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Gift of Christmas Event

St. John Lutheran Church

Cooking Station

 Station Summary

An angel will tell the Bible story from his/her point of view.  The children will then put together snack bags where each ingredient stands for a different part of the story. 


Preparation

Pray for the children and for your teaching of the lesson.

 Materials List:

  • Costume for the storyteller (an angel)
  • Script for storyteller (see lesson)
  • All-purpose cleanser
  • Paper towels
  • Hand sanitizer
  • Sandwich bags (zip-lock variety)
  • SOUR gummy worms
  • Bugles snack food
  • Fruit roll-ups (cut into smaller pieces)
  • Shredded Wheat cereal (with frosting, not plain)
  • Mini-marshmallows
  • Mini candy canes
  • Starburst candies--individually wrapped
  • Rolos (with the gold wrappers)--are OK for kids with peanut allergies
  • Pretzel sticks
  • Lifesaver candies--individually wrapped
  • Paper bowls to put the various ingredients in
  • Food prep gloves (will need to be used with any ingredient that doesn't have a wrapping on it)
  • Snack Mix Recipe--to put in children's gift bags (see end of lesson)

Advance Preparation:

  • Make copies of the recipe and cut apart--one for each student. 
  • Cut the fruit roll-ups into smaller pieces.

Before Class Starts:

  • Wipe the tables down with all-purpose cleanser and paper towels.
  • Put the various ingredients--each into a different bowl.  You will be teaching this class multiple times during the afternoon, so ration the ingredients a bit so that they will last (if you put ALL the Hershey's kisses out for the first group, they might not leave many for the later groups!)
  • Make sure that all of the children (and helpers) wash their hands with the hand sanitizer. 

Bible Story / Monologue 

The Bible story will be told by one of the persons in the Bible story (a volunteer in costume).  This may or may not be the same person as the teacher.  They need to get their costume before the day of the event.  Practice the script so that you can tell it with meaning and emotion.  It would be nice to have it memorized, but it is OK to have it there to refer to. 

 If the storyteller is NOT the teacher, then they will remain in the class as one of the helpers.

 The story for this activity station will be told by an angel: See end of lesson for the monologue.


Activity

If you were NOT the storyteller, then introduce yourself to the children.  Open with a prayer:  Dear God.  Thank you for giving us the Bible so that we can learn all about your message of good news--that Jesus came to be our Savior.  Amen.

Say:  An angel is a messenger from God, which means that they have something to say that God wants them to tell.  We are going to be making a snack mix and IT is going to be a message.  Every ingredient has something to tell about the story of Jesus' birth and life.

Note:  As you talk about one ingredient and its meaning, you will have one student come up and get the bowl with that ingredient.  They will put that ingredient in each of the other students' sandwich bags while you are talking.  It will be easier to have the students use their hands (as opposed to serving utensils) so have the student doing the distribution put on a plastic glove before they do their part (unless that ingredient has a wrapper--like the Hershey kisses).  If you have more students than ingredients, you might want to assign two students to share in some of the ingredients.  If there are more ingredients than kids, perhaps the classroom helpers could hand some of the ingredients out.

Go in this order with the ingredients:

