I haven't updated on our church kids ministry's VBS crafts ever since the first week, mainly because each subsequent week flew by, while I couldn't keep up with documenting either the process or the products. (Our VBS took place over the course of 5 consecutive Sundays of the summer). As is the case with any arts and crafts for a large group, preparation was the most challenging. But this year, we held a couple "Crafts Prep Parties" where summer teachers got together to prepare for 100 sets of crafts materials for each Sunday, and while doing so, got to know one another better as well through great conversations.
God is good, because on a personal level, He taught me once again the beauty of more people coming together, delegating, cooperating, sharing, teaching one another and encouraging. Such things are not possible alone. It's clearly understood in the head that it's never one person's ministry work, but it's easy for it to become so with any ministry work I think. But with Jesus as the head and in the lead, when more hands and feet come together as a community to do any one thing, the blessings multiply tangibly and visibly, and we get to do life together even in that seemingly little type of experience. So I praise God for teaching and showing that He reveals Himself (yes through the individuals, but yes also) through togetherness and community of any type, even at a crafts prep party. I also praise God because He is the God who provides for our needs. He leads the hearts, brings together humble hands and feet that seek to serve God's children, and in doing so serve Jesus, and it all can start with cutting out 160 figures or 200 felt strips. And those "simple" cutting, glue-gunning, and folding, all work together toward message-driven crafts that sow God's truths into the hearts of these children.
Our kids ministry followed the program of Standard Publishing's 2012 VBS, "Adventures on Promise Island- where kids discover God's lifesaving love!"
Each week, we learned of a promise from God:
1. "I am with you"
2. "I care about you"
3. "I give you what you need"
4. "I will save you"
5. "I will answer you"
These promises that kids were learning actually spoke volumes to me and reminded me of His truths in times of doubts throughout this summer. For kids and adults alike, for new-believers and old believers alike, these promises of God are the enduring truths that we can renew our minds with, and replace the lies that plague our hearts with. Thanks to God, for His promises.
I have to say that the Standard Publishing's Crafts Guide was fantastic. There were many options to choose from for each week, and each one a thoughtfully-designed craft for kids. Most important aspect was that they were message-inspired and message-driven, not merely nice activities for the hands to produce things take-home worthy. They actually helped learning of the Biblical lessons in the making process, and the final products became reminders for them to remember the promises of God. I loved how each week, a handful options were service-driven, where kids made practical-use crafts as donations for those around them with certain needs, or as encouragement gifts. In the Guide, I followed some crafts line by line, and others I altered or spun off from, as seemed fit for our groups. All the inspirations and Biblical connections in these crafts came from the Standard Publishing's Guide. : ]
I don't have photos of all the crafts yet, but here's the first round to get the update post started. : ]
Please let me know if you might come across these and have any questions as you plan to do them with your kids!
The Gospel message came from John 19~20, and I loved the inspiration from the Guide that Jesus is our "Life Saver," and loved seeing lifesaver shapes and even Lifesaver candies being incorporated. So cute!
This one was made with the younger groups (pre-k~1st grade). We pre-cut out a blank person figure for each child. We also prepared O-shaped templates for the lifesavers from manila folders, so that kids can trace them on their choice of decorative paper and cut out to be their "Jesus Lifesaver." To make the process more dramatic, we had previously scattered the blank person figures on the floor on a sheet of table cloth as though these figures were "drowning," and after explaining the Gospel story, asked kids to come up and each pick up a figure, which they would decorate to represent themselves, and to place them on their lifesavers. In this way, we demonstrated that Jesus saves them. The background lifesaver with red marks, is the back of a paper plate, and kids wrote the message around the rim: "Jesus is my Life Saver - John 3:16."
