Creative faith building of children, for groups 3 to 8

Summer Harvest Feast

Because we don't have the opportunity to celebrate the Harvest Feasts with Passover and Pentecost, because we don't have vegetables to harvest in our garden, we celebrate these Feasts as a substitute before Summer holiday. During the summer harvest feast, the vegetables are harvested and processed immediately. The potatoes that are roasted on the BBQ and the vegetables processed in the soup.

Scale model “The people of Israel in the desert”

The youngest group works twenty lessons on the desert trip in the second year. During that period they travel with the people. They get their own tent and experience all the ups and downs with the people. The model has been worked out step by step in a document. And lesson by lesson it will grow.

Board game “Joseph's life”

In the lesson series about Jozef we also developed a board game, which is played by both groups. The game literally and figuratively grows with the lessons. It consists of four parts and they receive a new part for every two lessons. They play the game in class and then they can play it at home with the parents as a family game.

Visit of the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam

At the end of the lesson serie "The history of people of Israel", the oldest group goes to visit the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam. This is really big fun for the children. They visit the Portuguese Synagogue, the Youth part of the Museum and the Museum itself, which shows the history of the Jewish people in the Netherlands from XNUMX till today. And they visit the Holocaust museum, Hollandse Schouwburg.

Best Friends Services

Once or twice a year a service is organized that is dedicated to inviting friends and girlfriends. The processing in the lesson reinforces the mutual friendship of the chin harms. The children who have brought their friends together form a couple throughout the lesson. Through that friendship, they discover that God wants to be their friend too.

Lessons about marriage

The youngest children learn the value of marriage by practicing a play about marriage in Jewish society around year zero for three weeks. They experience the life of Jacob and Esther from birth. They discover that all of society at that time was focused on a clean marriage. Marriage as an image of the covenant between God and Israel, God and man, Jesus and His Church.

Artworks and socks for prisoners

The lessons at the end of the first year are about Joseph's life. Joseph ended up in prison, but unless his misfortune, he was a light for fellow prisoners. The children learn that they can be likewise a light for the prisoners of today. The gospel of Jesus Christ is equally good for them. They make works of art, collect socks and write a card of encouragement, which is delivered by foundation De Sluis at the prisoners.

Feast of Tabernacles & harvest festival

The Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated with the whole congregation. The Salem children had harvested all the remaining vegetables from the vegetable garden the week before. They received a bag with vegetables and a recipe home. They have prepared them together with their parents. During the class everything was festively prepared and the story of Jacob was experienced once more. After the service, the whole congregation came to enjoy the meals and all of them dwelt upon the meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles for the congregation of Jesus Christ.

Experience Bible stories by role play

When the Bible story is suitable for it, a Bible story is immediately played by the children. The children then experience which difficult choices people are faced with. In this case, Abraham had to kill his own son. The one who played Abraham thought this was an impossible thing to do. In this way, the story gets much closer to the children's skin. In the picture on the right, they sacrifice animals by first cutting them in half, as Abraham was ordered by God to do. Sacrifice suddenly comes closer when you have to cut through an animal on a drawing yourself.

Dynamic exercises

The oldest group has a lesson about the guidance of God in your life. How can you experience it? This processing shows what happens when you go to work without "management" and as individuals. After studying the Bible themselves, they do the processing again. Now a leader is appointed, who gets the plan of God in his hands. If everyone does what the leader says, a pattern is created that looks like a star or a bird or something else. If we listen to God, then we are part of a larger plan and that is cool to experience.

Several vegetable garden options

View the vegetable gardens of different children's groups and photos of inspiring ideas, click here >>>

Dynamic exercises

This photo shows an exercise before the story is told. The first exercise is always one with action. In this case they play a game without rules. In the days of Noah people lived without rules and therefore there was a lot of argument. The children all get something in their hands, a gun, a rope or another attribute. And there are children who get a golden stone in their hands. They are divided into two teams and given the assignment to collect as many treasures as possible. It quickly degenerated into a fight. And some children understood that this was unpleasant and started to ask if there were any rules that others should adhere to. Many lessons were learned from this game. The story of Noah was heard with different ears and they understood why God started giving rules to His people.

Lucas 8: 6

In one of the lessons, the children will search for appropriate Bible texts from what they see in the vegetable garden and then place them in the vegetable garden. Occidental passers-by can also pick something up from the Bible.

Decorate vegetable boxes

After sowing and when the plants grow quietly there is time to make vegetable boxes. The boxes are decorated and provided with encouraging Bible texts.

Share

Every week there is something to harvest. Out of this havest they fill a box to give away. They think about who the vegetables are given for encouragement. This is an extrem powerful learning experience about giving away from what you received from God.

Thankful recipient of vegetable box

Someone who had received the green box had made a delicious salad of all that was in it. She sent this photo. The marigolds are not only decorative, but also good to eat!

Autumn harvest

In the autumn the last harvest will be collected from the country. This is a festive event. All children get a pumpkin or something else to take home with them to make delicious soup or other dishes for the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles the week after. Than they invite the whole church to have a meal and thank God for the harvest.

Spiritual lesson

During the spiritual lesson, the Feast of Tabernacles is discussed, which is traditionally also connected to the harvest festivals of the late summer in Israel. In the Netherlands it used to be customary to celebrate harvest festivals, but this use has generally disappeared from our society. With the vegetable garden we see that the children are going to rediscover something of the joy of harvesting.