So Much Fun

This morning I was at a local school, giving an assembly talk. I had SO MUCH FUN!
It was from the Barnabas in Schools website.

I did make it my own, complete with using a silly posh voice for the man in the story and I made more of the point marked 4 below, explaining a bit more what Jesus had actually meant.  Also, when asking the children for what things made them happy, at the start, I made sure to ask a couple of the members of staff as well.

Happiness - Barnabas in Schools

Happiness
Key Bible passage: Matthew 5:1-12 The Beatitudes in the Sermon on the
Mount
1 Put up on display as children come in: Happiness is….
2 Today we’re thinking about happiness. What makes you happy? (Get some
suggestions from the children, and for every suggestion, drop a ping pong ball into a jar, or a football into a bin. When it’s full, make the point that sometimes we fill our lives up with so many things, that there’s no room for the happiness that God wants to give us.
And that’s a very special sort of happiness that will last a lot longer than any of these lovely things in the jar. Jesus was one of the happiest people who’s ever lived. And one day, he told some people some secrets about real happiness.

3 Can you imagine for a minute that I’m a very rich, important religious person who’s decided to go and listen to Jesus. This is what happened to me today:

I thought I would go along to hear this Jesus talking. I had to go up a hill! I mean, I'm far too important to go climbing hills. I'm so rich that I paid some people to carry me in a chair. I made sure they put the chair down near Jesus, but a long way from all those horrible dirty poor people who had come to hear him. They were dreadful. There were even some children in amongst them! Ugh! 

I tried to keep well away from all those nasty poor people. I didn't want to get my beautiful clothes dirty. Mind you, I do like looking at people who are miserable! They remind me how happy I am, with my comfortable home and my bags of gold and my nice clothes.

And I saw Jesus looking at me, so I waved my hand to let him know he could start. He seemed to laugh, and he looked at the other people, the scabby smelly poor unimportant people. And to my surprise, he talked to them instead of to me! What a cheek! 
He started off well. He said ‘If you know you've got big spiritual needs...’ And I thought yes! These miserable people have got great spiritual needs! They don’t know God as well as I do!
But then Jesus went on. ‘If you know you've got big spiritual needs, you’re happy! Because the kingdom of heaven belongs to you!’

What? The kingdom of heaven belongs to important rich good people like me! Not to them! I could see some of those miserable poor people brightening up and listening to Jesus more carefully. 
He went on: ‘If you’re sad now…’And I thought, he’s going to say, ‘If you’re sad now, you’re a miserable sinner and you've done terrible things wrong and you deserve to be sad!’ But Jesus said, ‘If you’re sad now, you’ll be happy! Because God himself will comfort you!’ What? This is mad! God only speaks to important religious people like me! Not them! 

But Jesus went on.  ‘If you’re not important…’‘Aha! This time he was going to tell them they weren't important because God only makes good people important – like me! Jesus said, ‘If you’re not important, you’re happy because the earth will belong to you.’ I thought, No! The earth belongs to me! I own lots of farmland and a big house! The earth belongs to me! 

Jesus said, ‘If you want to do right more than anything else, you’re happy, because God will satisfy you. If you show mercy, you’re happy because God will show you mercy. If your thoughts are pure, you’re happy because you’ll be with God.’ Happy? He’s saying that all these scabby horrible unimportant poor people can be as happy as me? That’s not fair!

He went on: ‘If you work to bring peace, you’re happy because God calls you his children. If you’re treated badly for doing good, you’re happy, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to you.’ And I stood up. I left my chair on that hill and I went home, really really cross. How dare this Jesus say that those poor lower class stupid rude people can be happy? How dare he say that God is more interested in them than in me? Happiness belongs to people who are rich and successful. People like me. Not them. And I've got happiness already. I don’t need Jesus’ happiness. I have no use for it at all. 

4 Perhaps that man had so much in his jar already that he couldn't find room for Jesus' sort of happiness.

5 Let’s hold out our hands as if we’re expecting a present. And let’s pray together.
Lord God, thank you that you care about people who are going through a rough time. And thank you that you come very close to sad people and that you love to make them happy again. Please help us to know your happiness, whether we’re going through happy times or sad times.

If you enjoyed this, please check out the Barnabas in schools website, they have so much more to offer!  Most of the assemblies I do at the moment come from their site.

You can check out the sites I link up to over in my sidebar. Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.

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It's Her!

