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). 

God's Message if for All - Acts 10

Because this week was the Lebanon County Fair, half my kids were missing from club.  Yet, I am hearing that many did extremely well with their animals and other projects.  Unfortunately, I did not get to the fair this year.  My kids had dentist and eye doctor appointments. 

Although my groups were small, we had lots of fun.  Having smaller groups allow me to interact one on one with the kids that I can't do with large groups.  

This week's craft was prayer boxes from altroid and mento tins.  I had the paper pre-cut.  So the kids got to Modge Podge the paper to the tin.  Then decorate the paper with stickers before giving it a second coat of Modge Podge.  On the inside lid, they Modge Podge this poem, "When your head starts to worry, and your mind just can't rest, put your prayers down on paper, and let God do the rest."



For the playground activity we played Tenzie and/or Pass the Pigs (party version).  After having my Tuesday group almost lose their pigs, I decided to give each child a pie pan to roll their dice/pigs into.  What a difference that made.  No longer were we chasing pigs and dice all over the place.

In tent time, I introduced John 15:12.  We played a game called, "First Letter."  I had a child chose a letter that began one of the words in the verse.  I had pre-arranged an action for each letter (ie. T = jump, I = clap, and so on).  Then we said the verse, but when we got to a word that began with the chosen letter we said the word while doing the action.  Each time we added a new action, we still did the old actions.  Usually, we could do 5-6 different actions before we messed up.  The kids love this activity.

To introduce the Bible lesson, I gave a Bible Buck to everyone who had green eyes like mine (or just the girls).  It didn't take long before someone yelled, "Hey, that is not fair!"  Then said, "In today's Bible lesson, the Jews thought that God only loved them.  This is kinda of like me just giving Bible bucks to only those who have green eyes.  But lets see what God thought about this.  Then at the end of the lesson, when I re-emphasis that God loves the Jews and the Gentiles.  God loves everyone.  I gave a Bible Buck to the rest of the kids and told them I love them also.

We also FINALLY got out of Jerusalem.  As I pointed out Ceasarea and Joppa on the map, someone from each group asked if these towns were in Judea and Samaria.  I could have jumped for joy that they made the connection from Acts 1:8 (a previous memory verse) and today's lessons.  The answer to this question was YES.  The Gentiles (Romans) viewed both cities as in Judea with Ceasarea being the capital.  But to the Jews, Jerusalem was the capital.  Joppa was located in the northern part of Judea and Ceasarea was in Samaria. 

The kids loved naming the animals that Peter saw in the sheet.  They also enjoyed repeating what the angel told Cornelius to do.  "Send men to (Joppa).  Find (Peter), who is staying at Simon, the tanner, (who lives by the sea)."  When Peter finally understood that God wanted him to share the Gospel with Cornelius and his household, I used CEF flipper, flapper to share the gospel.  This was such a fun lesson to teach. 

Because it was so HOT this week, we played water games again.  I learned a new favorite game.  The kids got into teams for a relay.  The first person pick up a car sponge in the bucket of water and ran around the cone.  Then he squeezed the water out of the sponge on the next team member before throwing the sponge into the water bucket.  The kids got soaked, but they loved it. 

Our missionary story was about Valentinus, the courageous Christian man behind Valentine's Day who lived in third century Rome. We follow him as he went against the Roman emperor's edicts by performing secret marriage ceremonies in the woods and how he refused to worship Roman gods. We saw how he faithfully followed Christ, even to his death.

We have only one more week of Backyard Bible Club for 2016.

God's Friend - Acts 6-7

Kids + Water = Fun, fun, fun

This week at Backyard Bible Club we played water games.  It always amazes me how it can be 90*F, yet you pour a cup of water over a kid's head and they are cold!?!  We did have a lot of fun this week.  Also every club learned the same lesson AND received the same Jerusalem Journal (God's Friend, Issue 6).  

This year the kids are learning memory verses.  Out of the 46 kids that have been in club so far this week, 29 could quote at least one verse!  In the Campbelltown group, ALL the kids this week could say at least one verse.  Way to go kids.  

This week's craft was a wordless bracelet.  This was an easier and simpler craft for the kids.  I did make the string a little long for some of the kids.  They had trouble keeping the bracelet on.  I used the bracelet as my Gospel visual.  I challenged them to tell someone about the colors of their bracelet sometime today. 



When they got finished with the bracelet, they could draw on the individual white boards.  This was a nice activity since it was so hot.  I had the kids write their names - fancy.  Some used bubble letter, calligraphy, etc.  Then I had them draw something they love doing during the summer time.  I quickly learned that swimming was a favorite activity.  I love seeing their creativity. 


