Scripture: Book of Jonah
Memory Verse:
"But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger
and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” Psalm 86:15
Offering: Haven House which provides a multitude
of programs that have helped thousands of young people and their families
overcome problems and become productive members of the community.
Concepts:
Objectives:
The objectives of this
workshop are to teach the children that God is merciful and faithful. God
is hoping to forgive everyone if they will only turn to God, be sorry and
obey. God is so faithful that even when
we don’t obey God, God thinks of a way to teach us to obey.
Procedure:
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. Example: “Today we will learn that God wants anyone
who disobeys him to be sorry so that God can forgive him. God wants to teach all of us to obey him. We will hear a story about some people who
were not obeying God and we will hear how God was patient and taught them to
obey. Then we will work with puppets to
understand more about obeying.”
Scripture/Bible Story:
Intro: Today
we are hearing the story of Jonah from the book of the Bible called Jonah. Show the class where Jonah is located in the Bible.
Background
Information and Warm-Up Questions: (You
can tell the children this before reading the summary provided below.)
·
Is Jonah
in the Old Testament or New Testament? Old Testament
·
That
means that this story took place before the birth of Jesus.
· Jonah was a prophet. Does anyone know what a prophet is? A person told by God to speak about
something, such as a warning or future event.
·
There
are several places in this story, Jonah’s home, a seaport,
·
In this
story when you hear the word “LORD,” it refers to the name for God that the
Hebrews used during Old Testament times.
·
And
remember this: Jonah regarded the people of
Read the
following summary of the Jonah Story (based on the CEV)
Jonah Runs from the LORD
One day the LORD told Jonah to go to the great city of
But the LORD made a strong wind blow, and such a bad storm came up that the
ship was about to be broken to pieces. The sailors were frightened, they did
not follow the LORD, but they all started praying to different false gods. All this time, Jonah was down below deck,
sound asleep. The ship's captain went to him and said, "How can you sleep
at a time like this? Get up and pray to your God! Maybe he will have pity on us
and keep us from drowning." God
showed the sailors that it was Jonah that had caused all the trouble. The
sailors started asking Jonah, "Are you the one who brought all this
trouble on us? What business are you in? Where do you come from? What is your
country? Who are your people?"
Jonah answered, "I'm a Hebrew, and I worship the LORD God of heaven, who
made the sea and the dry land."
When the sailors heard this, they were frightened, because Jonah had
already told them he was running from the LORD. Then they said, "Do you
know what you have done?" The storm
kept getting worse, until finally the sailors asked him, "What should we
do with you to make the sea calm down?"
Jonah told them, "Throw me into the sea, and it will calm down. I'm the
cause of this terrible storm."
The sailors didn’t want to
throw Jonah overboard because they were afraid that the LORD would drown them
for killing Jonah, so the sailors tried their best to row to the shore. But
they could not do it, and the storm kept getting worse every minute. So they
prayed to the LORD, "Please don't let us drown for taking this man's
life.” Then they threw Jonah overboard, and the sea calmed down. The sailors
were so terrified that they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made all kinds
of promises.
The LORD sent a big fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish for
three days and three nights.
From inside the fish, Jonah
prayed to the LORD his God. In his
prayer, he thanked the LORD for rescuing him from the sea by sending the
fish. Then Jonah said he would keep his
promise to the LORD because the LORD is the one with power to save.
The LORD commanded the fish to vomit up Jonah on the shore. And it did.
Jonah Goes to
Once again the LORD told Jonah to go to that great city of
Jonah Gets Angry at the
LORD
Jonah was really upset and angry. So he prayed:
Our LORD, I knew from the very beginning that you wouldn't destroy
Now let me die! I'd be better off dead.
The LORD replied, "What right do you have to be angry?"
Jonah left
But the LORD asked, "Jonah, do you have the right to be angry about the
vine?" "Yes, I do," he
answered, "and I'm angry enough to die."
But the LORD said: You are concerned about a vine that you did
not plant or take care of, a vine that grew up in one night and died the next.
In that city of
Discussion
after the Passage: (There is a lot of discussion provided—you
can cover this as quickly as you like, depending on the age of the children and
how well they are responding. You can
skip over questions. For the youngest
group or even all of them, you might just use the things that are in bold.)
