10 August 2018

This month at Messy Church we looked at the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11). This sign validates Jesus’ claim in verse 25: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”

Wake Up Eyes

Jesus said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” (John 11:11) We made wide-awake eyes by decorating some table tennis balls with permanent pens, making a small hole in the bottom and inserting a LED tealight. They looked great in the dark!

Lazarus, Come Out!

We decorated matchboxes and stuck a little Lazarus on a spring. When the matchbox was opened, out came Lazarus! We got the springs from 10-colour ballpoint pens. We smashed the pens and got ten springs from each one. We glued one end of the spring into the matchboxes before the Messy Church so they would be firmly fixed for the activity.

Pebble Families

Lazarus was put into a tomb with a stone over the entrance and his sisters were very sad. We used stones to make pictures of our families.

LIFE Paintings

Jesus showed he is the resurrection and the life by raising Lazarus. We stuck masking tape on an artboard and painted over it. When the masking tape was removed (like removing Lazarus’ grave clothes) LIFE was revealed!

Planting Lavender

We bought some lavender plug plants and the children potted them up and took them home to watch them grow and burst into life.

Wrapped Up Bakes

The children made pastries for their tea. They cut a strip (about 10cm x 4cm) from pre-made puff pastry, covered it with chocolate spread and then ‘wrapped it up’ with smaller strips over the top. It was finished with edible icing eyes (from the supermarket). Something like this recipe.