Rebecca S. Ramsey's Blog, page 18

The Second Sunday of Advent

Welcome to the celebration of the Second Sunday of Advent, this Sunday, Dec 8.

This Sunday we move to the second card in the Advent Godly Play series, focusing on Mary and Joseph’s journey (don’t forget the donkey!) to Bethlehem.

There are several themes to explore during the time in the circle or during the create-a-gift-for-God time, if you so wish. These include:

1. Mary as the chosen mother of Jesus. Why did God choose her? What does it mean to be in favor with God?
2. Mary’s reaction to Gabriel’s news. The older children might enjoy really studying her reaction found in Luke, Chapter 1. You could even listen to The Magnificat.
3. The idea that God gives us courage and help to do what we need to do if we ask for it.
4. The idea of being part of God’s work in the world. How can each person do that? Can we look for ways to do God’s work? Be open to responding to God’s nudges?
5. Nothing is impossible for God. (What a great memory verse! Luke 1:37.)

So how do we help the children explore the story and these themes?

Here are some ideas for the Create-a-Gift-for-God-Time to add to your own.

Recreating the Story as a Gift to God                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Children would enjoy exploring the story and recreating it in some way, both the visit of Gabriel to Mary and Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem.1. Put up several big easels and let the children paint the angel’s visit or the journey. (I bet older kids would like this too. They seldom get to paint on big easels anymore.  You could even look at some famous artwork of Mary and baby Jesus.2. Use watercolors at the tables to paint either scene.

3. Make “life-size Gabriel-like angels!” (Who knows how big angels are!)  

Use big pieces of butcher paper and have kids lie down and trace each other, sort of like making snow angels. Decorate with markers or paint or fabric. Or you could hold this idea until next week, when the angels visit the shepherds.

4. Recreate the story by acting it out. We have costumes for the younger children. Let me know ASAP if you want to use them and I can make sure they’re available. There’s a great video made by a group of children posted here. You could use that for inspiration if you like. The kids would enjoy watching it. If you decide to do this, I hope you can video it! Maybe a parent could help.

If you’re feeling really brave, have the kids take off their shoes and honor the donkey by making donkey heads from their bare feet!

5. Make ornaments for Gabriel, Mary, Joseph, and the Donkey!

The donkey one pictured is found here. 
There are tons of ornaments out there for angels. Here’s a pic of one that one of my kids made out of a clothespin and felt.

The children could also make them out of clay.

I bet the children could figure out how to make ornaments for the other characters out of clothespins and fabric or tissue paper.

See more ideas on my Pinterest site, here.

Here are the Wondering Questions I’ve written for this Sunday. I look forward to hearing the children’s responses!
1. I wonder what your favorite part of the story is so far.
2. I wonder how Mary felt when Gabriel appeared before her and when she heard the news.
I wonder how she felt on the journey to Bethlehem and how Joseph felt. And the donkey too!
3. I wonder what we can learn from Mary and Joseph and the decisions they made from this story. What do they teach us about God?
4. I wonder where you are in this story. What part of this story is about you or for you?

Advent 1

Welcome to the celebration of the First Sunday of Advent, this Sunday, December 1.
What an exciting time of year!
This Sunday we focus on getting ready to enter the mystery of Christmas. It’s perfect timing then for us to focus on the prophets’ message that something big was about to happen in Bethlehem. The people didn’t know exactly what or when, but they were told to get ready, to watch and wait.

Our Godly Play lesson begins with a discussion of the color change at church to purple, the color of kings. It’s a great time to talk about what kind of king the people expected and how God surprised them all.

One thing to note: the Godly Play Advent lessons don’t come with wondering questions at the end. I think it’s so helpful to have some discussion questions to let the children process their thoughts on the lessons so I’ve included some of my own questions for this Sunday at the bottom of this blog post. I’ve put copies of these for the storyteller and the person writing the responses in each of your classrooms.

Making a Gift for God- Art Response Idea Starters for the Children

When it comes time to help the children decide what work they want to do–what kind of gift to God they want to make in appreciation for the story– there are several paths they can take, each exploring different themes to the lesson.
Some of the themes include:
1. The theme of Advent–getting ready.
2. The theme of who prophets are and what did they do and say.
3. The idea of Jesus being a light to the world, since we light candles each week in Advent.

