For the Love of Camels and Rebekah

After spending one year in the New Testament, I find myself back in the old with a whole set of new children. I have visuals from some of these lessons, but the children are younger now, so I am finding that I have to change things up.

I always start to prepare by reading the Bible story first. As I read, I try to visualize the story happening in my mind's eye. When I read this story of Abraham's servant going to find Isaac's wife, I was struck by the fact that he took ten camels. The Bible is very specific to mention that. It is also very specific that Abraham's servant watched closely as Rebekah drew water for those ten camels. Why? That was a lot of work! A camel can drink 20 to 25 gallons in 10 minutes and up to 40 gallons in one session. And there were 10 of them. The camels are key in understanding the story.

I downloaded pictures of camels that were labeled for reuse and printed them on cardstock. I always flip the images so I can paste them together front and back and then they can face any direction for telling stories. Some of my older figures are not double sided. Here is the link for my camel doc. You will need to print 5 copies. That will give you 5 of each design, so the camels are a little different.

I made a well by taping together five sides of stone around an upside down bowl. I put a piece of blue felt over the bowl. You could even use the bowl right side up and put real water in it, if you don't mind a mess. Here is the link for the well pieces and the clay jar for Rebekkah. I added some trees from a train set we used to have just to give a little effect.

Phillip Martin clip art. This is "Isaiah," but you could use it for Isaac

I used figures I had purchased to make the story figures of the servant, Rebekah and her family. These figures are no longer available for purchase, but were copyrighted. Phillip Martin has some wonderful free Bible images you can download on his website. Note that you are just looking at the first page when you click this link. There are 21 additional pages you can click onto.

Kiddie pool served as our well, minus the toys. We used drinking cups to fill a bucket from the "well."

For a learning activity, we had a children's swimming pool partly filled, cups and an empty bucket. Children had to use the cups to fill up the bucket, as many times as we could before the class ended. When it was full, we hauled it to an old sink and "watered the camels." They loved this activity.

Additional props used to tell this story:

• I tied up bundles of small presents in pieces of cloth.
• Children untied the bundles and explored the presents.
• Little boxes from a doll house collection of Christmas presents
• Gems and pretty stones to represent jewelry (spray paint small stones gold and silver)
• I had one huge fake gem stone in a pretty bag for the kids to explore

Musings from the Laundry Room

The laundry room, in a children's blog, really? Well, this musing is for everyone, children's workers included. And it is free, so it fits the frugal part of this blog.

Most hometown papers has several columns written by local contributors. Ours has one called, "The View from Hickory Hill" written by a woman whose home is located on, well, Hickory Hill. She shares her viewpoint on all manner of things from class reunions to haying to hand-me-downs.

One day this past summer, while we were in North Carolina on a medical leave of absence, I was inspired to write my own column...in the laundry room. So I thought, if Miss Hickory Hill can write a column about the view from her home, I can write one about my view from the laundry room. I have named it, "Musings from the Laundry Room," just in case I ever get inspired to write another post while in the laundry room. 

Our own laundry room was right in our apartment in Chapel Hill, complete with a new washer and dryer and wire shelving on an entire wall.  One day while I was doing the wash, I pulled the bottle of Purex laundry detergent from that shelving and a memory came flooding over me. I had gone to the Walmart in Chapel hill by myself to buy that bottle of detergent because I knew I could get the size and brand I wanted there. I remembered the heat. I remembered clearly where I had parked the car. I remembered the traffic when I left the parking lot. But most of all, I remembered it was well over a month ago that all of that happened. We still had a lot of time in Chapel Hill. Leaving to go home was not even on my mind that day at WalMart. 

As I set about washing towels for perhaps the last time in Chapel Hill, and as I poured out the depleting liquid into the lid, this wave of emotion just came over me - like when you are at the Jersey shore in the ocean, and you don't see the wave coming up on you until it is too late. It came out of nowhere and its dark shadows spread over my spirit that had been so gay a moment before. Our time in North Carolina was almost gone. We were leaving in six days. 

As I stood there with the bottle in hand, I felt how we cannot hang onto anything, I felt the fleetingness of life and moments. I felt my total lack of control over any of it, try as I had to hold onto all the moments and seize the day. The day was still coming that we would have to leave. A sadness hung over my spirit. And then I was comforted by God. Strengthened by the knowledge that come what may, God will never be moving or leaving or changing or depleting. He is a surety, a stability - one I can anchor my soul in. The rock that is higher than I am. He is the ONLY sure thing in my life, or any of our lives. But what a surety he is. And my soul was opened by the warmth of his love and presence and the knowledge of who he is that will always be by my side.

No wonder that David wrote in the Psalm 62: 

Hear my cry, O God

listen to my prayer;

from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint.

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I,

for you have been my refuge,

a strong tower...

I don't know what life has brought your way, but I do know that none of us can control it. I hope that you have found the rock that is higher than you are and are anchored in Him so that come what may, you have anchored your soul in God. When those moments come - and you never know when they will - remember the one who never changes and pray with David, "lead me to the rock that is higher than I." Thank God that because of who he is, he IS higher than us, he IS a rock and he can ALWAYS answer that prayer. 

I Quit!

National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA

OK, be honest, how many of you have a letter of resignation hidden away in a drawer somewhere? I have been in the ministry long enough to know that almost every pastor out there (lead, senior, youth, kidmin or otherwise) has seriously wanted to quit at least once in their lifetime (for some it might be every Monday morning).

Every once in awhile I come across this file in my documents entitled, "Letter of Resignation." Hmmm, what's that I wondered the first time I saw it. So I opened it. It was a letter I had hurriedly typed to our governing board. It was only a rough draft, but there it was, typos and all. "Wow." I thought as I read it, "Did I really feel like that?" And so I decided to keep it, just to remind myself when I get down, that I have been down before, and kept on.