If you've been around my blog for a while you will know that one of my passions is storytelling and that  one of the ways I get to do that is by doing assemblies in local primary schools.  One of the extra perks of the job is that occasionally when I am out and about one of the children will recognise me.  And I will hear a young voice shouting my name from across a supermarket, or even a long way from home at a motorway services on one occasion.  This embarrasses my grown children no end and I love it!

At the moment there are 4 different schools that I am in on at least a monthly basis.  Two weeks into the new school year I have now seen all of the new children in each of the schools.  So it was no surprise that when out shopping with my 18 year old son the other day I heard a very little voice shouting at the top of his lungs "It's her!"  I turned in the direction of the voice to see this little boy who honestly didn't look old enough to be at school yet pointing right at me with his bemused mother looking on.  I waved and said hello and he yelled at his mom "She's a teacher!"
"Not quite" I replied and smiled as she, rather embarrassed, pulled him away to continue with the shopping and try and make some sense out of who I was.

I never know whether to stop and explain to parents or whether to let their child explain, but on this occasion it seemed to be OK to let them figure it out together.

I was thinking about it this morning as I walked up to one of the schools to do another assembly.  I was thinking about his obvious delight at recognising someone he knew from in school in an outside of school environment.  I was thinking about that huge grin on his face and the loud exclamation and then I was thinking about God and how His word says that there is rejoicing in heaven whenever someone who doesn't know God turns to Him and makes Him their Lord.

Luke 15:7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Imagine that.  Imagine the excitement of that little boy on seeing me, multiplied many times over as on that day of your return God yells at all the angels.  "It's her!" (or him for any guys reading). "It's her, I know it is.  I recognise her, I know her, yes it's her!"

And with salvation being an ongoing process, by which we have been saved we are saved and we are being saved, that same sense of delight at your return on any occasion on which you repent and turn back . . . .
"It's HER!  She's here.  See, I told you she'd come back.  It really is her, oh how happy I am to see her!"
I know life can sometimes get us down and we can feel as if no-one cares, sometimes even as if no-one would ever be delighted to see us.  We can know without a doubt that there is always ONE, who is always delighted when we turn to him.

You can check out the sites I link up to over in my sidebar. Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.

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Visual Bible Notes Journal

So I had been looking on Pinterest and thinking about Visual Bible notes.  I have only recently discovered that I can in fact draw much better than I thought I could, but the drawings in this journal are not that stuff.  The drawings in here are stick figures, meant for just a very quick representation of part of a story.

If you want some more ideas on visual bible notes, check out my Crafty Faith board on Pinterest.

I made the journal on my bind it all machine.  I used watercolour paper for the pages and the board from the back of watercolour pads for the covers.  The paper for the covers came from the QVC outlet store.

I made a bookmark by cutting a shipping tag on the bind it all and then cutting from the edge to the centre of each hole that made with a pair of scissors.

I made the covers wider than the pages so that I could fit in an elastic loop to keep a pen or pencil attached.  Or, if you use a narrow pen you can just about get both in.



You can check out some of the drawings I have done so far in the video above.  The reading plan I am using is on YouVersion.  You read 5 days out of every week with two days for catch up or contemplation and in a year you will cover main key chapters, reading just one chapter each day.  It's called Bible Survey and comes in 4 sections, I am on Bible Survey: Part One.

Obviously you skip a lot doing only key chapters and some of those in between stories are visually interesting so I will give myself leeway to delve into them a bit more than the skipping over them would suggest.

If you are interested in other faith based crafts you could check out the following craft, OR you could look at the links at the bottom of this post.

You can check out the sites I link up to over in my sidebar. Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.

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Messy Sunday Craft - Opening Door, Message Centre

Coming up this summer we are holding a summer holiday club (or VBS) for local children at our church.  On the Sunday after the club we will be holding Messy Church and inviting all the families whose children came to the club.

I said I would come up with a craft.  My initial plan was to search through all my usual crafty websites and find something along the right lines for the theme of the morning.  I tried that but I could not find something suitable anywhere. So I came up with something myself.

The story for that Sunday is the story of Rhoda answering the door to peter but being so excited it was hi that she forgot to open the door.  We will be linking that to Revelation 3 and "Behold I stand at the door and knock."  So we wanted a craft with a door theme.  It needed to be reasonably easy but not be done in just 5 minutes either.  This is what I came up with.

You will need
sheets of printable card,
1 roll of chalkboard sticky back poster paper,

glue,
a craft knife and ruler

and pens or other means of decorating the front.
Also a piece of chalk.

I went onto an image search and found the doors I wanted to use.  I printed out the door onto the right hand side of a Landscape format piece of printable card.

Fold that in half to make a card with the door on the front.

