Bob: A child's heart is like good soil – the question is, what are you planting in your child's heart?

Dennis: We're recruiting gardeners.

Miss Pattycake: Gardeners.

Dennis: To plant the seeds.

Bob: Seed planters.[ Read Full Transcript ]

Miss Pattycake: That's great. Here is what I love about working with this age child – you really never have to talk a preschool child into the existence of God. I tell people all you have to do is tell them His name. Ecclesiastes tells us that God has set eternity in the hearts of all men. So for us to plant these seeds, we're only stirring up what I hear and children think, "Oh, that's what His name is – Jesus!" And they get it.

Bob: Matthew is only two-and-a-half years old, but thanks to the Resurrection Eggs and his friend Miss Pattycake, he knows the story of Easter.

Dennis: Who is that right there?

Bob: That's Miss Pattycake. And what has she got a basket of? What's in that basket?

Matthew: Eggs.

Bob: Are those the eggs that tell about Jesus?

Matthew: Yes.

Bob: Yeah. What color is that egg there?

Matthew: Green.

Bob: Yeah, it's a green egg, isn't it? You know your colors, don't you? And what is that right there?

Matthew: A donkey.

Bob: A donkey? Who rode on the donkey?

Matthew: Jesus.

Bob: That's right. And then there's this cup right here. Do you see that cup?

[musical transition

Bob: And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Thursday edition. We have our friend, Miss Pattycake, who is in the studio with us today. Some of our listeners will know her from her books and her videos for preschool children, and speaking of preschool children, Dennis, how did I do there with Matthew, huh?

Dennis: I think Matthew was enjoying himself. It's too bad radio doesn't have a camera associated with it.

Miss Pattycake: I think he was sort of a Mr. Pattycake there.

Bob: Do you think there's a new career for me – Mr. Pattycake?

Dennis: Mr. Pattycake.

Miss Pattycake: I have a hat just for you.

Bob: Yeah, I'm a little afraid of that. We actually have a grandmother in the studio along with her grandson, Matthew.

Dennis: Libby Strawn joins us. Libby, you said he knows almost all of Miss Pattycake's songs.

Libby: He loves Miss Pattycake – everything about Miss Pattycake.

Dennis: And the Resurrection Eggs – the Easter story?

Libby: I was shocked. He was two in August, and I cannot believe – when I went to visit him in Texas last week, he showed me every egg and told me everything – the soldiers and the –

Matthew: I did.

Libby: You know about Miss Pattycake and the eggs, don't you? He loves it.

Dennis: He understands ...

Bob: You want the book?

Dennis: ... the symbols ...

Bob: Pass this book over to Matthew.

Dennis: The symbols that are in the story at two-and-a-half years of age.

Libby: Mm-hm, talked about the dice and the soldiers, and he told me, "Jesus died for my sins." And he's two-and-a-half, and I'm, like, I can't believe – but you were so right. I heard you speaking about what they learn at an early age.

Dennis: You know, I honestly believe that Resurrection Eggs, as an evangelistic tool, is perhaps one of the most effective tools to introduce children to the Gospel story that we can present, and the reason is it's visual, it involves something they can touch, they can open, and it's very, very simple, and it's no wonder, Bob, we've now seen more than 1 million dozen Resurrection Eggs distributed here in America.

Bob: And for years parents have been using these eggs with their own children and telling the Easter story. I think Miss Stephanie is here with a set of them.

Miss Pattycake: Oh, you brought some eggs. Thank you very much.

Libby: My grandson just got off the plane, and he's coming to stay with us for six days, and he said, "I cannot go without Miss PattyCake."

Matthew: Here's a hand.

Miss PattyCake: Which one is that orange egg? There's a hand in there. What is that hand?

Dennis: That's the praying ...

Matthew: Praying ...

Dennis: You folded your hands to pray.

Miss PattyCake: Matthew, do you remember what did Jesus say when He put his hands together? [sings] Jesus said ...

Matthew: Yes.

