Programs of Religious Activities with Youth

P.R.A.Y. God and Country News Bulletin

First Quarter 2005

 Welcome to P.R.A.Y.’s God and Country News Bulletin. This Bulletin is written for pastors, counselors, mentors, and parents associated with Protestant and Independent Christian churches. It includes program helps, best practices, and special features to support a God and Country ministry. We hope you enjoy this bulletin and take the time to share it with others.

P.R.A.Y. Adopts New Tagline

“P.R.A.Y. – Building Faith in Youth” is the new tagline adopted by the P.R.A.Y. Board of Directors at their meeting in April.

P.R.A.Y. is known for so many things and involved in so many activities but everything that P.R.A.Y. does is based on “Building Faith in Youth.” For example, P.R.A.Y. promotes partnerships between youth agencies and religious institutions, creates collaborative resources for congregations and local agency councils to work together, and administers the God and Country Program … all for the express purpose of Building Faith in Youth.

Building Faith in Youth … It’s what P.R.A.Y. does intentionally. It’s what P.R.A.Y. does passionately.

Meet Don Shapley , P.R.A.Y. Board Member

Don Shapley has been a member of the P.R.A.Y. board since 1997. He served as a member-at-large before becoming treasurer in 1999. Don is from Stillwell, Kansas and is a member of the First Baptist Church. Don brings to P.R.A.Y. an expertise in finances and experience in not-for-profit boards, but more importantly Don brings his passion for scouting as ministry. Here is his testimony:

I had not come from a Christian home. I was not brought up in the church. Then I got into the Boy Scout Troop. It was sponsored by a Baptist congregation, and the Scoutmaster encouraged me to come to church. A lot of the guys belonged to the church, and so I started in the youth group. I don’t recall any bolt of lightening, but I remember many who were there and put “their hands on my shoulder” and guided me.  The Scoutmaster was the first one who invited me. Then there were those in the church who showed me in many ways that they cared about me.  And then there were others who saw things in me and encouraged me.

Up until then, I was just a fat little poor kid. I had no value. But here were people who cared about me. They taught me that I was worth something. They helped draw that out of me. They pushed me into learning leadership skills at an early age. I went on to serve as president of the area youth group. But the most important thing that happened during that process was that I found the Lord. I believe that scouting was the ministry that did that. Ever since then, as a deacon of the church, I push that the scout troop is not just a group meeting in our church, but that it’s our ministry. And that’s what makes P.R.A.Y. so special to me.

When asked about his service on the P.R.A.Y. board, Don talks about his “admiration and awe” for those individuals who are in position to impact the lives of so many kids. He feels humbled by them, and yet it gives him a greater sense of wanting to serve and support those who are the front line people. “I feel that God creates children, but that it’s our job as adults to help them become what God intended them to be in the first place. I try to be a servant to the people who can do that. “

According to Mark Hazlewood, CEO of P.R.A.Y., “The strength of our organization has always been in our Board of Directors and in individuals such as Don Shapley whose commitment and dedication are critical to our ministry. We work with some incredible people who are committed to youth. It’s a pleasure working with them.”

Embracing God and Country as Ministry

The God and Country program can be a “door opener” to talk about the unique ministry that the Scouting program presents to a congregation. Pastors often recognize “God and Country” as being an award that youth agency members may earn. The challenge is to present the God and Country program as a “ministry,” not just an award. As a ministry, it must be supported by all levels of the church organization. Click here for more information.

Feature: The God and Family Program

God and Family is designed for girls and boys in grades 4 and 5. It is our “pizza” program.

Where did the idea for “pizza” come from?

God and Family was the first program to undergo a complete revision. We knew we wanted a curriculum with hands-on learning opportunities, but we sure didn’t know what that was. As we were struggling to come up with a program that would be sensitive to all family structures, it was helpful to remember the analogy used to describe the United States: whereas it used to be said that the United States was a “melting pot” where people from many different cultures blended together, it is now more appropriate to describe the United States as a “tossed salad” with many different vegetables that retain their own unique tastes, but are brought together with a splash of salad dressing. We started working with this idea of a “tossed salad” and thinking in terms of families, until CEO Mark Hazlewood remarked, “Salad? Yuk! How boring!” It was from that remark that the pizza idea was born.

Lesson-by-lesson supplementary resources

Here are suggestions and actual resources to supplement your God and Family curriculum. The suggestions are presented lesson-by-lesson.

