9 October 2022

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Bible readings for today

• Jeremiah 29:1,4-7
• Psalm 66:1-13 
• 2 Timothy 2:8-15
• Luke 17:11-19

Collect

Life-giving God, 
as we experience your healing, 
may we proclaim your deeds, 
and turn to you to offer thanks and praise; 
through Jesus Christ our Liberator, who is alive and reigns with you, 
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Jesus heals 10 Lepers (Luke 17:11-19)

Appreciation

In today’s story, Jesus healed ten men with leprosy but only one of them said thank you. All ten had asked Jesus to heal them, but only one of them said thank you when it happened. Have any of you ever done something for someone and they didn’t say thank you? How did it make you feel? (Pause for answers) Well, I know that it makes me feel like no one would care if I didn’t do it. It also makes me think that I might not do it again.
Can you imagine what would happen if Jesus had stopped healing people because no one said thank you? Or if people stopped making morning tea because no one said thank you to them? It wouldn’t be very nice would it?
Today’s story reminds us of the importance of thanking people and to let them know that what they are doing is important. What are some ways that you can think of that we can let people know that they are appreciated? (pause)

You have been noticed!

What you need: for each child - a wooden peg (plastic can be substituted), paper cup, glue, glitter and other stuff to decorate with, a copy of the ‘You’ve been noticed’ print out
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What to do: 

• Glue the peg to the paper cup as shown in photo one. (you could do this step ahead of time so you don’t have to wait for the glue to dry)
• While the glue dries, decorate the ‘you’ve been noticed’ card and write on the back a personal note to the person it is for. Make sure it says what you are thanking them for!
• Next, decorate the paper cup/peg. You may like to cover it with glue then roll it in a tray of glitter. Or you may like to paint it.  Or you may like to glue pictures from magazines How you decorate it is up to you and what resources you have.
• Finally, stick the ‘You’ve been noticed’ card in the peg, and then give it to the person it is for! 

Other ideas: instead of each child doing one for someone they know, perhaps you might like to do this activity for your own church community. You could get the children to make a list of all the things that are done by people in the community for your community. E.g. Flower arrangements, cleaning, morning tea, counting the money, sides person, creating the news sheet, vestry etc.Then you could allocate children to do one for someone or a group on the list!!

Gospel Conversations

A university lecturer, a school chaplain and a parish priest (sounds like the start of a joke...) gather to give us the sorts of varied insights their people might want to hear in this discussion on Jesus' encounter with the ten lepers. Find out about the echoes this story brings from earlier stories in Luke, and be challenged by what it might mean for us to be the 10th leper. (Note: James gave us more background than we could fit into this 15 minute video, but if you are interested in hearing more, the unedited version of his introduction is here)

Quick questions

• Why do we say thank you?
• When is it important to say thank you?
• What are other ways of saying thank you other than using words? (eg write a note, giving flowers etc)
• What happens if you don’t say thank you?

Activities

• Handprint Craft (Sunday School Zone)
  
• ​Paper Bag Leper (Ministry to Children)
• Glove Puppets (Faith Sprouts)
• Leper Dolls (Danielle's Place)
• Game and Craft Ideas (Growing Kids in Grace)
• Handprint Men (The Fantastic Five)
• Storytelling Idea (Shoestring Budgets and Skeleton Crews)
• Chain of Lepers Storytelling (Flame Creative Kids)
• Healed Man Spinner (Jesus Without Language)
• Acting it Out (Buck Eye Bible Buddies)

Media