2. Children learn the best when a themed environment that captures their imagination surrounds them. This was a set I designed for Royal Family Kids’ Camp drama I wrote called, “The Royal Court,” which featured the story of Esther.
3. Sets alone can’t hold a child’s attention; but coupled with exciting characters – like “Flicker, our FLY-ing reporter” – filling in the back story and proving that the Bible story is really about them, helped them to be fully engrossed in the daily lesson.
4. Since we went to the animal kingdom to tell our story of Esther, and the townsfolk were played by Deer and they are notoriously afraid of humans, it only made sense (and provides a bit of fun) to disguise the audience so the Deer would come out on the set. You will notice that the faces of the Royal Family Kids’ campers have been obscured to protect their privacy.
5. Here we find Uncle Mordecai pulling a wagon with our infant Esther onto the set. My drama followed Esther from a youth all the way through the biblical story to becoming Queen and then helping to save the Jews from Haman’s evil plans.
6. In the drama I showed how Mordecai was instrumental in teaching Esther the biblical truths she would need later in life. Later, I emphasized this essential theme by showing its relevance to the lives of the children in our audience.
7. If a program isn’t going to be fun, I wouldn’t want any part of it, so why should the children? A quick shot of the actors, most notably my wife kneeling next to Esther’s wagon.
8. Here is the reenactment of the David and Goliath story, from Royal Family Kids’ Camp. We see David taking aim with his sling at the towering Goliath. Suspense this thick will hold any child’s attention.
9. David emerges holding the head of Goliath (please note the use of the curtain hiding Goliath’s fallen body so we wouldn’t frighten the children.)
10. Here is a drama called “Construction Zone”, where we once again envelope the children in a themed set. This drama showed how each of our lives should contain certain biblical traits and the results if any of those traits are missing. (Notice the children are also wearing hard-hats.)
11. A thrilling drama called, “Sheepfold”, where all our actors are sheep with the exception of one lone wolf named, Slyvester. Here we learn about the need to stay in the Good Shepherd’s sheepfold because of the dangers lurking outside, and the love of the Good Shepherd to go searching for us if we stray outside the fold.
12. When our church purchased new property several miles west of our former location, I wrote a series called, “How the West Met the Son.” We built a covered wagon, and our team took the children back 100 years to show them how to share their faith once we reached our new home.
13. We arrived at our new home and began to have KIDZone in the gymnasium.
14. Note the prizes table at the back of the set. While prizes are NOT the primary motivator to go to church we have found that for just a few dollars’ investment, children are elated when their accomplishments net them some simple reward.
15. Our theme for this program is the Olympics, and the children were thrilled that they got to sit on bleachers to watch all the action.
16. Here is another view of the “Olympics” set with unlit golden torch.
17. After praying for continued direction, God led me to build Q.U.B.I.R.T., which stands for “Quantum Unified Bible Informational Reference Technology.” Q.U.B.I.R.T. was billed as “the World’s only repository of all known Biblical knowledge and it became an incredible teaching tool.
18. Q.U.B.I.R.T. and my assistant, Miss Cori, help to teach a lesson on how God sees each one of us as valuable and useful for His purposes, no matter our size or age.
19. We divided the boys from the girls and here we see their reaction to some part of our lesson with Q.U.B.I.R.T.
20. Miss Cori has just informed the girls that they have won a contest against the boys, as you can see by my wife in the background we encourage enthusiasm in Children’s Ministries.
21. This is Mr. Terry Smelker, the co-creator and co-designer of Q.U.B.I.R.T., as you can see, opportunities for our youth to serve is important in their Spiritual development.
22. No service is complete without giving the children a chance to go before the Lord in prayer about the subject matter just presented. (Our attendance was low this Sunday due to a winter storm.)
23. What made Q.U.B.I.R.T. appealing to the children was the fact that we gave him approximately 30 different faces to show his emotion as he spoke. What child wouldn’t want to be greeted by this lovable face?
24. To present everything as rosy and perfect, when every child has felt otherwise at times, is not realistic or believable. Therefore, when the moment presented itself, we would find Q.U.B.I.R.T. overcome with sadness.
25. At times we are shocked by what we find in the Bible, so Q.U.B.I.R.T. was ready to convey that reaction as well.
26. In the end, Q.U.B.I.R.T.’S inquisitive, smiling confidence proved to be a God-send as powerful life-changing lessons were presented in KIDZone.
27. Our lovable computer went on to star in his own Christmas musical that won rave reviews among the parents and seniors in the sanctuary.
28. The key to remembering important lessons is review. With the help of Cori and Terry Smelker we set up a game show similar to “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” called, “Who Wants to Show What They Know?”
29. On Wednesday evenings we had a program called, “KidsQuest.” It was our discipleship program and featured five stations that the children would rotate through during the evening: Lesson, Games, Music, Crafts, and Snacks. When I implemented this concept, our attendance tripled.
30. Here is a shot of our Summer VBS program with several hundred eager children learning about biblical truths through video clips featuring Veggie Town. This is another program that my team and I wrote.
31. I’ll be the first to admit that this plastic airplane doesn’t look like much, but the children were ecstatic over it. Each time the adults focused on World Missions, I would set up the airplane for the children so our lesson would also focus on Missions.
32. Once inside the airplane, the children would hear the captain on the radio as he got his clearance to take off. Then the on-board video display would play a segment about Missionaries and their work at our destination. When the children deplaned, our missionary speakers greeted them.
33. Here is a poster from a second Christmas musical, which was co-written with my extremely talented Kid’s music director, Ms. Lesley Morrison.
34. Here is the center section of the set I designed and built with my team for a Christmas musical.
35. A view of the full set in the sanctuary. It measures 85 feet wide by 17 feet tall with backlit stained-glass windows.
36. A picture of me at the National Children’s Ministries Conference in Springfield, MO where I set publishing history by releasing my Children’s Christian/fiction book: Solomon’s Quest in English, Spanish, and Braille on the same day.
37. These photos are but a small fraction of my work spread over my 30 plus years in Children’s Ministries, and the reason is best summed up in this picture: It is my heart’s desire is to help children understand the Bible and introduce them to our Lord and Savior, the Son of God.
