The 3 Rs:
Refreshment, Rejoicing, Remembering
The Day of
Trumpets
If you have previously
read the general introductory comments in the box below
in another of the articles in this The 3Rs
series, use this link to
jump directly to the beginning
of this Day of Trumpets article.
Many people
who accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, whether they refer
to themselves as "Christian" or "Messianic," observe the
biblical Feasts and Holy Days, including the Dayof Trumpets, as times of worship, fellowship, and celebration. They believe
that these Feasts and Holy Days are shadows pointing to the
reality of Jesus. And they believe that there are valuable
spiritual lessons to be learned week by week and year by year through actually
physically setting aside these times as "appointments with God."
See
The 3 Rs
introductory article for an
overview of the three biblical principles of Refreshment,
Rejoicing, and Remembering as they apply to the observance of
the biblical Feasts and Holy Days.
The
rest of the articles in this series on The 3 Rs
provide specific, practical suggestions for
building those 3 Rs into these observances.
For
a general introduction to the biblical Feasts and Holy Days, see the article
Theme Times. This material on
The 3 Rs builds on concepts
explained in that article. If you are not familiar with the
cycle of these Feasts and Holy Days, you may wish to read
that article first.
See the
article Reveille!
for an overview of the biblical foundation of
the observance of the Day of Trumpets, and its
significance for Christians. The material below
assumes a familiarity by the reader with the
information in that article.
Refreshment
The Refreshment section
of each article in this series emphasizes the individual, the
family, and the home. Tips are offered on how to structure the
environment of time and space leading up to and during these
celebrations for maximum contrast to the stressful--but often
humdrum--world of daily life. Special foods and decorations,
developing family customs and traditions, special activities
including guests, and special family-centered fellowship
projects that focus on comforting, encouraging, and edifying one
another may be part of the suggestions.
Preparations
Like all other annual
biblical Holy Days, the Day of Trumpets is a type of
Sabbath, a day on which no regular work is done. There
are no typical extra preparations that are done for this
day, since it doesn't have any unusual characteristics
such as special foods connected with it. But if you'd
like to have special activities in your home related to
the theme of "sounding an alarm" on this day, you might
want to plan ahead to gather up appropriate noise
makers, including perhaps a genuine shofar.
Shofars can be purchased online for as little as $25 for
a simple one made from a short ram's horn, to large
spiral "Yemenite" ones made from African antelope or
kudu horns that can run hundreds of dollars, depending
on size and beauty. Just type in "shofar" at Google to
find stores that sell them.
Environment
Many families find that
changing their home environment on the Feasts and Holy
Days adds to
the feeling of celebration and refreshment. This can
include:
- Special tableware
and centerpieces for one or more of the meals for
the day.
- Special lighting
such as candles or a fireplace.
- Special background
mood music that is themed to the observance.
- Special decorations
around one or more rooms.
See some of the
suggestions below for decorations and music for the
Feast of Trumpets for group settings, and adapt them to
home use. It is particularly important to involve the
children in planning and creating these elements, as
that gives them an "investment" of their own in the
celebration
Children's
Activities
Most of the suggestions
in the
Crafts, Games, and Other Special Activities for Children
section below on
group projects for children for the festival period can
be adapted to home use with just a little creative
adaptation.
Devotionals
A ten-day Devotional
themed to the period of the time between the Day of
Trumpets and the Day of Atonement is currently being produced for this Times
of Refreshing website. When completed, you will be
able to download an appropriate devotional worksheet for
each day of the period, to aid and
inspire you in your own family and individual Bible
study and worship time.
If you would like to be notified
by email when this feature is added to the site, write
to the email address at the bottom of this webpage and
ask to be added to the email mailing list.
Rejoicing
The
Rejoicing section of each article in this series
emphasizes the importance of including larger group
worship and fellowship experiences whenever possible in
your observances. It is important for individuals and
families to spend part of their celebration times with
others—as many others as possible—to maximize the impact
of feeling part of something greater than yourself. This
may mean one or two other families, a small
congregation, or a big crowd.
Among
those Christians or Messianics who observe the Day of
Trumpets, there
are several distinct styles of observance. Below are
three typical ways that Christian or Messianic
congregations choose to celebrate. See the
Introductory article to this 3 Rs
series for an overview of each of these three types.
