When we gather at church, one work the children can choose to do is making scripture and prayer books with a simple stick binding. The older children have been doing this at church over the last year and we’d like to introduce some basic instructions for doing it at home.

The building of the book is a simple, slow, contemplative task with a clear focus on the words of scripture and the prayers of a child’s heart. It is work that can happen over several weeks as the content of the book is built up slowly before creating the binding and cover.

Here is short video by Natalie and Annelies on how to start:

For interior pages:

1. Choose a consistent size of page. At church the children generally work with 4 to 8 inch square pages.

2. Week to week, there are prompts on the website as to possible content for each page. Perhaps the child is a pre-reader and will trace either an image or words from scripture (see April 26 livestream post under Journal tab). Or a child may be reading a particular part of scripture or memorizing a verse and could write this out as a page in their book. Some children write or draw freely as a form of reflection on the hearing of scripture or prayer.

3. This week, Natalie is reading John 1:5 during the children’s talk, so one idea is to write this verse out: “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it” or to draw an image in response to the words.

4. It is important to give the children quiet and free rein to work and to be creating their own reflection, in image, color or word, on the words of Scripture that they hear.

For the cover:

1. Choose thicker paper that is twice the length of the interior page, so that the cover page can be folded in half and act as a back and front cover. Or create a back and front cover sheet the same size as the interior pages.

2. Find a stick that is the same height as the spine of the cover sheet. Find two rubber bands.

3. Line up the interior pages and the cover. Punch a hole through the cover and interior pages at the top and bottom left corners.

4. Watch this short video by Natalie that shows how to create the cover & stick binding.

5. Cover imagery and text can also be created once the content is completed.

6. Another option is to you can make a book with a different kind of fastener:

Haddie Janzen’s “Parable of the Mustard Seed” scripture book

Making a Scripture/Prayer Stick Book