Immersive Prayer Station Ideas For Kids
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Immersive Prayer Stations are a great way for a kid to understand prayer and feel more connected by engaging in multiple senses while removing the stigma of prayer being a “grown up only” option. We have used ideas we have found on sites like Pinterest but have also come up with some on our own. Listed below are some of our favorites and links to the supplies we used.
Lego/Duplo Prayer of Thanksgiving - Start with a container of the large blocks (paid link), sharpies, Lego mat (paid link) and instructions of what they do at this station.
Take a block and hold it in your hands.
Pray and tell God how thankful you are for something in your life.
Write on the block with the sharpie what you are thankful for and place it on the mat.
2. Sandbox Petition Prayer - We use three totes, but you can use as many as you need for your size group. (We have a group of about 50 to 60 kids, and they are usually offered 3 different prayer stations.) You will need shallow bins or totes (paid link), colored sand (paid link) and the instructions.
Place one color sand in each tote.
Instruct kids to think about one thing that has been weighing them down or that they need God to take from them (you can provide examples for better understanding)
They will then choose one word to represent what they want to give to God and write it in the sand with their finger.
Tell them to pray to God and ask that He take what they have thought about and ask that His will be done.
When they are done praying tell them to wipe the word away and believe that God’s will will be done.
3. Photo Prayer of Intercession - This one is super easy. Print pictures of your leaders, church staff, volunteers and tape them to the wall. Get small heart stickers (paid link) and have them lying next to the station.
Discuss and explain the word intercession. To pray on the behalf of or for someone else.
Tell them to choose a leader and pray for them.
When they are done place a heart sticker on the printed photo.
(bonus-I printed pictures of our staff with their families for this station and gifted them with a small explanation of what each of the hearts were and everyone loved them)
4. Foot of the Cross Emoji Prayers - Kids can struggle understanding what and how they are feeling especially if there are big feelings involved. I printed cards with emojis representing basic feelings (happy, sad, angry, confused and one that didn’t have a face in case one of the other emojis didn’t cover what they felt) . We also printed a poster sized cross to put on the wall and provided pencils.
Explain to kids that what they write on these papers are private and for their eyes only.
They need to choose an emoji card and write on the back the reason they feel that way.
Pray about it and when they are done drop their folded slip at the foot of the cross giving it to Jesus.
We retrieve these after kids have left and pray over them without looking and then discard them safely.
5. A Light for a Life - Fire Safety Warning! We man all stations with a volunteer but especially this one. We set up a small table with votive size candles in glass containers (paid link) and had the volunteer light a long match (paid link) for the kid and a small container of water to douse out the match.
Explain that our job as believers is to share the light of Jesus to everyone we know, so that everyone we know may come to know Him.
Ask them to pray for God to show them someone they can share the love of Jesus with.
When they are done praying, they light a candle to represent the life of that person they prayed for.