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Bible Sunday Activities and All-age Service Encounter the Bible’s message of freedom… and raise funds for Bibles for China. Thank you for taking part in Bible Sunday. Here are seven ideas of how you can bring our Bible Sunday 2013 themes into your service and help us raise money to send Bibles to China.

1. Use our Bible sermon outline based on Luke 4 verses 14-21 to inspire your service about freedom

2. Use our all-age service talk and games ideas to engage the children

3. Hold an all-age craft session where everyone makes an origami dove

4. Show our short Bible Sunday PowerPoint presentation or DVD

5. Take up an offering to raise funds to send Bibles to China

6. Arrange a fun meal after the service and invite everyone to ‘Bring your Bible to Brunch’

7. Hold fundraising events to raise money for sending Bibles to China (separately or as part

of the Bring your Bible to Brunch event) Read on to find out more about each idea…

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Children’s talk – Freedom and Big Numbers Note – if you’re using our children’s talk it will work better if you show the Bible Society PowerPoint at some point AFTER the talk, so you don’t give away too much beforehand. You can use 1) Freedom to talk to the children about the freedom they have in Jesus and 2) Big Numbers to introduce the fundraising for China… or just one of the talks depending on how much time you have. Props for 1) Freedom: a chair, strong wool/string, paperchains, sweets Props for 2) Big Numbers: a bag of uncooked rice, a chessboard (optional), a bowl, chopsticks Intro: Today it’s Bible Sunday and we’re thinking about two things:

1) We’re thanking God for the freedom he gives us 2) We’re going to collect money for Bible Society so they can print and distribute more Bibles

in China

Why China? Because something extraordinary happened in China this year. But I’ll tell you more about that later… 1) Freedom Read Luke 4.14-21 One of the things Jesus talks about here is that he’s come to bring freedom to captives or prisoners. Now he’s not just talking about people in actual prisons, he’s also talking about the prisons we find ourselves in. (Ask the children) Have any of you been to prison? (When they say ‘No’, look surprised) (As a joke) Really? Well there are all sorts of prisons. Sometimes we find ourselves locked in prisons of our own behaviour. The things we keep on doing. Bad habits. Ask for a volunteer from among the children Sit them on a chair on the stage. Now the first time you do something… like lying … it might not tie you down too much (put one length of wool around the back of the chair and around the child loosely)… But if you keep lying… (put one length of wool around the back of the chair and around the child loosely)…

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And you keep lying… (put one length of wool around the back of the chair and around the child loosely)… Before you know it…

(Keep wrapping wool around and around them and the chair until they can’t get out) You’re locked into a habit. You’re stuck in a prison of your own behaviour. A Bad Habit Prison. (Say to the child) Thank you for your help, you can go and sit back down again now. Of course they can’t move…or might try but they’ve got the chair attached to them! Oh dear. You seem to be stuck. You need someone to save you from your prison of lying, Pinocchio. Do you want to be free? If they say no, Oh that’s a shame, I’ve got some sweets for you here but I guess you won’t be able to have them now. Do you want to be free? Yes? Good. Ask for another volunteer (not too young) and give them a great big pair of scissors. (Talk to new volunteer) Now you’re Jesus. Jesus meet Pinoccio. Pinoccio’s been a very bad boy and he wants to say sorry. He wants you to set him free from his prison of lying. He wants you to save him from his sins. Can you do that Jesus? Can you save him? Let Jesus cut Pinoccio free from the chair. Encourage everyone to cheer! Congratulations Pinoccio, you’re free! And because you’ve found freedom in Jesus we’ll give you a new name. (Ask the child) What shall we call you now? If they say their own name, make a joke and say, Yes that’s excellent, Bob, you say? We’ll call you Bob. So, Bob, you’re free now. How does it feel? Have a stretch, that’s it touch your toes. Walk around a little bit. Feels good to be free from a prison doesn’t it? But what happens now if you lie again, Bob? You might make a mistake, even though Jesus has set you free. So what if you lie again, Bob? Better sit down again Bob. You told me your name was Bob (joke) didn’t you? But your name’s not Bob is it, Bob? (Get child to sit down on chair again.)

