Preparation
Buy or make a pumpkin-shaped piñata. To make: Thinly cover a large balloon with papier-mâché, leaving a small circle unwrapped at the top. After it dries, break and remove the balloon. Decorate with orange crepe paper and a pumpkin face. Fill the cavity with wrapped candy.
Activities
Spider’s Web. Club members stand in a circle. Give one club member a ball of string (or yarn). He or she calls the name of someone in the circle and tosses the ball to that person, without letting go of the end of the string. The person who catches the ball calls someone else’s name and tosses it to that person, also while keeping hold of the string. As the ball is tossed around the circle with club members holding the string, the center will look like a spider’s web.
Pumpkin Patch Pitch. Set out four or five plastic pumpkins or paper bags with pumpkin faces. Club members stand behind a line and have three tries each to throw a table tennis ball into one of the pumpkins. Count how many balls the entire group gets in.
Crazy Apples. From the ceiling, hang one apple for each club member. With hands behind their backs, club members eat the apples.
Whoo-oo. Players stand in a circle. IT is blindfolded and spun around in the center. IT spins around and points to someone. IT asks, “Whoo-oo are you?” The player must reply like an owl, “Whoo-oo, whoo-oo.” IT tries to guess who answered. If the guess is right, that player becomes IT. Choose a new IT after three misses.
Hot Pumpkin. Play like Hot Potato, but pass one (or more) mini pumpkins around the circle while the music plays. When the music stops, the player holding the pumpkin is out, but the fun is just beginning. The player takes the pumpkin to the decorating table and decorates it with paint or markers.
Great Pumpkin Piñata. Hang the piñata from the ceiling. Club members form a circle around it. One at a time, players are blindfolded and spun around. The player then swings a stick at the piñata, trying to break it. Take turns until someone breaks the piñata. Club members then scramble for the candy.
Refreshments
Line up several plastic pumpkins, each containing a different fruit, cookie or treat. Each club member, without looking, reaches into three pumpkins to pull out refreshments.
Sharing the Jack-O-Lantern Gospel
In recent years, a Christian tradition has started of telling the gospel story while carving a pumpkin. It goes like this:
The outside of a pumpkin looks good and strong and beautiful. But, after we cut off the top, what do we see? It is full of slimy gunk. The same is true of us. We can look good on the outside but sin has ruined us inside.
Every single one of us have “gunk” inside. Let’s read Romans 3:10. But just like this pumpkin can’t get rid of its gunk on its own, neither can we. Only Jesus can clean us up. (Take all the gunk out of the pumpkin and put aside in a bowl.) We need to ask Him to come inside and take away our sin. Read 1 John 1:9.
Jesus comes in and makes us clean on the inside! He takes away all our sin, just like I took all the gunk out of the pumpkin. (Start carving a happy face on your pumpkin.)Then Jesus begins to change us and carve us to reflect His love for others. As we follow Him and walk in love, we begin to see a happy face. Read Ephesians 4: 23-24.
Placing a candle or a light inside the pumpkin, shows that Jesus doesn’t ever leave us empty inside; He fills our hearts with His love and His light. Read 2 Corinthians 4:6. We need to let our light shine so others can see the difference that Jesus makes in our lives. Read Matthew 5:16.
Now I would like to give you an opportunity to ask Jesus into your life. If you know that you are full of gunk and sin and need Jesus to be your Savior, clean you out and give you a new start pray quietly along with me: Dear Jesus/Thank you so much for being willing to take away my sins/ Give me a new start./ Take away my sin and forgive me./Come fill my heart and life with your love and light./Thank you for making me your child/ and that you have a forever home for me in heaven./Amen.
If you have asked Jesus to be your Savior, please let us know after this so that we can celebrate this happy moment with you.
Now I would like to pray a special prayer of blessing over every. It comes from Ephesians 3:16-19. I will read it directly from the Bible as the blessing. Can everyone put their hand on the shoulder of the person next to you to share the blessing as I read the verse. End the reading of the verse, “In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