Here are some “Gift for God” ideas to add to your own:

Something For All of Us to Do: Gift Bags for Senior Adults

Frank Smith has asked us again this year to decorate white gift bags for the senior adults for a Christmas gift. They love getting their gift bags decorated by our children. You can have the children use colorful markers to draw symbols of Christmas on the bags, manger scenes, whatever they like.  Thanks for helping with this project!

For exploring Advent…

1. Make an advent wreath together, or have each child make his own. Here are some we’ve made in the past.

   
Paper advent wreaths are a great idea too. I love this one, from second grade a couple of years ago. Each child contributed a leaf or two or a candle.

2. Make an advent chain. Have the children cut out 25 strips of paper each and (using tape or staples) make them into a chain. They could even put a task to do on each (“sing Away in the Manger,” or “read the Christmas story” or “draw an angel,” etc.) and each day in December the child would take off one link in the chain. This is a great way to illustrate waiting and getting ready for Christmas.
See lots of advent chain ideas here.

For exploring the Prophets…

1. Let the children look up some of the verses in which the prophets predict Jesus’ birth or a leader coming out of Bethlehem.
Verses include:
“But you, Bethlehem in Ephrathah, small as you are to be among Judah’s clans, out of you shall come forth a governor for Israel, one whose roots are far back in the past, in days gone by.” –Micah 5:2

King Herod called a meeting of the chief priests and lawyers of the Jewish people, and asked them: “Where is the Messiah to be born?” “At Bethlehem in Judaea”, they replied; and they referred him to the prophecy which reads: “Bethlehem in the land of Judah, you are far from least in the eyes of the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a leader to be the shepherd of my people Israel.” Matthew 2:1-6 – NEB

“Surely the Messiah is not to come from Galilee? Does not scripture say that the Messiah is to be of the family of David, from David’s village of Bethlehem?” John 7:41,42 – NEB

Isaiah 7:14. “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign, Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”

2. The children might want to make a model like the one we use of Bethlehem. They could use their own ideas of what Bethlehem might have looked like, or they could use books to research it.

3. Another option would be for the kids to divide a paper in half (or a mural on butcher paper.)  It could be titled something like, “A King Is Coming…” On one side they could draw or list what people expected the king to look like, and on the other side they could draw a manger scene with Baby Jesus.

For exploring Jesus as the Light of the Word,  the children could make candle cookies like this one here.

Susan D’Amato had our fourth graders do this one year and they loved it.
The directions are here. (http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/a-lig...)

For more art response ideas, see my Pinterest page, here.

Here are the wondering questions I’ve come up with for this week’s lesson. Enjoy!

1. I wonder about getting ready. I wonder what your family does to get ready to celebrate Christmas.

2.  I wonder if there are special things you might do at your house to remember what Christmas is really all about.

3. The prophets told the people of God that a new king was coming. I wonder what you think they expected. What kind of king do you think they thought he would be?

4. I wonder what you think about why God sent Jesus as a baby.

5. In our time together today, we talked about how prophets know the most important things and show the  way. I wonder if you remember any prophets from our Sunday school lessons and what it might be like to be a prophet.

Happy First Sunday of Advent!

Love, Becky

God With Us

This children’s sermon was given November 17, to accompany a sermon based on Luke 21: 5-19. The preaching minister asked me to focus on God’s constant presence with us. Just an fyi: the children’s sermon went long. I try to keep children’s sermons between 3-5 minutes, and this one was 7. If I did it again, I’d not try to cover Moses’ entire life, but just a few scenes from it.

Good morning girls and boys. I brought in my bag items that tell the story of someone who lived a long time ago. I wonder if you can guess who it is.

He was born to Israelite enslaved mother in Egypt at a time when pharaoh wanted to kill all baby boys because there were so many. She put him in a basket in Nile. An Egyptian princess found him and raised him as her own.  Was God with him then?
He Saw an Egyptian slave master attacking slave and killed him. Was God with him then?When he ran away?
Found a bush that wouldn’t burn up and heard God speaking to him. Was God with him then?
God sent Moses back to Egypt to demand the release of God’s people. Was God with him then?
Moses said “But I’m a terrible speaker! Why me?” Was God with him then?
He went back and spoke to pharaoh! Was God with him then?
After much trying, Pharaoh finally said yes. Was God with him then?
Pharaoh changed his mind! But the Red sea was in the way of their escape! Was God with him then?
There was no food or water. Was God with him then?
Based at Mt. Sinai, went up into the mountain to get the 10 commandments Was God with him then?
While he was down there, the people gave up and made a golden cow to worship.Was God with him then? Broke tablets and then made new ones
Wandered 40 years trying to get to the promised land. Was God with him then?

