Four Men in a Sleigh

December 15, 2005 kensapp Leave a comment

Materials
One chair for each person and a couch (sleigh). Four chairs can be used to replace the couch if you don’t have one available. Decorate the couch (or four chairs) like “Santa’s Sleigh.” There should also be one extra chair.

Game Setup
1. This game requires 10 or more people to work. Set up requires that there be one more chair than people and the name of each person playing written on a piece of paper. Place the chairs in a circle and the couch on one side of the circle.
2. Divide the group into 2 teams that can easily be identified (e.g. girls against guys, or those wearing glasses against those not.) If you want, distinguish one group by making them wear red Santa red hats or some other means of easy identification.

Game Play
1. Have everyone sit on the chairs making sure two of each team is sitting in the “sleigh”. Mix up and then pass out the papers with the names giving one to each person.
2. To win the game, a team must have 4 of their players sitting in the “sleigh.” This is accomplished by having the person on the right of the empty chair call out a name. The person with that name on their piece of paper moves to the empty chair and then exchanges the name paper with the person that called him/her. The person to the right of the new empty chair is the next person to call a name and exchange with the person who will move to the empty chair.

The game gets confusing trying to track who has what name and how to move the opposite team off of the “sleigh” and to get your team mates there.

Variation
Instead of a “sleigh” label the couch the stable. Then inform the team that the first to get four wisemen to the stable wins. (There may have been more than 3 wisemen, although only three gifts are mentioned in scripture.)

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Food for Thought

Like a Stable

December 15, 2005 kensapp Leave a comment

Human nature is like a stable inhabited by the ox of passion and the ass of prejudice; animals which take up a lot of room and which I suppose most of us are feeding on the quiet. And it is there between them, pushing them out, that Christ must be born and in their very manger he must be laid – and they will be the first to fall on their knees before him. Sometimes Christians seem far nearer to those animals than to Christ in his simple poverty, self-abandoned to God.

Author: Evelyn Underhill

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Game Ideas

Christmas Confusion

December 15, 2005 kensapp Leave a comment

Materials
One copy of the list for each person. Modify the list as needed.

Game Play
1. Find someone to autograph your list for each of the following items. The qualification or action must be completed before the person can sign. You may also choose to limit the number of times a person can sign each list.
2. First person to complete the list gets the prize.

Christmas Confusion
1. Get five autographs 1)____________________ 2)_____________________ 3)___________________
4)___________________ 5) ____________________

2. Find three other people and sing together, “We wish you a Merry Christmas”
Initial each other’s paper here 1)___________ 2)___________ 3)___________

3. Tell someone the names of 6 of Santa’s reindeer then have that person initial here 1)___________

4. You play Santa Claus. Find someone else and ask him/her what he/she wants for Christmas. Give a hearty “Ho, Ho, Ho” and have him or her initial here 1)___________

5. Pick the ornament on a Christmas tree which you like best. Find someone else and give them a 15 second speech on why you like that ornament then have them initial here 1)___________

6. You are Ebenezer Scrooge. Find someone and ask them to wish you a Merry Christmas. When they do, say “Bah, Humbug!” ten times while jumping up and down. Then have that person initial here 1)___________

7. You are a toy soldier in the nutcracker ballet. Find someone to pantomime winding you up. Then march across the room and back. Have them initial here 1)___________

8. You are an angel. Find three fearful shepherds and In your loudest and most majestic voice say “Do not be afraid. I bring you tidings of great joy that shall be to all people.” Have the shepherd initial here 1)___________ 2)___________ 3)___________

9. Find someone of the opposite sex and have them whistle one verse of “away in a manger” to you. Have that person initial here 1)___________

10. Find someone and have them squeak like a mouse. Then say “It was the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.” Have them initial here 1)___________

11. Find three people and sing with a lisp”All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.”
1)___________ 2)___________ 3)___________

12. Find someone and have them write the best Christmas gift they ever got here _________________________________________________________

13. Find someone and have them write the craziest gift they ever got here
_________________________________________________

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Teaching Illustrations

Joseph’s Lullaby

December 15, 2005 kensapp Leave a comment

Sleep now, little one.
I’ll watch while you and your mother sleep.
I wish I could do more.
This straw is not good enough for you.
Back in Nazareth I’ll make a proper bed for you
of seasoned wood, smooth, strong, well-pegged.
A bed fit for a carpenter’s son.

Just waith till we get back to Nazareth.
I’ll teach you everything I know.
You’ll learn to choose the cedar wood, eucaylyptus and fir.
You’ll learn to use the drawshave, ax and saw.
Your arms will grow strong, your hands rough – like these.
You will bear the pungent smell of new wood
and wear shavings and sawdust in your hair.

You’ll be a man whose life centers
on hammer and nails and wood.
But for now,
Sleep, little Jesus, sleep.

Author: Ronald Allan Klug

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Game Ideas

Name that Christmas Tune

December 14, 2005 kensapp Leave a comment

Can you name the Christmas Tune?
1. Move hitherward the entire assembly of those who are loyal in their belief.
2. Listen, the celestial messengers produce harmonious sounds.
3. Nocturnal timespan of unbroken quietness
4. An emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good given to the terrestrial sphere.
5. Embellish the interior passageways
6. Exalt heavenly beings to whom harkened.
7. 12 o’clock on a clement night witnessed its arrival
8. The Christmas preceding all others
9. Small municipality in Judea southeast of Jerusalem
10. Diminutive, masculine master of skin covered percussionistic cylinders
11. Omnipotent supreme being who elicits respite to ecstatic distinguished mails.
12. Tranquility upon the terrestrial sphere
13. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystals of H2O
14. Expectation of arrival to populated area by mythical, masculine perennial gift giver.
15. Natal celebration devoid of color, rather albino, as a hallucinatory phenomenon for me.
16. In awe of the nocturnal timespan characterized by religiosity.
17. Geographic state of fantasy during the season of mother nature’s dormancy
18. The first person nominative plural of the triumvirate of far eastern heads of state.
19. In a distant location the existence of an improvised unit of newborn children’s slumber furniture.
20. Titinnabulation of vacillating pendulums in inverted, metallic, resonant cups.
21. Proceed forth declaring upon a geological alpine formation
22. Jovial yuletide desired for the second person singular plural by us.

