Welcome! Today all ages stay together to build our Easter Gardens Please turn phones to silent Please turn hearing aids to T position There is a toilet through the right hand door at the front There is a donations box at the back for the work of this church Make sure CHBC folk know there is no offering In terms of noise: please do not worry about young children moving and crying but please do try to make sure that we are quiet for the all together bits. When the triangle dings it is time to focus on the front. HOLD UP EMPTY GARDEN If this is a bit like your understanding of easter – there are quite a lot of blanks and you’re not sure what it’s about then today we’re going to fill our garden and build together an understanding of what the events of easter might mean for us. If you think you’ve heard it all before then try to come ready to ask god what he wants to show us, what detail he wants to put in your easter garden. NEW SLIDE

Let’s talk to Jesus So a one line prayer – which is just us talking to God and letting God communicate with us: Dear God as we build our easter garden today we ask that you will help us to see what it’s all about and get to know you better. Amen. NEW SLIDE

If you look at your empty garden it contains a hill so we’re going to sing a song that talks about the hill and starts to fill in some of the gaps in our garden. NEW SLIDE

1) There is a green hill far away Outside a city wall Where the dear Lord was crucified Who died to save us all. 2) We may not know, we cannot tell What pains He had to bear; But we believe it was for us He hung and suffered there. 3) He died that we might be forgiven He died to make us good That we might go at last to heaven Saved by His precious blood. 4) There was no other good enough To pay the price of sin; He only could unlock the gate Of heaven, and let us in. SING THERE IS A GREEN HILL NEW SLIDE

We start the week before easter when it was time for Jesus to travel into Jerusalem where the events of easter would unfold. So Alison is going to read us what happened as he came into the big city. We have to join in as the crowd, follow Nic and you will be ok. 1When Jesus and his disciples came near Jerusalem, he went to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives and sent two of them on ahead. 2 He told them, “Go into the next village, where you will at once find a donkey and her colt. Untie the two donkeys and bring them to me. 3 If anyone asks why you are doing that, just say, ‘The Lord needs them.’ Right away he will let you have the donkeys.” 4 So God’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, 5 “Announce to the people of Jerusalem: ‘Your king is coming to you! He is humble and rides on a donkey. He comes on the colt of a donkey.’”

6 The disciples left and did what Jesus had told them to do. 7 They brought the donkey and its colt and laid some clothes on their backs. Then Jesus got on.

8 Many people spread clothes in the road, while others put down branches which they had cut from trees. 9 Some people walked ahead of Jesus and others followed behind.

They were all shouting, “Hooray for the Son of David! God bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hooray for God in heaven above!” They were all shouting, WORDS ABOVE

10 When Jesus came to Jerusalem, everyone in the city was excited and asked, “Who can this be?” 11 The crowd answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” Thank you Alison NEW SLIDE

So for the first bit of our garden we are going to lay a road along the front made out of gravel NEW SLIDE

We are also going to add our own palm leaves with our own words of praise to God. Try to think of words that you want to use to tell God how great he is. At messy play on Tuesday there was a little boy in the small room who had discovered awesome as a word, everything was awesome, so that might be a start. Here are some ideas but do do your own: NEW SLIDE

Hooray! Great! You can cut your own slits in the leaves, lay them along your path (about 6 each) Young children can give adults their words and they can write them on. TIME FOR GARDEN WORK STOPS WHEN TRIANGLE GOES Awesome!

We have a king who rides a donkey We have a king who rides a donkey We have a king who rides a donkey And his name is Jesus Trees are waving a royal welcome Trees are waving a royal welcome Trees are waving a royal welcome For the king called Jesus S o its time to sing now about a king who rides a donkey. Young children might like to sit on an adults lap and they can jog along to the song. Its good exercise for the adults and cheaper than the gym. SING

Let’s talk to Jesus God, you are …. Now think of 3 of the words you wrote down and we will be like the first crowds who welcomed jesus into the city. I say God you are and you finish by shouting one of your words. They will all be different it doesn’t matter we’re an unrul;y crowd. God you are… NEW SLIDE God, you are ….

