Exploring the gifts of the Spirit with 5-11s!

As today is Pentecost we decided not to beat around the bush but to go straight ahead and tell the children about the gifts of the Spirit!

It can be quite hard, even for adults, to get your head round all the gifts so I decided to limit our explanation to 10 of the gifts I thought were easiest to explain.  You may or may not agree with my selection or explanations but it was a great introduction to a huge topic!

I made a sheet, detailing 10 Spiritual gifts:

To print the sheet, click here

Then I photocopied the sheet times the number of children we expected and cut out the individual labels.  That made a lot of labels!  Next I mixed the labels up and distributed them around the room.

After telling the children the Pentecost story, we asked the children to go and find all 10 different labels and come back.  When everyone had collected all they can we explained each one and gave short specific testimonies about healing, apostles, tongues and miracles.  The children had lots of questions!

We then prayed and asked God to speak to the children about the gifts He wanted to give them.  The children then chose two or three of the gifts they'd like to pray for and we made gift bags.

The bags were simply made by sticking together an envelope, cutting off the top to make an opening and fixing a ribbon to the opening to make a handle.

Children stuck on the labels for the gifts they were praying for and then made some more decorations...

It was great that they didn't copy each other in choosing gifts!  The younger children needed a bit of support but were well able to choose :-)

Finally we put all of the gift bags in the centre, gave each child a lit birthday cake candle (symbolising the Pentecost flames) and asked The Holy Spirit to fill us with these gifts and help us to do the things we couldn't do by ourselves.

Playing the patience game...

Today we wanted to focus on the spiritual fruit of patience at our school lunchtime club.  This particular group (all girls!) respond most to doing something with their hands and chatting.  We're making it our mission just to build relationships and pass on something of our own experiences with God rather than teaching an all singing all dancing programme of activities! So...

Today we had a little chat about what patience was and then we made some cup and ball games.  For those of you who don't know, this involves a ball attached to a string attached to a cup.  The aim is to get the ball into the cup by throwing it and trying to catch.

Each person will need: a paper/ plastic cup, string (an adult arm's length), a ball (we used ball pond or ping pong balls) some sellotape and something to decorate the cup with.

Make a small hole in the bottom of the cup and thread some string through.  Tie a knot at the end of the string just inside the cup.  Sellotape a ball to the other end of the string.  Decorate the cup!

To play, hold the cup upright and toss the ball into the air.  Try to catch the ball in the cup!  This game requires patience because it may take several attempts to catch the ball.  It also requires patience when making the game to thread string, tie knots and keep sellotape on the balls...The point is emphasized all round and it is also a lot of fun!

The children had a great time practically working with patience issues and we, as leaders were able to share times when God helped us to be patient :-)

Keeping Promises (Matthew 5:33-37)

This term, our 5-11s are learning about what Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount.  This week we got to the section on oaths or promises.  After some discussion, we focussed on verse 37- the part where people are told to let their yes be yes and their no be no!  

To make the point about how easy we find it to break promises but how hard it is to keep them, I gave everyone an egg. 

The children then had to play a running and jumping game holding their egg and continue caring for it until the end of the session.  This made the point that, in order to keep a promise and not break it, we had to take constant care!  In other words, don't say you will do something unless you are willing to go the distance with it and put in the effort.  I did give out raw eggs.  If you are less brave (or possibly much more sensible!) you might give the children hard boiled eggs.  We only had two cracks by the end of the session and only one of those required cleaning up (thank goodness!)  We discussed that fact that, as Christians, it is sometimes hard work to follow what Jesus teaches us.

We looked in depth at the story of Hannah asking God for a child and giving Samuel back to God- a really hard promise for her to keep.  This provoked a lot of discussion about what the children would do in that situation.  We used our bag of odds and ends to create pictures to show their responses to the story and the teaching...

 A reflection of the word 'promise'

 This child explained that the pink heart was Hannah and the red heart was God.  The small heart was Samuel on a journey from his mother to God, but in both places he was loved.

 The hearts are promises and the bangles around them are protective barriers that can't be broken.  This child covered the picture with gauze and shells because they were shiny and this emphasized the special nature of promises.

 This child used her egg as Samuel to show that the promise was protected by love.