God was with him every step of the way.

What about you?  Was God with you….

When you were born sick
The first time you had a babysitter ?
When you’re scared to sleep in your own room?
When you first went to school?
When you’ve made bad choices?
When sad things happen?
When you’re worried about tests?
When you decide you want to be baptized?
When you learn to drive- and your parents too!

Life is full of mystery. We don’t always understand why bad things happen. But what we can be sure of is that no matter what, God will be with you in good times and hard times and scary times and peaceful times, for you whole life long. God never leaves us. It’s all up to us- whether we come close to God.

Let’s pray. Dear God, thank you for the story of Moses and that you were with him his whole life long. Help us remember that you draw close to every person on this earth, including each of us. Help us draw close to you. We love you, God. Amen.

The Exile and the Return

Hi Godly Play Teachers!

Welcome to the Exile and Return, the Godly Play story scheduled for this Sunday, November 24..

Last week we shared the story of the ark and the temple, and talked about meeting God in a special place and honoring him with certain routines that both honored God and helped remind the worshipers of the sacredness of being close to God.

At the end of the lesson, we read Solomon’s prayer of dedication of the Temple, where he prays, “But God, will you really live here with us on earth? The whole sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you. Certainly this Temple that I built cannot contain you either…” This week, we think about this again as we learn about what happened when God’s people were taken away from Jerusalem and its temple, which they had believed to be God’s home.

Some themes to explore:

Where do we find God? What if we suddenly have no temple or tabernacle or special routines or things to honor God? Can we still meet God?
What do we do when we’re very afraid, when bad things happen to us? What do we pray for? What does God want us to do?
What does it mean to be homesick? What were God’s people homesick for during the story? Were they homesick for God?
What changes have you been through that have been hard or scary for you? What did you do? Who gave you help? What should we remember when those times come?
What does it mean to be faithful? How is it different to be faithful in hard times versus in easy times?

Some activity ideas to add to your own, to help children make a gift to God in thanks for the story:

Reproduce the story.

Children could make their own physical elements of the Godly Play story, with blue yarn for the rivers. (Or maybe they can think of another way to represent them.) Pieces of wood for the cities. Can they make a chain out of pipe cleaners or strips of paper? (While they do this, teachers can talk about what the chain means–what it means to be in exile.) What could they use to make the people of God?
They could draw or paint with watercolors a scene from the story: the destruction of the temple, the sad journey away from Jerusalem, the happy rebuilding of the temple.
Older children could use markers to trace the path of God’s people on a photocopied map. Could they make a map of their own? One for the class
Children could use colored sand to make a desert scene.

Explore themes from the story.

Children could take a large sheet of paper, divide it down the center into 2 parts, label the left side Times We Are Sad Or Scared, and the other side What We Can Do. Then the children can draw or paint pictures to illustrate both sides.
Children could draw or paint or do a collage on the subject of Where and When I Meet God Today. Is it in nature? In church? At home reading the Bible? Being with friends? This would be a great addition for our new bulletin board. This could also be done as a class project on butcher paper (like a mural.)
What does it mean to be faithful? Children could make a collage or drawing or mural showing what it means to be faithful to God. Does it mean coming to church and worshiping together? Bringing an offering? Praying? Trusting? What else?
Children could draw or write about a time they were homesick. What helped them get through it? What would God want us to do when we feel homesick?

Some great verses to get children thinking:

“We sat down and cried by the rivers of Babylon when

we remembered Zion. How can we sing the song of the

Lord in a strange land?” (Psalm 137:1, 4)

“Praise the Lord, all nations! Praise Him all people! For

His loving-kindness toward us is great. And the truth of

the Lord lasts forever. Praise the Lord.” (Psalm 117)

See my Pinterest page for the story here for more ideas. [image error]

The Ark and the Temple

Welcome to the Ark and the Temple, the Godly Play story scheduled for this Sunday, November 17.

