Faith Kids: Angels visit Mary and Joseph

Story

Angels visit Mary and Joseph. (Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 1:26-38)

Big Idea
When God asks, say "Yes!"

Bible Verse
Luke 11:28 - He replied, "Instead, blessed are those who hear God's word and obey it." (NIrV)

What We Did
1. Because, in our story, the angel was going to give Mary and Joseph news that some might have thought bad news and others might have thought good news, in the first small group time we discussed the phrase, "I've got good news and bad news" and which news they'd rather hear first. A majority of our kids said they'd rather hear the bad news first and get it out of the way!
2. As we told the Bible story, we played a game called Noisy Choices. During key parts of the story, we stopped and gave our contestant (Carter) three choices as to what happened. To indicate his answer, he had to play one of three musical instruments: a maraca, a recorder, and a ukelele. Carter chose the correct Noisy Choice almost every time. He correctly decided that Jesus' parents weren't named Big Bertha and Billy Bob, as well as determining that the angel didn't appear to Joseph to deliver him a pizza.
3. During the story, we focused on the fact that, when God sent his messengers to Mary and Joseph, they both said "Yes" to God by agreeing to do what he asked them to do.
4. In the second small group time, we talked about how the way we can say "Yes" to God now is to read his Word (the Bible) and do what it says. We played a board game where we drew cards with God's commandments and instruction for us written on them and flipped a coin to judge whether or not our game character said "Yes" to God. We then discussed what it would mean to say "Yes" to God in regards to that commandment. If our game character said "Yes" to God, he/she was allowed to move forward, but if he/she said "No," then they had to move backwards.

Materials We Used
1. Lesson Plan
2. Small Group Leader Sheet
3. Verse Activity

4. Resource: Game Board
5. Resource: Game Cards
6. Resource: Choice Cards

Faith Kids: Zechariah and Elizabeth

Story

Zechariah and Elizabeth have a baby. (Luke 1:5-25, 57-75)

Big Idea
God means what he says.

Bible Verse
Psalm 105:8 - "He will keep his covenant forever. He will keep his promise for all time to come. "(NIrV)

What We Did
1. As we told the story, we hung paper strips from the ceiling in a long chain. We added a new strip to the chain each time we came to a new fact in the story. We started with blue and pink paper strips for Zechariah and Elizabeth, added a yellow strip when the angel appeared to Zechariah, and so on until the entire chain was as tall as me (Mr. Andy)!
2. We played a game of Win, Lose, or Draw on wipe board tablets to simulate how Zechariah had to communicate with others when God rendered him unable to speak.
3. We all did our best impersation of what it would like if an angel appeared to us. We all fainted dramatically onto the floor. Luckily, we had a nice big mattress to land on.

Materials We Used
1. Lesson Plan
2. Small Group Leader Sheet
3. Verse Activity

Faith Kids: Easter Sunday

Story

Jesus comes to earth to die for our sins, and rises from the dead.

Big Idea
God's Son, Jesus, beat sin and death.

What We Did
1. We basically told the entire story of the Bible. We had two punching bags covered with bedsheets. As we told the story, we attached cards to each punching bag to show what they stood for. One punching bag was covered in a white sheet and it stood for God. We talked about how God is love and God is life. He made a perfect world and gave life and love to the people he put on it. But they disobeyed God, and sin and death entered the world. That's what our second punching bag, the one covered with the dark sheet stood for.
     Sin leads to death. Sin and death are the opposite of love and life. After the first people sinned, people kept on sinning and people kept on dying. Finally, God sent Jesus to save us from sin and death. Since Jesus is God, he was full of life and love and offered both to those who'd follow and believe in him. But some people, who were full of sin and death, didn't like what Jesus had to say, and when they couldn't shut him up, they had him killed.
     It looked like sin and death had one and God, full of life and love, had lost. But Jesus was much stronger than sin and death, and though he was killed on a Friday, he rose from the dead on a Sunday. He beat sin and death (at this point, we gave the "Sin and death" punching bag quite a kick!) because God is much stronger than either of them. And we can leave sin and death behind, too, if we believe that Jesus died to take the punishment for the sins we've committed and follow him.
     We finally talked about how God will one day make a new heaven and a new earth, and sin and death will be no more. For those who believe in and follow Jesus, we'll spend forever enjoying God's life and God's love.
2. We played a game where we drew popsicle sticks from a jar. There were seven sticks, each with a day of the week written on it. The person who drew the "Friday" popsicle stick ended up stuck in "sin and death" (the center of the circle), since Jesus died on a Friday. He/she then had to find the kid with the "Sunday" stick in order to leave "sin and death" and receive God's "love and life," since Jesus was raised on a Sunday.

Materials We Used
1. Lesson Plan
2. Game