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A Weekly Podcast for Bible Teachers

Published on by Mary3 Comments

Calling all Bible teachers…

Do you struggle to find time to prepare for your lessons?  I know I do.

I call myself a “Bible Teacher”, but sometimes, when I’m in a rush, I find myself spending less time studying the Bible and more time gathering craft supplies, planning activities, and preparing my classroom.  If I’m honest, I really want to study the Bible first and then get to the glitter and glue after that.

This is where the Bible, Glitter and Glue Podcast comes in. 

Each week we invite you to join two teachers as we study from the Bible and exchange ideas for creatively sharing God’s Word.  Episodes are 20-25 minutes in duration and directly connect with the bible lessons on this website. This means you can begin preparing for your class as you travel, while you are exercising, or as you are preparing dinner.

We’ve started at the beginning of the New Testament and our aim is to cover each of the 170 bible lessons on the website.  Check out some of our episodes below.

Podcast Co-Hosts

I’m so excited to be co-hosting a podcast with my husband, David. This is something new for both of us and we’ve been on a huge learning curve.

Mary (that’s me) is the founder of Mission Bible Class, a ministry that provides free resources to people who want to share stories from the Bible with children (that’s you).

Her interactive games, crafts, visual aids and teaching instructions are designed to be used without purchasing expensive supplies or printing volumes of paper.

 

David W. Nelson (that’s my husband) has been involved in Christian ministry for his entire adult life.  He has served as a preacher, a teacher, a missionary and an elder in his local church congregation.

David teaches various bible-related subjects at the South Pacific Bible College in Tauranga, New Zealand.  His qualifications include a Diploma of Preaching, a Bachelor of Religious Education, and a Master of Arts (Christian Ministry).

 

One Step at a Time Up to Mars Hill

Published on by MaryLeave a comment

2018 Mars Hill Steps

God has blessed me with an opportunity to travel through Greece over the next week. Along the way I’ll try to send some pictures and thoughts you might like to share with the children you teach.

Today I’m in Athens and typing this from the top of Mars Hill (the Areopagus).

There are ruins of temples in many places. Seeing all the temples around makes me really appreciate the Apostle Paul and how he stood on Mars Hill and shared the Good News of Christ with philosophers. You can read about that event here.

The steps leading up to the top of the rock have been worn smooth because of the millions of people who have climbed them over the years. I snapped a picture of my daughter-in-law, Olivia, climbing these treacherous steps today. These would have been the same stairs Paul would have climbed!

I think kids would enjoy scrambling over the huge rocks and picking the little yellow flowers growing between them.

2018 Mars Hill Flowers

I watched two little Arabic-speaking girls crying out “Abba, Abba” in worried voices to their dad as he leaned over a dangerous edge gathering two of the little flowers to give to them. They were all smiles when he was safely back with them and gave them the flowers.

Marble Painting a Burning Bush

Published on by MaryLeave a comment

Marble Painting Complete

The children in our mixed-aged Bible class last Sunday created some awesome pictures using marbles and paints.  The lesson for the day was about when the Lord spoke to Moses from a Burning Bush 

We talked about how God was concerned about the suffering of his people and was giving Moses the important job of rescuing them.  After the lesson we gathered our supplies and made these lovely pictures.  Younger children needed more help and the older ones were able to do each step on their own.  Of course, the best part was being able to chat about the story as we worked on the craft!

Supplies

  • A baking pan or shallow box with sides (one for each child or take turns)
  • A large paper cut to the size of the bottom of the pan or box
  • Crayons
  • Paints in fire colours like red, yellow, orange, brown and black (tempera or acrylic works well)
  • Marbles (heavy ones work better and we had 3 per child)
  • Tape
  • Damp paper towels or items of choice for clean-up

Method

  1. Children draw a free-style bush on the paper using the crayons.  This is the best time to write names or titles on the drawings, too.
  2. Place the paper in the tray and secure the edges with a few pieces of tape.
  3. Sparingly dot the paper with various colours of paint (thick globs don’t work).
  4. Place the marbles on the surface of the paper and move the trays around slowly in a rolling or gentle wave-like motion.  As the marbles roll around they will pick up paint and distribute it over the paper.
  5. Remove the marbles and hang the pictures to dry.
Supplies
Draw a bush
Add dots of paint
Place marbles on paper and move tray around to roll marbles in paint.
Supplies
Draw a bush
Add dots of paint
Place marbles on paper and move tray around to roll marbles in paint.

