Scripture: Genesis 12: 1-9
Memory Verse: “As for me and my household,
we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24: 15b
NRSV
Concepts:
·
Like Abraham, we
should listen and obey when God leads us.
·
Blessing is a gift from God that brings goodness and well-being in
life. (Fretheim, pg. 425)
·
God promises to bless us.
·
We respond to
God’s blessing by worshipping God.
·
God chooses to
work through people to fulfill God’s mission.
·
We, like Abraham,
are on a journey of faith with God.
Objectives:
As
the children act out the journey of Abraham and Sarah, they will stop at
stations along the way where they will define, apply and/or make present-day
connections to the concepts listed above.
Procedure:
Before
the children arrive, set the room up for the journey. Decide where the starting place will be and
from there, set up 5 stations. Concept
signs will be placed at each station as directed below.
Welcome and Introductions:
1.
Greet the
children and introduce yourself. Wear
your nametag. Make sure the children are wearing nametags. If not, ask the
shepherd to supply a temporary badge. Remember you are interacting with a
different group of students each week that may not know you.
2.
Explain the
purpose of this workshop: Today we will be going on a journey like
Abraham and Sarah. We’ll be making
several stops on the way to explore what their story means to us.
Scripture/Bible Story:
Read the story out
loud to the children from the Bible. Ask
them to talk about how they would feel if they had to leave their homes and
families to go to an unknown place. How
do they think Abraham and Sarah felt?
Application:
Have the children get costumes from the box to dress like Abraham,
Sarah,
1.
At the starting place, have the children discuss,
then improvise actions showing how Abraham and Sarah felt leaving their family,
friends, home and everything behind.
·
As a group, begin the journey. Remind the children that it was a long and
arduous journey, and ask how Abraham and Sarah might have felt along the
way. The way the children move and walk
should reflect those feelings.
2.
At the first station, stop and have the children
spread out into good personal space.
Then play Simon Says. Lead them
through a few motions, but always say “Simon Says do…” After a few rounds of
the game, show the sign that says, “Like Abraham, we should listen and obey
when God leads us.” Tell the children
that listening and obeying God is a little like playing Simon Says; you just do
it, you don’t question what it is or why, you just do it like Abraham did.
·
Continue on the journey, reminding the children to
use their movement to reflect how it must have felt.
3.
At the second station, have the signs that say,
“God promises to bless us,” and “Blessing is a gift from God that brings
goodness and well-being in life.” Show
them to the children and lead a discussion of what blessing is and then refer
back to the story of Abraham and Sarah to recall what God said to Abraham and
how he would be blessed. What are some
of the blessings that we find in our lives?
·
Continue on the journey as before.
4.
At the third station, have the sign that says, “We
respond to God’s blessing by
worshiping God.” As you show this
to the children, have them recall that Abraham built an altar two different
times in our story. Have the children
talk about why he built those altars (for the Lord, to worship the Lord).
Discuss where the altar is in our church and how we use it in our worship
services. Then ask them to pantomime
building an altar and worshiping at the altar.
·
Continue on the journey as before.
5. At the fourth station, have the sign
that says, “God chooses to work through people to fulfill God’s mission.” As you show this sign, remind the children
that in the story, Abraham and Sarah were people who were chosen by God to do
God’s work. Ask the children to think
about what kinds of work people do that fulfills God’s mission. Together with the children, create a list of
things that people do (especially, but not limited to, through the Kirk.)
The list might include: KOALA, Habitat for Humanity, WIHN, Meals on
Wheels, prison ministries, any kind of sharing and caring for friends,
neighbors and even people we don’t know.
(You may wish to have the list started and let the children add to it if
they have any other ideas as a time saver.)
Divide them up into partners or small groups and choose/assign/draw out
of a hat one of the things on the list.
Give them a few minutes to plan and practice a short pantomime or skit
to share with the other groups. Let each
group perform for the others.
·
Continue as before on the journey.
6. At the last station, have the sign that
says, “We, like Abraham are on a
journey of faith with God.” Begin the final discussion by reviewing all
we’ve been through so
far: Listening to and obeying God;
hearing God’s promise to bless us; responding to God’s blessing by worshiping
God; working to fulfill God’s mission.
Our journey of faith can follow a similar path to Abraham and
Sarah’s: We can listen and obey God; we
can hear God’s promise to bless us; we can work to fulfill God’s mission; and
we can respond to God’s blessing by worshiping God.
Prayer: Let us bow our heads for prayer: Dear God, be with us as we continue on our
own journeys; help us to listen and obey as Abraham did. We worship You and
rejoice in the goodness and well-being in our lives from Your blessing. Amen
Older
children: Step
5 in particular is written with 3rd through 5th graders
in mind.
Younger
Children: Instead of
dividing the children into small groups for the skits at the fourth station in
#5 above, choose an idea from the list and have them act it out individually,
all together as you talk them through it.
This may move along a little faster and you may have time to choose
other ideas from the list to do as a whole group.
Reflection Time:
At 10:35 a.m. ask the
shepherds to pass out the journal sheets and pencils/markers. Suggestion: You
may wish to give the children a sticker or some memento to paste in their
journal as a reminder of the story or activity.
Prompts for
journal writing: Think about your own life and your own
family. Write down 3 blessings that you
and/or your family have received from God.
Write down 3 things that you do that help fulfill God’s mission.
At 10:45 ask the students to
close their journals and turn in their nametags.
1. Tidy and Dismissal: Ask
children to help tidy up. Collect the
signs for use next week. Make sure all
the costumes have been put away neatly.
2. Remind the children that
their offering will be used for Peacemaking.
3. Close with a prayer.
Teacher preparation in advance:
1.
Read the
scripture passages and attend the Faith Quest Leaders Bible Study.
2.
Prepare
a closing prayer.
Supply List
·
Prepare signs to place at each station; each sign
should have one concept listed on it.
·
Costumes for the children to wear on the journey
(located in the big green bin on the stage).
References
·
Notes from curriculum writer’s Bible study
prepared by