Last week my children’s ministry team and I visited our church’s preschool to run a prayer workshop for each class in celebration of the church’s 10 Days of Prayer initiative. This was one of their favorite activities.
You will need: scissors, paper, pencils or markers, cardboard tubes, glue or tape, cardboard cut into a large cross shape, candy, battery-operated tea lights, spray paint (optional).
We wanted the children to think about God being a provider (as with and “give us today our daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer) and to know that God wants good things for us.
My friend Charlotte built an amazing cross out of cardboard tubes of various sizes and spray painted it gold to make it extra special. However, you can take a simpler route by cutting up empty paper towel tubes and gluing or taping them to a cross made out of cardboard.
In each of the tubes, we put a piece of candy. Then, ask the children to write or draw their prayers on a piece of paper and put it into one of the tubes. The piece of candy from that tube will remind them that we can ask God for things and that God wants to give us good things.
Because we frequently emphasize that light represents Jesus as the light of the world, we gave each child a battery-operated tea light to put into the tube with their prayer. The tea light serves as symbol of who they are bringing the prayer to.
A few days after the children did this activity, the teachers told me that the kids were still talking about their cross prayers and lights! I hope this activity is as meaningful to the children in your life as it has been to ours.
This post first appeared at Flame: Creative Children’s Ministry.
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