This week's theme: Faith

Goals: To teach the children that:

1. The Bible is our guide for living

2. God is all powerful and can do the unbelievable.

3. Having faith means believing that God can and will do the impossible.

4. God rewards those who have faith.

Chef Skit:

The Swedish chef comes in to the room in a crazy and excited manner. He seems very confused and concerned. He has in his hand a magnifying glass and is looking about in his crazy way... under kids chairs, in their ears, etc. When the leader finally gets his attention she discovers that he is missing something. He has a large recipe card (poster board size) for marshmallow crescent surprises. He explains that someone has stolen the marshmallows from his crescents. He runs out and brings in some of his crescents and cuts one open to show that the marshmallow is nowhere to be found. He tells the leader that he filled each crescent with a marshmallow before he cooked them, but when he went to take them out of the oven the marshmallows had disappeared.

The leader looks over the recipe card and attempts to explain to the chef that the marshmallows are still there, he just can't see them any more. She explains what happens to the marshmallows when you bake them; the marshmallow melts as it cooks and so it appears to disappear. You have to believe it is still there even though you can't see it. The chef doesn't believe her and runs off to look for the marshmallow thief.

The leader takes time to talk about how faith is very similar. Faith is believing what you can't see. It's believing that God can do the impossible.

The Bible is full of stories that tell us how to live and what to do. And it is full of stories about people who had great faith, who trusted God and who believed in the impossible. God rewards people who have great faith.

Crazy Moose story: Cocoa the crazy moose pops out in the puppet stage with a pie. He tells the leader that he knows a story about some pies in the Bible who had great faith. It is found in the book of Exodus. The leader realizing what story he is talking about corrects him and tells him that it is about spies. The moose is excited because spies are much more exciting than pies.

The moose begins telling about how the Israelite people were on their way to the promised land; it was the land of canes; candy canes! The leader corrects him and tells about how the people were on the way to the promised land called Canaan.

The moose continues. Moses chose the 12 spies to go explore the land find out about it. He told them to find out what kind of FOIL it had. The leader corrects and explains that they wanted to know what kind of soil it had so they could know about growing food.

The moose continues. The spies went and they found huge grapes and pomegranates and WIGS. The leader corrects with figs.

The moose continues. They also discovered the people there needed DEODERANT. The leader inquires about why he thinks they needed deoderant. The moose explains that they were very "strong... Wheweee. The leader corrects and explains that they had strong muscles not a strong smell.

The moose is tired of telling the story by this time and has the leader continue the story found in Numbers 13-14. Be sure to emphasize the people's lack of faith and the faith of the two spies Caleb and Joshua. The Lord asks Moses how long these people will not believe in him in spite of all the miracles he has done among them.

Cool Clyde's death defying double dare:

Hebrews 11:1 Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing something is real even if we do not see it.

Cool Clyde comes out to teach the memory verse. After teaching the verse he challenges the kids to his death defying double dare. This dare involves eating something really gross that he has cooked up. One child from each team comes up and takes the item out of Clyde's lunch bag, put it in their mouth and eat it and then recite the verse.

This week Cool Clyde has a giant Hershey bar with chocolate syrup and potato chips on top.

Game

You will need a blindfold and cans of soda.

Select a child to be the player. Blindfold them. Hide a can of soda somewhere on the floor in the room. Instruct the rest of the children that they may call out hints, either in an attempt to help the player find the soda or in an attempt to prevent the player from finding the soda. The player must crawl around on the floor trying to find the soda. They must decide who they have faith in to direct them truthfully. Play three rounds.

After playing the game discuss the following:

1. You couldn't see the soda when you were blindfolded. Did you still believe it was there? Why?

2. Did you believe the hints that people were giving you? Why?

3. Did you trust the hint givers?

4. Faith is believing in what you can't see. It is believing that God will guide you through life to the prize. Faith then involves trust. When we have faith we believe in God whom we can’t see and we trust him to guide us.

Closing object lesson:

You will need 2 styrofoam cups, a pitcher of water and slush powder. Slush powder is a chemical, which instantly changes a liquid into a solid.

Place a teaspoon of slush powder into the second cup and then place the first cup inside of the second cup.

The Swedish fish comes up with some trash. First he brings up an old pencil without an eraser, some crumpled up paper and finally some old Styrofoam cups (prepared as above). He complains about all this trash someone has been leaving in his fish bowl. The leader volunteers to take it from him and he goes back to his bowl to finish cleaning.

Suggest to the children that perhaps you should recycle these items and use them as part of your lesson.

Ask the children what will happen if you poke holes through one of these cups and then pour water into the cup. The water will come pouring out the holes. Take out the first cup and demonstrate.

How many of you believe that I can pour water into one of these cups, and then poke holes in it and not have it leak?

Take out the second cup and pour the water into it. The water should instantly turn to solid, but the children will not be able to see it. Poke several holes in the cup now. The cup should not leak. Poke the pencil all the way through the cup and leave it in place as this will help hold the gel in place as you turn the cup upside down (be sure to turn the cup towards your body so that the children cannot see the gel inside.

Spend some time talking about faith and about believing in God and in his power in spite of the fact that we can't see him and in spite of the fact that it might seem impossible. We can believe that God can and will do the impossible.