Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

This mat is part of our Ascension celebrations this week.  The Ascension of Jesus has so many themes to pull on, the one one I've chosen to pull for this mat is the theme of waiting- a reminder of the disciples heading back to Jerusalem to wait for the Holy Spirit to come and help them in their new job of going out to all the world as his witnesses. As usual, cover the sheet with a plastic folder and get creating! To print off the page, click here . As you create, here are some questions to chat about: I wonder what the disciples felt when they saw Jesus disappearing in the clouds? I wonder what is was like to go and wait for the Holy Spirit? How does it feel to wait for something you want? What helps you when you are waiting for something?

In the Bible, clouds are often a sign of God's Presence. When the people of God find themselves on their Exodus journey, they are led by a pillar of cloud during the day and Moses goes up the mountain and disappears into the clouds where God is.  This activity is an active way of exploring this story and thinking about how we each experience God's presence with us. Download and print the cloud spotting sheet here. Go outside to spot cloud types, maybe after hearing one of the stories about clouds in Exodus, and have a think about the discussion questions on your walk: What shapes and pictures can you see in the clouds Where do you feel that God is with you? What can you see that reminds you of God? On our walk the clouds were fairly dramatic and rainy and we cut a viewing window out of the centre of the sheet. Fortunately, we didn't get too wet! This activity could be adapted for the Ascension story or for any story that contains clouds!

For those of you who are looking ahead and planning for Ascension day then this is for you- but even if you're not, this is a great activity to help children think about giving their prayers to God!   This appears as one of the crafts in last month's Premier Youth and Children's Work magazine, which is amazing always worth a read :-) You will need: A plastic bottle or glass jar, water, vegetable oil, food colouring, Alka seltzer tablets Fill a bottle or jar halfway full with water and mix in some food colouring.  Now fill the rest of the bottle with oil, leaving a small space at the top.  The oil will separate from the water into a separate layer.  Drop an Alka Seltzer tablet (or try a quarter or half at a time if they are large tablets) into the bottle and watch as bubbles of coloured water start to ascend into the oil layer in the style of a mini lava lamp!   Talk: Watch the bubbles rising and thin...

I found this great idea at Carrots are Orange and thought how useful it might be for an Ascension prayer activity.   Talk about Jesus' ascension in Acts 1.  Even though he has ascended to heaven and we can not see him, he is still with us, hears us and helps us. Draw round a CD and then draw a spiral inside it.  Think about things you would like to pray to Jesus about- help, thanks, blessings for others etc and write or draw them inside the spiral. Cut the spiral out and thread a piece of string through the top so that you can hold the thread and the spiral will dangle down (see picture below).   The spiral will spin slightly just by virtue of being held,  but when held over a bulb or source of heat, the spiral will spin much more because of the rising of hot air.  Even though we can't see the hot air, it is still there, rising up.  The movement of the spiral gives a 'rising' or 'ascending' visual for the written or drawn prayers and a ...