Cut around the top, right hand side and bottom of the section you want to open.  We will probably complete the doors to this point before Messy Church so that we don't need to have craft knives hanging around.

Mark the right hand side of the door with the tip of a bone folder or similar to score and then fold the door back along the line.

Cut a piece of chalkboard paper that is bigger than the opening door but smaller than half the sheet of card, as below.

Peel the backing of the chalkboard paper and apply it inside the card.

The next step needs to be done carefully so that you don't get any glue on the back of the section of card you want to open.
Lay the card out with the chalkboard side up and glue around the opening in the are marked below . . .

Carefully fold the front over and press down all over to glue the two sides together.  If you have accidentally got any glue on the back of the door area, quickly but carefully open up just the door and use your finger to rub the glue until it just rubs away.

Decorate the front as you see fit.  I decided the panels were glass and drew in a curtain behind the door.

Next you need to condition the chalkboard paper just like any other chalkboard surface.  Take a piece of chalk and using the side rub it all over the exposed chalkboard surface.

Then take a piece of kitchen roll or other soft material and wipe away the excess chalk.

Then write your message inside, any time you like.

I want to get some stick on picture hangers like these to pop on the back of each one so that there is an easy way of hanging them.

And there you have it, an opening door message centre.  I did think about putting a paper fastener through the door where the door knob should be but figured the prongs on the back of the fastener would damage the chalkboard surface underneath whenever it was closed.


You can check out the sites I link up to over in my sidebar. Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.

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Audio of Yesterday's Story

Whether you read the piece of writing I shared yesterday or not, you should check out this audio of it.  Click on the link below the photo to listen.
The backing music is not mine, that came from a cd by Nancy Goudie.  But all the spoken word is me and written by me.

Those Feet - A Prodigal Returns

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Open the Book Video

This is my day seventeen post for the "31 days of blogging in October" challenge.  I am blogging 31 days of Children's Ministry.  To find links to all the other days (as they get posted) go to DAY 1.

Normally I would not even dream of videoing an Open the Book session for use on the internet because of us using children from the school to play roles and all the stuff about permissions etc.  But in this case the children's backs are towards us and the only children involved in the action are sat down to shake some cloth, so I think we are safe.  I thought this would help those of you who are interested to get a look at an Open the book story.  I was at the back of the hall so the sound is a bit on the quiet side, and you might want to turn your volume up a bit.

I didn't video the introduction and conclusion, because I was doing those this week and therefore couldn't video them.  But they are important parts of the assembly.

You can check out the sites I link up to over in my sidebar. Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.

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Tattercoats

This is my day sixteen post for the "31 days of blogging in October" challenge.  I am blogging 31 days of Children's Ministry.  To find links to all the other days (as they get posted) go to DAY 1.

I don't have too much time to write today, so I have another story for you.  This story doesn't work well with younger children because it's so long, at around half an hour.  But it works well with older children and adults.  I haven't told it in a while, so I would probably have to re learn it if I needed to tell it again.  It's basically the cinderella story but from before it got tweeked to the modern fairy tales happy endings.  There is a version of tattercoats out there, published on the web but I think that was published AFTER the workshop at which I learnt this story.  It was presented to us as a very bare story and we discussed how to flesh it out and develop it.  I'm pretty sure that whoever did publish it did so after that workshop.  So, my version is slightly different than the one you will find out there on the web, which appears to cut off certain parts of the story as I know it.

Tattercoats

How would I use this in children's ministry?  There's an element that this story has a purpose of pure entertainment, but I also find it makes people think deeply, it moves people, and can spark all sorts of discussions about why the people in the story behaved the way they did, and how they could have behaved differently, or we discuss how a godly response would be different than the ones in the story.


You can check out the sites I link up to over in my sidebar. Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.

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Story Telling - Learning the Bare Bones

This is my day eight post (there was no day 7 post) for the "31 days of blogging in October" challenge.  I am blogging 31 days of Children's Ministry.  To find links to all the other days (as they get posted) go to DAY 1.  Today I am just going to share links to some bible props and costumes that I have shared in the past.

On Saturday I promised you a post about learning a story by the bare bones method.

I shared with you a recording of me telling the story of Big Bad Brian the Lion.  Here is the text of that story as it originally appeared in the book:


Once upon a time, there was a lion. He was called Brian. He was very big and very strong and ... and he was a bully! He thought he was bigger and better than any of the other animals in the jungle. 

