May 26, 2008

Joseph Meets His Brothers Again

For the past couple of week, we've covered the story of how Joseph met his brothers again in Egypt.

To tell the story of the story of how Joseph collected Egypt's food during the seven good years, we each had bowls of Fruit Loops. We got to eat half of them; the rest we took up to 'Joseph' and deposited in a large bowl. That way, during the seven years of famine, we had some food left to eat.

When we got to the part of the story where Joseph met his brothers for the first time in years, we played a choose-your-own-adventure game. At various points in the story, we gave our kids threes choices as to what would happen next. One of them was the real choice, what actually happened in the Bible. The other two were completely ridiculous and funny choices. We acted out all three, choosing the correct one at the end.

As we finished the tale of Joseph reuniting with his brothers, we assigned a crazy motion for each character involved in the story and performed them each time their name was mentioned (which happened a lot!)
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May 12, 2008

Pharaoh's Crazy Dreams

Our story this week centered around Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his crazy dreams.

To tell the story, we had one of our kids lie down on a cot with a pillow and blanket to represent Pharaoh. Then we used an overhead projector to shine a 'dream bubble' over 'Pharaoh's' head. Then we placed a bunch of different shadow shapes inside the dream bubble.

One night, Pharaoh had not one, but two crazy dreams! In the first, seven fat cows appeared by the Nile river, followed by seven skinny cows. The skinny cows then walked on over to the fat cows and ate them!

In the second dream, seven fat heads of grain were eaten by seven skinny heads of grain.

Needless to say, after having such strange dreams, Pharaoh was concerned. He asked the smartest people in Egypt what these dreams could possibly mean, but no one could tell him.

Finally, Pharaoh's cupbearer remembered Joseph from the time they had spent together in prison. Joseph had interpreted his dream correctly for him back then. So, the cupbearer told Pharaoh about Joseph, and Pharaoh sent for Joseph immediately.

After hearing Pharaoh's dreams, God helped Joseph understand what they meant. He told Pharaoh that Egypt would experience seven really good years, followed by seven years of severe famine. Joseph told Pharaoh that, during those seven good years, he needed to find someone smart to make sure they saved enough food to last during the seven bad years.

Pharaoh thought Joseph looked smart enough for the job, so he put him in charge of Egypt's food supply. Not only that, he put him second-in-command over all of Egypt. Only Pharaoh would have more power than Joseph.
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April 29, 2008

A Joseph, a baker, and a cupbearer

This week, we told the story of Joseph's time in prison in Egypt. Mrs. Jessica read the story and I (Mr. Andy) played the parts of Joseph, the baker, and cupbearer, wearing different costumes and speaking in different voices as I tried to switch between characters as fast as possible.

Two men who worked for Pharaoh, his baker and his cupbearer, were thrown into the same prison Joseph was in because they had somehow angered Pharaoh.

While they were there, they had strange dreams, dreams they knew meant something. But, they were bummed out because they had no idea what they actually meant.

Joseph asked them, "What's wrong, guys?" They told him about their dreams, about how they didn't know what they meant.

"God can help me understand what they mean. Why don't you tell me them?" Joseph said. And so the cupbearer and baker did so.

When they were finished, God helped Joseph understand exactly what the dreams meant.
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April 6, 2008

Trying to Smooch the Wrong Person

This morning, we told the story of Joseph working in Potiphar's house.

We told the story by acting out a courtroom-style drama, with three of our kids playing the part of Joseph, Potiphar, and Mrs. Potiphar, Mr. Andy acting as the lawyer, and the rest of the kids as the jury.

We learned that Mrs. Potiphar tried to get her servant, Joseph, to give her a smooch. When he refused, she lied to her Potiphar, her husband, saying that Joseph had tried to smooch HER!

Potiphar believed his wife's story, and had Joseph thrown in prison.
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March 19, 2008

How Faith Kids Works

Faith Kids is our program for children K-6th grade. It takes place during our worship service, as well as our adult community hour. Each week, we focus on teaching the children a Bible story or concept, all centered around one "bottom line" (or big idea).
Most weeks we follow a standard format (All times are best estimates):
Worship Service: 10:00 am - 10:10 am
The children begin upstairs in the auditorium with the adults as we open the service with a time of worship through singing. They will then be prompted to head downstairs for Faith Kids.

Lesson Time: 10:10 am - 10:40 am
At the same time the adults are upstairs listening to Pastor Smith's sermon, the kids will be downstairs having their Bible lesson. Usually focused on a particular Bible story, this time shapes up differently each week. Sometimes we act out the story; other times we draw the story or mold it out of clay. Some times we present the story in the form of a game show

Worship Service: 10:40 am - 11:00 am
When Pastor Smith is finished with his message, the children will be lead back upstairs to join everyone in a closing time of worship through song.

Activities: 11:15 am - 12:00 pm
During the adult community hour, the children will spend time doing various activities that reinfornce the "bottom line" (or big idea) of the week's lesson. This time can include games, crafts, discussion, and prayer.
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Parent Resource: AWANA Council Time Curriculum

Note: These lessons are being moved over to our kid's curriculum site, faithkidslessons.blogspot.com. There you'll also find the Sunday lessons we teach, along with a variety of other materials our church generates. Click here to go straight to the master list of lessons.


I wrote a book!

It's called How to Eat your Bible. It's a 44-week-long devotional guide for children, featuring a six-day-a-week reading plan, a short explanation to go with every Bible reading, questions with spaces to write in your own answers, and a daily prayer guide that walks you through the Lord's Prayer. You can check  it  out at amzn.com/B089TWRZ8P.

Bible Story and Catechism Videos - New!

I've  been making short animated Bible Story videos for use with our church's curriculum. Dozens are already available at our YouTube channel - Faith Kids Videos!

Check out a couple of sample videos already released. One-two videos are added each week.





Lesson 1
Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Lesson 5


Lesson 6


Lesson 7
Resource-Letters

Lesson 8

Lesson 9

Lesson 10

Lesson 11

Lesson 12

Lesson 13

Lesson 14

Lesson 15

Lesson 16

Lesson 17

Lesson 18

Lesson 19

Lesson 20

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Parent Resource: Faith Kids Curriculum


The lessons used each week in Faith Kids are written by our Associate Pastor, Andrew Doane.

Each lesson revolves around a single story from the Bible. Our goal is to focus on the single key idea each Bible story has to teach us about God and how he saved us through his Son, Jesus. While each activity in the lesson varies in it's purpose (personal application, Bible memory, review), they all revolve around helping the children understand and remember this one big idea

All the lessons we teach from are being posted over at Faith Kids Lessons.
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