Cornelius learned that all people are God’s people, not just the ones who had a certain heritage. This little face making activity lets your youngsters make up a myriad of characters all of whom are God’s people because they are people!
To make this craft, you will need the 1-page template printout and scissors.
Cut out all the pieces. It works best if you remove the outer cut out lines. Small pieces like the eyes have skin colour around them that can be cut into.
Select the pieces you want to use to make your face. Layer the pieces to create your character (keep the scissors handy to trim off any extra surround you don’t need)
Either stick the pieces in place on your final face design or place all the pieces in a small bag to take your craft home.
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This is a story of inclusivity. It’s a story about people who had always been treated as less, getting to be a full part of God’s work. It’s a story that repeats itself in almost every generation, and our modern-day Cornelius and Peter may not be the people we expect.
How long can a child keep a balloon in the air? Let them play solo, then in pairs, then 4’s until there is only one group. Link: We achieve more working together.
Included
All Ages
Any size group
Requires setup time
Quiet game
Can be seated
The aim of the game is to get through as many cards as possible while getting to know the group you are playing with. Click on the image for the link to the full game and instructions. Link: God’s family thrives by being inclusive.
Many colours
All Ages
Small group
Requires setup time
Quiet game
Can be seated
Split your kids into 3 groups. Give each group one colour of play-dough. Ask them how many colours they can make without leaving their group. Now let the groups mix and set the same challenge. Link : God’s world is more beautiful when we link our gifts.
Echoes
All Ages
Any size group
No Setup time
Noisy game
Can be seated
A simple mimic game where the first person taps out a small beat and passes it around the group, once it reaches the last person, they change the beat. Add in sound effects as your group gets more confident. Link : It was time to change the beat of faith for Peter to include the gentiles.
Here are the images you need for the hero’s attributes linked to ‘Cornelius (Acts 10)’ – where Peter welcomes gentiles into the faith.
Each hero set contains a high quality graphic of the character, a take home bible card and a colouring page.
The images are displayed small here, click on the image you wish to have, then save the image that loads. (These images are not copyright free, they are for personal/classroom use only.)
It’s easy to exclude people, and it’s natural to have thought that the Jewish messiah came to just save the Jewish people, but God had a much bigger plan. For people on the edges, like Cornelius, that was huge. The party they had always been excluded from had flung wide the doors, and they could finally enter. This little craft uses the idea of a door as the barrier that is now open.
We may consider this is a minor story, but it’s one that every generation of the church has been challenged to live out. For Peter and the apostles, it was totally logical that the Jewish messiah would be a message for the Jews. That God would include every man, woman, and child into his great family irrespective of birth was totally revolutionary. So hard was it to imagine that the potential converts were quite literally speaking in tongues before Peter called for water to baptise.
This retold version of the Bible passage is supplied for inspiration, feel free to omit or embellish to give it your personal voice.
Peter was in Joppa. A man called Cornelius had been told by an angel to invite him and here he was. It had been a strange few days. First, he’d had a vision about eating food that he’d always been told not to eat, and now he was speaking to a load of Gentiles!
Long ago, God had promised Abraham, and then Isacc and then Jocob (who was also called Israel), that from their family would come a great nation of God’s people. The nation was called the Israelites or the Jews, and they called everyone else Gentiles. There were lots of rules about Gentiles. Even if a Gentile came to believe in God, they were still seen as not as good as those born into God’s family. Good Israelites would not even enter a Gentile’s house! So you can imagine it was quite an unusual place Peter found himself in.
The house belonged to the centurion Cornelius. For many years, Cornelius had been a friend of the Jewish people. He’d learnt about their God and began to pray to him. Perhaps one day he would ask if he could join the Israelite nation and become a Jew? Now, God had sent an angel and told him to invite this man called Peter into his house. Cornelius had been excited. He gathered all his family and all his servants. He invited the neighbours. He invited everyone he met. It wasn’t everyday God sent an angel; so this was going to be an important event!
Peter stood before the crowd and paused.
“I see now God does not have favourites,” he said, and the crowd went quiet. It had always seemed like God had favourites; the Israelites were God’s favourites, weren’t they? “In every nation there are people who do what is right in God’s eyes,” Peter continued, and then he went on to tell them all about Jesus, about how Jesus had brought his message to God’s people but told them to tell the news everyone. The Jesus who had died and returned. The Jesus who had spoken to Gentiles. The Jesus who had eaten with people the Jewish rules said you should avoid. The Jesus he still followed.
As Peter was speaking, God came and joined them though his Holy Spirit. Those who had travelled to fetch Peter were amazed because the spirit of God did not land just on the people who had become Jews but on Gentiles too.
Peter looked at the crowd. “Bring water!” he shouted. “Let us baptise these people. If God has baptised them with his Spirit, we should also baptise them with water.” So the church grew, not with just the Jews but with Gentiles too, because God really does not have favourites!
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