Chadder's Theater

During VBS this week I have been the host of Chadder's Theater for the Elementary age kids. Now... you might think that showing the same video over and over all night could be pretty boring...and I must admit after the second time I could practically say the lines myself. I tried hard to come up with object lessons so the kids could get a handle on the nights theme with. It isn't always the easiest thing to do when you are teaching kids from 1st through 5th grade!

Yesterday's lesson was about Christ's resurrection. I knew that they kids would be getting a lesson at "Wild Bible Adventure" that would make an impression on them. I wanted to be able to carry that forward. After an internet search I found the comparison of a tea bag to Christ's life and what his resurrection means to our lifes.

Yes... you read right... a tea bag. This was really cool... The tag on the bag is a label, and Christ had many labels in his life... King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Savior, Redeemer, Messiah and friend to name a few. His cross also bore a label... King of the Jews... and it was used to mock him during his final hours.

The string of the bag is what ties us to our earthly possessions... games, money, TV, video games etc.. the things that tempt us away from time with God... Christ was tempted to... after 40 days in the desert, he was tempted by Satan... and Christ won...so can we!!

The staple used to hold the bag together reminds us that Christ's body was pierced for our sins...

The tea leaves are our sins... they look dirty and when placed in hot water they soon drift to the bottom... kind of like sin that isn't repented of soon drifts into the bottom of our hearts. There it stays and continues to discolor our lives much the same way the tea discolors the water it is placed in.

The empty bag is our lives after the sins has been removed... clean and pure... ready to be filled with God's love.

Once we have repented of our sins and have given our lives to Christ we need to bring this new light in our lives to the world. At that point in the lesson I set the small bag on fire and it immediately became a pile of ashes... just like our sins do when we give them to Christ... they are destroyed and no longer exist in our lives.

Then I sent the kids to smaller groups with their leaders and had each leader place an X in the palm of each child's hand. Calling each child by name they were told that Jesus Christ died for their sins. After reflecting on the x's I then told them that Christ died for each one of them...not because he had to...but because he WANTED to. That he took nails in is palms where their x's were so that they didn't have to... and that all he wanted in return was their love...

Now I have to tell you...this was really lost on most of the classes...but the fifth graders???? They got it. And before I knew it two of the boys were opening up about family members that didn't believe... and one told of a relative who was in jail... we took a few more requests and then we went to prayer asking God for a light to shine through these two young men so that they could be an example to their families of all that God has to offer.

It doesn't get any better than that at VBS... knowing that these two young boys felt comfortable enough to share their worries... and that over the course of the week they had seen enough Jesus in the workers at VBS to know that their worries would be welcomed and that we would gladly help them share the burden.

Thanks to Rick and Chad...their leaders for the week... for being a true light to your group... great job!!!!! And a pat on the back to all involved... VBS was great and I am sure that the closing program tonight will be tremendous!!!!!