Review: An Illustrated Lent (with 20% discount code!)

A few months back we had a look at Illustrated Children's Ministry, a new ministry using illustrations as creative way of exploring the Bible with children at church and at home.

ICM has continued to grow its resources and the newest product on offer is 'An Illustrated Lent.'  If you're looking for a high quality product that will engage children in creative and reflective ways over this season, then this might be a solution!  Even better- this is a downloadable resource so you won't have to wait for it to arrive in the post...

There are two possibilities depending on your situation and I've taken a look at both below.  The exciting thing is that Adam at ICM has offered Flame readers an exclusive 20% discount code for this week only- valid until Sunday 14th Feb.  Read to the end of this post to find the code!

The Church edition contains ideas and colour illustrations to engage children with each of the 7 weeks of Lent, using the stories of Jesus in the Wilderness, The transfiguration, Jesus and the fig tree, the prodigal son, Mary anointing Jesus' feet, Palm Sunday and the women at the empty tomb.

Each week's section includes a beautiful colour illustration, some open ended questions, activity sheets and reflective colouring sheet.  What I love about the illustrations and colouring sheets is that they are both simple and unique.  There is nothing saccharine, twee or patronising about them as so often happens with Bible colouring sheets- believe me I would not be recommending them if they were!  

While the word searches might be more suitable for older children, the colouring sheets, illustrations and questions lend themselves to children of any age and I would fully recommend this as a laid-back, thought-provoking and reflective resource to use.  There is much room for the children to respond in their own way and reflective colouring really lends itself to relaxed discussion.  Even better, these come as downloadable files so it is possible to give each child their own copy of the colour illustration of the week to take home and discuss with their family.  If you are looking to get something easy and effective for your church children's work this Lent- this could be it!

...Which leads us on to the family edition of an Illustrated Lent!

Again, there are seven weekly sections, this time focussing on 'Give', 'serve,' 'listen,' 'love,' 'watch,' 'risk,' 'go and tell.'  Each week involves short devotions for the whole family that require little or no preparation (and could be done over breakfast!), questions to go deeper, a hands on activity, prayer and, again, a beautifully illustrated colouring sheet to help with refection and give relaxed time for discussion.

I especially love the 'watch' section where the family is encouraged to look out for sightings of God during the week.  This is a resource that helps you to reflect but also encourages you to get up, go out and do!

So check it out by clicking here and don't forget to use our exclusive code- flame20 for 20% off anything in the store!