Miss PattyCake: That's right, Jesus said yes to the Father. And what can you say? [sings] And you can say ...

Matthew: Yes.

Miss PattyCake: Yes! You can say yes to him, too!

Libby: What is in that one?

Dennis: Two years old – I'm telling you, what a great illustration of what we're talking about. Now, what's in the yellow egg?

Matthew: Cross.

Dennis: It's a cross.

Libby: What happened on the cross?

Matthew: Jesus.

Miss PattyCake: That's right.

Libby: What did Jesus do on the cross?

Matthew: For my sins.

Libby: For your sins, that's right.

Libby: Listen, I had heard of these eggs, but until my grandson started telling me the story from the eggs, I didn't realize the value of it. But, I'm blown away now. And his grandfather has not seen this yet.

Dennis: And you didn't actually come over to the studio to get on the radio. You actually came over to the office because you live in the neighborhood, and your grandson just got off a plane, and he was wanting some Miss PattyCake.

Libby: Yeah, he can't – I mean – I thought six days with him for the first time alone with us – I'll go get Miss PattyCake anywhere I can.

Dennis: So you walked in and ...

Libby: Here she is.

Miss PattyCake: And I'm in Little Rock today.

Dennis: We deliver.

Libby: I appreciate it very much. It may make my next six days better than you can imagine.

Miss Pattycake: I would love to tell you how much fun it is to see God bring something into reality that has been in your heart and mine, which I know you've seen so many times in your life. But I love the fact that grandmothers constantly come to me and say "Thank you so much. I now have a way to get the Gospel into the home of my grandchildren that would communicate the truth that you find in these eggs" so that even the children are hearing, and the parents are also hearing – what about teenagers?

Bob: There you go.

Miss Pattycake: What a great opportunity. Kids who want to babysit – what if they say, "We are throwing a neighborhood Easter egg hunt, we want all your kids to come, and not only they share the Gospel, and they can get business.

Dennis: We have a ton of homeschoolers who listen to FamilyLife Today, and we need some gardeners, some folks who will plant some seeds, and this is the seed that will never perish.

Miss Pattycake: Amen.

Bob: We've got a seed planter on the line with us from Lindenhurst, Illinois. Her name is Theresa. Theresa, welcome to FamilyLife Today.

Theresa: Well, thank you, Bob.

Bob: We wanted to hear a little bit about your participation last year in the World's Largest Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. You heard about it on FamilyLife Today and said, "I need to do that, right?"

Theresa: Absolutely. I remember just saying, "I can do this. This is something I can do."

Dennis: And then you asked a friend to join you?

Theresa: Yes, actually two friends. I began right away when I got to work that day, e-mailing a friend saying, "I need to do this, but I need your help."

Dennis: This was a friend who was good in working with children in church, is that right?

Theresa: Correct, she was, at the time, doing puppet shows for the younger children at church, and I just could see the Resurrection Egg story, the story of Easter, through a puppet show being a huge success, you know? The kids really engaging in that.

Bob: Or "What kind of religious nuts are you?" You didn't have any of that?

Theresa: No, an Easter egg hunt is not threatening.

Dennis: It's a safe event, isn't it?

Theresa: It is.

Miss PattyCake: And everybody wants to come to an Easter egg hunt.

Theresa: Everyone did, and it was wonderful.

Dennis: How many came?

Theresa: We probably had around 25 or 30 children, and then moms and dads, so it was wonderful.

Dennis: How many moms and dads came?

Theresa: You know, I couldn't give you a number, but I would say most kids were accompanied by a mom or dad.

Bob: And so you've got the houseful of kids and moms and dads,

Theresa: Yes.

Bob: And are you thinking what have I gotten myself into?

Theresa: I'm thinking, "This is wonderful. Thank you, Lord." I was a little concerned that if they did the Easter egg hunt first, they might be too excited with everything in their hands to really focus on the story.

Bob: Or too much sugar in their system at that point.

