PC(USA) - Ideas! For Church Leaders


	Childrens Mission Yearbook Hands around the World Activity

	Autumn is a good time to raise children’s awareness of the connectedness of the international church and its efforts toward peace throughout the world. Starting in September, introduce them to the various special days that occur in the autumn months: invite them to celebrate International Peace Day on September 21, World Communion Sunday on October 5, and World Food Day on October 16; encourage observance of United Nations Day on October 24 and World Community Day on November 7. The following craft activity, found in the 2003 Children’s Mission Yearbook of Prayer & Study, is one way to commemorate any of these special days.

	Craft Hands around the World You can make a craft that reminds you how Presbyterian missions become hands of friendship all around the world. You will need: an old file folder or a folded piece of heavy paper crayons watercolor paints string or yarn scissors glue pencil

	Lay one of your hands flat on the file folder. Put your wrist where the fold is. Draw around your hand, but don’t make a line where the paper is folded. Now cut out the hand shape, being careful not to cut off the fold. When you open it up, you will have 2 hand cutouts, joined at the wrist. Decorate the hands any way you like. You can decorate both sides of the paper. When you are finished, curve the paper to make the fingers overlap. Glue the fingers together so that they look like hands holding one another. On another folded piece of paper, draw a circle that is small enough to fit inside the curve of the hands you have made. Cut out both the circles. On the circles, use brown or green crayon to draw the shapes of the continents. Color them in completely with crayon. Then paint the water of the oceans with watercolor paint. When the paint is dry, lay the 2 circles together, painted sides facing out. Cut a piece of yarn or string that is long enough to reach between the 2 hands, with some to spare (about 18 inches would be plenty). Lay the yarn between the 2 circles and glue them together with the yarn running through them. Let the glue dry completely. Now, carefully poke a small hole through each of the hands. Thread the ends of the yarn or string through the holes in the hands, tie the ends, and you will see Hands around the World.



	From the 2003 Children's Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study. (Louisville: Congregational Ministries Publishing, Mission Education and Promotion, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 2003), p. 76. Reprinted with permission.



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