Everywhere he went, he boasted about how clever and how strong he was. 'I'm big bad Brian the Lion!' he would snarl at anyone he met. 'RRROOOAAARRR!!!' And he showed all his huge teeth and his huge claws and his huge orange lion's mane. 
The other animals were scared of him. I don't blame them, do you? 
For instance, one day, Mr Giraffe was quietly minding his own business, chomping away at the sweetest, tenderest leaves on the topmost branches of the trees. Big bad Brian the lion crept up behind him so softly, so quietly, and then ... 
'I'm big bad Brian the Lion!  RRROOOAAARRR!!! ' 
Poor Mr Giraffe! He was scared out of his skin and ran off into the jungle. Brian just laughed. 

For instance, one day, Mrs Elephant was quietly minding her own business, having a nice cool mud bath at the edge of the river. Big bad Brian the lion crept up behind her so softly, so quietly, and then ... 
'I'm big bad Brian the Lion!  RRROOOAAARRR!!! ' 
Poor Mrs Elephant! She was scared out of her skin and ran off into the jungle. Brian just laughed. 

For instance, one day, Mr Monkey was quietly minding his own business, chomping away at a banana, peeling down the firm yellow skin to enjoy the soft white middle. Big bad Brian the lion crept up behind him so softly, so quietly and then ... 
'I'm big bad Brian the Lion!  RRROOOAAARRR!!! ' 
Poor Mr Monkey! He was scared out of his skin and ran off into the jungle. Brian just laughed. 

What a rotten bully! 

Now, one day, Brian was swaggering through the jungle, thinking how big and strong and clever he was, when suddenly..... a huge net dropped out of the trees right on top of him, and several fierce-looking men with spears jumped out from behind the bushes. 
Brian snarled and roared and struggled and rolled, but he couldn't get free. The fierce men bundled Brian into a large bamboo cage on wheels and pushed him down the jungle trail. Before long, they came to a wide road that led them to a huge walled city, and Brian's cage was wheeled through the open gates. 

People on each side jeered at Brian and threw stones and rotten fruit at him, He growled and snarled and scratched but he couldn't reach any of them. In the middle of the city, the cage was pushed up to the edge of a great hole in the ground and Brian was suddenly tipped in!

It was dark and dusty at the bottom of the hole, and there were several other lions down there, but Brian was bigger and fiercer than any of them and they soon backed off. When his eyes grew used to the gloom, Brian saw a man sitting in a far corner of the hole, He had his back to Brian and his hands clasped together. He seemed to be muttering something under his breath. Here was Brian's chance to really frighten someone! Big bad Brian the lion crept up behind the man so softly, so quietly and then. . . 
'I'm big bad Brian the Lion  
RRROOOAAARRR!!!' 

The man didn't move! He didn't seem to notice Brian at all and just kept on muttering, his head on his chest. Brian was puzzled, This had never happened before. He took a deep breath and growled even louder, 
'I'm big bad Brian the Lion! 
RRROOOAAA.RRR!!! ' 

The man still didn't move!! He just kept talking quietly under his breath, his head bowed and his hands clasped tightly together Brian took a huge deep breath. His eyes bulged! His great fangs stretched wide!!  His huge black lion's mane stuck straight out from his head, making him look twice as big!!!
'I'm big bad Brian the Lion! 
RRROOOAAARRR!!! ' 

The man still didn't move!!! Suddenly, something tapped Brian on the shoulder.  He turned round and found himself facing a gigantic figure over ten feet tall, all dressed in shining white with massive golden wings. 
'MY NAME’S GABRIEL AND I'M AN ANGEL!!!' 

Poor Brian! He was scared out of his skin and ran whimpering into the corner like  a frightened little kitten, 
And do you know what? I think it served him right! 

When I learnt the bare bones method I was told you only ever use 5 bones.  I'll be honest and say I often shift that to 6.

Basically, the method involves breaking any story down into 5 or 6 main points or sections and summarising those points in 1 or 2 sentences. Each of those points is a bone and it is the bones that you learn, the bones that you memorise.  Then, having read the story through a few times and with your story telling skills at the ready, you TELL the story, from those bones, embellishing as you go.  As I said on Saturday, it is not about reciting, it is about TELLING.  You don't need to learn the whole story by heart, you just need to learn those bones and although the details of the story may come out slightly differently each time you tell it, the STORY itself will be the same, you will have communicated what you intended.

Let's face it, if you have ever told a traditional fairy tale or folk tale to your children, from memory you have probably already done this without realising it.

This method can be used for stories from quite short right up to huge long stories.  There is one story that I tell that takes over 30 minutes to tell, and I learnt that in exactly the same way, through the bare bones method.