Theresa: Yeah, exactly, exactly. So it really worked out wonderfully. The kids got to participate, and Buster and Freddie had their attention, and I kind of sat on the sideline and presented the items that were in the eggs, like the crown of thorns – I had a big crown of thorns so I could put that on my head. Kids love visuals. So anything they can see and touch and have it be alive for them, you know, they can really engage in.

Dennis: It sounds like a bit of stage production, the way you did it with the puppets and ...

Theresa: Well, that's why you need help. That's where friends come in handy.

Bob: You know, as you were describing what you did, I had to think back to a number of years ago here on FamilyLife Today and, Theresa, we're going to let you go. You can listen to this on the radio, but we had – you'll remember this, Dennis. We had a number of children come in and join us in the studio including two of my sons, Jimmy and John, they were still very young at this time, and we went through the story of Easter using the Resurrection Eggs with those children.

[musical transition

Dennis: Well, we've asked you all to come and join us today because we're going to have an object lesson.

Child: Object?

Dennis: And object lesson. Yes, we've got some objects. They're hidden in some Easter eggs. Do you know what these eggs are called?

All: Resurrection Eggs.

Dennis: It's a fun lesson, it really is. It's about the story –

Child: Yeah, my dad hides them, and we try to find them, and if I tell him that we skipped a day, he hides four.

Child: And me and Michael get two.

Bob: So you've played with these Resurrection Eggs before? Oh, really?

Dennis: That was Elisa. What are you learning about, Elisa? What are the eggs all about?

Elisa: Jesus's resonection.

Dennis: Mm-hm, about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, that's exactly right.

Bob: Now, John, we've used these Resurrection Eggs at home, too, haven't we?

John: Yep.

Bob: What have we done?

John: We hid them in the back yard sometimes. Sometimes we make stories – stuff like that.

Dennis: Who wants to open this egg?

Children: I do!

Dennis: Oh, man, we've got all kinds of volunteers, Bob.

Bob: We sure do.

Dennis: We better start with the ladies first, what do you think? We'll start with Elisa, and then we'll go to you next, Jennifer, okay? This is a purple egg, and right now Elisa is opening it. She's pulling it out ...

Child: The glass – the glass.

Child: It's broken.

Child: The glass at the last supper that they had together?

Child: The wine, wine [unintelligible].

Dennis: That's exactly right, and so Jesus, by lifting the cup, was reminding us that God is our protector. Okay, we've got another egg here. Bob, why don't you hand this one to somebody. You want to.

Bob: Okay, Jennifer, you're going to open this. Everybody move back so that we ...

Jennifer: It's the bread, I think it's the bread.

Bob: Oh, good.

Dennis: Man.

Jennifer: Oh, my gosh.

Bob: What is it?

Child: Praying hands.

Bob: Praying hands. Why do you think there are praying hands in that egg?

Child: I don't know.

Bob: Don't know? Jimmy?

Jimmy: It's when Jesus prayed in the garden asking God if it was possible for them to bypass dying on the cross.

Dennis: That's exactly right. But did you know while Jesus was praying, what were His disciples doing? Who knows the story of that? Meredith, what were they doing?

Meredith: They were sleeping.

Dennis: Did they sleep just one time or how many times did they go to sleep, do you know?

John: Ten.

Dennis: Ten times, John? You know, John, your dad is a great Bible teacher.

[everybody laughs]

Bob: Where did you get the 10 times? Did you just make that up yourself?

[laughter]

Child: They just slept one time when Jesus was alive.

Child: And then they went back to sleep.

Dennis: Meredith, I just want you to ...

Child: No, they didn't!

Child: Yes, they did!

Child: They don't like and then ran away.

Child: Yeah, like ...

Dennis: I think we need to go to another egg here, Bob.

Bob: Let's go on to the next egg. That would be this one, and it's still time for our girl to open one of the eggs for us.

Child: I don't snack. [unintelligible].

Dennis: You know what? Let's let him find out what's next, Bob.

Bob: Okay, go ahead and open that up.

Child: Okay. The crown of ...

Dennis: It's the crown.