  1. Hand out a sandwich bag to each student.
  2. Hand out one sour gummy worm per student.  Say:  When God first made the world, everything was good and sweet and perfect.  Including the first people--Adam and Eve--who lived in the Garden of Eden.  Then the devil--in the form of a snake--came into the garden and tempted Adam and Eve to do the wrong thing.  Ever since then people have been doing bad things called sins.  Things were no longer sweet but sour, like these gummy snakes.  Because of our sins, we are lost.  But God wants us to be back in His family, so God came up with a plan.  He sent Jesus to save us!
  3. Hand out several Bugles.  Say: These bugles are like trumpets.  In olden days, they might play a trumpet before making an important announcement.  One day, an angel came to a young lady named Mary with a VERY important announcement.  The angel told Mary that SHE was a part of God's plan to save us from our sins.  She was going to have a baby who would be both God AND human.  His name would be Jesus.  People had been waiting thousands of years for this to happen.
  4. Hand out one piece of fruit roll-ups.  Say:  Mary and her husband Joseph traveled to a town named Bethlehem.  It was time for Mary to have her baby, but all of the inns were full.  So they ended up in a stable--kind of like a barn.  Baby Jesus was born right there.  They didn't have any baby clothes, so Mary wrapped her baby in some cloths--maybe not as colorful as these fruit roll-ups.
  5. Hand out several shredded mini-wheats.  Say:  If you crumbled these up, they might look a little like hay.  There was no crib in the stable.  So Mary put the baby Jesus in a manger filled with hay.  A manger is what cows and oxen would eat out of. 
  6. Hand out a few mini-marshmallows.  Say: That night, there were sheep out in the fields.  These marshmallows look a little like sheep.
  7. Hand out a mini-candy cane.  Say:  The sheep weren't out there by themselves.  There were shepherds taking care of them.  Shepherds often carried a crook, shaped a bit like these candy canes.  Shepherds were not very important people, but they were about to receive some VERY important news.  If you turn the candy cane the OTHER way, it looks like the letter "J" which stands for Jesus.
  8. Hand out a few more Bugles.  Say:  Yes, the trumpets again.  An angel appeared to the shepherds and said "Fear not!  I am bringing you good news! For unto you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."  The shepherds were so excited that the Savior Jesus--who would save them from their sins--had been born.  They rushed off to find the baby Jesus, so that they could worship Him. 
  9. Hand out a Starburst candy piece.  Say:  Mary and Joseph and Jesus lived in Bethlehem for a time.  God wanted to make sure that even MORE people knew that the Savior Jesus had been born.  So God put a special star up in the sky.  Some Magi--or wisemen--saw that star up in the sky and knew that it meant something very special.  They traveled for a very long time.
  10. Hand out three Hershey's kisses.  Say: When the wise men reached Bethlehem, the star led them to the house where Jesus was living.  They came in and bowed down and worshipped Him.  They also brought him some gifts--although they probably weren't wrapped up like these kisses or the gifts that we give at Christmas. 
  11. Hand out several pretzel sticks.  Say: Jesus did not stay a baby.  God had sent Him to do a job--to save us from our sins. We all sin and do bad things.  Jesus NEVER sinned.  Even though He never sinned, He took the punishment for OUR sins.  [Hold 2 pretzels in the shape of a cross]. He died on a cross, which is a horrible way to die.  Three days later, He became alive again.  He did all this for you and for me.
  12. Hand out several Lifesaver pieces.  Say:  Jesus is our Lifesaver--He died and rose again to save us from our sins.  Everyone who believes in Jesus is saved from their sins and is a part of God's family.  Everyone who believes in Jesus will be in heaven one day with Him. 

Say:  So there is the story of Jesus and what He did for you and for me.  You can take these snacks home and use all of the ingredients to tell your family about Jesus.  If there is time, the children may have a little bit of their snack.  Hold up various ingredients and ask the children what it stands for.


Gift Bag

Each child has their own gift bag to put the various items they collect in each of the stations.  The group's helper will have all of the bags on a tray.  At the end of class have each child put the following item(s) in their own gift bag:

  • The remainder of their snack (sealed up!)
  • The recipe explaining what all of the ingredients represent

 


Age Adaptations

  1. Older students:  None
  2. Younger students:  The teacher and helper may want to hand out most of the ingredients.  Perhaps the students could come up and take those ingredients that don't require a glove.

 


Turnaround Time

(You will have just a few minutes before the next group arrives.)

  1. Wipe up any spills.
  2. Refill ingredient bowls as needed.

 


Resources/Bibliography

Moore, B. "Birth Narrative - Cooking Lesson." December 2006. https://www.rotation.org/topic...8#295011598215979188

 A lesson written by Cathy Walz and Amy Hodges from
St. John Lutheran Church, Forest Park, IL. 2014.

 



 Script for Angel

 

When performing these, the most important thing is to speak slowly.  Practice in front of someone and have them time you. It should NOT be any shorter than 3 minutes (or much longer than 5).

(note to guides:  you may pretend to be startled as you enter the room, when you see the angel.  Though the Bible shows people responding in initial fear upon encountering an angel, particularly if there are younger children we don't want them to be afraid.)

