Samantha Lacey of Church from Scratch in the United Kingdom has created five beautiful colouring pages for Christmas

"We hope you enjoy colouring in these Christmas pages which you can download for free. As a church, we love using other people’s resources and creating and sharing what we come up with. You can download, use, share, print, email and re-post them as you wish – please attribute the author if you download and re-share and do not charge money." 

You can find the colouring pages here: Christmas Colouring Pages

Samantha Lacey of Church from Scratch in the United Kingdom has created a wonderfull creative and hopeful Christian colouring book to be used during the Covid lockdown.

"We hope you find some calm during lockdown, while colouring in this book. Take a moment for yourself or share with friends and family and spend time with God in a different way.

Church from Scratch in the United Kingdom made and used these videos last year and they helped bring the Christmas story into fresh focus for lots of people.

You can stream or download them, use/adapt the script, post the video files as part of your own social media output, home group discussion starters, you choose.

Download:

A fun icebreaker on the Bible story of Abraham getting a visit from God

An icebreaker is a playful way to introduce the children to the theme at the beginning of your children's work.

In today's story Sara tries to lie to God. But of course God sees right through this. Can we also tell if someone else is lying?

What do you need:

- 10 pieces of card with numbers printed on them from 1 - 10. 
- sweets or something else as small prizes

What do you do:

A fun children's moment on the Bible story of Abraham getting a visit from God

A short introduction to the Bible story, in which the children will learn something about the Bible story and which will leave them wanting to know more.

What do you do:

Ideas that children can do before the programme starts.
Suitable for children's work, where children gradually drop in.

Today God comes to Abraham and Abraham receives Him full of hospitality - a freshly baked loaf of bread, delicious veal, butter, milk, a place in the shade, washed feet. There is no end to it!

What do you need:

- nice pillows / cushions
- A basin with warm water
- towels
- wipes to clean their hands with
- tasty snacks and special drinks

What do you do:

Do:
When the children come in, one of the leaders is ready to wash their feet.

Then they can sit on a cushion and another leader comes to clean their hands with warm towels.
After this they get some nice snacks and special drinks.

It is already a big party and the children who come in later complain that they are so late!

An easy to tell Bible story on Abram, Sarai and Hagar

Waiting is difficult. Abram and Sarai have lived in Canaan for ten years now. And there is still no child. The dream that Abram had about the stars was such a long time ago. Could Abram have just dreamed it all? Maybe there will be no child at all. Maybe he just misunderstood God.

Sarai has thought about it too. She even has a plan. Sarai has come to the conclusion that sometimes you have to help God a little. Everyone knows that she cannot have children. Maybe God did'nt mean that they would have a child together. Who knows, maybe God meant for Abram to have a child with another woman. That must be it! At night, Sarai lies thinking and planning. Abram ought to take her slave Hagar as a second wife. Perhaps she could bear a child.

One morning she tells Abram her plan.

"Abram, do you remember your dream about the stars? We have been waiting so long now."

Abram sighs... He sighs deeply....

Sarai continues. "Maybe we have misunderstood God. We can't wait until I get pregnant. Look at me Abram, I'm so old. That's never going to work, is it?"

Abram shakes his head and sighs. He looks so defeated.

You can use this game to think with the children about what it is like to being bullied

Things are going badly between Sarai and Hagar. First Hagar was Sarai's slave, but now she is Abram's second wife and the mother of his only child. Sarai is jealous and does everything she can to bully Hagar and make her life difficult.
In this game we are going to 'bully' the other party to feel what that is like.

What you need:

- objects
- blindfold

What do you do: 

A fun game on Abram's lack of patience and being patient ourselves

Abram has been waiting for years for what God promised, but Sarai has had enough. It was in a dream years ago. Can you trust a dream? Sarai decides the time is now. She stops the waiting and as a result, all kinds of things go wrong....

What you need:

- box of After Eight Mint Chocolate Thins, often referred to as simply "After Eights", or any other larger flat piece of chocolate

What do you do: 

A fun Bingo game on the different Hebrew names of God in the Bible

Hagar discovers two new names of God in this Bible story. Today we looked at twenty known or new names of God. This is a fun way to help the children become familiar with the names of God. 

What you need:

- worksheet with twenty Old Testament names of God on thick paper - download here
- a large dice
- marker pens

What do you do: 

A powerful object lesson on the different Hebrew names of God in the Bible

Hagar discovers two beautiful names of God in this Bible story. He is El Roi, or the God Who sees me. And God is Ishmael, or the God Who listens to me. What other names of God do you know? What names of God do you like?

What you need:

- worksheet with twenty Old Testament names of God on thick paper - download here
- scissors

What do you do: