Sensory Bible Stories

We’ve recently introduced a new resource to our Sunday morning sessions for children and young people with additional needs. I’d been contemplating how we could better incorporate prayer into our sessions and in particular how we could ensure that children and young people were active participants in times of prayer. I’d always included at the end of each sensory story a short prayer related to truths about God’s character and the gospel taken from that particular Bible story. I’ve talked here about how I’ve used these stories and prayers to pray for children and young people throughout the week. It felt important though to involve the children and young people more in prayer. I wanted them to be able to have some choice in what to pray for and to be able to explore and engage with items related to prayer. With this in mind I put together a shopping bag (which has now graduated to a shoebox!) of items which could be used by children, young people and helpers to pray during our sessi...

  Photo by Jonah Pettrich on Unsplash 'He tends his flock like a shepherd: 'He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young' Isaiah 40:11  This verse struck me a few weeks ago as I prepared to meet and share the gospel with children and young people with additional needs on the coming Sunday morning.  The last phrase, in particular, stuck out 'He gently leads those that have young'. I find this promise really reassuring. While the children and young people we support may not be the youngest members of our church family, they may be some of our most vulnerable. I've been using this verse to pray for myself and for those I serve alongside caring for and teaching these most precious members of our flock. Isaiah 40 is essentially a promise from God to rescue His people. Ultimately it points to our rescue by Jesus, the Good Shepherd. It's comforting that in the middle of this big promise God remembers t...