Our article this month comes from Sr Rachel Hamilton, member of the Youth and Children’s Committee.

Over my years as a youth leader, I have had the opportunity to use a range of resources to facilitate discussions with the young people about Jesus and the scriptures. At the beginning, the Bible was my main resource for reflective talks, and I wanted to introduce a more interactive learning experience. I remember sharing this with Sr Joy Raynor who suggested I try baking with the young people and simultaneously sharing from scripture.

Initially, I was reluctant as baking (as my Home Economics teacher was all too aware) was not a particular talent shall we say! Nevertheless, fuelled by a desire for change and wanting the young people to truly enjoy and remember the lessons from scripture, I began researching for resources. I’m not sure exactly what words were typed into Google, but ‘Bake through the Bible’ came up on the screen – hooray! This sounded promising. The verse on the cover confirmed that this was a book worth ordering:

‘Taste and see that the Lord is good’ (Psalm 34v 8).

The resource did not disappoint although aimed at primary school age children, the ideas and baking suggestions could easily be adapted for younger teens as well.

As a year-long programme, it was perfect as the Biblical lessons ranged from God creating the world in Genesis to God’s deliverance of His people out of Egypt and taking them to a new land to the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus and finally to the New Creation in Revelation- encompassing many key moments from the Old and New Testaments in between. I wasn’t feeling quite as nervous about the baking as each page had accessible recipes and detailed step by step instructions so that even the most tentative (perhaps even reluctant) baker would feel capable of leading the activity and session.

We started the year with Creation cookies and integrated in how God had created the world while the young people were decorating their cookies. There are also very helpful ‘while you cook’ discussion questions that encouraged the young people to reflect on what they had heard. As the youth group ran once a fortnight, we couldn’t fit in every baking suggestion in the book as there are enough recipes and activities for twenty sessions but if your group runs weekly, you could certainly fit them all in. We didn’t always use the suggested recipes due to time constraints but modified them to our young peoples’ needs and tried to make sure it was fun and accessible, while reinforcing the key Biblical message through the combination of baking and discussion. The year also included main events in the Christian calendar such as Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection. The suggested baking activities can be tailored and simplified but the framework was excellent and fun for us all! Hopefully the picture will give you an idea of a Biblical story and inspire you to have a go with your young people!