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If you lie about something now Jesus has set you free do you know what happens, Bob? Get out a paperchain and wrap it round the child and the chair. Oh dear, Bob. And what if you keep on lying all week Bob? Wrap paperchains around ‘Bob’ a few more times. Now you’re stuck aren’t you? No? What do you mean no? Can you get out Bob? Encourage Bob to tear through the paperchains and escape to cheers! Wow Bob! This is good news! This is the Good News. Now that Jesus has forgiven you once and become your saviour, sin can’t hold you any more. Even if you sin and tell a lie, Bob, it can’t stop you from being free in Jesus. You just repent – or say sorry for lying and the chains fall off. Sin can’t keep you in its prison any more Bob, because Jesus came to set you free… to proclaim freedom for the prisoners. You’re not a prisoner to your Bad Habits. Jesus has set you free from them. Their power is broken. That’s amazing news, isn’t it? Jesus has broken the power of sin and death once and for all. So even when we do something wrong, all we have to do to get free is say SORRY to Jesus. Thank you volunteers, you can sit down now… without any chains! 2) Big Numbers story: Now remember earlier I told you we’re raising money for China today… because something extraordinary happened in China this year? Do you want to know what that something was? (wait for them to say Yes). Well I’ll tell you in a moment. But first I have a story to tell you. It’s my Big Numbers story. Hands up who’s feeling brainy today? Hands up who’s feeling brainy about maths? Some of you? Good. Because I have to tell you a story about a mathematician who was very good with big numbers. This is a story that happened many, many, many MANY years ago. When a very, very, very, VERY brainy mathematician invented the game of Chess. For short, let’s call him Matt the Mathematician (although that isn’t his real name). The King was really, really, really, REALLY pleased with Matt the Mathematician although that isn’t his real name. Actually he was Indian so he almost certainly wasn’t called Matt. As I was saying, the King was really, really, really, REALLY pleased with Matt the Mathematician although that isn’t his real name. So he offered to give Matt the Mathematician (although that isn’t his real name) anything he really, really, really, REALLY wanted.

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That was nice of the king wasn’t it? He must have really liked Chess. Perhaps his Nintendo DS was broken. If the king said that you could have anything you really, really, really, REALLY wanted….what would you ask for? (wait for answers from a few kids and adults). Well do you know what Matt the Mathematician although that isn’t his real name really really really REALLY wanted? (wait for a few answers) I’ll tell you what he said. He said, “Sire,” he said that because he was talking to the King you see. “Sire,” said Matt the Mathematician although that isn’t his real name. “Just give me some rice.” RICE?! Sounds easy doesn’t it. “Sure,” said the King, “Rice it is. I’ll get Uncle Ben on it straight away.” “But there’s more, sire,” said Matt the Mathematician although that isn’t his real name. “Just give me some rice on my chessboard. Put one grain of rice on the first square of my chessboard. Put two grains on the second square. Four grains on the next one, and keep doubling the number of grains till you’ve covered all the squares” Aside - Does anyone know how many squares there are on a chess board? (You can hold it up if no-one knows.) 64 squares. That’s right. So Matt the Mathematician….(wait for children to say “although that isn’t his real name”)…asked for one grain of rice on the first square and then for the number to double every time up to 64 times. And the King said, “Is that all?” Thinking maybe Matt the Mathematician (wait for children to say “although that isn’t his real name”)… wasn’t so bright after all. Would any of you like to come up and give it a go? Pour some uncooked rice into a bowl. Get a child volunteer to come up. Right I’d like you to put a grain of rice on the first square. (Just as they’re about to do that….stop them) Wait! I forgot to give you the chopsticks. They use chopsticks in China, don’t they? (Give them a pair of chopsticks….) Let them struggle to pick up the rice with the chopsticks for a while. Then let them do it wth their fingers. Get another smart kid involved to start doubling up the numbers on the squares of the chessboard.

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Watch them: Yes, yes, very good. Excellent. It’s really coming along now. What number are you up to? Square 5 – that’s 16 grains, good Square 6 – that needs 32 grains… Square 7 – that’ll need 64 grains of rice… Let them struggle on for a bit then mention casually… By the way, did I tell you the end of the story? (Wait for a NO) Oh I should really tell you the end of the story. (pause, looking distracted) Sorry, did you want to hear the end of the story? (Wait for a Yes….you can drag this out as long as you want, depending on how pantomimey you’re feeling) Well this is the end of the story: The king couldn’t do it. The king couldn’t grant Matt the Mathematician’s request. Do you know why not? (wait for answer) That’s right it’s impossible to get that number of grains on something the size of a chessboard. Matt the Mathematician was having a little mathematical joke at the king’s expense. Yes, as you already suspected, mathematicians are hilarious. If the King kept doubling the numbers of grains of rice up to 64 times…do you know how many grains of rice he would have needed? This many: 9,223,372,036,854,775,808. (maybe write this on a white board, or on a piece of big paper or put in on the powerpoint, if you can say it as you do it, even better) And if you added up all the grains of rice on every square the King would have to give Matt, our friend the joker, this many grains of rice in total: 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains of rice. Do you know what that many grains of rice looks like? That number of grains of rice laid end to end would stretch to the nearest star and back! That’s a lot of rice. So that’s the story of Matt the Mathematician….although that isn’t his real name.

