Children enthralled with Easter show

United Kingdom | Betsy Rouse

This last week saw two staff members and six English language students from OM Lifehope (UK) involved in an interactive church Easter presentation in the town of Cradley. Brent Greiner, head of personnel, and Carol Ann Greiner, head of communications, participated in the dynamic event that reached over 400 primary school-aged children from the community.

The programme, “Jesus is Alive”, ran four days in total. Volunteers transformed the church to look like first century Jerusalem, allowing young students to experience the Passion Week through four key events: the Triumphal Entry, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.

Church members manned each station in full costume and character, telling the children eyewitness accounts of what happened. Carol Ann played Mary and shared at the empty tomb on Resurrection Day, complete with an angel appearing out the tomb. Brent played one of the disciples and explained the Last Supper.

“The response from the schools was amazing,” says Brent. “Many of the teachers said this was the best presentation and explanation of Easter that they had ever seen.”

The children listened with interest throughout the one-hour programme (including a snack and craft). Many had never been to church, including a number of Muslim children, and they didn’t know what Easter was about. The Crucifixion and Resurrection scenes were moving to many students, recalls Brent. One of the schools even invited the local newspaper to take photographs and do a write-up on the programme.

For staff at OM Lifehope, events like this are an exciting chance to get outside the normal day-to-day work of the office and participate in the community. “It was great for us to be involved in this outreach and to see the fantastic response,” says Carol Ann. Please pray for the hearts of the children as they think about what they saw and heard last week.

Credit: Betsy Rouse
© 2012 Lifehope