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Activities, Coloring Pages, and Faith

When I created this cartoon, I was poking fun at myself and the work I was doing. For about ten years, I had the privilege to create activity and coloring books for a publisher. I loved doing it and miss it even today.

I have spent scores of hours making activities, coloring pages and books. I have also spent a lot of time in classrooms relying on activity pages for kids. I have even posted some of my creations on this blog and they continue to get traffic because Sunday school teachers are always needing a resource, especially when they have kids to teach and entertain.

Have I ever heard of a child coming to salvation through a word search or a maze? No, and I suppose we would be hard-pressed to find such stories, though anything is possible. See Luke 1:37.

Yet, I may never know how an activity pages may have helped reinforce a Bible story that may contribute to a future decision. Perhaps it is a bit of seed-sowing that will produce a harvest later.

At any rate, if I do more activity pages in the future, I know they may not the crucial puzzle piece to a testimony. I’ll walk a fine line between not being too serious about the endeavor and yet know it could be one tiny puzzle piece in a big picture.

Do you have any stories of activity pages or books that benefited you as a teacher or student? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

Cartoon of a Sunday school teacher and a boy. The boy is coloring. He says, "How will my faith be enhanced by this coloring page?"
Previously printed in K: Kidzmatter Magazine
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activities

Plague of Frogs Coloring Page

coloring page of frogs

Here is a coloring page for you. It is based on the Plague of Frogs in Exodus 8.

Click on the image to download a pdf of this file. Feel free to use this for classroom and ministry use.

Categories
webcomic

Samson Coloring Page

Thumbnail of Samson coloring page

Here is a coloring page free for noncommercial education and religious use. Click on the image and you can view, download and print a full-sized version of this coloring page. It is an Acrobat pdf file. Enjoy!

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Coloring Page

Coloring Page: Moses and the Burning Bush

Coloring page of Moses and the Burning Bush. The story is in Exodus, chapter 3

Coloring page of Moses and the Burning Bush. The story is in Exodus, chapter 3. This links to an Acrobat pdf file and is free for noncommercial use. Enjoy!

Categories
activities

Jesus in the temple picture activity

Picture activity for Warner Press' itty-bitty Easter book

 I just finished this activity for Warner Press. The one thing that made this activity stand out for me was this was the first time in quite a while I drew the whole thing directly in Adobe Photoshop. The sketch didn’t exist on paper until I printed it out the first time.

That is not generally how I work. Usually, I’ll make the sketch within my sketchbook and then scan it. This time, I decided to give myself the challenge of going directly to the software.

I rendered the background art and bike in Adobe Illustrator. For items that require a straight line, that’s where I go. I laugh when someone sees me draw and say, “I’d like to be an artist, but I can’t draw a straight line.” Join the club! No one I know of draws straight lines without using a mechanical device or the computer.

Since these are pocket books, the art is tiny. That’s another reason why I drew the details in Illustrator, i couldn’t get the detail in the bike or elevator buttons without creating it in Illustrator then pasting the file in Photoshop. When it comes to drawing, the two programs work like a charm.

This art is the property of Warner Press, which is why I added the copyright. Use is prohibited without permission from the publisher. They’re at http://www.warnerpress.org