Jonah was a
prophet because God told him things to tell other people that God had
said. What did God tell Jonah to say
and to whom? He told him to tell the
people of
Additional Background Information for
Workshop Leader: God taught Jonah a lesson by making a vine
grow up so quickly and then destroying it.
Think about Jonah—he enjoyed the vine that God created because it helped
to shade him from the sun, and he was angry when God destroyed it. But Jonah did not enjoy the people of
Puppet Application:
After completing
the Bible passage, introduce the puppet part of the lesson.
Introduction:
Today everyone is going to perform in a skit to understand more about
obeying.
Discussion
Suggestions:
After Skit 1: This
skit has two children in the same family who are very different. Can you think of some words to describe
them? Good and bad, obedient and
disobedient… Usually children are
not always good or always bad like in this skit. Is it easy to always obey? Is it easier to obey when it is something you
want to do anyway? Of course. What did the Jonah story teach us about
obeying God? We need to obey God,
even if we don’t want to. Is coming
to Faith Quest a way of obeying God? Yes—God
wants us to get to learn about the Bible.
He also wants us to meet together with other people who love God.
After Skit 2: Have
you ever known a bully like in this story?
If you do, or if you can just imagine from watching this skit what it
would be like to know one, do you think you would want to help a bully? Probably not. What do the kids in this story do when
they have a chance to help the bully and send him to a camp where he might
learn to be nicer? Neither of them
chose to help him. That is a very
understandable choice, isn’t it, given that he was so mean to them. What does the Jonah story tell you about what
God wants us to do for bullies and other people we might think of as our
enemies? God wants us to help
them. God wants the bullies to change
and know God and know what love is about.
After Skit 3: Would
you have obeyed the teacher if she asked you to take the note to the
office?
Most children
probably would. This little girl might have had parents that
didn’t make her obey at home, so maybe she hadn’t been taught to obey. Why do children go to schools? To learn things. Do you think it is as important to learn
to obey as it is to learn to add or multiply?
Obeying is as important as it is to learn. Do you think the teacher should have
given Angela a second chance to obey? Yes,
it gave Angela a chance to show she had learned to obey. Do you think God should have given Jonah
a second chance to obey and why? Yes,
it helped teach Jonah to obey. Isn’t it nice to know that if we know God,
God will teach us to obey?
Reflection Time:
If you are done by 10:35 a.m.
ask the shepherds to pass out the journal sheets and pencils/ markers. Tell the
older students to write down what they thought was the most interesting part of
the story today. Tell the younger students
to draw a picture of Jonah—maybe in the storm or in the fish or walking through
At 10:45 ask the students to
close their journals and sit quietly for prayer.
Prayer: Write your own or use this
one. Thank you God that you are so
merciful—that you are hoping to forgive everyone if they will only turn to you,
be sorry and obey you. Also, thank you
that you are so faithful that even when we don’t obey you, you think of a way
to teach us to obey. We offer these
thanks in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Tidy and Dismissal: Ask children to help tidy up. Close/lock the door and turn off the
lights.
Teacher preparation in advance:
1.
Pray
that God will guide you to teach what He wants taught during this workshop and
scripture passage. Pray for a loving and
patient attitude toward the children.
2.
Read the
Book of Jonah in whatever version you prefer.
If you haven’t read this lately, you may find that the whole story is
quite different from what you remember.
3.
Attend
the Faith Quest Leaders Bible Study.
4.
Please
practice reading the summary story out loud.
5.
Make
copies of the scripts. You need to make
one copy of the script for each player in the skit plus one for yourself. You also should make at least two sets of
each skit in case more than one group does each skit. Highlight one script for each different part.
6.
Check
out the room before your first Sunday workshop so that you know where
everything is located.
7.
Prepare
a closing prayer.
Suggested Supply List
Copies of the scripts (see instruction in preparation
section)
Map or poster board
References
Notes supplied by Lori Houck for curriculum writers'
Bible study
Scripts
SKIT 1
Mom: It’s time to come in. It’s getting dark outside.
Child 1: I’m coming.
Should I put these toys away first?
Mom: Good idea.
It’s better to pick them up while you can still see them.
Child 2: I don’t want to come in. I don’t mind the dark. I can see OK in the dark.
