A transformation: From Classroom to Castle for THE CHILDREN OF THE KING

I wanted to do something special for the precious children in my Sunday School class in Honduras... something to remind them that they were loved and very special. Something that would say, "You have value because you were made special by God Almighty"! So, with the help of one of our young men in the church, I transformed their classroom into a castle... a castle belonging to the King of Kings!

I began by searching the internet and downloading all the pictures and examples of castles and castle 'elements' that I thought my work for my idea. My next step was to take photos of each of the walls in the area in which I would be working. Then, I ran the photos off on plain paper. Selecting my favorite elements from the internet examples, I sketched onto the photos what I wanted I wanted to do. Next, I duplicated my sketches on to the wall... and began to paint.

Please join me as we change a 'Classroom' into a 'Castle':

I began the transformation with the entrance to the classroom.

The hallway did not afford much room for taking a photo, but this is outside the classroom looking in.

#1 The first thing was to give our castle a heavy wooden door encased in a stone arch.

#2 Then I began to add the castle wall around the door.

#3 Since I was only doing the one room, I did the wall only around the door to that room.

#4 Torch and tree details. ( The hardest thing was getting the shadows right.)

#5 The first thing they see as they approach their classroom is this
"royal decree" from the King of Kings welcoming His children.
It says, "Welcome - Children of the King"

Next was to begin the transformation on the inside of the classroom.

This is the inside of the classroom looking toward the entrance. As you can see, this area is still under construction. The area above the door is open to the hall. Eventually, there will be a

drop ceiling in the hall that will provide a small "attic" area. That area will be used to

store mattresses so that we may provide free accommodations for our mountain people to attend

conferences and institute classes. We will be able access that area from the classrooms. Double doors will be added over the classroom door to close off the "attic" from view.

#6 The door...

#7 ...and beginning the surrounding wall.

#8 Details are added.

#9 The finished wall after adding torches and towers...

After working for a week on the project, Obdulio offered to help me. Even though he had never done anything like this before, I gave the back wall sketch to him. Obdulio is our music director and one of our dedicated young preacher boys. He also teaches Sunday School, plays keyboard, guitar and... he likes to draw. So, looking at my sketch, he drew it out on the wall and, after some instruction on mixing the paints and some painting techniques, he completed the back wall on his own. And, as you can see, he did a wonderful job!