6 ways to get your clubbers thinking about Easter

For Christians, Easter is the most important holiday of the year. Sure, Christmas is important because of the celebration of Jesus’s birth, but if Christ didn’t rise again, then Christmas and Christianity itself would be pointless. Jesus’s resurrection is the crowning moment on a sinless life that sets Him apart from every other person on Earth. If He had stayed dead, then He would have been just like us spending eternity paying our debt of separation from God because of our sin, as per Romans 6:23. Instead, by rising again, Jesus proved that our debt was paid in full, and He made new eternal life with God possible. So with that in mind, here are six ways to help your students celebrate Easter and its significance.

1. Have a “Christmas in Spring” theme night and tie Christmas to Easter

2. Share “The Wordless Book” using jelly beans. Bring extra beans for snacking — and enough for the kids to snack, too

3. Host a “Walk With Jesus” night during club night and have clubbers invite their friends and families. Let them count anyone they bring for the “Bring a Friend” section in their handbooks

4. Replace pins, beanbags, and batons with Easter baskets, plastic eggs, and fake flowers

5. Make a scavenger hunt using Resurrection Eggs (instructions here)

6. Host a “Good News Basket” drive by having the kids bring in stuff to make gift baskets for less fortunate kids. Examples of items include small toys or stuffed animals, new kid-sized clothing items, kid’s books, and of course, candy. Make sure to include some presentation of the Good News in your Good News Baskets, such as a child-focused tract or a salvation bracelet with an explanation card.

What are some things you do to bring Easter into your club?

For more information about Awana, visit the Awana Homepage.
To find a club in your area visit the Club Locator.

Super games for standard equipment: Beanbags

The second installment in our list of new ways to use standard Awana game equipment takes a look at beanbags. Awana beanbags come in five designs: the four Awana colors and a black-and-white stripe pattern. They’re the perfect size for balancing on one’s head or holding in one’s hand to throw. Here’s a couple of beanbag games to help clubbers perfect their aim.

Game 1: Greed

Materials needed:

• 1 player per team
• 1 beanbag per team
• 1 small basket or bucket per team
• Center pin
• Game Square

Place the baskets at the intersections of the diagonals and the circle. Players start at their colored diagonals. At the whistle, players run around the circle once. When they return to their colored diagonals, they can either choose to drop the beanbag into their basket for 100 points, or throw the beanbag at the center pin, getting 300 points if they knock it down, or no points if they miss. Players get only one throw, and they must decide between the basket and the center pin within 10 seconds of completing their lap.

Game 2: Overthrow Relay

Materials Needed:

• Whole teams
• 1 beanbag per team
• Color lines

Players begin lined up on their color lines tallest to shortest. The shortest player starts with the beanbag. At the whistle, the shortest player tosses the beanbag over his team to the tallest player. When the tallest player catches the beanbag, she runs to the end of the line where the shortest player is. She then tosses the beanbag over the team to the second-tallest player, who runs to the end of the line and tosses over the team to the third-tallest, and so on. First team to have all players back in their starting positions wins. Players not throwing or catching may (and probably should) duck.

For more information about Awana, visit the Awana Homepage.
To find a club in your area visit the Club Locator.