God is good, because on a personal level, He taught me once again the beauty of more people coming together, delegating, cooperating, sharing, teaching one another and encouraging. Such things are not possible alone. It's clearly understood in the head that it's never one person's ministry work, but it's easy for it to become so with any ministry work I think. But with Jesus as the head and in the lead, when more hands and feet come together as a community to do any one thing, the blessings multiply tangibly and visibly, and we get to do life together even in that seemingly little type of experience. So I praise God for teaching and showing that He reveals Himself (yes through the individuals, but yes also) through togetherness and community of any type, even at a crafts prep party. I also praise God because He is the God who provides for our needs. He leads the hearts, brings together humble hands and feet that seek to serve God's children, and in doing so serve Jesus, and it all can start with cutting out 160 figures or 200 felt strips. And those "simple" cutting, glue-gunning, and folding, all work together toward message-driven crafts that sow God's truths into the hearts of these children.
Our kids ministry followed the program of Standard Publishing's 2012 VBS, "Adventures on Promise Island- where kids discover God's lifesaving love!"
Each week, we learned of a promise from God:
2. "I care about you"
3. "I give you what you need"
4. "I will save you"
5. "I will answer you"
These promises that kids were learning actually spoke volumes to me and reminded me of His truths in times of doubts throughout this summer. For kids and adults alike, for new-believers and old believers alike, these promises of God are the enduring truths that we can renew our minds with, and replace the lies that plague our hearts with. Thanks to God, for His promises.
I have to say that the Standard Publishing's Crafts Guide was fantastic. There were many options to choose from for each week, and each one a thoughtfully-designed craft for kids. Most important aspect was that they were message-inspired and message-driven, not merely nice activities for the hands to produce things take-home worthy. They actually helped learning of the Biblical lessons in the making process, and the final products became reminders for them to remember the promises of God. I loved how each week, a handful options were service-driven, where kids made practical-use crafts as donations for those around them with certain needs, or as encouragement gifts. In the Guide, I followed some crafts line by line, and others I altered or spun off from, as seemed fit for our groups. All the inspirations and Biblical connections in these crafts came from the Standard Publishing's Guide. : ]
I don't have photos of all the crafts yet, but here's the first round to get the update post started. : ]
Please let me know if you might come across these and have any questions as you plan to do them with your kids!
God's Promise: I care about you
"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." - 1 Peter 5:7
The Bible story was from John 11:1-3, 17-44, in which Jesus cares about his friends Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Even though he had the authority and the power to raise Lazarus from death right then and there (which he eventually does, and the delay was so that God's glory would be revealed in this way), Jesus was aware that it wasn't the time yet, and overcome with sadness at Lazarus' death as well as how much pain his sisters and other friends were in mourning, Jesus also wept. This is tremendous, I think, to know that God deeply cares about us and connects with us. And then, the sadness was not the end; there's God's glory being revealed when Lazarus is raised from dead.
Based on this lesson, our oldest age group (2nd-4th grades), made the above vases. The left one is what we made; the right one is just a spin-off. Like the way Lazarus' dead body was wrapped in linen inside the tomb, we wrapped empty Gatorade bottles with masking tapes. Using markers and paper flowers, we decorated them, put a tag with God's promise, "I care about you" on one side, and the corresponding Bible verse (1 Peter 5:7) on the other side. To remember that the sadness and death was not the end, and that the glory of God and restoration followed, we made tissue paper flowers to put in the vases. The Guide had an amazing pointer- what living thing can we put inside the vase? The vase itself reminds us of Lazarus story, and the flowers coming out of the vase reminds us of its significance-- the glory of God, and how His cares for all of us, and how we can hope and trust in Him because of that through any troubling times.
We made this particular week's crafts service-oriented, extending the message of God's care for us towards those around us as well. So for every group, each kid made two sets: one to keep, one to give. The oldest group made the above vases; the middle group (K-1st Grade) made "healing balms" with petroleum jelly scented with flavorings and then cased in heart-shape tin cans; the youngest group (pre-k 3-4 year olds) decorated "caring tissue boxes." In all the crafts, we focused on God's care for us through happy times and sad times, and on how He heals and restores us.