Maybe we should write letters of non-resignation when we are feeling solid in our ministries. That might be a better thing to look at the next time we want to throw in the towel.

It happened again last weekend, I just did not think I could keep on. Children's ministry can be a lonely place. You feel like everyone cares about the adult ministries, and that no one realizes you are pouring yourself out for kids. In our case, only a few kids. So maybe they sound like David's older brother at the battlefront who said to David, "Who is watching those FEW sheep you are supposed to be watching." I can almost hear them, "Get back there with those sheep and don't come out and bother us again!"

Well last weekend I shared with a fellow kidmin worker, and she gave me some great help. First she talked me off the ledge. Secondly, she shared a video link to a video called, Aim Lower. I wish I still had her letter, but I do have the video to share with you.


Aim Lower from Joan Eppehimer on Vimeo.

If our work were easy, we probably would not be making any inroads. Ministry invades the enemy's territory so of course it is going to be difficult, especially when you are engaging in battle for children. They have their whole lives ahead of them. If you can reach a child when they are young think of all the years they have ahead of them. The Bible gives plenty of illustrations of us fighting the good fight and soldiering as Christians. I just need to be reminded of it when I want to quit.

So when you are feeling like no one else truly cares about the children's ministry, when you feel like you have not accomplished anything, when you feel discouraged...take heart and press on and keep aiming lower...at the children.

My thanks to Kate over at Jesus Without Language for her words of encouragement and sharing this video.

To Have Children's Church, or Not To

Hamlet's famous line, "To be, or not to be:" rings through the ages. As a children's director in a small church, one of my biggest questions is, "To have children's church, or not to: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler to make workers suffer the slings and arrows of a work force already stretched thin, or to take up arms against the congregation and subjugate them to noisy children in the service." OK, I confess, that is a totally wrong view of ministry to children for either side of the argument, but it was fun to write.

Pentecost DIY Pins

This was a fun, simple craft for the kids to make for Pentecost Sunday and yet it had a big impact. After a lesson about Pentecost, we made these lapel pins from craft foam.

I made some cardstock templates. The older kids helped trace. Adult helpers cut. Younger kids peeled the sticky back off of the fun foam and placed the yellow flame on the red ones. Some pins had 2 flames, and some 3.

Keeping God at the Center

Keeping God Central from Joan Eppehimer on Vimeo.
Years ago we had homemade tables in our church. Someone had screwed threaded steel pipes into flanges which were screwed onto 4 x 8 pieces of plywood. The church fellowship hall was in the basement of our parsonage and my husband and I were sometimes tasked with unscrewing the pipe legs so the tables could be stored. One day we attempted to remove a pipe and it would not budge. I decided we needed some more muscle and found our neighbor, who also could not budge it. But he had this wonderful invention called a pipe wrench. In seconds the pipe was out. He told me sometimes you just need the right tool. This is a lesson about tools for keeping God central in one's life.

Repurposing In KidMin - Doors & Windows

I admit it, I am a perfectionist. And I don't always take no for an answer. Sometimes that turns out to be a good thing. Like when we redid our children's area, and I could not stand how the old doors looked in the new area.

Tips for Kidmin in the Small Church (link)

Recently I was searching the web for some ideas and help for music in our children's ministry. In the process, I came across this great article about a church that had no children. Zilch...nada...none. And this went on for almost a year, and then low and behold, God began to unfold a small miracle. Now if you are from a church with over 100 in attendance, it is unlikely you would ever find yourself in this position. But if you are from a really small church, you might.

I am linking to this article because
#1 It was very encouraging.
#2 It also had some great advice on how to get ready for a children's ministry.
#3 No one thought it was going to rain when Noah built the ark either, but it did. And if the children come, you want to have your ark ready, err, I mean your children's ministry.

So read this and be encouraged: 9 Pieces of Advice for Starting a New Children's Ministry.

Saul Sees the Light

This post includes a drama for acting out the events of Acts 9 and an activity for helping children to understand how God's word acts like a "light" to help us see the path we should walk on. The two can be used separately, I just happened to use the lesson for Operation Arctic which paired Psalm 119:105 with the story.

Disclaimer: KidFrugal primarily helps the small church. The activities in this post will work best with less than 20 children. You can pull it off with as few as 3 or 4 children if you use adults.

We're In!

I am not sure that many adults grasp how momentous the events of Acts 10 are, let alone children. This chapter marks the entrance of the Gentiles (which would probably be most of you reading this) into the kingdom of God.

Stoned!

To tell the story of Stephen in Acts 7, I used 3-D visuals. I printed out Bible people that I downloaded through this site. Then I glued them onto empty toilet paper rolls so they could stand up.

Rejection at Nazareth!

Jesus rejected in Nazareth, his home town from Luke 4:14-30 is a very easy story to re-enact. It requires little props, the only prep work was to make a scroll. I used old packing paper I had saved from Amazon boxes and taped it together to make a long scroll.

Pancakes and Missions

Kid's Mission's Breakfast from Joan Eppehimer on Vimeo.

They say that kids learn best when they are having fun. The first half of this event included "catching" your breakfast. Our cook flipped the pancakes and the kids caught them on their plates. The kids had a blast, but they also learned about the importance of Bible translation and smuggling and heard from a missionary. Parents were invited too, creating a family event at the same time.

Instructions for the Pin the Bible on the World game can be found in this post from November.

Explaining the Second Birth to Kids

A friend gave me an old teacher's book that had a great illustration for explaining the second birth to children. I made the illustration out of doubled sided poster board. I experimented until I found 2 different plate sizes to trace the concentric circles. I used a yardstick to draw the lines to divide the 2 circles into thirds.