King of Glory You are the King of Glory You are the Prince of Peace You are the Lord of heaven and earth You are the Son of righteousness Angels bow down before You They worship and adore You For You have the words of eternal life You are Jesus Christ the Lord Hosanna to the Son of David Hosanna to the King of Kings Glory in the highest heavens Jesus the Messiah reigns A bit more orderly now , we are going to sing about a king who rides a donkey so he may be the king of glory but he is also the prince of peace SING NEW SLIDE

Having got into the city things started to go wrong for jesus and it wasn’t quite the shouting and cheering that we have just heard. Let’s listen to Rachel and hear what went on next: RACHEL But not everyone was so happy about Jesus Quite a lot of people were disappointed. They had hoped Jesus would lead them in battle to drive their enemies away. Others thought Jesus was only pretending to be God’s Son and ought to be punished for that. Jesus knew it was nearly time for him to be punished even though he hadn’t done anything wrong.

What was most important to Jesus as he prayed? It was night time and he took his friends into a garden where it was quiet and peaceful because Jesus needed to pray very much. He needed to talk to his father – God in heaven. So he sat in the garden and cried out to God asking Him to help him. This is his prayer: “Father, help me do what you want”. After Jesus had prayed this prayer some soldiers came along and arrested Jesus and took him away. Thank you Rachel. So what was most important to Jesus as he prayed that God would help him to do what he needed to do. So we’re going to ask Jesus to help us when things are hard for us. NEW SLIDE

You have three fresh flowers each if you could sort those out and then be ready to push them into the side of the hill in your garden (don’t go on top). we will need to be quiet for this bit. NEW SLIDE

Let’s talk to Jesus Please help me, God Few moments for sorting out flowers and then triangle for quiet. For each flower I will say a simple prayer and you reply as above Please help me God and push your flower into the side of the hill. When I am scared….Please help me God When I am sad….Please help me god When I need to do hard things… Please help me god. NEW SLIDE Please help me, God

We have a king who rides a donkey We have a king who rides a donkey We have a king who rides a donkey And his name is Jesus Trees are waving a royal welcome Trees are waving a royal welcome Trees are waving a royal welcome For the king called Jesus We have a king who is sad and scared We have a king who is sad and scared We have a king who is sad and scared So he prays to God So we have a king who knows what it is to be sad and scared. We can sing about that back on knees for those of you who are doing jogging. SING So Jesus has been arrested and dragged off by the soldiers and now some terrible things happened to him. Let’s listen to Rosemary as she tells us what went on: ROSEMARY : NEW SLIDE

Rosemary: It was time for Jesus to die. God had planned it long ago. Jesus knew it would happen when he came to the earth. He came to take the punishment for all the wrong things anybody has ever done, or would ever do. And now it was time. The soldiers took him to the leaders. The leaders did not believe he was God’s son. They said, ‘He must die because he calls himself the Son of God.’ So they put Jesus on a cross and left him there to die. NEW SLIDE

It was mid-day but the whole earth became dark. There was total darkness for three hours. Jesus called out, ’Father, I place my life in your hands.’ Then he breathed his last and died. THANK YOU ROSEMARY NEW SLIDE

Christ died for our sins Let’s talk to Jesus So our gardens need a cross at the top of the hill. That cross is there because people, like us, do wrong things which separate us from God, who is completely good. When Jesus died it was as if all the bad things anybody has ever done or thought of doing were lumped on him so that we can now be forgiven by God and live as his children. No human being really understands how it works, its all about what God does for us but like the hymn at the beginning said ‘we believe it was for us he hung and suffered there.’ Christ died for our sins 1 Corinthians 15:3

So our crosses are going to be made of straws and inside our straw we are going to draw a picture or write a prayer about something we have done wrong that we need to say sorry to god for. So if you find it hard to share your sweets draw some sweets and a sad face. When you are done roll up your prayer, we sometimes call it sin, and put it inside your straw cross and put your cross on the top of your hill and your sin has gone. We can’t see it anymore it is inside the cross and it is dealt with and we are forgiven. TIME FOR DRAWING/WRITING CONFESSION AND MAKING CROSS AND PUTTING IT ON TOP OF HILL TRIANGLE TO SHOW END

I’m special I’m special because God has loved me, For He gave the best thing that He had to save me; His own Son Jesus, crucified to take the blame For all the bad things I have done. Thank You Jesus, thank You Lord, For loving me so much. I know I don’t deserve anything. Help me feel Your love right now, To know deep in my heart That I’m Your special friend. Now we sing this lovely song that says thank you to God because he loves us so much that he even made Jesus, his son, die so that we can be special friends of Gods. SING NEW SLIDE

