‘God so loved the world’ suncatcher

May 31, 2021Leave a comment

You will need: PVA glue, a clear plastic lid (e.g. a large yoghurt pot lid), green and blue food colouring, cocktail sticks

Pour PVA glue into the lid and spread it out with a spoon until the whole lid is covered in a thin layer.

Drop some little blobs of food colouring into the glue and use a cocktail stick to swirl and spread them around. Try to make a distinction between land (green) and sea (blue).

Leave to dry.

When the glue is fully dry, attach the suncatcher to your window with a little bit of blue tack and let the sun shine through.

As the sun shines through, think about God’s love for us and for our world. What makes you feel loved? Who do you know who needs help to feel loved by God right now? How can we help to show God’s love to the world?

Dear God, thank you for loving us and wanting good things for us. We pray for people all over the world who are feeling unloved, guilty, sad and afraid. Help them to know your love and to know the love and hope Jesus brings. Amen

Shining Light Pictures

July 31, 2020Leave a comment

This craft is a very satisfying and visual way of exploring the concept of bringing light to darkness and revealing what is hidden. It’s a great activity to do if you are thinking about Jesus as the light of the world and our job to bring that light and hope too.

You will need: plastic wallets (I used ones that are open on the top and one side, like these), Sharpies or permanent markers, black card or paper, white card or paper, scissors.

Using Sharpies, decorate the front of a plastic wallet with pictures and words about light and Jesus the light of the world. If you put a sheet of white paper into the folder while you do this, it gives a clear background to help you when you are drawing and colouring your design.

When you have finished, take the white paper out of the folder and replace it with black paper. It will now be much harder to see your design.

Cut a piece of white paper to look a little bit like a torch beam or a ray of light and place it inside the folder, between the folder and the black paper.

As you move the paper ‘beam’ it will highlight parts of your design as if you are shining light on it in the darkness.

Talk about:

the comparison between the darkness and the ability to see more clearly and in colour
What does it mean to be light in darkness?
What things help to make the world a brighter, happier and better place?
Where could we shine light and help to make our communities and homes brighter places?

Have fun!

Transfiguration shine!

March 4, 2019Leave a comment

The transfiguration is an amazing story of Jesus being transformed into blazing light, radiating God’s glory and giving the disciples with him a glimpse of who he really is. This activity helps children to connect with the shine of the story and to think about how they might come closer to Jesus and be reflections of his light too.

glitter

You will need: A set of glitter eye shadows (check any allergies children might have!), pieces of paper with challenges written on (see below)

Speak to the children about the story of Jesus going up the mountain and being transfigured into blazing light.

Talk about:

how would you have felt if you had seen it?
What would you have done?
What do you think it meant?
What does ‘glory’ mean?

Light is often associated with Jesus. He calls himself the light of the world and says that we can be too. How can we come closer to Jesus and reflect his light to other people? How can we shine too so that people know we are his followers?

Get children to suggest ways they can come closer to Jesus or do things that he told us to do. Write some ideas down beforehand and then get children to suggest even more and write them on pieces of paper.

e.g.

pray for ourselves and others
Read Bible stories
Say thank you to God for what we have
speak to people who are lonely
help those in need

Ask each child to choose a piece of paper as a challenge to hep them get closer to Jesus and shine some of his light during the week. Next, get them to put some of the eyshadow on their finger and to spread it over their hand or arm. The glitter will shine as a reminder to them!

Light Peg Prayers

January 30, 2019Leave a comment

This is a really simple but effective idea to help children to think and pray about Jesus bringing light and hope into situations.

You will need: A String of peg lights (or fairy lights with paper clips to fasten prayers to the string), paper, pens, photos of people, photos of places from magazines or the internet.

Ask children who they know who they would like to pray for, or which places they think need help and hope at the moment. They can write or draw them on paper or use photos. Turn on the light string and peg the photos and pieces of paper to the string. Pray that these people and places will have the light of Jesus in their lives and will know that he loves them.

Glow Stick Light Prayers

October 30, 2018Leave a comment

As we approach winter and nights are drawing in, here is a simple prayer activity to help children to think about praying for light in darkness.

You will need: A bag or dark coloured pillow case, glow sticks, small pieces of paper, pens

Talk to the children about light and darkness and about how light always chases darkness away. Remind them about Jesus saying he is the light of the world so we can bring the dark, sad, challenging and difficult things of the world to him and ask him to help.

Get children to think of people and places that are going through hard times and write or draw them on pieces of paper. Put them into the dark bag/ pillowcase. Pray that Jesus will bring his light to these people and situations. Break some glow sticks and put them inside the bag with the prayers. Look into the bag to see how the glow sticks are lighting up the darkness. Give each child a glow stick to take away to remind them of Jesus’ ability to chase away the darkness.

Light Party Talk: Jesus the Superhero

October 31, 2017Leave a comment

Today our church had a ‘light’ party with a superhero theme. It was certainly a popular theme and adults and children were really able to get into the spirit of dressing up! As well as all of the usual crafts and games, here’s the talk we gave about Jesus as a superhero, linking with what he said about being ‘the light of the world.’ We switched off the lights and did this by candle light because it makes it so much more effective when the children get their own lights to switch on! The lights we gave the children were finger torches which we found here.

Hold a lit candle as you are speaking.

Today is Halloween and sometimes Halloween can seem a bit frightening. The nights are getting darker and sometimes the world can seem like a scary place, But if you notice- we’re not dressed like witches or ghosts or vampires tonight. We’re dressed like superheroes. I’ll tell you why.

Who is your favourite superhero? Why?

Superheroes have amazing powers and they do amazing things to defeat evil. They fight the baddies and in the end, good wins.

There are all sorts of superheroes and they have all sorts of super powers. There’s a hero we talk about all the time in this church and his name is Jesus. He’s a hero because he does amazing things. He makes blind people see. He turns 5 loaves of bread and two fish into enough food to feed more people than could ever fit into this church. He stops storms and rain just by saying one word. And when things are scary we know that all we need to do is ask him to help us. He is like light coming in to dark and scary places to make us feel safe again. Jesus even said ‘I am the light of the world.’ When things are sad and scary and lonely and everything feels dark, he is the hero who has come to make things better.

Give candles to three other people (adults or children and light them from the candle you are holding)

But Jesus wants us to be superheroes too. He says that we can be the light of the world too. We can be people who help people who are sad and lonely. We can be people who look after those who feel that the world is a hard place.

So I’m going to give you a little light and if you’d like to try and be a superhero who brings light in the darkness, then light it up.

Give out the finger lights (or alternative!) and let the children have time to light them if they want to.

So when you go home and you have times when you feel sad and scared and worried, put your light on and remember that you have a superhero called Jesus who you can ask to help you. And I challenge you to be superheroes too. Where can you help to bring light in the darkness and make the world seem less scary for other people?

Cheer for superheroes!