Child: The crown of thorns.

Dennis: Crown of thorns – do you know what that represents, John?

John: It represents them making fun of Him.

Dennis: What do you mean?

John: They made fun of Him by, like, giving him crowns of thorns and stuff like that.

Child: They give you a purple robe.

Dennis: Right, and they were mocking and making fun of Him, weren't they? Just like John said.

John: That's what me and Dad talked about today at breakfast.

Bob: And, you know, that's the way it's supposed to work, isn't it? That we, as parents, are supposed to, according to Deuteronomy 6, talk with our children about the things of God when we walk along the way, when we rise up, when we lie down, when we're having breakfast, when we're working out in the garden – these are the kinds of subjects that ought to be on our tongue at all times as we train up our children. And it's so critical for them to know the Easter story, to know the essence of the Gospel. Jesus's death, His burial, and His Resurrection.

We were actually first introduced this whole concept of Resurrection Eggs by Barbara Kraft [ph], who was a guest on FamilyLife Today back in the middle '90s. She had been making her own sets of Resurrection Eggs and giving them to friends and to neighbors, and she brought a set in for us, and we talked about them on FamilyLife Today, and that's where they were first introduced to our listeners.

And a couple of years after that, Barbara and her husband, Roger, went on a trip to New York. We had a project that we were working on where we were using Resurrection Eggs to share the Easter story with children who were living in the inner city, and we asked Michelle Hill, who is on our team here at FamilyLife to give us an update of what happened during Roger and Barbara's time in New York a number of years ago.

Michelle: Say Coney Island – the images that might come to mind are crowds of folks spending summer afternoons strolling on the boardwalk, escaping to New York's very public beach, perhaps playing one of the penny arcades that adorn streets with exotic names like "Ocean Parkway," or "Neptune Avenue," or even risking a ride on the historic 1927 Cyclone rollercoaster.

But Coney Island shelters more than just amusements and carnival atmosphere. Right on Coney Island, there on Mermaid Avenue, of all places, just two blocks from the famous Riggerman [ph] Boardwalk, are the offices of Salt and Sea Ministries. Salt and Sea Ministries is a Mercies Ministry and Food Pantry headed by Debbie Santiago.

Debbie: My ministry here started out with children. That's where my heart is; that's where I get my excitement and my pleasure from doing is just to be involved and to be where Jesus would be, and it's so difficult living here. There are so many needs, and to get a child at a young age and to let them have an interest in Christ, and then to be a part of that blossoming, that's what I love doing.

Michelle: Angels by the Sea is a New York hotel, but it's not just any hotel. Angels by the Sea is a welfare hotel mostly populated by single mothers, homeless people, and other folks who have fallen on hard economic times in the New York City area. And it is here in the midst of very difficult circumstances that Debbie worked using Resurrection Eggs provided by FamilyLife.

Debbie: What we do at Angels by the Sea is about eight years ago they closed up the Balfour [ph] Hotel that we were ministering in in Coney Island, and so I was looking for another welfare hotel to minister in because I saw the need of hundreds of children under one roof who were neglected, abused, weren't paid any attention to, and so I started on a search, and it took four months of lots of prayer and fasting for them to finally let me in here. And when we first started to come in, we were allowed to be here for one hour a month underneath a stairwell, and in that hour we had to come in and present the Gospel, pray with people, distribute whatever God had provided, and then be out of here. And every time we came in, people would be cursing at us and grumbling at us, and it was only through God's success stories that changed lives that people in the hotel started opening up doors for us because they saw God's impact on people's lives.

Michelle: Roger and Barbara Kraft traveled to New York City in 1998. They had a burden to share Christ with lost kids at Angels by the Sea, and to do that they brought lots of Resurrection Eggs. They spent time with Debbie Santiago and saw firsthand Debbie's work with Salt and Sea Ministries at Angels by the Sea.

Roger: When we went there, we went there just to love these kids, and, you know, they don't see a whole lot of love, and this was a tool to show them that not only do we love them, but Christ loves them. And, you know, just the attention that they gave to us and just wanted to be around us just makes you want to weep.