Now Jesus’ friends wanted to do what they could for Jesus, even though he had died and they thought it was all over, so they asked for his body and they put it in a special cave called a tomb and they rolled a big stone across the cave so that no one could mess about with the body of their much loved friend. So now its time to think about our special friends and family. NEW SLIDE

YOU have some stones and you will need in a minute to choose a stone and roll it across the entrance to your cave in your garden. First you will need to roll up a strip of bandage and put it in your cave to remind you that Jesus really did die and his body would have been wrapped up and put in the cave. Then you need to decorate your stone thinking about someone who needs your prayers at the moment. You could put a heart on your stone, you could put their initial in it. You could draw some flowers, like taking flowers to people who are poorly. You could draw a sad face as you think of this person, or anything else you want. As you draw and put your stone across the entrance to the cave remember that God knows how you feel, the bandages are like those that went round the dead body of his son. DO BANDAGES AND STONE DECORATING AND ACROSS TOMB END WHEN TRIANGLE GOES

However, that wasn’t the end of Jesus However, that wasn’t the end of Jesus. Let’s listen to Nic as he tells us what happens next. But this is about what happens to all of us, we are all in the story and are part of it, so we have to make the sounds so we are part of what happened next: Nic: On the first day of the week Mary got up very early and set out for the tomb. On the way there she walked very quietly and gently (pitter patter pitter patter) went her feet because she was very sad so pitter patter pitter patter went her feet. Sometimes she had to sniff (sniff sniff ) because she couldn’t stop crying. Pitter patter pitter patter sniff sniff she went. She came close to the tomb and walked even quieter pitter patter pitter patter and sniffed even more (sniff sniff) as she got nearer and nearer. When she got to the tomb her heart started to go bang bang as she really was scared about seeing Jesus’ body . Bang bang bang bang . When she got to the tomb, the stone had been rolled away (bang fists together and rumble rumble rumble.) As she bent down and looked into the tomb her heart went even faster bang bang bang. Then she saw an angel and her heart went BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG . But the angel said ‘Don’t be afraid Mary Jesus is not here. He is alive. There was no more sniff sniff sniff and no more banging heart bang bang bang because she was scared. The stone had been rolled away (rumble rumble rumble ) because Jesus wasn’t there any more. There was no more walking quietly and gently pitter patter pitter patter now. She started to run back to her friends. Run run run run run run run. As she ran Run run run run run run run she thought about the stone that had been rolled away rumble rumble rumble rumble and now her heart went bang bang bang because she was so excited and happy. She ran faster and faster run run run run run run run until she got to her friends and shouted hooray Jesus is alive. Hooray Jesus is alive. NEW SLIDE

SO NOW WE ARE GOING TO ROLL OUR STONE AWAY AND COVER OUR EASTER GARDEN IN FLOWERS TO SHOW THAT JESUS IS ALIVE. YOU MIGHT LIKE TO MAKE ENOUGH FLOWERS FOR EACH ONE TO HAVE ON ITS BACK THE LETTERS OF Thank you jesus. Because jesus is alive he can be with us today as our friend and this is something very lovely and beautiful so we are going to fill our gardens with flowers. Time for gardens finishing with triangle New slide

We have a king who rides a donkey We have a king who rides a donkey We have a king who rides a donkey And his name is Jesus We have a king who was killed for us all We have a king who was killed for us all We have a king who was killed for us all Because he loves us so much Jesus the king is risen – Jesus the king is risen Jesus the king is risen He is lord of all Lets get back to jig jogging. Now we have a king who came into Jerusalem to die and rise again. So nice and fast for jogging Finally we are going to hide an egg in our garden. Jesus is alive but we do have to look for him if we want to get to know him . Hiding your egg in your garden will remind you that sometimes the best things are not obvious and may seem hidden but they are worth finding. HIDE EGG IN GARDEN NEW SLIDE

Thank you, Jesus, thank You, Jesus, Thank You, Lord, for loving me. You went to Calvary, And there You died for me, Thank You, Lord, for loving me. To finish we sing thank you to a god who died and rose again because he loves us that much.

Thank you, Jesus, thank You, Jesus, Thank You, Lord, for loving me. You rose up from the grave, To me new life You gave, Thank You, Lord, for loving me. You rose up from the grave, To me new life You gave, Thank You, Lord, for loving me.