Jesus' Big Story and Gospel shared at the Sockburn Community Fun Day
Activate Church and Cornerstone Church worked together to provide the Community Fun Day at Sockburn Park the weekend before Easter. A cross was made out of ladders to match the Big Story of Jesus drama that was put on by the ICONZ and IFG groups. Like snakes and ladders, humans went down the snake into the evil kingdom, but Jesus' death and resurrection is like a ladder that we can climb up and be part of God's kingdom again. The drama explained how God created the world but then the humans were tricked by God's enemy into disobeying God and breaking their friendship with God. They then jumped back in time to explain who the enemy was; a created angel who had rebelled against God. They then jumped forward in time again to explain that Jesus was born at Christmas and grew up to show and tell people that God loves them and wants to be their friend. They acted out how Jesus was nailed to the cross and was buried, and Satan did a victory dance. But then Jesus came to life again and was victorious. They explained how Easter eggs symbolise the new life that people can have if they choose to be friends with Jesus. Marty Schieb, the OAC evangelist ventriloquist, also entertained the crowd with his Scottish bear and explained about Easter. Both churches had stands and advertised their community programmes, and a prayer tent was available for people to ask for prayer. 400 attended the Fun Day, thoroughly enjoying the free sausages, popcorn, ice-cream, home baking, carnival games, slippery slide, tabloid races and bouncy castle. 8 new children attended the ICONZ and IFG groups the following week.
Quiz
The kids loved winning Easter Eggs in the quiz which had been carefully designed to bring out the story of Easter. The questions included...
What is the person’s name that the Easter celebration is about?
What other celebration do lots of New Zealanders celebrate that is also about Jesus?
Who was Jesus’ father? (2 – God, and Joseph who was the man God asked to be Jesus’ dad and look after Jesus while he was on earth)
What did Jesus do when he was on earth?
What happened to Jesus on Easter Friday?
Why did people want to kill Jesus?
Why are there crosses on hot cross buns?
What happened on Easter Sunday?
Who saw Jesus after he had risen from the dead?
Why do Christians think that Jesus rising from the dead is so important?
What does an Easter Egg represent?
What values does Jesus want there to be in the world and want everyone to help with? (love, joy, peace…)