attendees: Manal Yostos, Manal Ezz, Mervat Roufaeel, Murium Shehata, Mona Bissada, Mariam Gerges, Reem, Randa, Nelly, Dalia, Galil, John Rizk, Rasha, Souzy R., Fiby, Hossam, Mariana, Marian Ghabour, Ayman, George S. (Total: 20 servants)

Theme: "And do not be conformed to this world, but BE TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:2)

Main take-away:

1. It is very important to include different strategies to make Sunday School more effective.
2. In general, people retain 10% of what they listen to, 20% of what they read and 30% of what they see. Therefore, in order to maximize the amount of information kids retain from a Sunday School lesson, we need to have a mix of all of these items in our activities.
3. A general rule, kids attention in minutes = Age + 7 (example, a 10 year old child can focus on one thing for no more than 17 minutes). Hence it is important to have varied activities related to the topic we are trying to teach to help them retain the information.

We talked about "TARGET" where we as servants can focus on the first 4 items (TARG) and God completes the other 2 (ET):

1. T = Testament (We need to have a Word of God component from the Bible).
2. A = Audience (We need to have something to share with the Audience; Visual, Audio, Reading, etc. A mix is always good to reach kids with different learning styles).
3. R = Realistic (We need to share a realistic story that they can relate to like Christ shared parables with people to understand the teachings).
4. G = Games (We need to have some type of game for the kids to participate in and make the lesson interesting).
5. E = Effect (God gives the grace for our work to take effect. Remember to "LIVE WHAT YOU PREACH" because kids are very sensitive to this).
6. T = Transformation (God is the only one able to truly Transform peoples hearts).

Moving forward we agreed on the following:

1. All servants attending in a class should take the time to plan for the SS class lesson, not only the servant delivering the lesson.
2. Each group of class servants and floater servants to sit together at the end of every class for 15-20 minutes and plan the next SS lesson. Creative ideas come easier when more than one person are discussing a topic. This will also help all servants to be on the same page during the lesson.
3. The servant who is leading the lesson, need to start as early as possible and take the time to come up with ideas for the lesson and share it with other servants. Preparing  the night before or the day of the service is not recommended.

May the lord bless all your lives, families, homes and service.

Dear Servants:

This Sunday, Sept. 15th we will have an all-servants meeting. This is an important meeting for everyone to participate-in as it will be the last one before we start the new classes on Sept 21st.

Start time: 12:30 PM (After liturgy)

Finish time: 2:00 PM

Agenda:

• Group Payer and Hymn
• General session for overall distribution, organization, class locations and plan
• Break-out session for each group with their respective coordinator to discuss plans for the new year:
  • Nancy - Babies to grade 3
  • Fiby - Grades 4-6
  • Amir - Grades 7-11
  • Steve - Grades 12 - Youth

Please make every effort to attend and share with your prayers and input for the success of this service.

Get ready for an activity filled Summer

Signup

Please sign-up by June 30th, 2019. Fill out the form here: Grade 8 - 12 Summer Activities (Defunct)

Summer Activities

Theme

Fellowship

Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous (1 Peter 3:8)

Friday Summer Activity General Layout

The Fridays which we're not outside the day will look as follows

Be Heard

Fill out the form here for outing suggestions: Grade 8 - 12 Outdoor Activities Suggestion Form

Dear Servants,

Multiple announcements to follow

Announcement 1: June 15th, 4:30 PM, All-Servants' Meeting

15 Jun 2019 

We would like to hold an all-Servants' Spiritual Meeting June 15th starting 4:30 PM ending with the start of Sunday School for the young classes  and Asheya. This would be an opportunity for all of us to get together. Please add this to your calendars. We look forward to having you all there and the details will follow.

Announcement 2: June 22, New Sunday School Time

22 Jun 2019 

As you may know, we have been looking at different options to have all Sunday School classes after Asheya. Unfortunately, there isn't a solution which alleviates all concerns. So, after looking at many options, we are moving forward with the following starting June 22:

1. Grade 11/12 class will move to Sunday after liturgy. This should work better for the kids in that group and they will be separate from the older youth group
2. Grade 8 will move to the Gym and occupy the back half.
3. Grade 9/10 class will move to the Gym and will occupy the front half
4. The attached graphic shows the locations of the classes. PLEASE checkout where your class may be, inspect the space to be ready for your kids.

Announcement 3: June 22, Starting Servants Prayer Meeting

22 Jun 2019 

Starting June 22, we will start holding a prayer assembly every Saturday 8:45 PM to 9:15 PM in Nelly's class.

We need much prayer for the service to be successful and fruitful and we have a PROMISE that our prayers together can move mountains. We know it is difficult for everyone to attend everytime, but please do your best to participate. May the Lord listen and give us success for the sake of our kids.