So, for Big Bad Brian the Lion, my bones might be:

1. Brian is a lion and a big nasty bully
2. He scared the giraffe.  And the elephant. And the monkey.
3. He was captured my some men and taken to the city, where he was tipped into a hole with other lions.
4. There was a man in the pit who wasn't afraid of Brian.
5. Behind Brian, the angel appears in ALL his glory.
6. Who's afraid now?

So you see, if you've read the story a few times, or listened to it, so you kind of know the way it goes and learn those bones, your telling of Big Bad Brian the Lion might come out differently than mine, and mine will come out differently the next time I tell it, but we will still be telling the same story.


Go split your favourite story into bones and come back and tell me how you got on.



You can check out the sites I link up to over in my sidebar. Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, where you will find various props for bible story telling.  I am sure you will find something there to interest you.

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Story Telling

This is my day six post for the "31 days of blogging in October" challenge.  I am blogging 31 days of Children's Ministry.  To find links to all the other days (as they get posted) go to DAY 1.  Today I am just going to share links to some bible props and costumes that I have shared in the past.

One of the things I love to do is storytelling.  Here is just a sample

Big Bad Brian the Lion

Heeheee.  What a title.

This is the recording of me telling the story of big Bad Brian the Lion..

Big Bad Brian the Lion

I have used it in schools to talk about bullying, and in church to tell a bible story from a different angle.  Tomorrow I will tell you my technique for learning stories like this.  YES, I learn them.  I don't read them from a book, I learn them.  But the learning technique is not to learn them by heart (except for one or two stories where it depends on the exact wording to make sense) but to use a technique called "learning the bones".  I will explain that technique, using this story as an example, tomorrow.

You can check out the sites I link up to over in my sidebar. Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.

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Bible Story Props and Costume Tutorials

This is my day five post for the "31 days of blogging in October" challenge.  I am blogging 31 days of Children's Ministry.  To find links to all the other days (as they get posted) go to DAY 1.  Today I am just going to share links to some bible props and costumes that I have shared in the past.

Those are just the step by step tutorials that I have shared.  I will be sharing a very simple but new one later in the month when I can get the photo of it in action, a set of prison bars for the story of the Christians praying for Paul when he was in prison.

You can check out the sites I link up to over in my sidebar. Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or all my craft projects indexed on one page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.

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Open the Book

This is my day two post for the "31 days of blogging in October" challenge.  I am blogging 31 days of Children's Ministry.  To find links to all the other days (as they get posted) go to DAY 1.

Open the Book is one of the projects I am involved in in local schools.  OPEN THE BOOK offers a programme of themed and dramatised Bible stories at no charge to schools. Each session is around 10 minutes long and fits comfortably into assembly times with a 3 year rolling programme.
Teams of volunteer storytellers usually from a church local to the school use drama, mime, props, costume - even the children and staff themselves - to present Bible stories in ways that are lively, engaging, informative ... and great fun for everyone involved!

It might seem simple but it has a profound effect on pupils, staff and teams.  Most teams are made up of members of Church of England congregations but there are plenty of groups from other denominations, such as our group.

Between us we make or put together all the costumes, and I will say it has helped to have two moms of young people who have been involved in music and drama for years, their costume making skills and ideas have been invaluable!

I'll share more on the costumes and props later in the month.  But here's a little taster:

I first got involved in this when the headteacher of one of the schools I was already involved with approached me and asked me to put a team together.  That was about two years ago.  We began just over a year ago and are now in our second year, having added a second school at the start of this school year.  I lead our team of 4 people, doing the planning and organising but we all take turns in the presenting role, narrating as well as taking turns at playing major or minor characters in the story.

Most weeks involve us also using children and staff from the schools to play minor roles and these are often the most fun, such as the teaching assistant who played Eli in the story of Samuel hearing God in the night, snoring loudly and tossing and turning in his bed, with suitably grumpy behaviour when he was woken.  He had us laughing as well as the children.
Sometimes the children are not even aware that the person at the front is one of their teachers until we thank them at the end.

The most moving story for us last year was the crucifixion of Jesus.  We were all nervous, wondering how the children would take it as Open the book is often noisy and funny and involves them being loud and actively involved.  This time, they got it straight away.  They understood the seriousness of the story, were quiet and contemplative and very relieved the following week when we portrayed the resurrection.
Most of the children in these schools have no church background, and this is our opportunity to present the bible to them in an active, engaging way that fulfils the school's requirement for statutory worship.


You can check out the sites I link up to over in my sidebar. Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.

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