During "tent time", we sang all eight of the Bible Verse songs.  This is one reason so many could quote a verse.  Somehow it is so much easier to memorize if  you put the words to music.  The kids love to sing Acts 1:8 "You will receive" by Faith Inkubators. 

This week's memory verse is Matthew 5:44 KJV.  I shared a story from Voice of the Martyr's December 2015 Newsletter about a 13 year old Nigerian boy who was able to forgive the men who attacked him and left him blind in one eye.  After discussing what the verse means we played "Clap-A-Word."  One kid had to stand behind the verse visual.  Another kid pointed to one of the words in the verse.  The entire group then said the verse, but clapped at the chosen word.  Then the kid who was standing behind the visual had to tell us what word we clapped for.  It was impressing how well the kids did since this was a very long verse.  

I used God's Witness: The Courage of Stephen by Voice of the Martyrs as my Bible lesson visual.  I don't often read a book as my Bible Lesson, but this book did such a nice job bringing out the idea that the Holy Spirit is the one who gave Stephen the courage to stand up for God even in the midst of persecution. 

After snacks, it was WATER TIME!!!!  I did a number of different water games with the different clubs.  But the all time favorite (they ask for this year after year) is Drip, Drip, Drop.  This game is a variation to Duck, Duck, Goose.  Kids sit in a circle.  One kid has a cup full of water.  As he walk around the circle, he drops a drip on each kid's head.  When he wants someone to chase him, he pours the ENTIRE cupful on the kid's head.  Then he runs around the circle in an attempt to reach the empty spot before getting tagged.  If he gets tag, his punishment is to sit still while the new "it" pours a full cup of water on his head.  Another requested water game is L,R,S.  We pass a water balloon around the circle while saying the memory verse.  Whoever is caught holding the balloon as we say the verse's address, then get to roll a dice with the letters L,R, OR S on it's side.  The letter's stand for Left, Right or Self.  Whatever letter is showing on top of the dice, that is the person who must sit while the water balloon is squeezed above their head.  The funny thing about this game is most of the time the person who is under the balloon does not get very wet.  Most of the time it is the one squeezing the balloon who gets wet. 

The review game (if we had time), was a file folder game. I made "doors" on a file folder and numbered them.  If a kid answered correctly, he got to choose a door to open.  I had positive and negative points under the different doors.  About 1/2 way through the review game, I flipped the point sheet over and closed all the doors.  On this sheet, there was no points, just give to the other team, double your points, divide your points in 1/2, etc.  It makes the game interesting as you never really know which team will win. 

We only have two more weeks of Backyard Bible Club.  Summer is flying by.  

God's Children

This week for my Monday and Thursday clubs, I taught the lesson in last week's blog (God is Dishonored).  These kids received Jerusalem Journal Issue 4.

The Tuesday club learned about God's children.   This group received Jerusalem Journal Issue 5. Next week, all the clubs will be learning the same lesson. 

 Our craft this week was tea lights using baby food jars, tissue paper and Mod Podge.  I forgot the baby wipes (Oops!)  Fortunately, Campbelltown United Christian Church had a bowl, water and paper towels.  Although this is an easy, but messy craft, I love seeing the creativity.  Some kids are very particular of what colors and shapes of tissue paper they glue on their jars.  Other kids just grab tissue paper and glue.  Yet the finished project is always pretty. 

For playground time, we threw rice filled neck ties.  For a while, we just threw the ties back and forth.  Then, we saw who could throw their tie the farthest, who could hit a target, etc.  Finally, we played tag with just one tie.

 To make the neck tie snakes:

Preparation

1.      Sew up tie about 1/8 from the wide end (so nothing will fall out of it).

2.      Sew the back of the tie close to create a tube.  The wide end of the tie will be filled with beans/rice/pellets. 

Instruct each child in the following procedures:

1.      Pour beans, rice or polypropylene pellets into the tie.

2.      Sew the wide end of the tie so that no beans, rice or pellets fall out.

3.      Cut a forked tongue out of the red felt.

4.      Sew or glue it to the wide “v” end of the tie.

5.      Sew or glue on a pair of eyes at the widest part of the tie.

To throw your snake:

1.      Hold snake by the tail.

2.      Swing your snake in a clockwise circle by your side.

3.      When the snake’s head points down, release your hands and watch it fly. 

* You can play catch with this toy or put a hoop on the ground for a target.  Just make sure you fly the snake in an open area. 

Our Memory Verse for this lesson is Matthew 5:16.  We played Crazy Stand ups to repeat this verse over and over again.  To play crazy stand ups, a kid will choose a card.  Each card describes who needs to stand up and say the verse.  A card might read, "Those who love watermelon, stand up and say the verse."  Or maybe, "Those who ate breakfast this morning, stand up and say the verse.  I usually have about seven to ten cards.  The kids make sure we do ALL the cards.  

