rainy Saturday and the red door...

Every curious about how stage designs get done?
This is part of our Creative Team, who gathered on a rainy Saturday to prepare a stage/set design to support an in house sketch written for Easter Sunday. We had a really great time!


Here is the actual performance from Easter.

And this is what the stage looked like on the morning of Easter.

Last, but not least this is the image that was created for our newspaper ads. Love it!

I spend a LOT of my Saturdays, preparing the various elements for the stage design each week. Trust me they don't just magically appear.

bronze planters, l.c.d. votives & little lambies…

Stuffing a a cute lillte lambie in the brazen alter? What in the world? LOL. Yep that is what I did. For our next set of lessons, I went to the Dollar Store again, and looked around for various individual pieces that we could use to interact with.
Over the next three weeks, we broke down the individual pieces of the tabernacle. The goal was to create child friendly pieces for the children to interact with. I broke the lessons down in the same order I did the first week. Outer court, inner court and Holiest of Holies.
Each week we would talk about what would happen at each place in the tabernacle and how it relates to things we do today.

We had rubberized mats with outlines of the tabernacle elements.
1. A bronze planter represented the brazen alter.
We talked about the difference between a sacrificial offering and a thanks offering.
2. A stuffed lamb to represent the unblemished animal that was sacrificed on the brazen alter.
We talked about the link between the unblemished lamb used for the sacrifice – to how Jesus was considered to be the “Perfect Lamb of God”. I found it to be very interesting that they actually got that concept. Never underestimate the mind of a child.
3. A plastic bowl was the laver. (painted bronze).
4. An L.C.D. votive light stood in for the lampstand.
5. We used an actual small incense burner (painted gold) for the incense alter.
6. Painted a little cardboard container gold with 12 round pieces of brown felt to symbolize the showbread table.
7. Then Gold angels on a stick, to be a symbol for the Ark of the Covenant. We have been talking about how Holiest of Holies was the place where God rested with the Israelites. But, no one had access there, since God was so Holy and people were not.

And the very last piece was a simple paper towel. With Easter coming in two weeks, we discussed how the Perfect Lamb of God, died on the cross. But the real miracle that happened was at that very moment, the veil in the temple tore in half. (I didn’t go into the difference between the tabernacle and the temple). Allowing everyone access to be in relationship with God. Then we ripped the paper towel in half. They got it! They got it!

Each week, we sang and had coloring sheets. The last photos in the slideshow: I had printed as photos that the children had more realistic images of what we had been talking about, wth the name written on the back. Sort of like flashcards. At the end everyone went home with a red bucket and pieces for our own tabernacle set, including the very loved lambie. Even the youngest children (18 months & 2 years old), were able to place the pieces of the tabernacle where they belonged. It was really cool.

It was really fun for me that each week during the adult series in Psalms, a reference would be made in the message on the exact portion of the tabernacle study I was working on with the children. How cool is that!
This is the end of our 5 week study. I look forward to doing it again.

Palm Sunday 2011

Simple, simple, simple.
We focused on corporate communion.
These more traditional liturgical banners were created by the wonderful Emily Firestone. She is the lady who God sent - as an answer to prayer for someone who could sew.
It all started with the fact that we were celebrating a Messianic Passover with one of our sister congregations Kehilat Sar Shalom for the second year. We were needing some type of space design for the venue of this event.
So we created the idea of emphasizing the communion elements. They were sewn by Emily.

When the banners were finished, we realized that they would be perfect for our Palm Sunday.
So they were used twice.

turning dollhouse furniture into the tabernacle...

How do you turn dollhouse furniture into mini-models replicating the O.T. tabernacle? I just finished teaching the second session of the pre-school Bible study. For the first week’s lesson, I created a mini-tabernacle made from cut up doll house furniture and other random items.

You are able to actually purchase a Tabernacle Model Kit for $49 plus shipping/handling. It looks nice. But I didn’t feel that would work, since I like to send the children home with items they are able to interact with and tell the story over and over again.
I had an idea of what shapes I am looking for. Have some thoughts on where I could find the various items. Like for the tabernacles articles. I thought it might be good to go to Michael’s and look for doll house furniture that could be taken apart and used in pieces.

Then I went shopping. Went to Michael’s, then Wal-Mart & World Market.
Michael’s I found several pieces of doll house furniture, mini-angels. Wal-Mart: wooden dowels, shapes & glue. Found the bowl for laver at World Market.

Next I cut up the furniture, took off the metal hardware, painted and then reassembled.

I found a really cool laminated brochure that I used.
For the lesson, I explained each item in the tabernacle, what it was used for and passed around the little models. I showed them where they went in the tabernacle, and what they were made of.

Outer Court (items made of bronze)
brazen alter
laver

Inner Court (items made of gold)
lampstand
alter of incense
table of shewbread (showbread)

Holiest of the Holies (cedar & gold)
Ark of the covenant.

Each week we sing our song “The More You Know the Bible”. This particular week we ended with the importance of praising and worshiping God. So we did just that.
We sang, danced and played instruments to:
“You’re Love Never Fails” (Jesus Culture)
“Praise Awaits You” (Matt Redman)
“Facedown” (Matt Redman)
The first and last songs are personal favorites of the children in the study.

So, there you have it.