Varieties of Contemporary Observances
Traditional Jewish Celebrations
Some
groups, particularly among those which label themselves as
Messianic or Hebrew Roots congregations, model their
Day of Trumpets (Hebrew:YomTeruah) celebrations closely
on the traditional modern Orthodox or Conservative
Jewish customs for this Holy Day. They will, however, often
interpret these customs in ways that emphasize Jesus
(whom they may refer to by a Hebrew version of His name
such as Yashua or Y'shua) and the Gospel
of salvation.
There are not very many
specific "official" religious rites connected to the
observance of the Day of Trumpets in Judaism, in
contrast to, for instance, the Feast of Tabernacles, and
Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Synagogue
services are different from the weekly Sabbath primarily
in just the addition of extra prayers and extra
scripture readings, as well as a prescribed ritual of
certain ceremonial blowing of a shofar. Most
Messianic and Hebrew Roots groups do likewise.
And they also typically
embrace the more informal customs that take place
outside the synagogue service. This includes eating
special foods: pomegranates, and apples dipped in honey.
It also
includes a custom called in Hebrew tashlikh,
which means "casting off." Families and sometimes
whole congregations take a walk to a nearby stream or
river, into which they toss bread crumbs, symbolizing
the willing casting off of their sins. A Messianic
emphasis of this custom might include reference to
baptism symbolically washing away sin, and to
Jesus/Yashua taking our sins and removing them as far as
the east is from the west, through His own sacrifice.
(For
a description and details about these and related Jewish
customs, see Jewish Feast and Holy Day Customs:
Yom Teruah.)
Non-Jewish Celebrations
Some
Christian groups which observe the Day of Trumpets pay
little attention to Jewish customs and instead create
their own style of celebration. Such groups seldom
actually play trumpets on this day, let alone shofars.
Although perhaps a piece of special music, such as "God
of Our Fathers," might be deliberately included because
it has a trumpet solo.
It is
quite typical among such groups (as it is among
Messianic and Hebrew Roots groups as well) that this day
is believed to be the exact day that Christ will return
some year to usher in the Earthly Millennium. So the
primary special feature of the day might well be a
rousing sermon about the Second Coming, complete with
speculation on how soon that might be, and what people
need to do to be "ready" for it.
Hymns
on the theme of the Second Coming, or including mention
of trumpets, would be typically included in the worship
service. And the service would usually be followed by
fellowship and feasting, with a pot luck or catered
meal.
Hybrid Celebrations
Some
groups, while borrowing some of the customs, rituals,
and symbolism of Judaism, are more experimental in their
inclusion of these. Rather than try to imitate the whole
package of the standard Jewish Day of Trumpets
celebration, they will pick and choose those aspects
which appeal to them, perhaps sometimes for spiritual
reasons because they seem to be deeply meaningful, and
at other times just because they are aesthetically
attractive or seem fun.
One of
the most "fun" things about Jewish traditions of the Day
of Trumpets, particularly for children, is the blowing
of shofars. So a typical hybrid celebration might well
include making sure to have at least one shofar and
someone to play it at the beginning of the main worship
gathering of the day, and perhaps throughout the day.
Since these groups feel no obligation to follow any
rigid ritual, this shofar playing might well be
extemporaneous and enthusiastic rather than formal and
somber.
Such
groups tend to agree with the Messianic and other
Sabbatarian groups on the possible prophetic symbolism
of the Day of Trumpets. And thus sermons, hymns, and
special music would typically have themes related to the
Return of Christ.
Toward
a New Celebration Paradigm
One of the goals of
this Times of Refreshing website is to
encourage individuals and groups to fashion a
celebration style that is uniquely their own.
The Bible truly gives us no "worship formula"
for the weekly Sabbath and annual Feasts and
Holy Days, beyond a very few basic guidelines.
Thus God has granted us the freedom to adapt
these few guidelines to the age and culture in
which we live, and to the 'group personality" of
those with whom we meet. Some will feel most
comfortable and joyful with a certain amount of
formality, old-fashioned majestic music, and
orderly activities. Others can best rejoice with
considerable informality, contemporary lively
music, and boisterously extemporaneous
activities. And quite a few may feel most
refreshed by a combination of elements of all of
the above. The following ideas and tips are not
offered as a blue-print that must be slavishly
followed. They are instead a potpourri of
possibilities to pick and choose from to use as
parts for you, and those with whom you worship,
to craft your own very special Times of
Refreshing.
