A Crafty Christmas Celebration Christmas Outreach 2022

By Joyce Chua

On 17 Dec 2022, the English congregation partnered with Green Pastures Child Centre ministry group to organise a “Crafty Christmas Celebration” for children in our preschool, Sunday school and members of public. We simply wanted to let the children enjoy a time of togetherness where we share warmth and joy with family and our community. As Christmas is a time where we celebrate giving and God’s sacrificial love, the event was also made free, sponsored by the church.

We had craft stations, story-telling sessions and a mini-concert of Dance and Ukulele. Imagine 50 children with their parents in tow, flitting from booth to booth, interacting with volunteers and attempting the craft activities together as a family. They tried their hands at decorating Christmas trees made of ice-cream sticks, and greeting cards to send to their loved ones. Kids were invited to join dancers onstage to dance in time with them, making it a spontaneous and enjoyable atmosphere.

There were messages behind each activity: in snowman crafting, it taught them to stick as a family to find joy and cheer despite cold and difficult times; the star at the top of tree represents the star that led the wise men to Jesus, which is the church’s hope that kids also be led to Jesus.

The storytelling segment was from a book “Just Teddy” by author Emily Lim-Leh about a teddy bear that didn’t fit in with other toys. The story is based on Psalm 139:14 - “You are fearfully and wonderfully made.” He was eventually taken home by a girl with a birthmark, who remarked that he was surely oneof-a-kind. The storyteller was my sister, Su-Lynn Chua, who chose the book as she herself had gone through 2 surgeries just to remove a birthmark, having been bullied when she was younger. Her personal testimony reiterated that we are all born uniquely and wonderfully made by God. (You can check out Emily’s blog post about her encounter with SuLynn - go.lutheran.org.sg/teddy. She hoped it would be an inspiring story of how God uses his own special ways to heal people of their hurts.)

For myself, organising the event taught me to trust God more. I was very concerned about manpower as most in the Ministry Group couldn’t come on the actual day, having made other plans. Some volunteers who agreed to help had to back out at short notice. However, Debbie Phang reminded me that “If God wills, he will provide”. In the end, God indeed provided just enough people to help, with talents fitting into the right areas that had most need, like the ushering, food and PA crew.

I hope the families felt the warmth and cheer of our community and will come back to be with us again.”