Hands-On Healing

Sunday, June 28th, the liturgy the Gospel reading is Mark 5:21-43.  This powerful story of healing is a perfect time for a laying on of hands healing service, which my congregation will be doing as part of worship on Sunday.  Knowing that many people may not be comfortable with laying on hands, or would rather say prayers for healing for others, I have put together this hands-on pray and play sensory station.

In the tubs, I have have cut out "people" from various shades of paper.  I only had ivory and white, but I wish I had darker colors to represent more diversity.  Each "person" has an ailment glued on.  I used broken bones to represent physical ailments and broken hearts to represent emotional needs for healing.  The "people" were then laminated for stability and reuse.  I then added cut strips of self-adhesive bandages and the sticky part of generic post-it notes to be used as bandages.

 Here are pictures to better show the detail, or simplicity rather, of the people cutouts.

Using the "bandages" people are invited forward during the laying on of hands to choose a "person" that may represent themselves or someone else that they would like to pray for.  They can quietly or silently pray as they bandage the cutout.

Following the service, bandages can be removed and the people can be put away for use again in the future.

Sensory Seasons

One of the ways I am trying to keep our Prayground worship space fresh while also having meaningful materials is through the use of what I am calling a Seasonal Sensory Station.  This takes the preschool loved activity of a sensory table and adds a liturgical twist to it.  The sensory table is filled with items to reflect what is happening liturgically in the church.  After I am done with a set of items, I am bagging them up, labeling the theme and storing together for future use.  Will every child who plays at the Seasonal Sensory Station get why the items were selected?  Probably not, but even so, seeds are being sown. Here are some examples of things I have done so far:

Red is for Pentecost

This was my first go at our Seasonal Sensory table and it was a a hit.  Red streamers, strips of red cellophane, red roses, red pipe cleaner hearts, red curling ribbon pieces, and some little red baskets made for a fun, creative activity.  Many of these items may be found in our church art supplies or purchased at a local dollar store.  I spent about $7 to get the baskets, cellophane and fake flowers.  Children sorted, raced to find the most hearts, waved streamers, and peeked through red cellophane.  Add a little sign reading "Red is the color for Pentecost" to clue older kids and parents in on what the fun is all about. 

Holy Trinity Sunday

 White and gold, so pretty and simple.  What little girl, or boy for that matter, could resist pulling out these elegant strips of fabric?  Digging around our Art Cafe, I was able to find many scraps of ribbon and lace in white and gold.  I added a few gold sequins for extra sparkle and fashioned some trinity rings out of gold pipe cleaners and viola!  A Seasonal Sensory Station for Holy Trinity Sunday at no cost to me.  If you don't have the scraps, ask someone crafty.  I'm sure someone has some remnants they would be happy to donate.  Don't forget a sign to remind people that white and gold are the colors we use to celebrate Holy Trinity Sunday.

Green: The Growing Season

 

Here we go into the loooong season of green.  Our first Gospel reading was on the mustard seed, so using that as a spring board, I created this garden.  Trimming pool noodles left over from VBS, I wrapped them in scrap green fleece to create the base of my gardens.  If I didn't have these materials, or if I was going to start over, I would just buy dollar store green pool noodles.

Our garden needed seeds, so I found these cute little envelops in a stash we had and color coordinated beads to put inside as seeds.  Seeds packets or plain envelopes would also work.  Or make your own out of card stock!

Seeds need water to grow.  These adorable little dollar store watering cans with ribbons "streaming" out are a perfect way to pretend water the garden.

Well cared for seeds are bound to produce some type of beautiful plant.  These fun, fanciful flowers are fashioned from pipe cleaners.  Add a child-size plastic shovel, hoe or hand rake and your garden will spark imaginations and sow seeds all through the growing season.

I plan to use our garden Seasonal Sensory Station on and off through out the summer.  As the liturgy sparks ideas, I will swap it in and out.  This coming Sunday, Jesus calms the storm.  What a fun time to have a simple water station if your space allows!

SPLASH Prayground

The first time I explained my idea of a special area dedicated to children in the sanctuary, I got a pretty quick no.  Not being one to give up, I brought the idea up a time or two more.  When I saw a Facebook post from Grace Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, Minnesota doing something similar, I re-posted it and tagged my coworkers.  My re-post got some attention, including attention from our senior pastor.  That same week he was in the area of Grace Lutheran and stopped by.  He came back and gave me the green light to give our own Prayground a go over the summer.  The next day he even brought a table and chair set from his home to loan to the cause.

We have had a lot of positive feedback about our Prayground and love to see it being used by children of all ages.  It currently includes puzzles, children's Bibles and books, crayons and activity sheets, small stuff animals, and a child-size wooden cross. 

The challenge is how to keep the area fresh so children continue engaging while also intentionally choosing materials that lend themselves to be used in meaningful ways.  The last thing I want to do is fill the space with quiet, keep busy materials that have nothing to do with worship.  I want this worship space to be part of the greater worship happening all around it; not separate.  Suggestions, questions, input welcome!

Why WOW?

God has been whispering in my ear for years to do ministry but in the meantime, I kept myself busy as a teacher and mother of 4 boys.  Having taught a little bit of everything, but really having early childhood on my heart, I bring a lot of gifts and ideas from the world of education with me into my ministry when I began to answer God's call to me in the spring of 2013.

Even with my background, I still found myself getting frustrated with my own children in worship.  In September 2014, my children were playing under the chairs at a family retreat during a Holden Evening prayer service.  I bent over to scold them but instead scolded myself.  Under the chairs, with a basket of flicker lights sat my 7 and 5 year old making a cross and having a worship service all their own.  It was then and there that I decided to be more intentional about not just bringing children to worship, but to find ways to help them fully participate in worship in meaningful, age-appropriate ways.

Join me on this journey as we together discover what it means to open our hearts, minds, sanctuaries and worship services to even the youngest of our worshipers.