God's Cricket Bat?

Last week D and I had a great chat about his favourite sport.  Cricket!  

I heard about ducks and sixes and fours and men with long and complicated names.  I heard about summer conditions and helmets and pads and types of shoes.  I heard about the seam on the cricket ball and the wickets and teams and the scores.  

The message we discussed was about Jesus' temptation in the desert.  We talked about how Jesus 'fought' off the Devil.  D worked it out all on his own that Jesus was using the Armour of God.  Of course, there are some things that are not the same but basically Jesus stood firm in the knowledge that He was the son of God.  He was ready and He stood firm against Satan in the sandals of peace and in the breastplate of righteousness.  Jesus used the shield of his Faith and especially, the Sword of the Spirit to put Satan in his place.  Jesus was the perfect example of a soldier of God.  

This week, D brought his cricket kit to Junior Soldiers and showed us all the bits and pieces.  D put on the padded gloves and both D and J told me all about the ball and the bat and the gloves and the pads and their purpose.  D used a 'soldier' template to make a Cricket Player with all his gear on.  We talked about how the pads protect the body and the helmet protects the face.  D told me that no one wore helmets to play cricket until a professional player broke his jaw during a game when a ball hit him.  From then on it was decided that players who were in close range of bowling and batting would wear helmets.  

The kids constructed their own "Armour of God" today.  I brought along two large boxes (one had initially housed an air conditioner and another had contained a chair from IKEA) and we cut pieces from the boxes.  We cut up Pepsi Max boxes for helmets and wrapped parts of the cardboard in aluminium foil to make swords and breastplates.  At the end of our lesson today, we filmed a video of Ephesians 6:10-20.  I read from the Scripture and the boys dressed up in the armour as each item was mentioned.  While his handmade sword was pretty cool, J insisted on using the cricket bat as his "sword of the Spirit".  The boys expressions were a bit deadpan, but the video itself looks quite precious and when we showed our minister he said that we should play it in the church service next week.  So, that will be fun. 

Unfortunately, I am unable to show you the video just yet, but as you can see I have 'illustrated' this blogpost with several images that will be included in the edited video.  Consider it a sneak peek.  

We have really enjoyed learning about the Armour of God over the last few weeks.  I think it has also helped the kids to spend a few weeks on the topic instead of skipping onto the next thing so quickly.  Next week we will begin talking about missionary projects and then move into Lent and the Salvo's Self-Denial Appeal.  So, that will link the topics and activities we do until Easter.  

Don't forget to put on your Armour of God this week!