Illustrated Ministry

Progressive Faith Resources for the Church & Home

You are here: Home / Archives for Advent

Advent

5 Fantastic Family-Friendly Charities to Support Right Now

Leave a Comment

Family-friendly charities focus on issues that children will likely want to invest in. So, we’ve put together a list of five to choose from to make your holiday giving easy.

family-friendly charities 101

You amazing church leaders and parents likely have family-friendly charities you love to support. Share with us in the comments how giving has encouraged generosity in the kids you nurture.

Raising Funds to Donate

There are a few ways to gather holiday giving funds with your child to donate to charity.

First, simply tell your child a set amount you will allow them to give. Then, go online and have them go through the screens necessary to donate to the charity they choose.

Second, if your child has a piggy bank, or something similar, invite them to take funds from there. Then, send that money (or a check of equal value) to one of the family-friendly charities you choose. Or drop the money in person, if the organization is local.

Third, create easy ways for them to raise funds to donate. For example, invite them to be in charge of saving aluminum cans in your home. Then, take them to the recycling center to redeem the cans for coins.

To best teach children about holiday giving, connect them to concrete actions as often as possible. Keep this in mind, especially if your child is young. On the other hand, youth are better equipped to think abstractly. Encouraging teenagers to give can be a bit less involved for this reason.

family-friendly charities 102

5 Family-Friendly Charities to Support

No Kid Hungry

No Kid Hungry knows that we have plenty of food in the United States. And we have meal programs that work. The problem is that not enough kids are able to access them.

That’s a problem they know how to solve. And your kids can be a part of the solution.

DONATE to No Kid Hungry.

KaBOOM!

KaBOOM! knows that kids are missing out on the childhood they deserve. Play is disappearing at home, at school, and in communities, particularly for the 14 million children living in poverty.

So, the organization pairs funding partners with under-resourced communities who come together to build safe playgrounds, in just one day, resulting in kids feeling valued.

DONATE to KaBOOM!

family-friendly charities 105

Alex’s Lemonade Stand

Alex’s Lemonade Stand strives to change the lives of children with cancer through funding impactful research, raising awareness, supporting families, and empowering everyone to help cure childhood cancer.

Alexandra “Alex” Scott held a front yard lemonade sale to raise money for childhood cancer. She herself was diagnosed with cancer just before she turned one and passed away at the age of eight. So, her family carries on her legacy through this organization.

DONATE to Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Defenders of Wildlife

Defenders of Wildlife is a major national conservation organization focused solely on wildlife and habitat conservation and the safeguarding of biodiversity.

It is one of the family-friendly charities that focuses on the inherent value of wildlife and the natural world, and this defines their important niche in the environmental and conservation community.

DONATE to Defenders of Wildlife.

family-friendly charities 103

Hope International

Hope International focuses on something more abstract: entrepreneurship in developing countries. Therefore, it may be a good choice for youth in your family. This charity assists individuals turn their talents, education, or skills into sustainable businesses.

For example, your child may be able to help a woman buy a stove to set up her bakery. Or, they may buy a share of a greenhouse to help a farmer grow vegetables to sell.

DONATE to Hope International.

Giving is a Gift

All of us here at ICM hope you and your family find joy in holiday giving this season. Making this time to encourage generosity at home is a gift to your kids, for sure. So, we hope our list of five family-friendly charities helps. And don’t forget to tell us in the comments how you’re encouraging generosity in your kids!

An Illustrated Advent for Families: Preparing the Way

Leave a Comment

This is the first truly “family friendly” devotional for Advent that I’ve found. There was something to which everyone in the family could relate – from our preschoolers all the way through adults. The coloring pages were wonderful! Even my little two-year-old was able to participate. My kindergartner read the devotional book as part of her reading practice at night. It was great that the words were easy and straightforward!
– Rev. Meredith Keseley, Senior Pastor, Abiding Presence Lutheran Church, Burke, VA

We are excited to announce the launch of our newest family Advent devotional resource: An Illustrated Advent for Families: Preparing the Way! Click here to ORDER NOW!

