Diocese of Peterborough
The idea for the board was adapted from an idea in Roots magazine; their idea was to have a real footpath set up in the corner of church. I decided to adapt this to give the children a project they could work on throughout lent, but in a more practical position. All of the adults mark Lent, but children rarely do, and I wanted to get them thinking about why they were Christians and what God meant to them in the run up to Easter.
The children worked on it every Sunday from the first Sunday of Lent, to Easter Sunday. Each one of them had the opportunity to add their own ideas and thoughts. However, they were also given prepared cut outs each week to write or draw on!
The whole thing was done with paper, paint and felt tips, with the exception of the crosses which were made from twigs - this meant that even the youngest children could take an active part. All of the congregation were invited to view the board at coffee time, and were told what had been added on that particular Sunday.
The first week the path was painted in, and the temptation area added; each child had to write or draw what tempted them. We then prayed for Gods guidance when we felt we were tempted in our prayer session. This was followed by hills being added, with the message - "I lift my eyes to the hills, does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord" . Rocks were then added. Some of these were blank to enable the children to write on them what they found hard in life, with the message "Lord help us to overcome with your help, the things we find hard in life".
The signposts represented blessings as we asked God to look after us as we travelled through Lent. The dove represented the Holy Sprit and the children had to write what God had helped them with, or what they needed Gods help with; with the prayer "Let the Holy Spirit help us to change something we don’t like about ourselves or the world".
The crosses were added for the crucifixion and I had to pop into church on Good Friday to put Jesus on the cross! On Palm Sunday a picture of Jesus on the donkey was placed on, and later a picture of Jesus carrying the cross.
On Easter Sunday we added the tomb and the children decorated the letters of Resurrection and coloured the flowers. Our under 7’s scrunched up tissue to make the beautiful sunshine, and then writing on speech bubbles or crosses the children added their ideas on the resurrection. The colours were kept bleak along the road to the crucifixion and then turned into a riot of colour to celebrate the resurrection.
The children seemed to get a lot out of doing this and we have had many positive comments from members of the congregation. It certainly achieved what we set out to do - keeping the children focussed throughout Lent, and helping them understand the different aspects of Lent. It is certainly something we will try again over a period in the church calendar, perhaps Advent.
Some of the children’s comments are:
Jacob: I had lots of fun making it!
David: It was nice to have a visual story to work on and build up each week.
Amber: I felt it was fun and it helped me remember that it was lent. I got a lot out of it and it helped me think about Jesus journey to the cross.
Isobel: I love the sunshine and flowers.
Some comments from the adults:
Jo: It is very impressive and dominates the church hall. I can see that the children have put in a tremendous amount of work and had thought hard about the different aspects.
Jayne: It was lovely reading the children’s ideas and opinions, and very interesting to see what they had written!
Rebecca Yates
March 2008
www.peterborough-stmarys.org.uk/