For a girl who could spend days moving furniture and little people around a dollhouse, I simply adore this lesson! I also love it because it explores the idea of God’s abiding presence and helps us question exactly where God is. Where can we meet God? If it is in a church or temple, how do we keep that space sacred? If God truly meets us everywhere, anywhere, then what does that say about the sacredness of the space we occupy in our everyday lives? Which makes me think of a favorite song of mine, but that’s another story. (Go here, if you want a treat!)

This story works wonderfully as a continuation of The Ark and the Tent, and then Ruth and David’s stories. Before, the people took the tent with them as they traveled, and learned that God goes with them wherever they go. Now, the people have settled and learn that God is not only present during times of transition but in ordinary times of daily life.

Another interesting theme to address is the idea of the usefulness of things in the worship of God. When the ark and the commandments were taken during battle and they didn’t physically have them in the tent, were they really lost? When King David returned them, dancing into Jerusalem, what was he really celebrating?

Another very important theme to cover is that there is no physical place that can contain God. I’ll have Solomon’s temple dedication prayer typed up and in your room by Wednesday night this week. If you’d like to make it into a scroll to read during the lesson, as the script suggests, feel free. I believe we have some dowel sticks in the resource room. Balling up the paper and staining it with tea makes it look older and makes for a more dramatic presentation, if you like.

One other thing I didn’t mention before was the idea of making/offering sacrifices. Do we still offer sacrifices to God today? What kinds of sacrifices would God love? What kinds are important and why?

I wonder if a trip to our own sanctuary might be interesting to the children, after they study the temple. What is alike and what is different? What kind of sacrifices do we still make? Is there a way we make ourselves more acceptable to God before entering?

Some activity ideas to help the children get started:

Pieces of the temple

A few of the classes began a few weeks ago making special parts of the temple/tent. You could continue that this week, and you could even set up the items in a temple of your own making. Kids could make an ark, the ten commandments, a table with 12 pieces of bread, a menorah, a laver, and an altar. (See all the ideas and photos here.)

Could we make edible versions of all these things? And then make an edible temple? See my Pinterest site here, for ways to do this. [image error]

The Psalms

Welcome to The Psalms, the Godly Play story scheduled for this Sunday, November 10, based on the book of Psalms.

If you’re teaching at FBG, I’ve emailed you the story script, which includes the first part of the David story from last week, found in the pink Enrichment Presentations for Fall, p.81. If you are not a Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Greenville and would like a copy of the Psalms story script, just email me and I’d be happy to send it to you. Or join the blog mailing list and it will be sent to you, along with 9 other Godly Play style story scripts that I’ve written and am happy to share.

In the script, we use the first part of the David story and then explore the idea that the Psalms writers went to God with all kinds of different emotions. We discuss how we can pray to God when we feel afraid, happy, angry, peaceful, sad or worried, and joyful, or when we feel sorry for what we’ve done. With each different emotion, we share a Psalm (or 2 or 3) that the Psalm writers experienced and shared with God.

To share the Psalms, we’re going to use a beautiful book, Psalms for Young Children, written by Marie-Helene Delval and illustrated by Arno. In this book, Ms. Delval has adapted the psalms for children in a way that is so easy to read and to relate to. I’ve purchased one for each class (except for 3rd grade, which already had a copy.) You’ll find it in your story basket, which I left near your Bible bookcase. I put it there to remind you (and me) that you’ll need the Bible Bookcase as you tell the story. (You’ll take the Psalms book out and place it on the underlay in part of the story.

By the way, the Psalms in this book are shared in order (by number.) They’re so short that I think you’ll find it hard to stop reading them!

 To help the children follow along with the different emotions we’ll be discussing I’ve made emotion cards for each class.

Older children might enjoy comparing the Psalms as written in the Bible with Marie Helene Delval’s adaptations. They might like making their own adaptations as well. You might want to choose one Psalm to focus on, like #23 or 139.

The wondering questions are included in the story script.

Ideas for Your Give a Gift to God time:

1. Writing our own Psalms–Have children pick an emotion that they sometimes feel and write God a prayer or song that they might pray or sing while feeling that way.

 

2. Write a psalm showing how you feel today. Draw a picture to go with it.

Or read a psalm to a friend that shows how you feel.

