Getting Back in the Tube

I have had my share of flops in the ministry. Generally I find that if you plan well, pray, and work hard, things go alright. But there are times when things do not go well. There are times when I have tried new ideas only to ruin all my visuals. I’ve bombed

Christmas Gifts for Kidmin Children

Do you buy gifts for the children in your children’s ministry? I stumbled across a great gift for younger children this year. Avon has cool Bath Time Body Paints that go along with Uncle Charlie’s “Fruit of the Spirit” song.  

It is just like Avon created these for the song. They carry 5 out of the 6 fruits Uncle Charlie uses. There is banana, coconut, grape, watermelon and cherry. Someone needs to tell Avon to make lemon too! 

These paints are actually soap, but it rolls on in color. Apparently even some adults like using it

Writing on the Wall Magic Window

Here is a cool craft we made for the story of the writing on the wall in Daniel. The drawing of King Belshazzar is by Jesus Rolon from his site, Crafting the Word of God. I revised his drawing in order to make it into a magic window craft. You can find the original picture here.

Magic window crafts have been around for a long time. They are a great way to illustrate any story with change in it. I first saw them used years ago as a VBS craft to illustrate regeneration through faith in Jesus. The picture changed from black and white to full color as you pulled it out of the frame. 

The secret is that there is a second picture hidden behind the back of the frame. The top picture is printed on a transparency. When you pull the picture out to the right, the “hidden” picture behind the frame is exposed under the transparency, revealing something new or changed. In this case, the writing on the wall.

Angela Howard at Bible Class Creations has an excellent video on how to make magic windows. I got my inspiration for this window from her instructions. Here is her written tutorial.

In this craft, when the picture of King Belshazzar is pulled out of the frame, a hand and the writing on the wall appears.

For this craft you need:

Tree of Appreciation

Last Christmas I made a tree of appreciation for all of our Children’s Workers. I gave each volunteer a thank you note for their service during the year, and invited them to choose a gift from the Christmas tree that had been set up in the children’s area.

I bought see through gift bags at the Dollar Tree and filled each one with stocking stuffer gifts. Avon has a lot of small products for $1 and less during this time of year. Bath and Body Works usually has some items too. Of course, there is always candy for the guys and teens too. I bought