"Setting
the Stage" for Celebration
The following
general comments about creating a celebration
environment are equally applicable to the weekly
Sabbath and any of the annual Holy Days and Feasts.
They are therefore repeated in each installment of the
3Rs section of the Times of Refreshing website. If
you have already read this material in another
installment, use this link to
jump directly to specific
suggestions for the Day of Trumpets.
A
Sabbath, Feast, or Holy Day church service that resembles a college
class--with a few perfunctory songs thrown in--hardly
qualifies as a time of celebration and rejoicing! Many
groups have found that it is possible to maintain a
format for their gatherings that has sound teaching, but
add elements that make the gathering more than a passive
audience listening to a lecture.
One of
the most important elements in this transformation is
music. If the same group has been singing the same fifty
or so songs for the past two decades, and most still
find it necessary to bury their heads in the hymnbook
while singing, something is wrong. If most of these same
people sing along enthusiastically to their car radio
playing contemporary secular music, it is obvious that
the problem isn't that they can't immerse themselves in
music. It is more likely that they have separated
"religious music" into a class all by itself, as
something that is sung out of duty, rather than from the
heart. And the words have long since stopped
communicating thoughts and have become merely syllables
to be mouthed.
For
some people, the reason for this is that traditional
church hymns--most written a century or two or more
ago--seem like they are almost in a foreign
language. The historic culture that they came from can
seem unconnected to the thoughts, feelings, and emotions
of modern Christians. There are many ways that this
situation can be remedied. And in most cases the best
answer is to find creative ways to incorporate many
aspects of possible solutions.
One
thing that can help is for song leaders and/or other
speakers to actually spend some time talking about the
content of the hymns once in a while. There are books
and websites that provide a fascinating glimpse of the
history of many hymns, describing the authors, the
situations that prompted them to write a certain set of
lyrics, and some background of the cultural context in
which they were written. This can make the words come
alive in a way that they haven't before. Two samples:
Website
with hymn stories
Two Hundred Amazing Hymn Stories
Link to
Amazon.com info on two books of hymn stories
Osbeck's 101 Hymn Stories, volumes one and two
A
congregation that is made up of people of all age groups
will also find that it is usually beneficial to consider
incorporating newer hymns and other religious music in
some way into your group gatherings, so that everyone
can express themselves musically in ways that are most
meaningful to them. This can mean varying the music for
the usual worship service every week with a variety of
styles, featuring the newer music on certain weeks
during the month, or perhaps establishing a regular or
occasional alternative worship service, perhaps in the
evening, featuring newer music. This issue of
introducing variety into music has been a source of
conflict in many churches in recent decades, but with a
calm approach of creatively searching for satisfactory
compromises between people who hate change and people
who crave change, conflict can be minimized and all
needs met.
See the
section below on Meaningful Music
for more suggestions on music for congregational
worship.
Other
"celebratory" aspects to the activities for the the Holy
Days can include feasting together (see
Festive Food below), and special presentations
by children and youth, including choirs, plays,
pageantry, artwork displays, and even parades on
appropriate occasions (See Children's
Activities below).
The
most important consideration when "setting the stage"
for celebration on the Holy Days is to involve everyone,
of every age, in contributing to the planning and actual
celebration time together. In other words ... the stage
that is set isn't one that most people sit in the
audience and passively "view" ... it's a stage where
everyone joins the "performance"!
Meaningful Music
General Information
Hymns and group songs
Some hymns and other
types of religious songs may have a line or two
with which some people will take exception as not
reflecting totally sound biblical doctrine. Inclusion of
links to hymns or collections of hymns here is not an endorsement of every minor point
within the hymns at that link. If there is something that bothers
you in any given piece of music, you can either not use
it, or make a minor
adjustment to the wording to reflect your own doctrinal
perspective.
If your fellowship
group does not have music to sing from, local
and online Christian bookstores stock a wide
collection of basic hymnals in hardbound and
paperback formats, with everything from
classical church music of the 1700s and earlier
to the latest Praise and Worship choruses.
There are many
online sources of public domain congregational
music. Some may include sound files of
accompaniment music, lyrics, sheet music, and
perhaps even chord sheets for piano and/or
guitar. If you are looking for a specific hymn
or song, just type the name or a line of the
lyrics into a Google search box. Below are links
to some broad collections from which to choose.
http://www.cyberhymnal.org
Over 6,100
Christian hymns and Gospel songs. Includes
lyrics, scores, MIDI files, pictures,
history, choices to match specific
scriptural references, and more.
