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A guy called Paul wrote more letters in the New Testament than anyone else. Paul’s letters were written to individual people and some were what we call ‘open letters’ they weren’t written to one person but to a whole group of people.
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Here are some of the names of people and towns and cities Paul wrote to. (See if the kids can sort out the places from the individual people’s names.)
These letters are tremendous evidence of what was going on when the church first started 2000 years ago. But God intended far more, he wanted these letters to be helpful to Christians throughout all of history and so they are amazingly helpful to us today. That’s why they are all here (holding up your Bible) in the Bible.
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If Paul had been writing his letters today, many of them would have been sent in an envelope like this. (Show the kids an airmail envelope) Why would that be? Yes, because they would have been sent by airmail. Airmail envelopes are particularly thin and light weight to keep the weight down on aeroplanes so that they can carry more letters.
And, Paul didn’t write on paper like we have today or use a biro or felt pen, he would have used maybe a quill or feather pen and some kind of parchment. (Take a large feather if you have one and a roll of stiff paper of some kind to imitate parchment. (Brown paper is good.)
So Paul wrote many letters can you imagine what they might have been about? (See if there are any suggestions.)
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Paul’s letters gave good advice, they were encouraging, kind, friendly, helpful, challenging and supportive and they shared Jesus’ love for all.
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Paul wanted to tell everyone, everywhere about Jesus. He told them how Jesus had died and come back to life again so that everyone could be forgiven for the mistakes they had made and wrong things they had done. Paul’s life had been changed by Jesus. Paul had made mistakes in his life but Jesus had given Paul a new start. Jesus turned Paul’s life around and Paul wanted to tell everyone about it!
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Paul’s letters were full of the Good News of Jesus’ love for all people. Everywhere Paul went he encouraged people he met to follow Jesus, because he knew that following Jesus is the best way to live.