How to Make a Prayer Tree for Children's Church

It’s fall and with our focus on prayer, I was looking for a way to combine the two.
I found it. I have to admit this is not an original idea but I did tweak it a bit to make it my own. This cool craft excited my volunteers who like working on interesting projects. We actually ended up making two trees, one for the Wednesday class and the Sunday children’s church. Why not place a fall, prayer tree in your ministry classroom? Kids will love posting their prayers there.
Here’s how you can do it yourself:
Gather several branches from your yard. These need to be about 2-feet long with plenty of small branch shoots for hanging prayer cards from. You may need to use a hacksaw to trim the length of the main branches. You don’t want the tree to tump over because it is too tall.
Lay the branches on a tarp or a drop cloth. I recommend doing this step outdoors. Spray paint the branches with gold paint. A shiny gold tree looks great and really grabs attention. Allow the branches to dry before adding a second coat. (I like a lot of shine!)
Arrange the branches by placing them together, like a tree trunk. Leave the small branches in place. Bind the big branches together with zip ties to make the trunk.
Place the prayer tree in a plant pot and place rocks or marbles in the pot to keep it in place. I covered the top of the pot with silk fall leaves. It looked like the leaves fell off the tree. In a wicker basket which I set next to the tree, I put note cards and pens. Each 3 inch wide note square was made from cardstock and hand a hold punched in one corner. I put a fishing line loop in the hole so kids could hang them easily.
The kids were very excited about the prayer tree and each week we add more and more prayers. I hope you love this idea too!