Advent Family Devotional

This is our fourth year of providing families with a resource for engaging their children in faith formation at home during the Advent season. Our Illustrated Advent for Families and Illustrated Lent for Families have been used by thousands of families around the world, and we’re looking forward to sharing this new edition.

It can be difficult to find meaningful ways to engage our families in faith formation. It can sometimes feel awkward, we don’t always know what to do, and sometimes we have a hard time talking about our own faith stories.

FREE SAMPLE: Click here to download a free sample of An Illustrated Advent for Families: Preparing the Way.

An Illustrated Advent for Families

An Illustrated Advent for Families: Preparing the Way is one way to do that – to slow down, ask questions, have fun, be intentional about how you spend your time, and try new things. There are coloring pages for your children, but we’ve often found that parents enjoy coloring them as much (if not more…) as their children enjoy the coloring. There are simple but meaningful devotions for families to do throughout Advent, our Illustrated Ornament Set, and our Advent Calendar.

Keep reading to learn a bit more about the activities in this year’s edition, and to hear testimonials from people who have used our previous editions of Advent family resources.

Our family, like many, struggles to find opportunities for prayer and faith formation. My children were attracted by this resource, and even asked about when we were going to do the next portions. As a widow with three elementary-school-aged children, I was grateful for this resource, because it had a marvelous combination of flexibility and structure, and let me find ways to fit activities in as it became possible.
– Elise Erikson Barrett, Consultant with Indianapolis Center for Congregations

Family Advent Devotional

Family Devotions for Advent

This year, in our family Advent devotions, you will be introduced to prophets–or God’s messengers–who helped prepare God’s people for Jesus’ arrival. You will also encounter individuals who faced the unexpected, trusting in the promises of God for their lives, continuing to prepare for Jesus.

Incorporated into the devotion is a time for coloring the Illustrated Ornaments if you would like to do so, however that can also be used as a stand-alone activity.

These weekly devotionals are written so they can be used by children of all ages (and adults as well), and we believe you’ll find questions and discussion topics in each of the devotionals that will work for your children, no matter the age. Each devotion includes scripture, a brief reflection, and discussion questions, an activity a family can do over the week and a short prayer.

Having a weekly Advent activity rather than a daily one was helpful for our family. We liked spending a more meaningful block of time on this activity once a week rather than trying not to squeeze in a daily activity that was shorter but less meaningful. We have felt guilty in the past for missing a day of other Advent devotions, and knowing we had a week to complete the activity removed the pressure and stress.
– Emily Barlow, volunteer worship planner at The Well, Long Beach, MS

Coloring Pages

Obviously, we love coloring here at Illustrated Ministry. But it’s not just that we like getting messy with markers and crayons. It’s really the conversations that happen when you’re coloring that we treasure.

If you’ve used any of our products and resources before, you may have experienced some of these types of conversations with children. When they’re immersed in coloring, you’ll be amazed at what they will share with you.

Our coloring pages for this year’s Illustrated Advent for Families: Preparing the Way go along with the themes for our devotionals.

As a Christian educator who is also a mom, I found this resource to be an excellent guide for our family and our congregation’s families during Advent. I appreciated how both my 8-year-old and 5-year-old could engage with the writings, questions, and prayers. The coloring is always a hit and creates space for conversations and questions around scripture…I’ve done a lot of research on Advent devotionals for families and hands down, An Illustrated Advent for Families is the best. Sound theology with content that has depth and engages families while understanding the realities of a family’s life makes this resource a must-have for Advent.
– Jenna Campbell, Director of Children and Youth Ministry, First Presbyterian Church, Stillwater, OK

Illustrated Ornaments

Illustrated Advent Ornaments

This year, we invite you to create your own Illustrated Ornaments. Each week of Advent, you will have the opportunity to color an Advent Ornament as you read through the devotional materials.

We have put a lot of attention into these ornaments, and if you use nice card stock to print them out, we think they could be ornaments that you’d keep year after year. It is our hope that our Advent resources will deepen your faith and connection with God and your family as you journey together through Advent.