(responding to the surprise of the people entering)  Did you not expect to see an angel here?  There is no need to be afraid.  I know that seeing an angel could be a frightening thing; in fact, that is how people usually respond when they see an angel.  But do not worry; I will do you no harm. 

Did you know that the word angel means messenger?  Angels carry out God's commands, many times they are recorded in the Bible bringing God's messages to His people.  I am God's messeger Gabriel.  My main job was one of preparation--getting people ready for the birth of a very special baby -- King Jesus. I was sent to give messages to several people you may have heard of before; in fact, I think a few of them are even here today.  I had to tell them not to be afraid too, and to share with them the promises of God.  I could start by telling you a bit about some of these preparations.

Let's see; the preparations started long before the baby Jesus was born.  They started all the way back in the beginning when people first sinned against God and needed rescuing by a Savior in the first place.  God told the first people, Adam and Eve, that he would send One who would defeat sin and Satan, and restore the relationship with God that had been broken by Adam's sin, and the wrongs of all people who would be born after him.  From that promise long, long, ago began all of the waiting.  Waiting for the One who would rescue people and make things right again between God and man. 

There were many prophets along the way, men who spoke from God to tell the consequences of sin and the need each man has to turn their hearts from wrong to follow God . . . prophets whose job was to get people ready for Jesus.  I was given the job to tell a man that his child was to be the last of these prophets before Jesus was born.  Like others who see me, he was afraid.  I told him not to fear and that Jesus was sent "to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."  How exciting to see God preparing the world for the birth of His Son Jesus!

 I also went to visit a young woman named Mary, to tell her that she would be the mother of God's Promised One.  I explained that her pregnancy wouldn't come about from anything she had done, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.  She would have a son, and was to name Him Jesus.  She responded just like the others; she was afraid too.  Perhaps you'll hear from her later, if you have not already.  You might hear from Joseph too, how I needed to give him the message not to be afraid as well.  So much fear, doubt, and questions . . . yet the words of God were coming true--the Word became flesh and dwelt among us  -- that is Jesus!  God was coming to earth as a baby! 

I wonder if you would have doubted the birth of this very special baby?  I wonder if you would have recognized what it was that He was doing.  Because God's plan didn't look like what everone might have expected.  It wasn't just to have a little baby born into the world, but to send a Savior, a rescuer. 

As the baby Jesus grew up into a boy, and then a man, many people forgot, or missed, what it was that God was doing.  Jesus NEVER sinned or did wrong.  When he grew up he did amazing things among the people, healing the sick, performing miracles, and seeing multitudes of people beginning to follow him.  Some forgot the amazing birth, and denied that Jesus could be anyone special.  Yet there were many who saw what he did and began to wonder if this WAS the great Messiah, the Rescuer that God had promised from back in the beginning.

Just as many were beginning to follow Jesus, things began to look as though they were going wrong.  You see, this amazing miracle worker, Jesus, was accused by the Jewish religious leaders and arrested by the Roman government . . . and then he was crucified.  He DIED on a cross and was laid in a tomb.  This is not what people expected of the one they were looking to save them. So people wondered, and they were afraid.  We angels were given another job to remind people not to be afraid, and to trust in God. 

 Three days after Jesus was killed, some women came to the tomb to visit the grave site, and were afraid when they found that Jesus' body was not there.  So the angels asked them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?  He is not here, but is risen.  Remember how he told you that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again?"

The message we proclaimed about this special baby and his birth, wasn't really complete without the message of what the child would do when he grew up.  Part of defeating sin meant that someone would need to die for the wrongs of all people.  And just like when he was a baby, people were afraid at first. 

The angels came to tell people not to be afraid, and to remind them that God's work was being done, this time to point out not the little baby, but the grown Savior who died and rose again.

Dear ones, we need not fear, and know that God keeps His promises.  Know that the waiting for God's Messiah to appear is over!  He was born, died for the sins of the whole world, and rose again. 

But the story still isn't over.  The waiting has begun again.  This time the world is waiting for him to return, to bring to heaven all those who have trusted in his promises, and put a final end to sin.  I wonder if you will believe, and wait with me and all the other angels? 

 I must go, but thank you for hearing some of my stories.

Last edited by Luanne Payne
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