Praying for Protection: Armoured Oranges

This prayer activity would work really well if you are looking at the Armour of God or any story involving God's protection.

You will need: oranges or tangerines/ clementines (one for each child plus a couple of spare ones), permanent marker pens, a tall, clear jug or vase.

Peel an orange or tangerine and put it into the water. It will sink to the bottom of the jug. 

Then put an orange with the peel left on into the water. It will float. The peel is actually like armour, keeping the orange safe from sinking. 

Ask children to write or draw on their oranges things that they would like protection from in life- maybe things that scare them. Float the decorated oranges in the water as a celebration of the protection and strength God can give.

Armour of God: DIY Weebles

I've been thinking about the armour of God recently and this is a fun activity that really helps to emphasize the idea of 'standing firm' in the strength that God gives. It also really takes me back to my childhood of playing with 'Weebles' (they wobble, but they don't fall down!)

You will need: permanent marker pens, plastic Easter eggs that can be opened up, blue tack, marbles, small decorative stickers.

An important attribute of the armour of God is that it helps us to stand our ground and to stand firm against the things that might try to upset us and throw us off course. These ‘weebles’ might wobble, but they will stand their ground and not fall over! 

Open up a plastic Easter egg and put a blob of blue tack on the inside, at the bottom. Wedge a marble on top of the blue tack so that it stays in place. 

Close the Easter egg and decorate it with the permanent markers and stickers to reflect your personality.

Try to knock the egg over. It will wobble, but always come back upright because of its weighted bottom. Use this as a starting point to talk about God’s power to keep us protected and stable when things are trying to knock us down.

Strength in Christ Wool Craft

This craft is very messy, requires some patience and is very effective for exploring the idea of Jesus giving us the strength we need (e.g when looking at verses such as Philippians 4:13).

You will need: wool, PVA (white) glue, greaseproof or waxed paper, string, at least 24 hours!

 Cut lengths of wool and dip them in PVA.  Cover the strands quite thickly and be prepared to get very messy and sticky.  

Arrange the wool in patterns on top of the greaseproof paper.  We made crosses but you can do anything!  Make sure that each strand of wool connects with at least one other strand so that they will stick together when the project dries.

Now wait AT LEAST 24 hours for your artwork to dry.  The wool will stiffen.  Even if you think it is dry- wait!  

Carefully pull the dried projects off the paper and thread some string through them so that they can be hung in windows or from door handles.

Talk about:

• sometimes we find things hard and don't know how we are going to manage.  This is when we can call on Jesus to help us to have the strength we need to get through the hard times.  When the glue has dried, you can't see it, but it is making the soft wool strong enough to stand in a way it couldn't before.
• Use this illustration when thinking about the armour of God, Verses such as Philippians 4:13 or even stories like David or Esther, where unexpected people get the strength they need.

Have fun getting messy!

Quick and easy wearable armour of God

This week we need some armour of God for the Sunday morning service so I decided to make some...

As with anything, I tried to make it as quickly, easily and cheaply as possible without neglecting the finished presentation!

All in all, the armour cost less than £5 to make because we had some ribbon in our stores already.  If we had had to buy the ribbon it would have been just slightly more expensive!  I spent about an hour making it so it's pretty quick too.

I used: flip flops, foam sword, foil food platter (all from the pound shop), 1 1/2 large sheets of gold card, gold ribbon, glue dots, paint pens, stapler

I wanted each piece of the armour not only to be labelled according to Ephesians 6, but also to have a scriptural reference that would help to explain its function.  I have included verse references with the details below.

Shoes of the Gospel of Peace:

Remove straps from flip flops and place strips of glue dots on the soles.

 Stick lengths of ribbon to the glue dots to make straps for tying round the feet.

 Cut gold card to fit the soles and decorate like so.

Belt of Truth

Cut a length of ribbon that will comfortably tie round your waist.  Staple 5 pieces of card to the belt and write 'TRUTH' on them.  I used John 14:6 as the verse here (see top picture above)

Breastplate of Righteousness

Cut two pieces of card to make a front and back piece.  Join them with lengths of ribbon as shoulder straps.

Staple more ribbon to the sides of each card piece as side ties.  Write RIGHTEOUSNESS on the front piece.  I also added a heart with Proverbs 4:23 written inside it.

Helmet of Salvation

Use strips of card to make a helmet as above.  Stick a cross to the front to emphasise that the helmet is about salvation.  I also wrote John 3:16 across the helmet.

Shield of Faith

I stapled some ribbon to the back of a foil food platter to make a handle and then stuck a gold card cross on the front with the word FAITH and a verse about trusting God (Psalm 145:13)

Sword of the Spirit

I wound some gold ribbon round the foam sword (to keep with my gold theme!) and then stuck some Gold card to it (see top picture).  One side reads 'SPIRIT: the word of God' and on the other side of the sword is written the verse from James 4:7.

I can't wait to see the armour in action and hopefully it will last us some time!