Did you know that 13th November is World Kindness Day?

Every day should be a day to share a little kindness…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Kindness_Day – for more details

Submitted by: Rev Sally Fulton

Equipment Required: None

Keywords: Team, Baptism, belonging

Bible Links: I Cor 12, Luke 3

We’re going to play a game. Everyone whose name begins with the letter “A” – stand up. Everyone who is wearing black shoes – stand up everyone who likes Scary Spice (!) – Stand Up… and so on until everyone is standing… then Everyone born in July sit down… everyone who likes Pizza – sit down… until everyone is sitting again. Who won the game? No-one just because we are different, like different things and do different things doesn’t make us any better than anyone else… we are all different individuals loved by God

Advertisement

Works well near Valentine’s Day…

submitted by: Ken Forbes

This is my all-time favourite children’s address. Start (before showing the paper) with a little mental arithmetic. Ask a few questions like: ‘If I have five Smarties and I give two to you and one to you, how many do I have left?’ (I found our kids to be a lot better at this that I’d thought they’d be, and ended up giving them some quite complicated sums. There’s hope for our education system yet!)
Then show the paper with GOD’S LOVE on it.
“Here’s something we’ve ALL got to give away – God’s love. And you can see that God’s Love has four corners – doesn’t it. Well now, here’s a strange thing. Suppose I give you one of my corners of God’s Love. (Take a pair of scissors from your pocket, cut of one of the corners, and give it to a child.) How many corners do I have left – Three? Are you SURE? Let’s count them. One, two, three, four, FIVE! How about that! I started with four corners of God’s Love, I gave one away, and now I’ve got FIVE! Let’s see what happens if I give away another one. (Cut and give) NOW how many have I got? One, two, three, four, five, six. It seems as if I end up with MORE corners of God’s Love every time I give one away. I started with FOUR, and I gave one to you… I did give you ONE, didn’t I? Are you sure? Just hold up the corner of God’s Love that I gave you and let’s have a look at it. (Child holds up her triangle.) LOOK! Count the corners. One, two, THREE. And have YOU got three as well? Yes! We started off with FOUR corners of God’s Love, and now we’ve got… how many? TWELVE! How did that happen? It must be that the more of God’s Love you give away, the bigger it gets…”

PS: – keep on going and you get a circle – God’s love encircling us!

http://www.spiritual-short-stories.com/spiritual-short-story-602-Chicken+and+the+Eagles.html

The eagle mentioned in the Isaiah 40 reading reminded me of this story…

Searching on the web for “Chicken Eagle Story” will yield several versions… of the story of the eagle raised as a chicken…

Donald McCorkindale: Here’s what I did with it on Sunday 5th Feb, at Kiel Church, Lochaline, Scotland
Other than my own pre-school kids, there were no children present…  so it was more of a light introduction to the theme for the adults…
Click on the play icon to listen… 

Call of the Disciples John 1

What do we call Jesus’ friends… Disciples
and how many where there?… 12
What were they called… – as the names are called out… also write up the wrong one’s on a white/ black board…
Go over the right one’s… and have the young folk remember them. I always write them up in this order:
James James Judas John,
Simon, Simon (Peter), Thaddeus & Tom
Bartholomew, Matthew, Andrew and Philip
(This order has nothing to do with the Scriptural order – but is easily remembered – 4 J’s, 2 S’s & 2 T’s and a BMAP!)
Having remembered all the right one’s – return to the wrong one’s – Mark and Luke will probably appear – and maybe Paul – you can explain that they were not among the 12 – but they were in a sense disciples… the other “wrong” answers are of course also right… and will include some of the young people’s own  names… we can all be disciples of Jesus if we try to follow him.

http://spillbeans.org.uk – new resource produced by a wonderful bunch of Church of Scotland ministers and members…

submitted by Douglas Murray.

Object: One of the fashion "tattoos" little girls are wearing
round their necks at the moment.

Show the children that you have one on – e.g. round your wrist.   Ask the girls if they have one – some may be wearing one – others may have one at home.
Point out that the advantage of this kind of tattoo is that when you are tired of it you can take it off – you can’t do that with a real tattoo, it is there for ever. Did you know that God has a tattoo? – read Isaiah ch. 49.16.
God has engraved our names on the palm of his hand – not just written them, the way we might write a phone number on our hand and then wash it off later – but engraved them – i.e. he has tattooed our names on his hand. They are going to be there forever. Why?   Because he loves us so much that he is never going to forget us.

submitted: Laura Ewers

required: Jar of Slime! coins.

suitable at Christmas time.

Preparation:  Fill a clear large sweet jar with a mixture of washing up
liquid, water, cooked spaghetti, baked beans, food colouring, tin of
lychees and anything else that will look and feel nasty (water retaining
crystals used in hanging baskets are great).  Drop a £1 coin into the
mixture and hide the jar from the congregation. Put a 20p and 50p in
your pocket.

Ask the congregation if they’d like 20p.  The first person to respond,
throw them a 20p.  Take out a 50p and offer it in the same way.  Finally
ask who’d like £1.  This time ask the person to come forward and then
produce the jar of slime (for more impact we wrapped the jar in wrapping
paper and then watched as the child’s face turn from pleasure to horror
as they unwrapped their ‘present’!).  Explain that the pound is in the
jar and all they have to do is reach into the slime and pull it out.  As
they place their hand in ask questions like ‘can you feel the veins?’,
‘are there any eyeballs in there?’, ‘did you know there was frogspawn
this time of year?’ etc… 

Once the money is retrieved explain that, …… thought the coin was
valuable enough to go through the slime to reach, and that God thinks
the same of us.  The slime is representative of sin – dirty, smelly etc
– but he saw the value in us and reached down to save us.

submitted: Roddy Hamilton

Ask everyone (including adults)  I suggest you do it now as you read this to prove me right.
Think of a number between 1 and 9
Multiply that number by 9
You should have a number with two digits.  All them together ie 18 means add
the 1 and the 8
Subtract 5
You are left with a number
If 1 is A, 2 is B, 3 is C, 4 is D etc think of a country beginning with the
letter that corresponds to the number
Think of an animal that begins with the second letter of that country’s name
Think of the colour of the animal

Hands up everyone who is thinking of a grey elephant from Denmark?
I bet most of you are and so will most of your congregation

The point:  We all think we’re so different (churches, ideas, morals) but to
God we’re really all very alike so why do we go on exaggerating the
differences.

How it works.  When you multiply a number by nine, and you add the two
digits together, you’ll always get 9.  So you’ll always be left with 4 when
you subtract 5.  Most people can only think of one country beginning with D
ie Denmark (unless the US know more about the Dominican Republic) and most
people think of Elephants that are grey.
Everyone is amazed by it and they certainly won’t remember the sermon.

submitted: Donald McCorkindale

required: four bits of card hinged together with paper fasteners – see pdf file for details.

The story of the paralysed man Mark 2; Matthew 9; and Luke 5 – can be well illustrated using simple shapes created with four bits of card hinged together with paper fasteners – see the pdf file for outlines…

Four Friends PDF file [download pdf]