This week, the children started with a game, taking the Christians from Jerusalem out to lots of different towns and cities. They learned that the early church grew by people becoming Christians in one place (often Jerusalem at the beginning) then taking the message of Good News back to their own towns and villages.
Of course, there were a lot of people who were very upset about Christians talking about Jesus, and they got especially mad with Stephen. He just wouldn't stop telling people how great Jesus was, so they started to tell lies about him, got him arrested and eventually killed. Stephen was just an ordinary person, but he loved Jesus and followed him even when it was dangerous for him to do so.
The children then had lots of fun drawing pictures from the story on the playground in chalk. You can see some of their artwork below. Hopefully there will be enough rain to wash it away this week!
Think about: there are still places in the world where it is dangerous to talk about Jesus, where Christians can be arrested for going to church and whose lives are in danger if people find out. Pray that God would help them to be as brave as Stephen was, and that they would be able to keep following Jesus no matter what the risk.