It is increasingly
popular in many religious settings to use lyrics
projected on a screen for congregational
singing, with still photos or video clips of
inspirational scenes of nature and so on in the
background. There are commercial packages of
such set-ups, sometimes including even audio
files of the music for those groups that don't
have musicians to provide accompaniment. Below
are links to just a sample of such products.
PLEASE NOTE: If
you are considering going this route, be sure to
check into the issues of copyright, by looking
over the material on the CCLI (Christian
Copyright Licensing International) website.
CCLI information
And while you're
there, be sure to look into the issue of a
copyright license to use commercial video clips
in sermons and studies, and even for playing
whole movies for your congregation, through the
related CLVI (Christian Video Licensing
International.)
CVLI information
The annual fees for
both of these services are very reasonable.
Special Music
There are many
inspirational video collections that don't have
the lyrics on the screen, but rather provide
choral and/or instrumental performances of
standard hymns and other music backed by
beautiful photography. These would be suitable
for "special music" presentations for worship
services and other gatherings. Below are links
to a sample of such products.
33 "Best loved hymns" with
backgrounds of Thomas Kinkaide paintings
"The Joslin
Grove Choral Society presents musical
accompaniment to one hundred beautiful
images of Thomas Kinkade. Among the 70
minutes of hymns sung are: Amazing Grace,
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God and
The Old Rugged Cross. "
Hymns across the Holy Land
"... featuring the
sites of the Holy Land set to hymns performed by
David and the High Spirit. Songs include Amazing
Grace, Love Lifted Me, Just As I Am,
and more."
Music specifically for the Day
of Trumpets:
Particularly appropriate would be congregational, solo, group, and
choral music emphasizing events leading up to and
including the Second Coming. Samples:
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Joy
to the World
The King is
Coming as made popular by the Statler Brothers
Suggestions for appropriate hymns, group songs, and
special music for the Sabbath, as well as the annual
Biblical feasts and Holy Days, are gratefully
accepted for inclusion in this and related Times
of Refreshing web pages! Send your
recommendations to the email address at the end of
this page.
Decorations
The following
general comments about using decorations to enhance
your celebration environment are equally applicable to the weekly
Sabbath and any of the annual Holy Days and Feasts.
They are therefore repeated in each installment of the
3Rs section of the Times of Refreshing website. If
you have already read this material in another
installment, use this link to
jump directly to specific
suggestions for the Feast of Pentecost.
Many
modern Christians reject the idea of some of the
traditional worship environments of the past ... cold
formal buildings with pews and stained glass, hushed
rooms with people talking to one another in hoarse
whispers if at all. A backlash against this type of
setting has sometimes led on the other extreme to drab
rooms full of metal chairs, bare walls, and constant
chaos. Or, on the other hand, some mega-churches have
huge meeting halls and stages more resembling a Las
Vegas show club than a place for families to meet
together and rejoice--as a spiritual family.
Most
people would not want to live in a house in which every
room looks like little more than a drab motel conference
room. We intuitively realize that "decor" can help us
enjoy our environment and our experiences in it, whether
it is wanting a peaceful "study," a lively "family
room," or a refreshing screened in porch with plants
that gets us more in touch with nature. We want our
homes to reflect our personalities and our interests.
The
same principle applies to church fellowship groups. It
would be good for all involved to sit down and discuss
just what it is in an environment that would enhance
what they expect to experience in that environment, and
what elements hinder it or distract from it. Most groups
seem to intuitively know that adding flowers at the
front of the meeting room improves the "feel" of a drab
room. But many seldom go beyond that.
So why
not discuss what could make the room--or whole
building--a home? And think about what would make it
particularly "spruced up" for the weekly Sabbath and
annual Holy Days.
The
basics to discuss can include choice of wall, floor, and
window treatment colors; decorative items on the walls;
furniture that is both functional and attractive; plants
and maybe even an aquarium or terrarium to bring some of
God's creation indoors; fountains or small waterfalls to
add to that effect; table settings and centerpieces for
festive occasions; attractive themed bulletin boards,
where youth projects can be displayed for special
occasions; perhaps even inspirational seasonal "banners"
to hang from the ceilings or as wall hangings.
Options may be limited if a group must rent a meeting
room, but even then there are "movable" items that can
be temporarily added to make the environment "homier."