God's Promise: I give you what you need
"And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus." - Philippians 4:19
This "beach mat"was made with our youngest group (Pre-k 3-4 year olds), based on the Bible story from Mark 2:1-21, in which Jesus heals a paralytic man brought by his four friends. God as our Father and Provider, gives us what we need. For this paralytic man, his need was the ability to walk, and this need could be met because of God's provision of four great friends in the man's life as well. We talked about how the man would've left his first-ever, or first-in-a-LONG-time foot prints when Jesus healed him and he was finally able to get up, take up his mat and walk.
Preparation included cutting out the rectangle mats from cardboard boxes (grocery store egg boxes to the rescue! ; ] ), making fringes on the sides, glueing on print-outs of Biblical "friend" figures (we got ours from the amazing kids ministry resource, www.daniellesplace.com), cutting out the footprints (we used smiley stickers for toes), and writing the message "Jesus gives (you) what you need. Phil 4:19" across the bottom.
During the actual craft time, kids reviewed the story, colored the friends, put up the footprints, and decorated the fringes.
For the same promise of that week, the older groups (kindergarten~4th grade) made pencil roll mats, reminding us of how Jesus healed the paralytic man, and he was able to roll up his mat and go. We made incisions in advance on 9"x12" felt sheets as instructed in the Guide, and kids weaved in 1"x12" cut-out felt strips to complete pencil roll mats. The ends of strips were secured with glue guns. Kids wrote the message on the bottom with Sharpies, and were each given 4~6 new color pencils to place in their mats and put to use in their upcoming school year. The roll mats were tightly tied with fun ribbons so that nothing falls out. (The extra grey strips on top and bottom came as an after-thought; I found that placing these helped fill in the space at the ends when the mat is rolled up with pencils inside, and help further prevent the contents from falling out. And the light shade strips, when using a darker shade background sheet, would help make the message more legible.)
God's Promise: I will save you
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16
The Gospel message came from John 19~20, and I loved the inspiration from the Guide that Jesus is our "Life Saver," and loved seeing lifesaver shapes and even Lifesaver candies being incorporated. So cute!
This one was made with the younger groups (pre-k~1st grade). We pre-cut out a blank person figure for each child. We also prepared O-shaped templates for the lifesavers from manila folders, so that kids can trace them on their choice of decorative paper and cut out to be their "Jesus Lifesaver." To make the process more dramatic, we had previously scattered the blank person figures on the floor on a sheet of table cloth as though these figures were "drowning," and after explaining the Gospel story, asked kids to come up and each pick up a figure, which they would decorate to represent themselves, and to place them on their lifesavers. In this way, we demonstrated that Jesus saves them. The background lifesaver with red marks, is the back of a paper plate, and kids wrote the message around the rim: "Jesus is my Life Saver - John 3:16."
The oldest group made "Believe" signs to hang on the wall. On rectangle cork boards, they sketched the word "Believe," and pinned golden thumbtacks to spell out the word. The pinning act connected them to Jesus being nailed on the cross, and also to the doubting Thomas who said he cannot believe in the resurrected Jesus unless he sees where the nails pieced him and the spear wounded his side. How the golden thumbtacks subtly glistened against the tan cork board, spelling out the words "Believe," seemed beautiful. We also touched on Jesus' message following Thomas' belief in the risen Jesus only after seeing with his own eyes, that even more blessed are those who don't see and yet believe.
God's Promise: I will answer you
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything in accordance to his will, he hears us." - 1 John 5:14
For this final week's promise, we made a lei with all five promises on it, like a souvenir from the "Promise Island" to take home and remind them of God's character as reflected in His promises, so that they would always remember whom they are praying to when they pray. The Bible story came from Acts 16, where Paul and Silas were in prison, but God hears their prayer and praises to Him, and answers them reveals His glory.
