Many churches gather to fast and pray for Singapore in the month leading up to National Day on 9 August. Praying for our country is important as it is a form of intercession for the well-being of the land, people, and leaders. How can I help children understand the importance of praying for their nation? I would like to have a Sunday school lesson that allows the children to participate in the prayer movement and enjoy it as well. Long prayer sessions are usually not enjoyable for children and they run out of things to pray for. My objectives are simple:

• to help children understand that praying together builds unity and offers spiritual protection over their land.
• to teach different areas children can pray for, such as government leaders, the economy, defence, community harmony etc.
• to let children experience prayer as an engaging and communal activity.

The Idea

To achieve my objectives, I design a board game activity. Surrounding the game board are various prayer items and scenarios. The children will throw a dice, move their token along the game board and pray for the item they land at. Upon completing the prayer, they earn bricks to build a ‘spiritual wall’ to protect their county. To make it more tangible, I print out an A3-sized map of Singapore and use Jenga blocks as ‘bricks’ for them to collect and lay around the border of the map. They need to work together and accumulate enough bricks to complete their spiritual wall within 20mins. In this way, I intend to let them see that though they put in individual effort to pray, they also need to work together in unity for the needs of their nation. The time limit is set to create a sense of urgency.

Before the game, I do up a simple exhibition board with bible verses on why Christians ought to pray for their country, information on the cabinet ministers and what areas they can pray for. This provides necessary equipping for the children where they learn important knowledge they can use when they play the game and when they pray at home in future.

Lesson Experience

On the day of the lesson, I have 5 children between 10 to 13 years old. At the start, I ask the children to share some things about Singapore that they are grateful for. Things they list include peace, good food, no serious natural disasters, good government and racial harmony. I then share that many people are taking turns to pray round the clock for the continued peace of the country in the month leading up to National Day. Our prayers form a spiritual protection around our land. When we don’t pray, we may leave our country vulnerable to spiritual attacks. I then share bible verses Jeremiah 29:7 and Proverbs 2:1-8, adding that we can use the words in bible verses to pray for our country and leaders.

Next, I invite them to view and learn the information on the exhibition wall. They will need the information to know what to pray about. I also explain briefly the job of different ministers and the areas they look after. For example, the Minister of National Development takes care of our public housing, parks, food safety and land use.

Then off we go to play the board game. The children are really excited and engaged. They try to move fast and pray according to the pray items stated on the game board. When they are stuck and do not know what to pray about, different children and I offer suggestions. They also go to the exhibition wall to look at the list of cabinet ministers and areas to pray for when they forget what they can pray for. I serve as a gatekeeper and ensure that each child offer a meaningful prayer instead of saying something superficial to earn the bricks.

Whenever a child lands on ‘National Crisis’, I read out a crisis scenario that I have prepared in advance and ask them how they would pray for it. Again, different children would jump in and offer prayer suggestions to help their friend. They are visibly sad to lose bricks during a national crisis but encourage one another to pray for it. The mystery national crisis provide an element of surprise and really increase the engagement level.

In the end, the children exceed the time limit a little but I extend the game so that they can complete building their ‘wall of spiritual protection’. At lesson’s closing, I reiterate the importance of interceding for our country and how they can pray at home.

Reflection

Though their minds are more focused on accumulating bricks fast then serious praying, all the children give positive feedback and share that they understand more about how they can pray for Singapore. They are also more willing to pray publicly when these prayer pointers are given to them.

Whichever country you are from, why not try this Spiritual Protection Wall activity at Sunday school on your National Day? Do drop me a line if you do and tell me how it went.

Materials List

• A3 sized game board with prayer items.
• A few possible national crises.
• A3 sized country map
• Jenga blocks to serve as ‘bricks’ that will be used to build a spiritual wall around your country
• Different small objects to serve as tokens for each player
• A dice
• Educational Wall : posters of bible verses on the importance of praying for our country, information on government leaders, areas that citizens can actively pray about.
  If you want my PPT slides for suggestions and samples, click here.
  Materials shared here are left raw and real (do forgive any inadequacies) , but I’ll share anyway because sharing is caring.