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Thank you to my brave volunteers. (Get the children to sit down). So kids, next time mummy or daddy asks if you want a treat, just say all you want is 1p on a chessboard, and two 1ps on the next square and double it for every square…. Now do you remember at the beginning I said: We’re going to collect money for Bible Society so they can send Bibles to China. Because something extraordinary happened in China this year. Do you know what that was? A lot of people became Christians. How many do you think? (wait for guesses). Well my Matt the Mathematician story had really big numbers in it, didn’t it? This is a big number too: 1 million. 1 million people became Christians in China this year…so far. And they’re only the ones we know about. Can you imagine if 1 million people in England became Christians in less than a year? How amazing would that be? (Hold up your bag of rice grains) How many grains of rice do you think there are in this bag? Maybe a few thousand. (Pour them out dramatically) Well imagine a million rice grains….a million people in China finding freedom in Jesus. Now imagine 60 times that number of grains of rice. In 2011, BBC Radio 4 reported that the number of Christians in China was, at a conservative estimate, 60 million. And BBC Radio 4 said “There are already more people at church in China on a Sunday than in the whole of Europe.” Wow. We’re talking some really big numbers here today aren’t we? Well here’s another amazing fact: Almost half of the Christians in China….that’s perhaps 30 million Christians…..don’t have a Bible. Almost half. They don’t have the freedom to read their own Bible. In some places they share 1 Bible between 10 Christians. Can you imagine having to wait your turn… wait 99 days – that’s 3 months – till you see the Bible? And can you imagine what kind of a state that Bible would be in? You’d really get stuck in to reading it, when you got your hands on it, wouldn’t you?

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You’d want to read as much as you can… Zhao Yi Bo is seven. His family, like everyone else in his village, are fruit farmers. They’re incredibly poor. His grandmother says, ‘We have just 7RMB (74 pence) a month to spend on electricity and often turn the lights off to save money.’ Yi Bo’s family had one copy of the Bible – written in an old Chinese script that only the grandfather could read. But when he developed cataracts, he couldn’t read it any more, so it became a closed book to the whole family. They didn’t have enough money to buy a new Bible. But last year Bible Society visited their village and gave Zhao Yi Bo a modern Chinese translation of the Bible. He says, “I’m learning to read at school. I’m very happy to have my own Bible. When I’m older I will be able to read it myself.” Even though his mother can’t read, and his grandfather can’t see any more, one day soon Yi Bo will be able to read the Bible to his whole family and make the scriptures come alive for them again. And do you know how much it costs today to print a Bible for someone like Zhao Yi Bo and his family? 80p. Just 80p. So for every 80p you give, that pays for the paper, which is all that Bible Society needs to get a Bible into the hands of one of these millions of Christians in China. And if you text PAPER to 70500 and give £5 then you’ve just given six Christians in China their own Bible. The very thing they really, really, really, REALLY want. And if your church could give a gift of £480 this could provide a whole roll of paper, enough to produce more than 600 Bibles. Let’s pray Father God, Thank you for the amazing church in China. Thank you that so many people are coming into your kingdom. We thank you we have the freedom here to read the Bible whenever we want. We thank you for the work of Bible Society, and we ask that on this Bible Sunday, all over the UK we’d be generous and give what money we can, to send more Bibles to China. Amen. Optional: Let’s Text: You could encourage the congregation to get their phones out at this point and text, or do it later in the service or wait until the brunch. Or all of the above! Multiple texts are wonderful!) I’m going to do that now. (Get your phone out and text a £5 donation) Text PAPER to 70500 to give a £5 donation and provide the Bible for six Christians in China. 100% of your gift will be received by Bible Society, the message will be charged at your standard rate. And you can gift aid it too! We’d like to keep you updated about the work of Bible Society. If you don’t want us to keep you informed, simply text PAPER NO CONTACT to 70500 when you make your donation.

