Ideas that children can do before the programme starts. Suitable for children's work, where children gradually trickle in.

Today we will focus on the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. This story revolves around a wedding feast. Apart from the serious message of shining your light, it is also a festive story, hence the decorated cakes.

What do you need:

- cakes
- fun / tasty things to decorate the cakes with
- whipped cream
- plates and forks

Ask the children who come in to help you decorate the cakes. You might then be able to eat these cakes together at the end of your story.

What happens if you multiply your own money?

In today's parable, an important person gives money to his servants with the instruction to multiply this money. This is an exciting form of work in which you invest in children in a very practical way, with the hope that it will generate something for a good cause.

What you need:

- money

What do you do:

Do:
After you have told the children the story about the talents, give them all 50 cents or 50 pence, or one dollar or pound or maybe five dollars or pounds (depending on your budget...).
Ask them to do something with this talent to see if they can multiply it. All the money they get from this goes to charity. They are not 'allowed' to put the money in a piggy bank or spend it on sweets for themselves! The intention is that in the coming week they will do something with this talent, with this money, to multiply it.

Exciting...

Any children’s worker can tell the parable of the Prodigal Son using  the Gospel magic trick of the Dean’s Box

For this you can use the Dean’s box magic trick. I bought mine very cheaply through Alibaba Express. The only problem was that it didn’t come with any explanation as to how the trick works. If you choose yours through Alibaba Express you can send me an email and I will send you a video in which I explain how the trick works. It looks great and it is very easy to do!

Ask two children to come forward as volunteers. Give them each a coloured rope to inspect. The yellow rope symbolises the father The red rope symbolises the son The red wooden box symbolises the house of the father.

The father reconciles himself with his son and they are united! The ropes are stuck together.

But how is this possible?

To explain this you need an energy stick from idea 198. You ask your two volunteers to take hold of the silver ending on the energy stick with one hand. Ask if you are allowed to touch their noses and when you do the energy stick will come alive. This will give a laugh. Especially when they are allowed to touch your nose with their other hand. You explain how the energy stick works with a small current of electricity that we cannot see or feel, but flows through us. It connects us. This is the same with Jesus. You cannot see or feel him, but he connects us with God.

Put the ropes back in the box, tie them on the top to the energy stick, pull the ropes and they are back together again. Amazing!

Make sure your two volunteers get a big round of applause before they leave the stage.

Watch the demonstration video

You can see me doing a full demonstration of this story and magic trick in the video below.

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