Keep Calm and Colour on...

The purpose of this blog is to share ideas, so that others could have a go at colouring for mission. Please click on the 2 links above the picture.

                10-ideas-for-colouring-ministry             5-ways-to-colour-as-group

We are continuing to colour and send bookmarks, predominantly to the persecuted church. I hope your group or family enjoys colouring for mission as much as we have.  :  )

Shalom and happy colouring!

Etsy, a great place for buying digital downloads!

There are lots of Christian artists on Etsy who are worth supporting by buying digital downloads. You might be able to find online freebies if you trawl through Pinterest for long enough, but it is also worth buying bits on Etsy for a few dollars at a time. If you are colouring for mission purposes, then you want to be able to buy something nice that you can re-use again and again.

We haven't been idle!

Bit of a gap between posts, but so far with the children's help, we have reached 70 bookmarks coloured in, laminated, written and sent off to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ. Phew!

Plenty of summer fun was had by all and I have loved seeing the different ways that the children colour the same bookmark. Personally, I have benefited from the calming effect of doing the colouring and it is a great filler for mini slots of time.

Here are some of the ones that the children coloured...

And here are some of mine...

I quite like seeing the same design coloured in more than one way!

5 ways to colour as a group

You may be happy colouring all alone, but here are a few more suggestions...

1. Colour as a family; it has a surprisingly calming effect upon both adults and children!
2. Meet up with friends to colour in the park, in the library or at a cafe.
3. Increase biblical literacy amongst children by putting on a colouring event or starting a club.
4. Set up a colouring group for adults and colour scripture as a way of Christian meditation on scripture and relaxation. 
5. Put on a colouring event to respond to a particular situation or need. For example, you may want to have a speaker from a related charity attend, or combine it with fund raising.

Don't re-invent the wheel! Try using existing church groups, such as Sunday school, youth group or house groups for one off events. You might also consider having an 'open house' for church members to drop in and colour, or combine it with a coffee morning.

Above all, enjoy the fellowship & find ways to be a blessing to others. 

10 Ideas for colouring ministry

I have been thinking about ministry through colouring and possible uses/ outlets for posters, bookmarks and cards, so here are a few ideas...

1. To encourage and lift up believers who you already know (everyone needs encouragement from time to time!).
2. Make cards or bookmarks for a hospital Chaplaincy or ministries visiting nursing homes to distribute. Think also of other care situations like retreat centres or women's refuges that might like coloured items to give to guests.
3. Prison chaplaincies and Christian charities working with prisoners, drug addicts, prostitutes and other vulnerable people groups may be able to make use of these if you ask. 
4. Using Bible Gateway or similar, translate your coloured bible verses into different languages and use this to send letters and cards to the persecuted church worldwide.
5. Encourage missionary families, by sending bible verses by post. Don't forget to send some materials for missionary kids to colour their own too.
6. The Word of God tells us to comfort the Jewish people. Look in the Psalms to find some uplifting scriptures that they may be able to relate to. Send these just as a blessing, with absolutely no strings attached.
7. Use your translated bible verses and colouring items to bless refugees and those from other  nations living in your land. It can be tough living abroad and the differences between the church communities are hard, especially for those coming from the underground church.
8.  Many people like to visit historic churches. If there is one in your area, ask if they would like some bookmarks for visitors to take away free.
9. Ask a street evangelist what sort of verses might be of use for people who they are dealing with. Perhaps you could do some bespoke colouring for them?
10. To encourage a family or community that has been through trauma. During crisis it can be difficult to get non essential items through, but encouragement is still needed further down the line, after agencies helping have left, but people still have to face wounds of the soul, particularly on the anniversary of events.

Colourful greetings

Not sure whether these are child or adult colouring! We all enjoyed them very much.
I found my copy in Sainsbury's, but you can BUY DIRECT from the NT.

Just thought I would include these little cards. They have lots of gorgeous pictures of UK wildlife in a very cute and pretty style, but there are designs as suitable for boys as for girls. I had coloured several, but without any firm purpose. The designs are so cheerful, I really wanted to use them to brighten someone's day. Then, a little by surprise, I came across an appeal asking for letters of encouragement to be written to a group of children in Latin America. It said they wanted bright and colourful cards of encouragement for the children. Gosh, did I feel happy! They would be put to good purpose after all and not become just a product of happy time wasting! Without further ado, I wheeled out my rusty schoolgirl Spanish, hopped onto Bible Gateway to google some verses in the Spanish version of NIV and set onto filling them with writing. How glad I felt that I had learnt a language at school, which although it has never been used in ways that I expected, has not at least been put to waste.

New to blogging too!

Just in case you haven't guessed, I am also new to blogging, so this is something of a tech journey for me also. In addition to fumbling my way around the controls, I have enlisted the help of little people. For some strange reason, little people have the ability to become experts in new tech overnight and rather than attempting to teach them, I am convinced it is more efficient to let them loose and then allow then to explain to you everything they have learnt within microseconds.

So if occasionally my blog is looking strange, please bear with us. It is either my lack of experience or little people developing their professional skills alongside me. But then, as for any mother, little people are part of the package and part of the joy. Just like the colouring, we are all learning together.