 

3. Illustrate a Psalm. Choose a psalm and illustrate it, like Arno did in Psalms for Young Children. (Any Psalm would be good. If you want, you could choose the psalm for the children, like #23 or 139.)

4. Write a psalm together as a class, and then let the children illustrate it individually or together.

5. Work out a tune that fits a psalm that you like. Or write your own to sing.

6. Make instruments to play while singing a psalm. You can find directions to make a simple tambourine here, and a lyre here.

7. For more ideas, find my Pinterest page on the Psalms here.

Enjoy! [image error]

All Saints Day and The Memory Box

This children’s sermon was written for All Saints Day, November 3, 2019.

Good morning girls and boys. Do you know what our special day this is today? It’s one of those days that’s sad and happy.  It’s All Saints Sunday, the day we remember and honor special people in our church family who’ve died this year.

I brought a book with me that I want to share called The Memory Box, by Joanna Rowland. It’s about a girl who had someone die in her family and she knows what it’s like to miss someone and be sad. As you listen, see what things she decides to do that seem to help her feelings.

(Read The Memory Box.)

When someone we love dies, we have all kinds of feelings, and those feelings are so important. It’s good to talk to people about all of our feelings- and to talk with God about how we feel. Our feelings are important to God.

Dear God, thank you for the love we have for our love for each other. Thank you for memories we make that will last our whole lives. When we miss people, we know you come close to us. Help us come close to you. We love you, God. Amen.

The Story of David

Welcome to the story of King David, the Godly Play story scheduled for this Sunday, November 3, based on 1 Samuel 16-31, 2 Samuel and 1Kings 1-2. You can find the script for the story in the pink Enrichment Presentations for Fall book, p.78-85.

This week’s story is another one (like Ruth and Samuel) that fits nicely after the story of the ark and the tent. And it follows right into the next story on our schedule: the Psalms, (to be followed by the Ark and the Temple.)

Some of the story’s themes which you might want to help the children think about:

1. We can come to God with all sorts of feelings (as in the Psalms—we’ll explore this one more next week)

2.God can help us be brave enough to do what is right and needed.

3. Friendship is a gift from God.

4. God uses people, even with their faults.

5. God forgives our mistakes when we ask for forgiveness.

Ideas for the Make a Gift for God Time:






Children choose how to respond to the story and get started!









Some children drew symbols of David’s life on stones. You can see another made an ark of the covenant.











Stones with symbols of David’s life



 

1. Children could reproduce the elements of the

story in some way.

* Make a harp

*Make a crown for King David

*Make an ark of the covenant

*Make a parable box for the parable that Nathan told David (there is plenty of felt in the resource room)

*Make a drawing of Jerusalem- or a watercolor.

2. Children could paint symbols of David’s life (shepherd’s crook, bottle of incense, two friends, crown, ark, etc) on small stones. There are stones in the resource room.



3. Children can celebrate David’s childhood by making David with the sheep. Go to the site here, for plenty of options for crafting sheep. (Scroll down to “sheep”)

4. Children could sculpt a David and Goliath out of play clay.

5. The class could work on a mural of David’s life with one long piece of butcher paper- assigning parts of his life to individual children to illustrate.

6.  Children could focus on the friendship between Jonathan and David and explore what kind of friendship God celebrates.

Find more art response ideas at my Pinterest page, here.
Enjoy!
Love, Becky

The Story of Samuel

Welcome to the story of Samuel, the Godly Play story scheduled for this Sunday, October 27, based on 1 Samuel 1-28:3. You can find the script for the story in the pink Enrichment Presentations for Fall book, p.72-77.

This week’s story is another one (like Ruth) that fits nicely after the story of the ark and the tent. And it follows right into the next story on our schedule: the story of David.

The story of Samuel is also very interesting to children because they relate to the idea of a child growing physically and in relationship with God and because they think about how God communicates- and probably wish that God would call their names in an audible voice.

Themes you might want to help the children think about:

1.God answers prayer

2. You can serve God even as a child.

3.God plans to take care of you. (If you want to use a memory verse, you could use Jeremiah 29:11)

4.God asks us to stand up for what is right, as Samuel did.

5.Obedience (Samuel obeyed God even though he was not happy that the people wanted a king.)

Ideas for the Make a Gift for God time:

Remember that one of the most important parts of Godly Play is that it gives the child options in how she responds to the story. We want to give children as many chances to have say so in what they do as possible.

