The Miracle of Jesus Healing the Ten Lepers Lesson: Crafts and Song Idea's

The Biblical Account

For this month's Story Hour, we thought it would be fitting to go over a Bible Story that expresses gratitude and thanksgiving. The story of Jesus healing the ten lepers can be found in the Gospel of Luke 17:11-19. This miraculous story illustrates not only the compassion of Jesus but also the importance of gratitude. The narrative details how ten lepers approached Jesus seeking healing. Despite their physical affliction and social isolation, their plea was met with mercy. Jesus instructed them to show themselves to the priests, and as they went, they were miraculously cleansed from their leprosy.

Story Telling Methods

As you may know by now, I am a big fan of using felt as a tool for storytelling as well as props that help bring the story to life. This month I used felt as well as some help from my friend who we called Larry the Leper aka my husband Timothy. To help the children understand just what kind of suffering a leper would have had to endure we had Lary come in at the beginning of the story to explain what his life as a leper was like. He told the children how he had sores on his body and wounds he had to change often, how he had to live alone with other lepers and could not be around his family. We made rope that had bells attached to it for him to shake as he came in the room to show that he had to warn others that he had leprosy. He made sure to emphasize that others called him unclean and how he felt much sorrow and shame because of his leprosy.

Larry explained to the children that he heard of a man name Jesus who cleansed others from all sickness and sin and him and his 9 other friends were going to see if they could find him to get healed. We said goodbye to Lary and began our story of Jesus having compassion and pity on the 10 Lepers. At the end of our story, we had Larry come back in but this time something was different. He didn't come in ringing a bell or walking with a limp, this time he came in excited and rejoicing! He didn't have any bandages on or wounds anymore he had a smile on his face and a testimony in his mouth of how Jesus healed him. I told the children that just like leprosy sin is a disease and the only one who can help us to be clean and wash away our sin is Jesus.

Lessons from the Healing

• Jesus is compassionate: I expressed to the children how Jesus cared about the lepers and didn't want to see them suffer anymore. He can help us with whatever our need is and wants us to come to him for help.

• Our faith should be in Jesus: I reminded the children how the lepers were made clean as they walked to show themselves to the priest before they even got there, they were healed. God wants us to walk by faith not by sight.

• We need to be thankful: As we were going through the story, I asked the children if they ever have done something really nice for someone and then that person didn't even say thank you. We talked about how that would make them feel and how God has feelings too. He gives us everything we need and more, we should take time to thank him and praise him for his goodness to us.

Songs

We love starting our Story Hour with prayer and songs to help the children get their hearts ready for the lesson. Some great songs to use for this story would be songs that talk about praising and thanking the Lord. One of my favorite songs we often sing with the children in Sunday School goes like this "Praise him Praise him all you Little Children God is love God is Love" Another favorite of mine talk about how good God is. These songs are perfect for setting an attitude of praise among the children and how beautiful it is to hear little ones singing of the goodness of God!

Praise Him All Ye Little Children | Christian Songs For Kids

God Is So Good | Kids #Worship Lyric Video #sundayschool #kidsmusic #schoolmusic #christian

I hope you leave here with some fresh ideas to help inspire you as you plan for your weeks Bible Lesson!

God bless you,

Sister Olivia.

Craft Idea's and Activities

Another fun and hands on way to get the children involved with the story is to have a craft or activity that goes along with the lesson. I am going to share with you the craft activity we used and some other options as well.

Grateful Turkey Hand: There are numerous creative ways to create a grateful turkey hand! You could either use a pre-made hand outline template or let the kids trace their own hands like we did. We utilized a prepared template for the children to trace their handprints and turn them into turkeys. They wrote something they were thankful for on each finger. They colored them in and added googly eyes and other turkey features.

Costume & Props

As I mentioned previously, I was so grateful to have my husband be willing to act for me as Larry the Leper. To bring his character together we tore up an old white shirt into strips. I used fake blood that I bought at Walmart on clearance left over from Halloween. I will leave a link here for a similar option off Amazon. If you don't want to buy fake blood red paint can be a good option. We used a fake beard that we borrowed and a walking stick to give him the look as if he was crippled. You could use any big stick or even a cane. To make the bells we used a rope we had lying around the house and some bells we found in the Christmas Isle also at Walmart. You can use any kind of bell you already have to give the same effect.

If you don't have anyone to be an actor for you or you're looking for something simpler you could also decorate your own arm to show what leprosy would look like and compare it to your other arm that is not decorated. Another option is to use wooden dolls or a puppet doll to dress up with bandages.

10 Lepers: A fun craft idea that aligns perfectly with the story is to create representations of the 10 lepers. You could use construction paper and a body outline to trace and cut out 10 templates. Encourage the children to draw faces and utilize crap paper for clothing and injuries on their lepers. They can also draw eyes and bandages. For this lesson I also opted to make a quick and easy coloring page printable that can be used with a variety of age groups. You