 This child made a heart out of mirrors to reflect God's promises to us and the bangles are our promises to God, reflecting that there is a two way process.

 This picture shows a person with a cross in their head and a person with a tick, illustrating that some people do the right thing and keep their promises and others don't.

This picture shows a 'nest' to protect the promises that are made.

Messy Pentecost talk and prayer: The Holy Spirit helps us

It only seems fitting to use fire at Pentecost so how could we not?!

After we had told the Pentecost story, our talk at Messy Church was about the Holy Spirit helping us to do things we might not be able to do by ourselves.  Here's a copy of the talk and prayer response with pictures.  You will need a dove pan to do this.  It might seem quite expensive but the amazement of the congregation when you use it (adults and children alike) is well worth it!  I've used mine about 10 times already in assemblies etc.

Photos by David Duncan :-)

Talk

On the day of Pentecost 3000 people became Christians.  It was like the church’s birthday!  The Holy Spirit came to the disciples with wind and fire and helped them to do things they’d never been able to do before like speak other languages and have the courage to speak in front of crowds of people!

Sometimes we feel like we can’t do things or we’d like to change but it’s really hard and we can’t do it ourselves.  God sends the Holy Spirit to help us!

(Show empty dove pan) 

God can use us to do things we never thought we could do, if we trust him to help us.

 

When we make a cake we need ingredients: sprinkle some flour and salt in the pan. 

We then need to cook the cake and make it into something really special!  The cake can’t cook itself- it needs some help! 

(Set fire and open pan to reveal cake)

God can use us to do something really special too.  We have the ingredients inside us that He can use, we just need to let him use His power to help us!

Prayer response:

Here are some birthday cake candles.  Take a candle and come and put it on the cake. (When all the candles are on the cake, move the children back and light the candles).  Let’s remember the day of Pentecost and think of something we’d like The Holy Spirit to help us to do.  (Give a moment) Let’s say a big ‘Amen’ and then everybody blow as hard as you can from where you’re sitting.  (Say amen and blow out the candles).

Pentecost Messy Church Crafts

We had a brilliant morning at our Pentecost Messy church.  There was lots of fun and even some fire!

Have a look at the crafts we did on the Pentecost theme.  All have a fire or wind related element...

Flame headresses: ribbon, tissue paper, gold card, shiny red paper.  Kylé also has some fire streamers tucked into the ribbon for extra effect!

Fire streamers made from crepe paper, lolly sticks and elastic bands.

 Flame biscuits: digestives, white water icing and fondant flames.

 Bubble and hoops that make noises when you move them (sounds a bit like a rattling wind!)

 Birthday cards for the Church's birthday!

Pentecost spinners!  Click here to print off.

 Paint blowing pictures.

 Windchimes: Cups, beads, bells, buttons and pipecleaners.

 Holy Spirit suncatchers.  Click here for instructions.

Elijah is fed by ravens craft

This week our 3-5s will be learning the story of Elijah being fed by ravens and how this reminds us that God will look after us and give us the things we need.

This is a fairly easy craft that the children can then use to reenact the story as the button 'bread' can be taken off and put back on again and the pipe cleaner means that the bird can 'fly'!

 You will need:  A tube made from rolled up black paper, some black paper wings, a card beak (I am reliably informed that ravens have black beaks but I was ignorant of this when I started!), a paperclip, a brown/ neutral button and a pipe cleaner.

 Stick the wings and beak onto the tube and give the bird some eyes.  open out and bend a paper clip, make a hole in the beak and stick it through.  Hook a button onto the paper clip.  Push a pipe cleaner through the back of the tube and secure.

Now the raven can carry bread and children can use the pipe cleaner to make it fly!

Pentecost Spinner!

I really like spinners!!  This is the second one I've made in the last couple of months but the story of Pentecost really lends itself to spinners... First you have the sound of the wind (or the straw twizzling in your hands) and then you have the sight of the flame appearing above the disciple's head!

Print out a Spinner sheet here.

• Cut out the big rectangle and colour in (I added some wind for good measure!)
• Fold along the dotted line and turn face down.
• Sellotape a straw to the middle of one side and glue all round the edges of the other side.
• Stick the sides together to make a square with a straw stuck in the middle.

Twizzle the straw between your hands and see the flame appear above the disciple's head!