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Does anyone remember LOTU – the Children’s Missionary Paper?
Rosalie Sugrue — August 10, 2023
It was a free magazine handed out to NZ Methodist Sunday School children in the 1950s and 60s. Its 15 pages were filled with stories, letters and photos of missionaries working in the Pacific Islands.
The back cover was a page of puzzles originally compiled by Jeanette Grundy wife of Rev Albert Grundy. When “Cousin Jeanette” of the puzzle was expecting her first baby (Peter, now husband of Nicola Teague Grundy) she declared herself too old to be a cousin to kids and asked me, a student at Teachers College to take over the page. It was a fun thing to do but it took up more time than you might expect and a large amount of space on the Deaconess House letter-board (25-65 letters an issue), where I was a boarder. Children had to send their answers by letter that I had to mark and award points for: 3. excellent, 2. very good, 1. good effort. There were two puzzles – 10 years and under, 11 years and over. When a child had accumulated 15 points a book prize was sent to that child.
And that is how I got into compiling Bible puzzles. Since then I’ve Bible puzzles published in various church magazines including a Temperance magazine in Canada, Glad Tidings a Presbyterian women’s magazine published in New York and 14 years of the Bible Challenge column in Touchstone.
Having compiled a massive collection of Bible puzzles over the years I am now offering a varied selection of Puzzles Themed to the Church Year to parishes as fillers for parish bulletins and newsletters. These puzzles are also useful for youth groups and Fellowships as quiz competitions or a Bible Study activity. They also work well as activity sheets to occupy older children in church. (Print on A4 sheets, attach to clipboards and offer to older children as they arrive - adding a picture to colour and suppling crayons adds to the experience). Word-searches are ideal for children in church as there is no embarrassment about not knowing (something felt in any age group). Merely finding words that relate to a theme is both fun and educational.
If you or your parish is interested in receiving this monthly selection contact me, at sugrue.ro@gmail.com and I will add you to my mail-out list.
Rosalie Sugrue