I also used a neat Gospel Object lesson called "SEAS which help you SEE" (by Sam Doherty).  

VISUALS:
You can use a large world globe if you have one, and point out the four seas as you speak about them. Or you could use a large map of the world. (I used a beach ball globe.)

LESSON:
I want to invite all boys and girls everywhere to accompany me for a long journey on board a ship called “Imagination.” In our good ship “Imagination” we will cruise over some of the real seas of the world, and try to learn some lessons from their names and colours. One good thing about this cruise is that we need not be afraid either of sea-sickness or shipwreck, for the good ship “Imagination” does not move. Now, then, all aboard!

First Stopping Place – Drop the anchor! Dear me, what a dreadful place! No trees, and no flowers! What is the name of this place?

THE DEAD SEA
Now, who knows where the Dead Sea is situated? It is in Israel; it is inland but our ship is a very special ship which can get right into this sea. This sea is called the Dead Sea because fish cannot live in its waters and plants cannot grow around it. The river Jordan flows into this sea, but nothing flows out of it, and so the sea not only remains dead itself but also puts to death every living thing near it.
The Dead Sea is a picture of sin, because the Bible tells us that, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6 v23). This sea is dead and so are we if we have not trusted the Lord Jesus as our Saviour. Sin always results in death - and the person who lives in sin will be separated from God forever and ever.

Second Stopping Place – Ah! Yes, this looks nicer. Let me see: What is its name?

THE BLACK SEA
Where can we find this sea? It is found between Russia and Turkey. It is called black because sometimes its waters are very dark. This is a very deep sea. At its center it is over 1000 meters deep.
I know that seas cannot speak but let us use our imagination and listen to this sea speak, “I am black or dark and so are you. I am a picture of sin – the darkness of sin.”  Yes! Sinners are not only dead, but are also dark. Sin not only kills, it also dirties.

Here is our third Stopping Place. It’s hotter at this sea! What is the name of
this sea? It is: 

THE RED SEA
This is a very good name to give it because it is so hot here. It might even be called the Red-hot Sea. Who knows where this sea is to be found? It lies midway between Africa and Arabia. The children of Israel passed through this sea when they were travelling from Egypt to Canaan. The colour red reminds us of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and the Blood He poured out as He died for our sin. He took the punishment for our sin so that we can be saved. So the Red Sea reminds us of what Jesus Christ did to save us from our deadness and darkness.

And now our fourth Stopping Place. After a long, dreary sail we reach:

THE WHITE SEA
It lies away north between Lapland and Russia. It probably owes its whiteness and its name to its being often covered with snow. The Bible tells us about a special prayer, “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51 v7). Would you like to pray that prayer today? If you ask the Lord Jesus to save you He will make you perfectly clean and white in the sight of God. 

What do these four seas teach us? They teach us that we are dead in sin, and black or dark through sin. But if we come to the Lord Jesus, Who poured out His blood for our sin and trust Him, our death will become life, and our darkness will become the whiteness and purity of Jesus Christ.

 Next came the Bible lesson from Acts 5:12-42.  The word of the day was "persecution".  The main point was "The Holy Spirit will give you courage, so speak up for God no matter what!"  Because this was a shorter lesson, I reviewed the previous lessons before going into Acts 5:12-42.  This helped the kids see the Holy Spirit giving the apostles power to speak in many different languages, the ability to heal the lame man, discern when someone was lying and now the boldness to speak up for God even in the midst of persecution.  The Holy Spirit really helps us live for Jesus every day.

This week, we played with the parachutes for group games.  We played two favorites (popcorn and Sharks & Lifeguards).  I love these pictures they are so colorful!  Since my Monday morning group is so large, my Mom made me an extra large parachute out of fabric table clothes  (bottom picture).  Tents and Events donated the table clothes. 

This week's missionary story was about John Bunyan. John spent 12 years in jail for preaching about Jesus in England.  While in jail, he also wrote "Pilgrim's Progress."  This story tied in well to today's Bible Lesson and word of the day.

 

Our review game was called Button, Button.  I took an egg carton and wrote point values in each hole.  Then I placed a button inside.  When a child answered a question correctly, they got to shake the carton.  When I opened the carton, their team got the points listed in the spot where the button was resting.  This is a simple, cheap, but fun game. 

Well, this was an overview of my Tuesday club.  I will only teach this lesson to this group.  Next week, all my clubs will learn about "God's friend" (Acts 6-7).