 But first, to highlight one of the best suggestions (one that is simple and so obvious): Instead of gluing all the different parts of the pizza together, we used transparencies. We rounded the corners of the transparencies to make it as close to a circle as we could. We glued the toppings and the cheese on their own transparency. It really helped the children to see the different layers of the pizza. It also made it easier for them to present and explain their pizzas to their families. Please note: the transparencies that are made for copiers and printers are much more expensive than the transparencies that are simple “overheads.”

Introduction

·        As students guess how families and pizzas are alike, counselors are to emphasize that families (just like pizza) are made in many different ways. Here is a link that shows just how “different” pizza can be. Check out the Japanese pizza that features unique combinations of seafood & mayonnaise, bamboo shoots & seaweed, and lots more! http://www.chachich.com/mdchachi/jpizza.html

Session 1: Crust

·        For lesson one, in addition to the legos and dominos, I got out a Jenga tower and we took turns pulling out the blocks. The kids and adults loved it and it really got us off to a good start. Later during the session on rules, one scout said a good rule is to think first. Another responded yes, like when we were pulling the blocks out of the Jenga tower. If we didn’t think first, it would collapse.

·        When we studied the passage from Deuteronomy, we used a version of the Bible that said to love the Lord your God with all your “strength.” We talked about strength, and then had a tug-of-war. It was classic. At first nobody moved, even though everyone was pulling with all their strength. But it was inevitable. One side slowly started inching along. They picked up momentum and then won. We are to love God with all our strength, even when it doesn’t seem like we’re going anywhere.

Session 2: Sauce

·        Another suggestion for a family project (similar to making a family tree), is to make a family “crest”. Click here for instructions and then click on Session 2.

Session 3: Toppings

·        The Counselor Manual provides sample toppings on page 35. The P.R.A.Y. web site has these same toppings, but instead has separated each topping on its own separate sheet of paper. This gives you the option of printing the jalepenos on green paper, the tomatoes on red paper, etc. Click here and then click on Session 3.

·        Glue the toppings onto a transparency. This makes it easier to see the different layers of the pizza. 

Session 4: Cheese

·        Give bookmarks to your students to help them learn the Ten Commandments. Click here and then click on Session 4.

·        Use the acronym BLUEPRINTS to remember the Ten Commandments. Click here and then click on Session 4.

·        Counting the Ten Commandments on your fingers. (This is my favorite. A friend taught my daughter this method. It really works!) Click here and then click on Session 4.

·        A counselor in Long Beach recycled old CD’s and had her students make Ten Commandment mobiles out of them. Each CD had a commandment on it. Students decorated them with stickers.

·        When making the “cheese” for the pizza, instead of having the students write out each commandment, we had them fill in the blanks Click here and then click on Session 4. This was a quicker way for them to make a lot of cheese.

·        Glue the cheese onto a transparency. This makes it easier to see the different layers of the pizza. 

Session 5: Bake

·        We changed the opening activity. Instead of trying to punch holes without a hole-puncher, we tried to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches without butter knives. Our students really understood the importance of having the right tools!

·        Instead of making a paper oven mitt, I bought cheap hot pads and let the girls decorate them with liquid embroidery and each wrote on a Bible verse.

·        We showed the VeggieTales tape “Rach, Shack, & Benny” to our fifth graders. They loved it!

Session 6: Eat, Share, Enjoy!

·        I got unassembled pizza boxes from an upscale Italian restaurant and we assembled them inside out so that kids had a blank surface to work on.

·        We used the last class as a practical lab by “making and eating” real pizza. We finished the last week and discussed different parts of the pizza as we made it. We then discussed how sharing this builds our families just like God builds our families through sharing. We had all family members present for the party and it was a very meaningful experience.

·        We held our party at a local pizzeria. The students got to make their own pizzas!

·        We played a game of jeopardy to review all that the students have learned in the God and Family program. The categories are the different parts of the pizza. The game is easy to set up. I tape the numbers to the chalkboard and hold the list of questions in my hand. Click here for a set of questions and number cards. 

What others have said about the God and Family Program: 

·        My son, daughter and I all gave our life to Christ the day of our last session. Thank you for providing this program for Scouts to participate in. Without it, we’d still be lost. Chambersburg, PA

·        Alex is not a biological member of our family, but we all feel closer as a family unit after this program. Thanks!  Charlotte, NC

·        I didn’t want to come in just for the badge, but also to help increase my faith for God, and I have. My family has also now started our “family night” and so even when the weeks get busy, we still spend time together, from now on!  Cocoa, FL 

Click here for more. 

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