I ordered this neato brand new children's trick- don't even have it yet- but I thought I'd go ahead and post here my initial Gospel routine I am working on to use for it. This is great fun- seeing a trick- and then working out a Biblical message that works well with it and is just more than an "add on" thought/lesson tacked on at the end of it.

I embellish my routines greatly as I only usually do one Gospel trick each Sunday morning for Lighthouse Kids!- so I have that luxury of adding as much material as I want without time being an issue.

You of course are free to modify the routine to make it more suitable to your time available and/or how many additional props you wish to use.

Needed: "Topsy Turvy Hammers" by Wonder Imagery/Tim Sonefelt (shipping begins this month).

Optional Extra items I added to the trick (not included):
1. A kids set of plastic tools (available at Toys R Us). I purchased for under $10 a Caillou "My First Tool Set".
2. From off the internet, I printed out 6 inch by 6 inch pictures of said tools: two pictures of a hammer; and one of a screwdriver, pliers, needle nose pliers, pipe wrench, socket wrench and saw (all of which are included in the above plastic tool set). For example, for the picture of the hammer I used the "Captain Hammer" symbol I found. Then I went over to Office Depot and laminated all the 8 pictures. I then put velco on the back of the hammer pictures.
3. I obtained 2 three pocket black "one size fits most" chef aprons. I got nice 3 pocket ones from Gordon's Food Service which were made by Chef Revival. The other connecting part of the velco you place in the middle of the chef aprons. You may be able to find used pocketed aprons at a thrift store or cheaper ones at Wal-Mart.
4. You need a small, not tall, bucket or basket or box to put the tools in where the tops of the tools show over and above the sides of the basket (so you can see the hammer head, the top of the wrench, the top of the pliers, etc.).

Routine:

"When I was a lad "way back when" (talk in old man voice), there was a very popular song by Peter, Paul and Mary called "If I Had A Hammer". How I loved that song! It had lyrics including (singing): If I had a hammer, I'd hammer out love between my brother and my sister, All over this land."

"That song got me to thinking about tools- and how we all need the help of our brothers and sisters in serving Jesus. So let me try to show you!"

"First, we need a volunteer."(many hands raised, pick one, have him/her come up, intentionally do not ask or say the child's name).

"Second, we need to pick a tool. Here I have a little basket of tools- can anyone shout out the name of one of these tools?" (Show tools in the short basket- what the kids will see is the top of the hammer, a saw handle, the top of a pipe wrench, etc.- the ONLY tool most likely the kids will recognize and shout out will be the hammer. If for some reason only one other non-hammer tool is shouted out- extremely unlikely- take it out and say "I'll keep this one". Then hand the hammer which comes with the effect- and say "this is the tool our volunteer will use." My guess is 99% of the time at least one kid from the audience will shout out hammer the first time).

"Okay, we picked the hammer to use out of all these tools. Next we need a uniform. When our church teens go on a missions trip each year, the first thing they get are missions trip tee shirts to wear. That's so everyone knows they are all working together on a project- whether to help those whose homes were damaged by a flood or to help a school or church with much needed repairs. Well, we don't have tee shirts today- but we do have aprons! (show aprons).

Here I have pictures of all the various tools we need (casually show the laminated pictures)- what tool did we pick? Oh yeah, that's right, the hammer! So I am going to attach a picture of the hammer on each work bib"(put a hammer picture in the middle of each bib attached via velco, then put on one bib yourself and carefully and non-offensively the other bib on the volunteer child, tying the cloth straps in the back).

"Then we need to give a name to our team? Anyone think of anything?" (get suggested names from kids- pick one to use- or if can't think of any, suggest "Hammering Helpers"). "OK, now lets put the tools we need in our aprons (put some of the plastic tools in your own apron, hand the volunteer kid some of the tools to put in his/her own apron pockets). "And what was the tool we picked? Hammer? Lets see if we have two hammers left in the basket for us to use next"(give the hammer that comes with the trick to the kid to put in his bib pocket and take the other hammer that comes with the trick and put it in your own apron/bib pocket).

"Here we have two construction zones (show the black tubes). Notice they have yellow tape on them- that means caution- as we don't want people walking through our construction zone and have a wrench or a pair of pliers drop on them- that would hurt!" (hand the kid one of the tubes). One nail no carpenter ever wants to hit is their own fingernail! That hurts too!

"You know what? We all have our own construction zones that we work in to help others! On a missions trip, our teens work in a person's house to repair a sink or fix a roof. A nurse's construction zone is the hospital she works at to help others feel better. My construction zone is the office where I work at. Your construction zone may be your school classroom where you can encourage and help your classmates with their school work. Or maybe your construction zone is being part of a baseball or volleyball or basketball team or being in a school play to encourage every player and support them to do better. Or helping your mom do the dishes and clean up may be your helping construction zone."

"Did you know that when you become a Christian, we get several helpers? Hebrews 13:6 in the Bible says (NLT): "So we can say with confidence, The Lord is my helper, so I will not fear." It says in I John Chapter 2 that the Holy Spirit is our helper and lives within us. God has designed us to need each other as He knows no one of us has all the skills, gifts and wisdom needed on our own." Jesus had 12 disciples, not just one. Moses had helpers too (Aaron and Hur). A great verse is Ecclesiastes 4:9 (NLT): "Two people are better than one, for they can help each other succeed."