Most buildings renting regularly to a group will provide
at least a small amount of storage space for their
regular equipment and supplies. A bulletin board on a
tripod can be used for those youth projects. Plant pots
with attractive artificial plants on coasters can be
rolled out to place around the room. Try brainstorming
and seeing what other options you can think of.
When
considering themed additions to your worship
environment, why not also brainstorm on what symbols
and scenes might be useful for banners, posters, centerpieces
and so on for the weekly Sabbath and each of the
annual feasts and Holy Days.
Some
suggestion-starters for the Feast of Trumpets:
Shofars
Battle of Jericho
Festive Food
There is nothing in the
Bible "commanding" any sort of food in particular for
this Feast day. But it is fun sometimes to develop group
traditions linking certain foods to certain
celebrations. Why not brainstorm with your group on what
might be suitable traditions for this time of year?
One suggestion to get you
started: The Day of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Teruah in Hebrew) in Israel--as in most of
the Northern hemisphere--comes at the end of the early
fall harvest of fruits and vegetables. Jews do follow
the biblical command that the "sacred year" of the cycle
of Holy Days begins in the spring with the month Abib,
in which Passover falls. But, just as we have a number
of different kinds of "years" including "fiscal years,"
they consider Trumpets the end of one agricultural
year, and the "new year's day" beginning the next one.
Thus one of the popular food traditions for the day is
to eat apples dipped in honey, as a symbolic wish for a
"sweet year" to come.
Taking this
even further, why not try a banquet particularly
featuring a wide variety of the freshest of the new
produce from your part of the world, including fruits
and vegetables. Include in particular any regional
specialties for recipes, such as pumpkin pies or candied
yams. Most group potlucks are long on casserole dishes
like franks and beans and lasagna, and short on veggies
and fruits. So that would set apart this menu from the
average!
Suggestions for special decorations and festive food
particularly appropriate for the weekly Sabbath, as well as the annual
Biblical Feasts and Holy Days, are gratefully
accepted for inclusion in this and related Times
of Refreshing web pages! Send your
recommendations to the email address at the end of
this page.
Special Group Activities, with a focus on youth
If activities for
children are included at all in some group
worship settings, including for both the weekly
Sabbath and for annual Feasts and Holy Days, it
is to send them off to another room separate
from the adults for their own classes and social
gatherings. While this can be a valuable part of
their socialization and education, it is also
important to have times in which they are
involved with the adults in mutually-enjoyable
activities and learning. Below are suggestions
for such cross-generational activities for the
Day of Trumpets.
The following
general material is equally applicable to the weekly
Sabbath and any of the annual Holy Days and Feasts.
It is therefore repeated in each installment of the
3Rs section of the Times of Refreshing website. If
you have already read this material in another
installment, use this link to
jump directly to specific
suggestions for the Day of Trumpets.
Messages and
presentations to
edify all ages
Message
delivery, including sermons, is a very personal matter
to most speakers. It is indeed important for the speaker
to pray for guidance on what to speak about, and how to
present the material so that it is most effective. But
God often answers such prayers through input by others.
Perhaps the following ideas, tips, and suggestions may
include some answers for you.
If you
are responsible for presenting sermons or other kinds of
messages for church gatherings, you likely have a track
record of such presentations that you can examine. If
you have found your audiences continually and uniformly
very inspired, edified, encouraged, and motivated
through the delivery style you have been using, then you
may need no delivery tips. But if the audience rapport
and reaction is less than what you have hoped for,
perhaps incorporating some of the following ideas might
produce more effective results.
Multimedia
As the
old saying goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words."
If you are a master story teller, and can quickly weave
with just words the illustrations included in your
messages, then you may not need anything else. But for
the rest of the world ... including visuals can really
enhance delivery. It helps the audience focus and
remember points, it saves you time in
descriptive portions that can then be better put to use
drawing the points you want to make, and it can bring
to life what might otherwise seem dry and boring to
a generation weaned on the visual world of movies, TV,
glossy illustrated magazines, and the Internet.
The
most popular and easy-to-use way to incorporate such
visuals these days is to use a computer connected to a
video projector, running the Power Point program.
Power Point is much like a word processing
program, in that it allows you to easily lay words and
pictures out on a page for display. But it goes beyond
that to allow you to include music and video clips where
appropriate.
