I think you have all figured out by now that I like to make things!  LOL  Many years ago when my oldest sone was little we belonged to a Toy Library.  It was a WONDERFUL thing, which was supported completely by fundraising and donations.  These great ladies had more bake sales than I have ever seen in my life!  LOL  As I have mentioned here before, I am not a big fan of cooking.  So I came up with a new plan to help with fundraising.  I bought a book and learned how to make balloon animals!  LOL  Then I would go to all the bake sales they hosted around town and make balloons for donations!  Well 10 years later we have moved far away from the Toy Library, but I still am a twister! 

Shortly after I taught myself to twist I went to an Awana Leaders conference and there was a class about using ballons in Children's Minisrty.  I was really hooked now!!!  Since then I have had a lot of opportunities to make balloons for a lot of kids!  I have done them at church Harvest Festivals, Sunday School, Awana, VBS, etc. 

This was last Saturday at our homeschool groups Thanksgiving Dinner. 

One of my favorite ballon lessons to teach is Ephesians 6:10 -20 The Full Armour of God.  This is a fun way to give kids a visual example of the Armour God has provided us with as Christians.  This week at Awana in honor of Veterans Day they had a Boot Camp Night.  The kids were suppose to come dressed in Military apparel.

Here are my kiddos with their favorite LIT (Leader in Training.)

Here is the Lesson:

I start out with this "Where IS God" routine I found online.   It is REALLY clever.  You will have to click over to check it out!  Click here.  When I do this I talk to the kids about God not being way far away in Heaven and unconcerned about our lives.  Then when I make the lightening bolt I go around asking the kids about sins in their lives and then striking them with lightening!  LOL  They LOVE this!  Then we talk about how God doesn't act that way either.  Once I turn the lightening bolt into the cross I talk with them about how God loves us so much that what He wants for us is to save us!  I have them recite John 3:16 with me. 

Read Ephesians 6:10-20

At this point I pull the cross I have made out of the cloud and point out to them that the Cross also looks like a Sword.  Then I lead into making the Armour.

So lets talk about the individual pieces of Armour God gives us... (I NEED A VOLUNTEER)  (What is Armour?  Why would a soilder need it?)

The first thing we read about in Ephesians 6:10-12 was about
   The Battle Zone: We face many spiritual battles in life, we must be prepared. What are some examles of Spiritual battles you might fight.  (ie. Obeying parents, telling the truth, attending church.)  (Remind the kids these are also called sin. Usually they have mentioned these things when I was striking them with lightening!)

Well God has given us some pretty awesome things to deal with those battles.  The first one we are going to talk about is:
   Belt of Truth: The belt was the first thing a soldier put on back in the time of Jesus. It was very important because it gathered together his tunic and insured that he could march without restriction. Truth of heart is the foundation of your spiritual armour. Sincerity in your relationship with Christ is crucial. This relationship is based on doctrinal truth. Truth of heart holds things together like a belt holds a soldier's tunic together.  God knows whether or not we are being truthful with him.  We cannot lie to God successfully!  (Inflate a Balloon and wrap around the waist.  Write TRUTH on it with marker.)

The next thing God give us in the
    Helmet of Salvation: Now first of all I like to make this helmet out of a red balloon.  Does anyone want to guess why?  You see Jesus bought salvation for each of us when he died on the cross.  The spilling of his blood is what saves us from our sins, or the bad things we do.  I also like to point out that the helmet goes on the top of our head.  It covers us with Gods salvation.  (Inflate balloon and make a circle big wnough to go around the head.  Then loop the rest over the top and twist.  Write SALVATION on it.)

So what is the next piece of Arnour?
   Shield of Faith:  Faith is believeing in something we cannot see. But your faith can see you through...avoid the devil's darts of doubt & sin. This is a very large shield that protected the whole body.   Jesus healed many people and he told them that he was doing it because they had such great faith in him.  Our Faith is a powerful thing!  It connects us to God in a  way that is personal to each and every one of us.  It sheilds us from the evils around us! (Make shield just like you did the helmet.  Write FAITH on it.)

Now the next piece of armour is a little bit like a shield.  It is the
 Breastplate of Righteousness:   This is a piece of Armour that would be worn over the heart.  This will guard your heart with righteousness. What is righteousness?  (It is the act of being right!)  This breastplate covers us and makes us desire to do what is right!  You know when you want to sneek another cookie and Mom has already said NO.  Well that little feeling you have that tells you what you are doing is wrong is coming from your breast plate of righteousness. To neglect what we know to is right leaves a BIG hole in our armour.  (Inflate a ballon and wrap it around the chest.  Write RIGHTEOUSNESS on it.) 

Now from the waist up we are looking pretty good!  But, now we need to work on our feet!  The next piece of Armour God gives us is...
   Shoes of Peace: These will help us to walk the walk. The soldiers shoes were designed for long hard marches. These shoes give us the ability to stand firm against things that are wrong. The shoes are also for the readiness to spread the gospel.  It can be hard to choose to do what is right.  These shoes give us the ability to not only say that we believe in Christ, but to act in a way that shows we are living for Christ.  Sometimes we get mad and want to lash out and hurt someone else.  Sometimes we just want our way and want to throw a tantrum.  But the shoes of peace give us the ability to act in a way that will help others to see Jesus in our actions.  This in turn can help us spread the good news about Jesus.  Sometimes people will make fun of us for what we believe.  (Just like they might think we look silly for wearing balloons!  LOL)  But the shoes of peace help us choose to follow Christ even when it is hard.  (Inflate 2 ballons and wrop around the ankles.  Write PEACE one one of them.)

The final piece of Armour is the weapon!
 Sword of the Spirit: God's word is our weapon. The Bible helps us to know how we should act and what we should believe. It is the way we can teach others about God and Jesus.  It also helps us to avoid temptation.  Learning God's word is one of the MOST important things we can do.  Knowing the word of God is like a sword that can cut through all kinds of sin and temptations.  (Pull out sword made earlier that turned into a cross.)  Remember that this sword also looks like a cross.  It is because of what Jesus did for us on the cross that we have been given all this protection from God!  (I usually use the sword I have already made that started out as a lightneing bolt.  If you want to make a sword  here are directions  http://www.kckpl.lib.ks.us/ys/crafts/SWORD.HTM  )

Now that we are all dressed for battle it is important that we know where to fight our battles.  We need to go to God in prayer and fight the battles on our knees.  Praying is a direct line to God.  In 2 Samuel 22:4 it says "I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, And I am saved from my enemies."  You see God wants to save us.  All we have to do is let Him!

Let's Pray.

Disclaimer:  This is something that I have changed though the years to get what I now have.  Originally, I may have gotten some of this off the internet.  Now, I don't know what is mine and what isn't.  It is not my intent to steal anyone's writing. I am not posting it here because I want credit, but because it is a fun Bible lesson for kids.  I would be happy to give the original author credit if I knew who they were.  Most of it is my writing as I have tried to put it in words appropriate for kids 5 and up.  This is certainly not an original idea  I got the idea from the Awana class I took and have refined it through the years.  If anyone wants to print it and use it you are welcome to.