"Just think of that- TOGETHER we can help each other do better!" The theme of Western Michigan University's terrific football team this year was "Row The Boat." Can one person row a boat? Yes, but the boat goes so much better and faster with two people rowing! Or a whole team of people rowing!"

"OK, let's each take both our chosen hammers out of our work overalls and put our hammers into each of our own construction zones, each being very careful to put the head of the hammer on top so that if you drop it, the head won't land right on your toe!(do it slowly, being very obvious both hammers are in the same initial position. Then do the turning the zones 3 times as suggested by Tim Sonefelt- then have then lift your zone up slowly and have him/her lift his/her zone up slowly with his/her fingers out of the way showing one hammer has magically reversed itself).

"What happened???" "Oh, wait a minute, I was being rude! The Bible says we are to live in harmony with each other- and I did not even ask you what your name is! How selfish of me! (To child volunteer): "Tell everyone what your name is, maybe there are some kids here who do not know you!" (kid says his name). "Well, ______, it is wonderful that a such a great kid would have agreed to be up here"

"Well, let's try it again, being careful to keep the head of the hammer on top" (etc., repeat, one hammer again has magically reversed).

"Yikes, what kind of person am I? I never even explained to everyone that we are on the same team, that we are doing this together, that we are helping one another, and together we can both finish in the same way in our construction zones. As it says in Ephesians 4: 12, ________ and I are doing this together, like Jesus who sent out his disciples 2 by 2, as people doing His work." "So, I want to thank __________ for helping me today, for without his/her help, there would be no magic trick to show you today and no Hammering Helpers team!"

"So let's put in our hammers carefully the same way into our construction zones, and since we are now a team working together in harmony, let's see if we get the hammers to stay in unity together" (do the three shaking move one last time, the hammers this time match!).

"Wow, we did it!, the hammers now match each other just like they are supposed to! That's what happens when we join together in one voice in serving Jesus together in helping others."

"Let's hear it for _________ for being such a great coworker today!" (take back the tube and hammer, remove apron/bib, thank the child again).

I probably will close out the trick out saying or reading Romans 15: 5-6 (NLT).

Www.wonderimagery.com is the web site for the above product. Tim is a great guy and a very reputable magic maker. "NLT" referenced above is short for "New Living Translation" which is what I use for all Gospel effects for kids (as the language used is usually simpler put). My NLT Study Bible is excellent with a nice word index in the back. Our church mainly uses the NIV (New International Version) in its services most of the time which is also a very easy to read/easy to understand translation for reference for kids programs.

As with all my suggested routines posted on The Magic Café', you have my permission to use them on your own and/or modify them as you see fit. Hope somebody out there may be able to use them, it is an honor to have a free forum here on The Magic Café' (which I am grateful for) to which to share these kids routines on. Psalm 67 to everyone for 2017!

Whoops, I forgot to add at the end of the routine above- you produce the large nail (that comes with the trick) from the magician's construction zone and say something like (as Tim suggests): "Wow, I'm taking a look inside this construction zone- and what's in here?- a huge nail!- This shows that when we work together, we really can Nail It!"

I got my notice from Tim today 1-19-2017 that my order for the above has been shipped out. I hope to try out this routine in two weeks, I really like this particular trick and the potential patter above...

I wonder if there are any "Super Bowl" Gospel routines out there floating around- could use one of those too as we approach "Super Bowl Sunday" (I just wish the Lions were in it).

I received my "Topsy Turvy Hammers" today. I am happy/pleased to report the trick works well as advertised and is very solidly made.

I did the trick last Sunday, worked exactly as predicted. I put the hammer that comes with the trick in a small container of other plastic tools (with the top half showing only). I asked the kids to shout out one of the tools- ALL (at least 5)shouted out "Hammer!" (probably because they don't off hand know "wrench" or "pliers" or "level"). So I pulled out the hammer freely "selected" and gave it to the volunteer and emphasized the other tools they did not select in the bucket. So I think it makes the trick a little more tricky as some kids may think it would have worked with any of the tools in the small bucket.

Also, I found it much easier for my fat fingers to have the other hammer from the beginning in the other/my construction zone- I just lifted my zone up to show my hammer and ask the kid to put his hammer into his zone copying mine. Of course, that begs the question why I had a hammer in my zone in the first place all along. But that was easier for me personally in the use of the gimic. I will have to play with it more as the trick is designed to allow the magician to separately show his hammer to the other kids first (I was just too lazy to practice that part of it to make it work smoothly/quickly). See the teaching video link where the trick is fully used/displayed correctly. But none of the kids seemed to pick up on this. I got a good reaction to the hammers reversing, all the kids were fully engaged for sure.

I did in fact use the construction aprons mentioned above and showed the other laminated pictures of all the tools that could have been chosen- but that was just to make the routine much longer. But none of that was really needed at all- and if I had to do it all over again- I'd probably skip using the aprons, putting the other tools in the apron pockets, etc..

Also, I wrote out the Scripture verses mentioned in the routine above and had several kids read those out loud at the end.