Our family has used An Illustrated Advent for Families for the last several years, and each year it brings a new sense of joy and understanding to our family’s Advent season. Each Sunday night, we all sit down with the activities, light our family Advent wreath, and share in a special time together that helps start off each week of Advent with intention and focus. The devotions are well-written and thoughtful and the calendar has great ideas. But I think the coloring sheets are my favorite part overall. If nothing else, reading the scripture and coloring together offers a point in our week where we can reflect together, pray together, and meditate on Advent as a family.
– Courtney Willis, associate pastor for spiritual formation, First Baptist Church, Greensboro, NC

Advent Activities for Families

While many Advent calendars today come with the promise of chocolates or toys behind each of the numbered doors, this Advent calendar is a little different. Our Advent calendar is more of an activity calendar — activities that can help you get into the Advent and Christmas spirit. Some of these activities will be great for your kids to do by themselves—others will require the whole family. And there are some activities that require you to get out of your house and go into your community.

We think these activities will be a lot of fun for your kids and your family and maybe some of the prompts will cause you and your family to get creative and make up other activities on your own.

Each of the weeks of Advent has a different theme and focus, and we hope that this will provide you with meaningful ways to get into the Christmas spirit. Click here to ORDER NOW!

The feedback from our congregation was that the resources were really great quality and easy to access. Parents felt that they could discuss the ideas without needing to check with the vicar first, and children were keen to undertake the activities. The quality of this product is wonderful! We loved that the devotionals were geared towards families, but weren’t in any way ‘dumbed down’ – adults felt they were just as relevant to them as to our youngest members.
– Deb Scoble, Authorised Lay Minister (Worship Leader), St Mary-the-Virgin Dover, Kent, United Kingdom

We hope you’ll take some time to check out An Illustrated Advent for Families, and let us know if you have any questions. If you’d like to download a sample of the resource to check out before you purchase, you can click here.

Nativity Stickers and Nativity Sticker Sheets

Leave a Comment

Nativity Stickers and Nativity Sticker Sheets

Nativity Sticker Sheets

ORDER TODAY: Order your stickers here.

When Illustrated Ministry started to take off in the fall of 2015, one of the first questions we received from our customers was, “Are you going to make some Nativity sticker sheets?!”

People shared with us that they were so tired of buying the same, cheap, stickers from the same, online discount website. To begin with, the stickers weren’t very good quality, but more so because Jesus and all of the biblical characters on the sticker sheet were all WHITE!

White? WHY?

Breaking News! Jesus wasn’t white.

And Jesus ISN’T white on our Nativity Sticker Sheets.

I’m honestly not sure why it’s so hard to make stickers and illustrations that are more authentic and diverse. Seriously though – these are just a few of the faces of baby Jesus that I picked out from some of the most popular Nativity sticker sets that I found online:

White Jesus

Really? Why? Oh, why?

And it doesn’t get much better when you start looking at the full collections of sticker sheets. Sweet little White Baby Jesus is surrounded by White Mary and Joseph, White Angels, White shepherds, etc. You get the idea.

Nativity Sticker Sheets

From the very beginning of Illustrated Ministry, we have created fun, engaging, diverse and well-made products for children and youth of all ages. Our Illustrated Nativity Sticker Sheets are just one more example of the decisions we’ve made to continue to be as inclusive and authentic as possible with our products.

How to Use our Nativity Sticker Sheets

Nativity Sticker Sheets Nativity Stickers Christmas Stickers

There are many fun and creative ways to use stickers…and sticker sheets! Kids obviously love them, and they can provide endless entertainment for young children during a worship service. Add them to your pew bags, give them to families in your church, buy them for your own family, stick them in gifts your community is collecting for families in need…there are endless ways to use these kinds of sticker sheets.

So if Nativity Stickers and Nativity Sticker Sheets are so great…why is it SO hard to find ones that don’t look cheesy, feel cheap, show white-washed biblical characters (literally), and portray Jesus as a cute little white baby with blonde hair and blue eyes?!

If you’re tired of giving out sticker sheets that make you cringe as you hand them to the little kids in your congregation, I’d recommend that you take a look at our Illustrated Nativity Sticker Sheets.