Mom: I said it was time to come in.
Child 1: I’m done with my clean up. What should I do now?
Mom: You can wash your hands for a special snack.
Child 2: Special snack? What it is?
I’m coming now.
Mom: I’m sorry but the snack is only for children
who obey me. You didn’t obey because you
didn’t come in until YOU wanted to.
Child 1: Oh wow!
Ice cream sundae! There’s so much
whipped cream! And extra cherries! Thanks, Mom.
Child 2: There’s mine.
What are you going to do with it?
Mom: I think I’ll eat it. If you’re hungry, you can have this
hard-boiled egg.
Narrator: On the next day…
Child 2: Can I have an ice cream sundae today?
Mom: No, I’m sorry. That was sort of a special thing I did. Maybe another day.
Dad: By the way, I am really sorry, but I ran over
your scooter last night because you left it in the dark.
Child 1: I’m going out to ride my scooter.
Dad: Have a good time. Watch out for that mess in the driveway.
SKIT 2
Child 1: Why is that kid on our soccer team? He is so mean.
Child 2: I know.
I wish he’d drop off the team so we could get someone nicer.
Coach: Who are you talking about?
Child 1: Who do you think? Maybe, …The Team Bully?
Coach: There’s no one that I want to drop off of
the team. I’m here to help everyone
improve.
Child 2: This kid doesn’t need soccer coaching. He can play OK, but he bullies everyone. He even took my snack last time.
Child 1: Was it the hard-boiled egg your mother always
packs for you?
Child 2: No, he could have that. It was a candy bar.
Coach: OK, you guys need to stop just complaining
about him and think of how you can help him to be nicer. There’s a soccer camp for “aggressive”
players. It helps kids work on their
manners and be better team players, but a member from his team has to nominate
him, in other words, say that he needs to go to it. Maybe one of you could nominate him and tell
him about it. (Coach leaves the
stage.)
Child 1: Are you going to tell him about it? He’s coming over here.
Child 2: I’m not going to tell him. I don’t like him. I don’t want to help him.
Team Bully: Hey guys.
Got another candy bar to give me so I don’t have to use your shin guards
to warm up my kicks?
Child 2: No, but you can have what’s in this brown
bag.
Team Bully: Give it to me. The coach said you guys might have some camp
to tell me about.
Child 1: No, not me.
Child 2: Nope, me neither.
Bully: OK, then.
(leaves)
Child 1: Was that the egg?
Child 2: That was the egg. (Laughing)
SKIT 3
This skit can be
performed outside the stage with all the children using puppets to be students
in the “classroom.” Since it is free
time, they can sit where they are sitting for Faith Quest. They can pretend to read books or draw
pictures or talk quietly to each other, but they should listen to the main
characters in the skit.
Teacher: Angela, please take this note to the school
office for me.
Angela: You said this was our free time, and I’d
rather read my book.
Carter: Angela, when a teacher asks you to do
something, you should do it.
Angela: But you said it was free time, and all the
other kids are doing what they want to do.
Brian: Angela, I can’t believe you are disagreeing
with the teacher. I would take the note
if she asked me to do it.
Teacher: Thank you, Brian, but I want Angela to do it.
Angela: Why can’t Brian do it? Then I could read my book.
Teacher: Angela, are you going to take the note?
Angela: I don’t get it. I don’t want to do it, and Brian does, so why
should I?
Brian: I didn’t say I wanted to take it, but if a
teacher told me to, I would, even during free time.
Teacher: Brian, please take this note to the
office. (Brian walks off stage.) Angela,
I am putting a note in my grade book that you do not obey teachers.
Angela: That’s not fair. You were picking on me by asking me.
Teacher: Every student will have a chance to obey or
disobey. Every student will be graded on
whether he or she obeys.
Angela: I’m sorry.
I didn’t realize it was that important to obey during free time.
Teacher: Angela, please put your book away and sit
quietly for the rest of free time.
Angela: OK (putting book away)
Narrator: Later that week…
Teacher: Angela, I have noticed that you have obeyed
everything I told you to do. For the
last four days during free time, I have given you things to do, and you have
done them. If you continue to act this
way, I probably will be able to say you are obedient on your report card.
Carter: Wow, Angela, most teachers wouldn’t have
given you a second chance.