Other Stories for this Craft

Use this same method and different colours of paint to create effects.  Generally, the student will draw the main picture and then use the paints to create the effect.  Alternatively, you could provide a printed colour sheet and then have the children create the paint effect over it.

  • Wind using white and a little black on gray paper.
    • Sermon at Pentecost  (Draw the people or steps of the colonnade and then create the wind with paint)
  • Mood or Feeling using multi-colours on coloured or black paper.  This is more abstract but can be very effective.
  • Plants using green and a few dots for flowers.
  • Light using white or light yellow on black paper.  Fill the page with the colours of light.  Add some glow in the dark paint for fun.
  • Fire and Brimstone using red, yellow, orange or just use yellow and white with a little red to highlight the brimstone.  Draw the city first and then create fire and brimstone with paint.
  • Hair using brown or black.  Draw Samson’s face first and then create the hair with paint.

How to Use on Any Story

Create a frame around any verse or picture by taping a paper over the centre of the paper (where the words are written) and only leave a blank space around the edges of the paper exposed.  Once the painting is complete then remove the paper.

Marble Painting Pin

 

Website Update

Published on by Mary2 Comments

Next time you open http://www.missionbibleclass.org you’ll notice a few changes to the look and feel.

Since I have two great interns working with me right now, we’re using the opportunity to update the look of the site. There are quite a few details to take care of so please let me know right away if you notice something is not quite right.

As always, may God bless you as you share His Word with children!

Mary

mary@missionbibleclass.org

I Think I’ll Just Hum…

Published on by Mary2 Comments

2018 Tower of Babel Jengasm

Sometimes I prepare what I think is a great class and yet my students struggle to think past the surface level of the Bible story.  But sometimes, often when I least expect it, the kids run ahead of the teacher and want to go deeper.

Instead of just appreciating the facts or even the drama of the story they may ask questions about the characters or wonder why the characters did what they did.  They might want to discuss motivations and causes.  They may even ponder over what God was up to or discuss how he interacted with the characters.

Sometimes the Biblical truths become personal.  They dig deep into a child’s heart and convict them to act upon these truths.

And them sometimes, like this past Sunday, a child takes one more step and actually makes a plan.  It is at times like these that a teacher knows she has truly passed on the message.

Earlier in the week a young woman and I had prepared a lesson together on the Tower of Babel using the Lesson Template.  This time I stood back and she did the teaching.

  • First she had the letters of the words “proud” and “humble” written on cards.  She mixed the letters up and showed how to unscramble them to form the words.
  • Then she drew the face of a girl on a balloon and spoke as if she was the girl on the balloon.  She began “bragging” about everything from her good looks to her amazing skills at sports.  Every time she bragged she would blow some more hot air into the balloon.  The bragging continued until the balloon finally popped.
  • Using a simple flip chart she then told the story of how people began building a tower thinking only of how they would make a great name for themselves.  God was not pleased and mixed up their language so it must have sounded like they were just babbling to one another.  Not being able to communicate led to the people going their separate ways.
  • After this, two towers were built in class…
    • One was built out of large Lego blocks.  As each block was stacked the young teacher talked about how great God was.
    • The other tower was built from wooden Jenga blocks.  As we had planned, I built this tower making a point to blatently brag about my own abilities at each level.  As expected, my tower crashed and the first one held.
  • As we gathered back together we looked once more at the word “humble” and talked about what it meant.

One boy had taken in the facts and had been convicted that he should be humble.  But now, he was ready to put it into ACTION.   At his own instigation he devised a way to go deeper!

And here is a seven year old boy’s simple plan of action…

“Every time I start being too proud I think I’m going to just hum.”  In answer to the perplexed expressions on our faces he went on to explain, “I’m going to hum because that will help me stop being proud and remember to be HUM-ble.”

Yes, that little boy really understood the message.  He has a plan of action and now, so do I.  Next time I start thinking that teachers have all the answers…I’m going to start humming.

2018 Tower of Babel Lesson2