Of course one way to respond is to play with the story pieces, retelling it to oneself or to a friend.

 

2. Reproduce the story in some way- make pieces, such as the ark, a Baby Samuel, robes of different sizes, (showing how Samuel grew during his service in the temple), a sleeping mat, a crown

2. Children could make a life size drawing of themselves and caption it: I can serve God right now! This could be done by having another child trace around their body on butcher paper. They could draw clothes on their body or use fabric from the resource room. Maybe they could hold something in the drawing that gives a hint to how they can serve God right now.

3. A collage or drawing of how children can serve God right now. Children could make these individually and then put them together as a class project. (Ways include how they treat others, through prayer, in worship at church, helping others…)

4. Children could think about how they might like to serve God in the future. How does a doctor or teacher or engineer or scientist serve God? They could explore this in a drawing or make a model with play clay.

5. Children could act out the story of Samuel hearing God’s call and going to Eli–and the rest of the story as well.

6. Hannah makes Samuel a new robe each year and brings it to him in the temple. Children could make a “robe” from a paper grocery bag as we often do with Joseph, as shown here. (Scroll down and see the child modeling hers!)

I can’t wait to see how the children think about this story!

For more art response ideas, see my Pinterest page, here.

Love, Becky

The Story of Ruth

Welcome to the story of Ruth, the Godly Play story scheduled for this Sunday, October 20, based on the book of Ruth. You can find the script for the story in the pink Enrichment Presentations for Fall book, p.66-71.

 As the book describes, this story doesn’t “unroll” like many other stories, from left to right in chronological order. Instead it moves from the Promised Land (specifically Bethlehem) to Moab and back to Bethlehem. The whole felt block is shown throughout the story.

The story of Ruth follows the story of the Tabernacle, in which great emphasis was put on being one of the chosen people of God. It’s wonderful that we now can share the story of Ruth, not one of the chosen People of God, but a Moabite, yet she was clearly valued and loved by God. She married one of God’s People, Boaz, and eventually became the great grandmother of King David (and an ancestor of Jesus!) The story gives us a wonderful opportunity to remind children that God values “other-ness,” that all are included in and welcomed into God’s love and care.

Idea sparkers for the Give a Gift to God time:

There are several ways children and teachers can go with this.

1. Focus on the story itself.

a) Let the children act out the story.

b) Draw the scenes of the story or make a three dimensional representation of the story.

c) Help the children learn the meaning of “gleaning” by giving them a chance to do a modified form of it in this “gleaning game” (from the site here.)

 “Fill 2 roasting pans or cookie sheets with 2 lbs. of cornmeal and a cup of rice and place it in the center of the blanket. Set the paper cup to the side. Explain to the children that they will be gleaning grain just as Ruth did for Naomi. Divide the kids into two groups. Have each group stand around their pan. Ask them to work together to fill the cups with rice, one grain at a time. Tell the children not to put any of the rice into their mouths since it is uncooked. For a fun challenge, set a timer for three minutes. Ask the children to see if they can fill the “bushel” before the timer goes off. But remind them to be careful – if someone knocks over the cup they’ll have to start all over again.”

d) Let the children explore wheat. Give each child a single spear (I bought some from Hobby Lobby in the dried flower section) and let them try to separate the grains. Let me know by Tuesday if you’d like me to buy some wheat for your class.

e) Weave wheat into an ornament/hanging as described here.

2. Focus on friendship between Ruth and Naomi.

You can concentrate on the theme that friendship and the loyalty that goes with it is a gift from God. a) Children might make friendship bracelets, like those shown here. Or for younger children, make simple strings of beads made into bracelets. We have tons of material for these in the art storage room!  Or make a necklace for a friend, as shown here.

b) Children could make a mural together of what it means to be a friend- what friends do for each other. Each child could work individually or in pairs- and put the works together as a mural or for a bulletin board in your classroom.

c) Make a Friendship wreath for your classroom, as shown here.

d) Examine the song, “Blessed Be the Tie That Binds” and let the children illustrate it.

3. Focus on God welcoming all people.

a) How are we welcoming to others who might be different? Children could make a collage for  “God Loves Everyone”

b) Make a God’s Love Note for a friend- like the ones shown here.

For more ideas, see my Pinterest Page on the Ruth, here.