Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

I've often struggled with how to approach Remembrance Sunday from a Christian perspective and I've come to find the beginning of John's gospel really helpful. As the fields were churned up by fighting, unseen poppy seeds were distributed, which meant that the following year the fields were full of bright poppies. Life came where death had been. Life found a way. This always reminds me of the verse in John 1:4-5 describing Jesus, which says:  4  In him was life, and that life was the light of all people.   5  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Just as life persisted in the poppy fields, Jesus' light will never be put out. With God there is always hope that war and death and violence will be defeated. This craft helps to explore this verse and this idea. You will need : Black paper, a hole punch, sellotape, glue, red paper, scissors, battery operated tea lights. Cut a roughly A6 size piece of black paper or card ...

This is a simple but effective craft to help children think about Jesus coming as the light of the world, especially relevant for Advent when we use lights and candles a lot to think about bringing light to the dark places of the world You will need: An A5 sheet of black paper or thin black card  Fold the sheet into quarters.  Cut shapes across the folds (as if making snowflakes!)  Open the sheet out.  Roll the sheet and secure to make a tube.  Tape up the top of the tube.  You should now have a kind of 'hat'. Place a battery operated tea light under the 'hat'.  Let the light shine through the darkness!  This is not a terribly good photo, but the effect is lovely as the candle shines through all of the patterned slits in the black paper. Use this craft to talk to children about John 1:1-5 Think about the 'darkness' in the world e.g. sadness, illness, poverty.  Light the candle and pray that God will break through and ...