10 Lepers

Craft Idea

Summary of Lesson Activities:

Making Thank You cards.

Scripture: Luke 17: 11-19

Supplies: 

• bible and/or storybook about the Ten Lepers
• card stock (different colors – or construction paper),
• fine and wide tip colored markers,
• stickers,
• decorative punches,
• stamps,
• envelopes,
• address books (church directory, phone book, etc.)

Ahead of Time: 

• contact the kids/parents to bring a name & address of someone to who they will be sending a thank you card.
• Gather the materials.

Presentation

Opening-Welcome and Lesson Introduction:

Greet the children and introduce yourself.

Open with a prayer.

Dig-Main Content and Reflection:

• Has anyone ever done something nice for you?
• Who was it? (Could be a grandparent, mom, dad, pastor, teacher, neighbor, friend, stranger, etc)
• What was the nice deed? (Took you to your practice, comes to your games, made your favorite meal, helped with your homework, took you to the doctor, brings you to Sunday school, etc)

Today we are making Thank You cards for someone that has done something nice for you. You will have to make a decision about who will receive the card. I want you to put some thought into this. We will put the addresses on them today and I will mail them soon. (Hopefully most will already know to who they are sending this.)

Why do you think we are doing this activity with this rotation? What does the healing of the 10 lepers have to do with our thank you cards? (Jesus did something nice for the 10 lepers, yet only one of them came back to say thank you. We don’t want to act like the 9 that forgot. We want to mind our manors and say thank you for the good things in our lives.)

Read: The Story of the Ten Lepers (older children can read the scripture directly from the bible (Luke 17: 11-19) / for younger children use an illustrated storybook or story bible).

Make ‘Thank You’ Cards

• Select card stock paper that fits your envelopes
• Cards can be folded in half or in thirds.
• Decorate the cards (decorative punches, add on stickers or silk flower petals, etc.)
• Write your thank you in the card (Be specific so the person knows what this is about.)
• Place the thank you in the envelope.

May want to add a small piece of paper with an explanation 

“Our Sunday school class is studying about ‘Healing and the 10 Lepers’ – Luke 17: 11-19. Only one of the lepers came back to Jesus to say thank you. We are encouraging our kids to be grateful, whether it is to Jesus or to others on earth.”

• On the envelope, add the mailing address, return address (child’s address) & a stamp.
• The teacher will mail these the next day. (May need to call parents for some addresses.) 

Discussion (To be used while they are working – as needed)

• Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem. What is Jerusalem? A city/town. Often called the Holy City. The Holy Temple was built in Jerusalem.
• What is leprosy – a leper? A person with a skin disease. Reddish-white patches, oozing sores, an infection. Probably contagious.
• Why did the lepers have to live alone, outside of the village? He was unclean, was contagious/afraid of spreading germs.
• Have you ever felt alone? How do you handle it? What do you do to feel better?
• If someone walked by, what did the leper have to yell? ‘Unclean’ – this alerted the healthy person to stay away.
• Why did the 10 lepers seek out Jesus to heal them? They had heard of His miracles. Knew Jesus had special powers. Hoped Jesus could heal them.
• What do you do to seek out Jesus?
• Why do you think one man came back to say thank you? Was grateful
• Why do you think the other 9 lepers left without saying thank you? Ran to their families. Were so excited. Didn’t care. Were ungrateful
• What is one way you are like the 9 lepers – ungrateful.
• What is one way you are like the 1 leper – grateful.
• Tell of one improvement you can do in the ‘grateful’ department. How will you improve being thankful. 

Have each child tell who they are sending a card to and why – don’t force them.

Closing:

End with a prayer.

A lesson posted by member Rachel Haugland from:  Elim Lutheran

Randall, IA

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