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All-age worship – ideas for games/activities for an all-age service Background This Bible Sunday we’re raising money to send Bibles to the church in China. We have everything ready to go; printing and distribution costs are covered but we need to pay for the paper. It costs just 80p per Bible to pay for the paper. So every gift of £5 from your church will give six Chinese Christians the incredible freedom to read their own Bible. Presentation Firstly show the presentation to explain what we are raising money for or show the Bible Sunday DVD. To download the PowerPoint presentation and film please go to www.biblesunday.org.uk If you’re planning to use our children’s talk, it will work better to do the talk first and show the presentation afterwards. Fun paper-themed games Here are some games you could use during your service to engage all ages: 1. Mummy Game Invite some of the children/young people or even adults to come up to the front to take part in a game. Get them into pairs. Each pair has a roll of toilet paper. Give them one minute to wrap their partner like an Egyptian mummy in toilet paper. Line the mummies up at the front of the church and get them to race against each other to the back. Award the winner with a small token prize. 2. Challenge the church: How many times can you fold a piece of paper in half? Give everyone a piece of A4 paper or call several people up to the front to have a go. The idea is that you can’t ever fold a piece of paper in half and in half again more than seven times. Give them the idea that six is tough, seven is possible but any more is impossible. Let your church experiment with this and see who folds it in half the most times. Here’s a great video (3 mins) you could end with. It shows how a team at Nasa managed to prove the myth of 7 times is just a myth….but they did have to use a piece of paper the size of a football pitch. http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2009/07/23/why-cant-you-fold-a-piece-of-paper-more-than-seven-times 3. Flap a fish Game This is good for the young children as well as adults. Cut large fish shapes out of paper. Give each person taking in the race a folder newspaper to flap at the fish to make it move forward. Set a course and race them against each other. 4. Paper chains for prisoners This game brings in the idea of freedom as well as the need for paper for Bibles. Give teams enough cut up strips of paper and glue to make paperchains (you can use cut up magazines or newspapers). Set a time limit and see which team can make the longest paperchain. Use the paper-chains to wrap around a volunteer on stage – and once they are fully wrapped in the ‘chains’ challenge them to break free. You can use this as a jumping off point to talk about Luke 4.14-21 and how Jesus sets the captives free.

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5. Chinese whispers Invite the children up to the front and get them to stand in a line facing the congregation. Whisper something into the first child’s ear and ask them to whisper it to the person standing next to them, pass the message down the line and the last person has to announce it to the congregation. Starter phrases: ‘The Lord's Spirit has come to me, because he has chosen me to tell the good news to the poor.’ ‘It costs just 80p to pay for the paper for one Bible. So every gift of £5 will give six Chinese Christians their own Bible.’ Don’t forget to tell the congregation what your starter phrase was….it’ll probably sound quite different by the end of the line! This is a fun way to start talking about the Luke 4 passage and the importance of being able to read God’s word so we get the right message. And then talk about how little it costs to send Bibles to China where there is a desperate shortage. 6. Paper Cup Pyramid Races You can do this as relay teams or compete as individuals. Each player has 10 paper cups. They’ll need a table to form the pyramid on. This is a race to construct and take down a pyramid, starting with four upside down cups as a base, build up the layers with three cups on top, two cups on top of that and one cup at the top. Then take the cups off in the same way they went up and place them all on your head to signal you’ve finished. The fastest person to do this three times or the fastest team to finish wins a prize. This is a fun jumping off point from which to talk about all the different things you can do with paper, leading onto asking the congregation for donations to pay for the paper Bible Society needs to print Bibles for China.

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Instructions on how to make a paper dove in 10 steps This paper bird is fairly simple, and children over 10 should be able to recreate it without too much trouble. You can visit biblesunday.org.uk to see a video demonstration to help you make your paper dove. Step 1 You need a square of paper, either downloaded from our website or a square of plain paper. First face the Bible Sunday logo away from you. Step 2 Fold the paper in half, corner to corner. Step 3 Fold the top layer back towards the left: fold it, two thirds of the way down. Step 4 Rotate the paper around and fold in half. Step 5 Fold down the wing of the dove on one side and then repeat on the other side. Step 6 For the dove's head, fold the left side down at an angle. Unfold. Step 7 Prise open the two layers of paper and push the tip of the paper down in between the layers. Step 8 Next is the tail. Fold the top of the tail down so it meets the edge of the wing. Unfold. Step 9 Do the inside reverse fold on the tail: prise open the two layers of paper and push the tip of the paper down between the layers. Step 10 Did you get a bit lost? Visit the website and let Graham guide you through the steps in our video demonstration.

