===================================================================== Title: Primary Sabbath School Program, July 3, 1999 From: NAD Children's Ministries (author: Lisa Seeders) Date: June 15, 1999 Abstract: Activities to use in place of program helps to teach the lesson, THE MAN WHO TOLD ABOUT JESUS ===================================================================== Lesson Aim: God has an important work for me to do like John the Baptist did. Memory Verse: "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go." Psalm 32:8, NIV GETTING THEIR ATTENTION - SPEECHLESS Materials needed: Small slips of paper WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To prepare ahead) On the small slips of paper print the following sentences. You need a drink You need to get to a game on time You need a new shirt to wear to a birthday party You need some money for a field trip You need a haircut You need help with your homework You need someone to help you practice batting and catching Roll the slips of paper into small wads and place them in the palm of your hand. WHAT THE STUDENTS DO: Tell the children you want them to pretend they are dumb. They cannot speak at all. In your hand you have slips of paper that tell of some needs they have. When they choose a paper from your hand, they have 45 seconds to try and get the rest of the students to guess what it is they need. They can do anything but talk. At the end of the 45 seconds, they sit down and someone else can look at the same slip and try. The original child cannot guess. Do as many as time allows. In our Bible story today a man becomes dumb who has been use to speaking all his life. GO STRAIGHT INTO THE BIBLE STORY. GETTING INTO SCRIPTURE - PROMISE/PREPARE STAND-OFF Materials needed: None WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To prepare ahead) Count how many times the word promise or any derivative of the word occurs in the lesson story as told below. Do the same for the word prepare. WHAT THE STUDENTS DO: Divide the children into two groups. Explain that the words promise and prepare occur frequently in the Bible story this week. Designate one group to be the "promise" group. They are to listen carefully for that word as you tell the story. Designate the second group as the "prepare" group. They are to listen carefully for that word. (Explain that derivatives such as promised, promises etc. are also acceptable) Whenever they hear the word someone from the group is to stand. At the end of the story tell them how many should be standing in each group. Ask the children, "Which do you think is more important? The promise of the Savior or getting prepared for the promise?" Four hundred years went by after the Old Testament stories in the Bible before the stories in the New Testament occurred. During all that time God began to prepare the world for the birth of His Son. Scripture had promised that Jesus would be born in Palestine. The Jews were eagerly looking forward to the fulfillment of this promise. They were ruled by the Romans, and they wanted the Messiah to come and free them. However God's plans were to save His people from sin, not just from the Romans. God sent a baby to prepare the way for the birth of His Son, the Messiah. This is the story of that baby. A priest named Zacharias was married to a woman named Elisabeth. They did not have any children. One day when Zacharias was burning incense in the temple an angel appeared to him. He told Zacharias that they would have a son that they were to name John. He would be a special boy who would prepare the people for the Lord. Zacharias could hardly believe what he was hearing. He and his wife were well past the age for having children. Because he did not believe the angel's promise he was struck dumb and could not speak until the baby was born and named. Well, the promised baby was born. When all the relatives wanted to name him John, his father wrote on a clay tablet that he was to be called John as the angel had instructed him too. After that he was able to talk again. Elisabeth and Zacharias raised John very carefully. Because he had a special work to do to prepare the people for their Messiah they taught him to take extra special care of his body and mind. Because he loved and obeyed God he did his important work well. He was the first person to tell people that Jesus was the Messiah God had sent. God chose John to baptize His own promised Son, Jesus. GETTING INTO SCRIPTURE - COOKBOOKS Materials needed: Xeroxed copies of 4 healthy but appealing recipes (each child has a copy of the four different recipes; copy and cut them so that they can fit onto 3 X 5 or 4 X 6 recipe cards.) Recipe cards Glue sticks Stapler One plain 3 X 5 or 4 X 6 card for each student WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To prepare ahead) Prepare the xeroxed copies of recipes. On the plain 3 X 5 or 4 X 6 cards write the memory verse replacing all the vowels with blanks. WHAT THE STUDENTS DO: Give each child copies of their recipes. Look over them together. Talk about how delicious the outcome will be if they follow the instructions. Talk about what a disaster it could be if they don't. Have the children make their own recipe booklet by gluing the recipes onto recipe cards. On the plain card that has the memory verse on it, have them look up the verse and fill in the blanks. Repeat the verse several times together. Talk about how important it is to listen and follow God's instructions so our lives don't end up a disaster. After laying the memory verse card on top, staple the booklet together. Encourage the children to try the recipes at home while remembering to commit the memory verse to heart. ACTING ON SCRIPTURE - PROMISE KEEPERS Materials needed: Bibles WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To prepare ahead) There are no advance preparations necessary WHAT THE STUDENTS DO: Divide the students into two groups. Have the groups stand facing each other in horizontal lines. The goal of the game is for each group to try and get as many students from the other group over to their group. Each group talks among themselves to try and think of an example in the Bible when God or Jesus kept a promise. They tell the opposing team about the Bible promise. The opposing team then responds with the chant, "P-R-O-M-I-S-E, Jesus will do what He says for me." The opposing team then has to forfeit a student to the opposite team. There are no time limits. Either team can submit as many illustrations of Bible promises as they can think of at any time. You will have to set an ending time to the activity.