God Deliver's Peter - Acts 12

Final week of club has arrived. The gaga ball pit was set up.  I also put out 32 pool noodles a ball and some hula hoops for the kids to play with as they arrived.  There is just something about hitting each other with a pool noodle that gets the kids excited. 

Most of the clubs made tea lights out of baby food jars, tissue paper and glue. They took forever to dry this week due to the high humidity. 

The one group made foam rockets.  The kids loved this craft.  I used Quick Grip glue instead of a hot glue gun (I don't have access to electricity).  This glue did not work so well.  Anyway, I got this idea from https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjCxNuZ3qXOAhVKdD4KHeXzADcQjB0IBg&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffrugalfun4boys.com%2F2015%2F04%2F18%2Fhow-to-make-a-pool-noodle-rocket-flinger%2F&psig=AFQjCNExwbQCBVmUx2AiOs4fjo_-bV0jVQ&ust=1470330528617498

As normal, we began "tent time" singing our Bible Verse Songs.  The kids are doing so well memorizing these verses.

 Whenever I present a Bible Verse for the kids to memorize, I have one kid read it from the Bible.  This helps to reinforce that these are not my words, but God's words.  I find the kids love to read (even if they have not yet learned!)  When I teach pre-school or kindergarten students, I have them hold the bible while I read the verse.  To illustrate Romans 8:28, I did a fun demonstration using water.  I asked for a volunteer who were convinced that they trusted God.  I asked her if she would trust God like the apostles did when they were thrown into prison and then beaten.  Would she trust God like Stephen did even though he was stoned to death for preaching about Jesus.  Would she trust God to help her not to get wet?  I then held over her head a jar filled with water.  I flipped the jar upside down, but had a plastic lid over the opening.  Holding the jar very level, I slid the plastic lid off the opening.  (Because there was a screen over the opening the water didn't fall out UNLESS I did not have the jar level.)  As the kids were amazed over the water not coming out, I tipped the jar a little to leave a drop or more fall out.  I told them that it is easy to trust God during the good times, but harder when things are not going so well (like when you get wet).  But God can take the good and bad experiences and turn them into something good for His glory.  


Unfortunately for Leah, I didn't have the jar completely level as I removed the lid and she got wet more than I anticipated.  I did get better as the week went on. 

Our Gospel Presentation talked about being prisoner's of sin (Galatians 3:22).  As I named different sins (ie. lying, hating, disobeying, etc), I put up a prison rod over the picture of a girl and boy.  Then I talked about God's plan for us to be freed from the jail of sin.  God sent his Son, Jesus, to die for us.  As Jesus was on the cross, God the Father place all of our sin on him.  This is found in Isaiah 53:6.  As I quoted that verse at my Jonestown Group, three hand went into the air.  When I acknowledge one of them, she said, "We sang about that."  Immediately the entire group began to sing, "All we like sheep have gone astray. Baa-baa-do-ba-ba. Each of us have turn to his own way.  Baa-baa-do-ba-ba.  But the Lord has laid on him (Huh!) , the iniquity of us all.  Singing Baa-baa-do-ba-ba Isaiah 53:6 (Huh!)"  This was a Bible Verse we had learned last year at club.  They remembered!!!!

This week's Bible lesson focused on Acts 12.  King Herod had put Peter in prison with the intent to executed him after the Passover.  The church gathered to pray.  On the night before Peter's scheduled execution, an angel of the LORD freed Peter from prison.  It is a reminder for us to pray for other peoples' needs.  We specifically prayed for Christians who live in India, Colombian and Syria who face persecution today. 

Then it was SNACK time.  As you can see, the kids love snacks.  This year, watermelon was the snack of choice for most of my groups. 

This week's game all involved pool noodles.  We played swatting flies, flipping hamburgers (or meatballs) and Old One Tooth.  In swatting flies, three people have a large noodle.  They are trying to swat down any fly (small noodles) that are making their way into the hoop.  The other kids are trying to throw their flies into the hoop.  But they can only throw a fly if they are standing on a spot marker. 



For flipping hamburgers, each person gets a frying pan (a metal lid), and hamburger (small noodle) and a spatula (large noodle).  The idea is to flip someone else's hamburger off their frying pan without loosing yours.  If you hamburger is flipped, then you must do 10 jumping jacks before frying another burger. 

For Old One tooth, you have about 6 people in a line holding onto the waist of the person in front of you.  The first person gets a large noodle (tooth).  That person tried to hit the person in the back of the line with the noodle. 

The Missionary Story was about Richard Wurmbrand who began the organization Voice of the Martyrs.  The kids really listen well to that story.  It also tied in nicely to the idea of praying for the persecuted church like the early church did for Peter. 

An then Backyard Bible Club was over for this year (well except for the Club Store).