Answers
1. O Come all ye Faithful; 2. Hark, The Herald Angels Sing; 3. Silent Night; 4. Joy to the World, 5. Deck the Halls; 6. Angels we have heard on High; 7. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear; 8. The First Noel; 9. O Little Town of Bethlehem 10. Little Drummer Boy; 11. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen 12. Peace on Earth; 13. Frosty the Snowman; 14. Santa Claus is Coming to Town; 15. I’m Dreaming of a a White Christmas; 16. O Holy Night; 17. Winter Wonderland; 18. We Three Kings; 19. Away in a Manger; 20. Jingle Bells; 21. Go Tell it on the Mountain; 22. We Wish You a Merry Christmas

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Game Ideas

Snowball fight II

December 14, 2005 kensapp Leave a comment

Materials
Old Newspaper

Game Play
Someone stands with his back to the group. Then a bean bag, pillow or some similar soft object (called this the snowball) is passed about the group, and someone is designated from the group to throw the object at the person whose back is turned. As soon as he is hit he turns around and tries to guess, by examining the expressions on the faces of those before him, who it was who hit him. If he guesses correctly that person becomes the next target of the snowball. If not, he turns back around and tries again.

Variation
If you are in an area with snow, why not play outside with real snowballs!

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Evangelism Ideas

The Stranger

December 14, 2005 kensapp Leave a comment

At Christmas time there was a man who looked so out of place,
As people rushed about him at a hurried sort of pace.
He stared at all the Christmas lights, the tinsel everywhere,
The shopping center, Santa Claus, with children gathered near.
The mall was packed with shoppers, who were going to and fro,
Some with smiles and some with frowns and some too tired to go.
They rested on the benches or they hurried on their way,
To fight the crowd for purchases to carry home that day.

The music from a stereo was playing loud and clear,
Of Santa Claus and snow men and funny-nosed reindeer.
He heard the people talk about the good times on the way,
Of parties, fun and food galore and gifts exchanged that day.
“I’d like to know what’s going on,” the man was heard to say,
“There seems to be some sort of celebration on the way.
“And would you tell me who this is, all dressed in red and white?
“And why are children asking him about a special night?”

The answer came in disbelief,– “I can’t believe my ear!
I can’t believe that you don’t know that Christmas time is here.
The time when Santa Claus comes around with gifts for girls and boys,
When they’re asleep on Christmas Eve, he leaves them books and toys.”
“The man you see in red and white is Santa Claus, so sly,
The children love his joyful laugh and twinkle in his eye!
His gift-packed sleigh is pulled along by very small reindeer,
As he flies quickly through the air, while darting there and here.

The children learn of Santa Claus while they are still quite small,
When Christmas comes he is the most important one of all!”
The stranger hung his head in shame, he closed a nail-pierced hand,
His body shook in disbelief, and he did not understand.
A shadow crossed his stricken face, His voice was low but clear:
“After all these years, they still don’t know …”

And Jesus shed a tear.

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Devotional

Little Town of Bethlehem

December 14, 2005 kensapp Leave a comment

Read Micah 5:2,4-5

The wisemen followed the star to Bethlehem. In Joshua 15, the cities of the land were divided among the tribes of Israel. Bethlehem, however, was too small and insignificant to be mentioned. Although it was “too little to be among the clans,” God selected it to hold the honor of being the birthplace of the Messiah.

God demonstrates his use of the weak and foolish to be the source of his mightiest works. Great things do come in small packages. Just as Bethlehem was considered insignificant, so perhaps did the people consider the infant Jesus as an unlikely candidate for the Messiah.

Yet, within the being of the gentle baby Jesus, resided the glory and majesty of the great Triune God. The Word of God, in communion with the Father and the Spirit in eternity past, did not burst forth into history with great fanfare, but amidst the sounds of common animals in their stalls.

Thus, when Satan and his minions seek to trample and invade our lives, we have only to remember that in the darkest night, there is a bright star, indeed the Morning Star, who pierces the darkness to say that “in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

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Teaching Illustrations

Christmas Envelope

December 14, 2005 kensapp Leave a comment

It’s just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so.

It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas—oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it -overspending…the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma—the gifts given in desperation because you couldn’t think of anything else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.

Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended; and shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church, mostly black. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes.

As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light
helmet designed to protect a wrestler’s ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford. Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn’t acknowledge defeat.

Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, “I wish just one of them could have won,” he said. “They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.”

Mike loved kids-all kids-and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That’s when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church.

On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition—one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before
Christmas, and on and on.

The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.

As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn’t end there.

You see, we lost Mike last year due to dreaded cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning, it was joined by three more.

Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope. Mike’s spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us.

May we all remember Christ, who is the reason for the season, and the true Christmas spirit this year and always.

Source: Unknown

Game Ideas

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

December 13, 2005 kensapp Leave a comment

Materials
Long candy (Taffy, licorice,and even a long candy cane), Song: “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause”

Activity
Each team sends up 2 representatives. While the song is playing, each duo will be a given a long piece of candy. The aim is to finish eating the candy without using their hands. First duo to finish wins. The fun comes in when the candy is almost finished and they try to finish it off without kissing.

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