And as you looked at the crowd, you saw very few men there, and it really touched your heart.

Barbara: They just wanted to be loved, they were easy to love, okay, and that love was in my heart to love them. So it was just a mutual bonding, you know, it was just these kids just clamoring all over us, but there was an older girl in our group. Alex was her name, and she knew the story, and she would fill in, you know, for us, and she would be the one that I knew would take those eggs and share them.

Michelle: According to Debbie Santiago, the kids love the eggs, and they proved to be an effective tool in sharing the Gospel.

Debbie: Here at Angels by the Sea today I saw the Resurrection Eggs have – make the children so excited to be a part of it. I saw the children in different groups. I saw them excited about the Gospel and about the Resurrection story. I saw them when they got to the last egg, and it was empty! The excitement that that is. That's my favorite egg, too, by the way, and I just saw – besides the excitement, I saw their love for Jesus growing, because as they would open each egg, and they would visually see, and they would have something to hold in their hand, I think what's going to happen with that is it's going to stay in their minds and stay in their hearts, and that's going to linger on. It was wonderful for me to see and be a part of – just – everyone's excitement about who Jesus Christ is and then to share that with others. It was a wonderful day for me.

[musical transition]

Bob: Well, our thanks to Michelle Hill for the update on what took place a number of years back when we sent Roger and Barbara Kraft to Coney Island with the sets of Resurrection Eggs to share the message of Easter with those children. And at that point what they had in those cartons weren't eggs, they were seeds, they were seeds of the Gospel.

Dennis: This is a great seed, because these are the seeds of eternal life, and what a great way to introduce children to the greatest story ever told, and the Easter season – hear me on this – the Easter season is not like Christmas. People aren't overwhelmed with a lot of things. They may get caught up with an Easter dress or a new pair of shoes, but they need the message of Easter now more than ever.

Bob: And I know a lot of families who listen to FamilyLife Today have, in past years, gotten sets of Resurrection Eggs and used them with their own family, but I don't know if you've ever thought about getting eggs and giving them to relatives, to friends, to co-workers, people in the neighborhood. You can use these as an outreach tool for your family. You can have an Easter egg hunt at your home, as many have done, and invite neighborhood children to come over and hear the Easter story.

There are all kinds of ways that this tool can be put to use, and I just want to remind our listeners that the Resurrection Eggs are available from us here at FamilyLife. You can go to our website at FamilyLife.com and click on the "Go" button in the middle of the screen. There's more information available there about how you can get a set of these eggs. They are also available in a number of Christian bookstores all across the country. I know our friends at Family Christian Stores have them in their location. So if it's easier, more convenient for you to pick them up there, you can do that as well.

In addition, we have available the Miss Pattycake video that's called "The Egg-stravaganza." It's for preschoolers, and it's available on DVD. If you'd like to get one of those along with a set of Resurrection Eggs, you can order those from us from our website, again, at FamilyLife.com, and when you order both the DVD and the Resurrection Eggs, we've got a Resurrection Eggs activity book we can send you that's full of great ideas for using this tool, and we'll send you the CD of today's broadcast as well.

Again, get all the information when you go to our website at FamilyLife.com. Click on the red "Go" button that you find in the middle of the screen. You can order these resources online, if you'd like, or if you'd prefer, call 1-800-FLTODAY. That's 1-800-F-as-in-family, L-as-in-life, and then the word TODAY and someone on the team can let you know how you can have any of these resources sent to you.

Well, we're going to have to wrap things up today. I want to thank our friend Miss Pattycake for being with us, along with all of the folks who joined us by phone and here in the studio. Tomorrow we're inviting a college history professor to join us to talk about the very first Easter. His name is Dr. Paul Maier, and I hope you can be with us as we talk with him tomorrow.

I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, and our entire broadcast production team. On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine. We'll see you back tomorrow for another edition of FamilyLife Today.

FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.