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Offering/Collection ideas – Paying for paper Background This Bible Sunday we’re raising money to pay for the paper to print Bibles for the church in China. We have everything ready to go; printing and distribution costs are covered but we need to pay for the paper. It costs just 80p per Bible to pay for the paper. So every gift of £5 from your church will give six Chinese Christians the incredible freedom to read their own Bible. And if your church could give a gift of £400 you could give 500 Christians in China a Bible of their very own. Offering ideas Firstly show the presentation or DVD to explain what we are raising money towards. To download the PowerPoint presentation and film please go to www.biblesunday.org.uk

Idea 1 – Mummy game with toilet rolls Invite some of the children/young people or even adults to come up to the front to take part in a game. Get them into pairs. Each pair has a roll of toilet paper. Give them one minute to race against the clock to wrap their partner like an Egyptian mummy in toilet paper. Then ask the people dressed up as mummies to talk the offering baskets around to the congregation to take donations for paper for Bibles. Remind everyone that just 80p will pay for one Bible. £5 will pay for six Bibles. Idea 2 – Kitchen Roll offering To make a memorable offering, unroll a whole kitchen roll across the front of the church or down an aisle. Challenge the congregation to cover as much of it as they can with coins and notes. Remind them that every penny counts. It only takes 80p to pay for the paper to print one Bible and give incredible joy to a Chinese believer.

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Bring your Bible to Brunch This is a great way to get the church together to have fun, raise awareness of the work of Bible Society in China and fundraise, all at the same time. You can make the event as grand or as low-key as you want. Here are a few ideas of how you can incorporate the China theme:

1) Serve Chinese food for Brunch This could be cooked on the premises – start with spring rolls and follow with rice and a stir fry. Or you could do something really special and arrange for discount on a large order from a local Chinese takeaway.

2) Serve British food but with chopsticks

Instead of the usual cutlery, only give out chopsticks for an entertaining way to try to eat lunch. (Probably best not to serve soup!)

3) Chinese lanterns

You can use traditional Chinese lanterns for decoration. Floating paper flower lanterns could be used on the tables floating in small bowls. Or you could get a small paddling pool or tub of water and encourage people to light a flower lantern and place it in the water as they pray for the church in China.

4) Chinese characters

Ask some of the artistic members of the church to prepare wall or table decorations by painting large versions of some of the Chinese language or number characters. You could even create a station in the church where people could sit down and have a go copying out Chinese letters.

5) A Chinese Bible

If you know anyone who has a Bible in Mandarin you could display this at the front of the church for people to look at.

Don’t forget! We’ve created special placemats to go on your tables with activities for the children and the information on how to text £5 to Bible Society to donate to China. Simply print one off and photocopy as many as you need. You can do further fundraising using some of our ideas here….or any of your own! You can include fun activities for all ages before and after brunch using these ideas.

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Five fabulous fundraising ideas for China

A) Rice-crispy cake sale after the Bible Sunday service Encourage church members to make rice-crispy cakes and sell them after the service to raise money for Bibles for China.

B) Lucky dip Fill a tub, baby bath or big bucket with dry rice and hide small wrapped objects in the rice (sweets, pound-store items etc.). Charge 50p or a £1 per go to enter.

C) Guess how many grains of rice in the jar Fill an empty jam jar or sauce jar with dry grains of rice. Charge to enter the competition. Entrants have to guess how many grains there are. The closest to the final number wins a prize – perhaps a voucher for the local Chinese takeaway (you could ask the takeaway to donate a prize!)

D) Rice races Using a long table, create a starting and finishing line. Each entrant has to pay to enter. Using a straw the competitors have to blow their grain of rice to the finishing line to win a token prize. It’s a good idea to colour the rice grains so you can tell them apart. Use a felt tip pen or food colouring.

E) The chocolate game – with chopsticks This is the classic children’s game where they sit in a circle and take turns rolling a dice. If you get a six you have to leap up, put on a woolly hat, scarf and a pair of gloves and, using chopsticks, try to pick up pieces of (already broken up) chocolate. If they can get the chocolate into their mouths using the chopsticks they can eat as much as they like until the next person rolls a six. Charge each person to enter the game.

What’s Next? There are also lots of ‘next steps’ you can take as a church after your Bible Sunday service.

Visit biblesunday.org.uk and download our 4 part home group resource, exploring the theme of freedom

Find out more about training and enabling days for the h+ Making Good Sense of the Bible programme at hplus.org.uk

Join Christians around the world as they raise their voices together in a united response against corruption in 2013. To sign the petition and find out more visit www.exposed2013.com

Download our China Christmas resources including two brand new nativity scripts, coming

soon to biblesociety.org.uk

And of course you need to make your paper dove and send us a photo of the finished result to contactus@biblesociety.org.uk

Thank you for celebrating Bible Sunday 2013.