first photo: ‘Lady Diana’ and the bearded dragon, Sahara.
second: ‘Lady Diana’, Princess Jaron, the snack server, and ‘Sir Sigmund’
third: ‘Mr. Aaron, the Director with ‘Lady Diana’
Ephesians 6:10-18 Finally brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate, of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel peace; above all taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
It turned out to be a fabulous week! Children from all over the area…about a hundred of them, were taught, hugged, fed, pampered and given the ‘good news of the Gospel of Jesus’ for 5 days!
It ran with precision, as many workers greeted the parents and kids, got their information, gave them the matching stickers, and sent the children off to the ‘castle’ where they had a fun time for instructions and lots of joy filled worship music.
The curriculum was from ‘Answers in Genesis’ and I felt it was one of the best programs I had ever used. Each day built on the last one with a lot of repetition so that the kids get the Word hidden deep inside their hearts.
My husband and I were in the part of the ‘castle’ called the ‘keep’. It was an entire castle theme called, “Keepers of the Kingdom”. God’s Kingdom-of course!
Each day the kids had a snack that the ‘snack crew’ fashioned to reflect the piece of armor or animal for that day. The sword was a pretzel stick with a grape stuck on the end. The shield was a cracker with a round slice of pepperoni and cheese slices crossed on top. The dragon was represented by fruit roll-ups for his tongue and bugle snacks for his eyes. Great fun for kids…great amount of work for the crew!
Crafts were no different. Each craft duplicated the piece of armor studied that day! The craft crew prepped, cut, helped the kids, and then kept track of every precious craft as it dried and was returned the to the child, to take home the next night.
Even the games reflected the armor and the animals as ‘hobby horse’ races were going on inside on a rainy day, and I was able to see them. The rest of the games were outside while I was inside teaching the lesson.
My husband, ‘Sir Sigmund’, myself, “Lady Diana’, and another helper, ‘Madam Lafonte’ stayed in the ‘keep’ and taught the lesson, the memory verse, and did a puppet skit to reinforce the truths in the Word, and a review with a different animal each night. One of the nights we talked about a dragon. A bearded dragon came to visit us! Check out my photo above.
It was an amazing week of a lot of prayer, preparation and then presentation. Lot’s of fun and truths that were invested into young lives. Through the teaching we encouraged them to keep the armor on. Also, they should always strive to be in the ‘Good Kingdom”. The places to look for answers when they have questions are; God, Jesus, Holy Spirit and the Bible. Once they are in the Good Kingdom, they should pray for, then tell their friends about the ‘Good Kingdom’ who are still in the ‘bad kingdom’, they can come into the “Good Kingdom’ too!
The week ended with a pie in the face for the 2 worship leaders! We also raised over $900. for our ‘Boy’s and Girl’s Missionary Challenge’.
HUGE THANK YOU TO AARON AND ROBIN LIPLES AND THE ENTIRE CAST AND CREW OF THIS MONUMENTAL EVENT! Your efforts changed lives…including mine!
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