Educational research shows that the more "senses" you
use to take in a given fact or group of facts, the
better you remember them. For instance, if you hear
someone speak a point, and then or shortly after see it
in written form, your chances of remembering it are
greater. In fact, if you can see, hear, and have music
connected to that point, you may even better remember
it. Remember memorizing the ABCs by singing them to the
tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"? There is a
reason for such ditties ... they really work. And there
are very good reasons that almost all movies and TV
shows these days have a musical sound track. It also
"works" to enhance the emotional impact of the visuals.
This
doesn't mean, of course, that you need to have music
going the whole time you are talking. Or that every
single point you make needs to be in words on the
screen. But if you carefully select points of the
greatest emphasis, and add multi-media supplements to
them, you may find that the effectiveness of your
messages increases.
You can
project the scriptures that you are including in your
message on the screen so that the audience can follow
along, without having to rummage through their
Bibles--and bury their heads in them--to keep up. You
can also project any "bullet points" that you want the
audience to remember so that there are both an aural and
a visual emphasis to them--and they are easy for people
to copy down to accurately include in their own
note-taking.
You can
select representative photographs and artwork to aid in
story telling, or in explaining technical details, such
as what a certain object from Bible times looks like.
Actually seeing a model of the Tabernacle is more
effective than trying to describe it.
Of
course you need not include such audio-visual components
to every message you present. Many topics lend
themselves to just straight dissertation. You will find
that it is most useful to adapt the presentation style
to your topics as needed.
Don't
discount the value of the earlier method of including
multi-media either--using actual 3D objects to emphasize
points. A message focusing on Jesus' comment that "my
yoke is easy and my burden is light," or on Paul's
admonition not to be "unequally yoked with unbelievers,"
can become much more memorable if you can actually
borrow a real single ... or better yet, double ... yoke
from a farm to illustrate the point.
These
presentation suggestions can be useful for messages at
any time, including in secular environments. But it is
the specific aim of this website to offer suggestions on
how to enliven all of the content and environment of
special times of worship, including the weekly Sabbath
and annual Feasts and Holy Days.
Message ideas
With
all of the above in mind, here are a few suggestions for
thematic topics specifically related to the Day of
Trumpets:
Time to
wake up and smell the coffee!
Are you
ready for the spiritual battles that may come in your
life?
Be all
you can be, in the Army of the Lord!
Don't
get caught up in "setting dates for the Return"...
because Jesus will be "coming for you" whenever you die.
So it doesn't make any difference if it is next week or
next century. Be always ready.
Remembering
The
Remembering section of each article in this
series focuses on being sure to include an emphasis on
understanding and remembering the history, meaning, significance, and symbolism of the Sabbath
and annual observances throughout your times of
celebration. This emphasis doesn't need to be be just
"tacked on" to the celebration through some dry,
lifeless, boring lecture before or during the
celebration. It can be built into the very environment
and the activities you engage in. It can be part of the
songs, the prayers, the praise, the formal messages of
vibrant inspiration and exhortation, and even
discussions in informal fellowship around the banquet
table.
Topics and Ideas for Bible Studies and Discussion
Sessions
Adults
What
are you looking forward to the most when Jesus comes
again?
If
you've felt spiritually drowsy lately, what can you do
to wake up?
What
can you do to help build better camaraderie with your
fellow "Army of the Lord" soldiers?
What
would you tell a friend who was disillusioned about
religion because he was taken in by a false prophetic
teacher whose dogmatic pronouncements about the End
coming soon failed miserably?
Teens
If you
hate alarm clocks, you may also find you resent "wake up
calls" from God. What can you do to have a better
attitude about them?
The
Internet is a powerful tool of communication, in the
same way ancient societies used shofars. A lot of teens
use blogs and personal home pages just for airing their
petty gripes or gossiping. But there are so many ways
those could be used to accomplish positive projects that
will uplift and help others, and "wake them up" to a
better way of life. Brainstorm ideas for starting an
online outreach to other teens that would be attractive,
fun, exciting, and creative.
Children
What
could you do to "wake up" a friend who is doing bad
things that are going to hurt himself and others?
What
kinds of situations did people in Bible times use
shofars and trumpets for? What communication methods do
we use today instead?
Crafts, Games, and Other Special Activities for Children
Crafts
Make
posters or collages, drawing or painting your own
illustrations or using photos cut from magazines, of all
sorts of warning or "wake up call" instruments:
Examples: Sirens, trumpets, alarm clocks, train
whistles.
Have
each child make their own paper shofar using the
directions at
Games
Other
Activities
