Jesus shows his care for special friends

Reading - John 11: 1 - 45

Kids Talk:

• How many of you have smelly feet at times? - Discuss
• Who in your family has the smelliest feet? What are the worst shoes they wear? - Discuss
• (Take along a smelly pair of shoes for the kids to smell)
• Now that smell might be bad, but the smell in the cave where they placed Lazarus would have been much worse.
• Lazarus had been dead for some days and each day the smell would have become worse
• The onlookers even warned Jesus this would have been the case
• But Jesus at this time was very very sad.
• Lazarus was one of his special friends, together with Mary and Martha
• He wept and wept with them in their sadness.
• He saw that their grief was so bad he felt he had to do something to help them
• That is when he called out to Lazarus to come out of the funeral cave.
• God make this happen and Lazarus came out of the cave with the funeral wrapping on him (Explain how they wrap the body and put embalming oil on the body)
• Being a friend of Jesus was something special in the 1st century and still is the case today
• Those of us who claim Jesus as a friend, and live our lives by his standards know how special this is.
• Let us say a short prayer of thanks to Jesus for being a special friend to us. (Compose a simple prayer)

Kids Church Activity:
Activity: To make the cave Lazarus was placed in

1 Have the children trace and cut one cave from a paper bag and one cave from construction paper using the pattern. They should glue them together with the paper bag side on top.
2 Allow the children to outline the cave with a black marker and write the memory verse on it.
3 Show how to cut a slot along the inside bottom rim of the tray, approximately 12cm long. Have the child set it aside.
4 Give each child a wooden clothespin. Show how to wrap white wool around the clothespin from the top to the bottom, leaving just the "head" and "feet" exposed.
5 The children should wrap several layers of wool around the clothespin and glue it in the back. Show how to glue a thin craft stick up inside the wool, leaving about 4cm extending down between the feet. Allow the children to draw two eyes on the "head" with a black marker.
6 Allow a couple of minutes for the clothespin to dry, then show how to slide Lazarus inside the foam tray with the craft stick inserted through the slot. #•
7. Show how to glue the cave to the outer rim of the tray, covering Lazarus.
8 Demonstrate how to slowly move Lazarus to appear in the doorway as the story is retold.

What you need to get ready:
Require: Template (Large version)
• cave pattern • brown paper bags • white wool
• thin craft sticks • glue • scissors • markers
• foam meat trays • wooden clothespin (not spring-type)
• construction paper

Children's activity that could be included in the newsletter this week for them to use during the service

The activity is related to the day's theme

Today you need to connect the dots to finish the picture and then colour it in

A simplified reading of the Gospel for today making it easier for children to comprehend.

If you have found these weekly Lent Pages helpful, you may like to consider signing up for the kid's church pages that are produced weekly throughout the year.

The cost is a very small 94¢ a week and contains a mountain of valuable resources.

Check out an overview of the pages at www.grassroots.com.au

THE SPECIAL KID'S CHURCH WEB SITE CONTAINS
• Weekly activities based on the Sunday Lectionary
• Theme days Eg: Pet Sunday, Mother/Father’s Day etc
• Numerous themes from previous weeks
• Simplified biblical stories for children
• Biblical reference of themes
• Powerpoint presentations
• Activity Work Books
• Newsletter activities
• Children’s Talks
• Scripture plays
• Craft activities
• Graphics

Plus other ministry resources for general parish needs.