Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

Across the world we are seeing violence, war and unrest and it is understandable that children will have questions about what they see and feel. Giving the opportunity to discuss and explore questions and prayers for peace is important and this is a resource to help in a hands on way. While using the play dough, children will have space to think and talk if that is what they would like to do. To print out the play dough mat, click here. Cover with a plastic sheet protector for multiple uses and give children space to explore. Talk about: what is peace? what is a 'peacemaker'? How would you recognise a peacemaker? What could you do to be a peacemaker? Where in the world will you pray for?  

Last week we were looking at the story of Jesus and Nicodemus and I made this short video about John 3:16 to help with the storytelling. It's got a lot of symbols in it and they have led to lots of wondering and questions!

This is a very hands on and tactile way of praying!   Ask children to choose a country to pray for and give them some play dough.  Put the play dough over the country on the map and mould it to fit the outline of the country, praying that God will bless the land and the people and that His kingdom will come there.  In the picture, I've used a giant wall map that I didn't have to use again afterwards as the play dough can leave a sticky residue.  Alternatively, you can laminate some smaller maps- maybe of different continents- and these will be able to be re-used. Children might want to stick some sequins or plastic jewels into the play dough as a symbol of the blessing they are asking God to bring. Have fun!

This is a great idea my friend Simon used in a service last week.  It would work really well with 7-11s and is very tactile and visual! You will need a large world map (you can get these quite cheaply in some cheap book shops at the moment), scissors, pens. Before praying, cut the map into large pieces- enough for everyone to have a piece of their own. Give each child a piece of the map and get them to hold it in their hands.  Talk about how the world is damaged and destroyed by things that we do- environment, war, pollution.  Ask each child to pray for the part of the world they are holding.  They can pray silently, out loud or write/ draw their prayers on the map piece.   Now ask God to heal the world and bring the prayers to Him by reassembling the pieces of the map like a giant jigsaw puzzle.  Thank God for the world He has made and ask Him to bless it and us.

We've been trying some more practical ways to pray for others during our Sunday morning prayer station times.  These two ideas are easy to make, easy to do and are reusable! Prayers for places- laminated maps and dry wipe pens.   Children can write prayers for places on them or choose a place to pray for and underline, circle or put a smiley face next to the place name when they have finished Prayers for people- laminated outlines and dry wipe pens Children write names of people they'd like God to bless inside the outlines.  Simple! The best thing about using laminated resources with dry wipe pens is that, after use, you can wipe off the pen (we use wet wipes for this) and reuse at a later date!

This prayer activity is fun and interactive and can be used with children from 3 upwards.  We gathered together some laminated maps of the world, the UK and the local area.  Then we stuck them on the wall, but you could do this on the floor if you wanted to!  We put a blind fold on a child and turned them round and then got them to stick a hand sticker onto one of  the maps.  The child them took the blind fold off to see where the sticker had landed.  We then asked God to put his hand over that place and to bless it.  

I was thinking about how the children love using the globes and world map to pray for the world and wondering how I could make something big enough for everyone to use at the same time. As I was walking round the pound shop I found a shower curtain and remembered the days of teaching when, if we wanted a really big image, we'd project it onto the wall with an overhead projector. So.. I taped the shower curtain to the wall, made an OHP transparency of a world map outline and projected the map onto the curtain.  In hindsight it would have been much easier if I hadn't taped the quite thin curtain onto a wall with a mural on it.  It got quite confusing when trying to work out what was a line on the map and what was part of Noah's Ark underneath! After about 20 minutes, I'd traced the outline onto the sheet with a permanent marker and it was much bigger than the biggest map we'd used for praying with up to now, though I am a little bit concerned that I might ...

Sometimes there are certain countries that we feel drawn to pray for and we'd like to encourage the children to think about those places they feel drawn to themselves.  As a model and to start the ball rolling, it seemed a good idea to choose a few countries that we could focus on as we pray for the world.  The first country picked is Albania. I sponsor a little boy there, so I'm quite drawn to praying for that country myself!  I thought it would be best to give the children some facts about and pictures of Albania so that they would have some ideas about what to pray for and I then gave them an outline map to draw and write their prayers on.  It was fascinating to see what they wanted to ask God for! We'll get the children to suggest the next country they'd like to pray for, so it could be anywhere!

While thinking about praying for the world, we are encouraging the children to think about those who live in poverty- in this country and in the wider world. We also want to encourage the children to think what THEY can do and to make their own contribution.  Here is our poverty prayer station for this term... You will need:  A money box A tin containing coins (I used quite a fancy one to reflect the riches some people have to share) Instructions (see below) •Some people do not have enough money to pay for food and a home. •Take a coin from the pot and hold it.  As you hold it, pray that God will help us to share what we have with others.  Put your coin in the giving box.   If you want to you can bring your own coins to put in the box as well!

One of our new world focussed prayer stations this term looks at hunger. You will need:  A world map (I've labelled it with names of countries where there is famine and put some dots on it so that the children can find the countries) a pot of uncooked rice a spoon a plate instructions (below!) Look at the map and see the places in the world where people are dying of hunger. Ask God to send people who will help them and pray that the world will be a fairer place. Pray for charities who bring food and help to the hungry.  Ask God to show you what you can do to help.   As you pray, put a spoonful of rice onto the plate.

This coming term our prayer stations are going to focus on interceding for the world.  One of the things I want to look at is praying for peace and reconciliation.  When I was thinking about how to do this, it struck me that zips might be a good idea- they are a great illustration of bringing two sides together! so.. I plan to leave a list of countries in the world where wars are taking place on the station along with the zips so that the children can choose where to pray for!

After exploring what the Bible says about heaven and eternal life, we set up a prayer station to explore what heaven on earth might be like.  We asked the children to think about what they would change to make the world a better place where there would be no more crying, pain or hunger.  They wrote or drew a picture and then asked God to bring about that change.  Then they clipped it to a line so that their prayers could be seen.  The children suggested that if they waited, they might be able to notice a change in the world and would maybe be able to move some of their prayers to the 'answered prayers' side of our prayer board.

Throw an inflatable globe into the air and catch it.  Pray for the place where the your right thumb lands, asking God to bless the people there. Put a sticky dot there to show you've prayed. Alternatively, lay a large map out on the floor.  Find a country and ask God to bless it.  Put a sticky dot on the country to show you've prayed for it.