Sunday School, November 7

Pre-K and K:

 God Keeps His People Safe

God lovingly protects his people from their enemies. (Exodus 17:8-16). 

"Surely God is my help."  Psalm 54:4a

 1st and 2nd Grade:

God is Love

God was with Daniel and his friends when they lived in Babylon, and he showed his love by giving them the strength and wisdom they needed. 

 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."  John 10:11

 

3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade: 

This Sunday in Sunday School was a review of all the previous weeks. Next week we will begin preparations for the Christmas pageant, so this was our last regular lesson of the semester.

To review, we played “Kings and Prophets,” a game which we created based on Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders. We laid out the “board” in the classroom, which meant that each child was a player in the game.

We made cards that gave instructions to the player based on five kings and prophets: Jonah, Elijah, Jeremiah, and King David and King Saul. Though we tried not to oversimplify, we assigned moves on the board based on those characters.

We explained that the beginning of the board symbolized trusting in ourselves, while the end, which was a banquet table with goodies, symbolized trusting in God. As the cards demonstrate, different kings and prophets of the Bible trusted God, some in small ways, some in large ways, and some not at all.

As they moved along the board, they encountered three other types of spaces on the board. A mercy spot gave the student a mercy card which allowed them to cancel out the punishment of any card that did not help them advance. A sin spot made them lose a turn. Like chutes and ladders, the grace spots were ladders that only went up, representing God’s one-way love.

Overall, we hoped the game reviewed the basics of the Bible stories as well as demonstrate some of the larger concepts of the Bible, such as grace, mercy and sin.

Ultimately, it is Jesus and his work on the cross that helps us go from trusting in ourselves to truly trusting in God.  

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6

Sunday School October 31

Pre-K and K:
 God Provides Water
Just as God provided water for the Israelites long ago, he kindly supplies our needs today. (Exodus 17). 

"The Lord watches over you."  Psalm 121:5a  
 
1st to 5th Grade: 

To begin Sunday School, we read The Runaway Bunny. We were amazed at the children’s level of attention and how much of the message of that book they gleaned, especially as we applied the lesson of Jonah to that book. 

We talked about the story of Jonah and then asked them to draw the connection between the two stories. Jonah, like The Runaway Bunny, ran away from God and what God called him to do. And in the same way that the bunny’s mother promises always to come after the bunny, God came after Jonah. This is a picture of grace: God first sent a storm that rocked the ship he was sailing on. When Jonah realized the storm was related to his disobedience, he had the sailors throw him overboard. Another grace in this story is that the Scripture tells us that those sailors believed in the true God—without Jonah’s disobedience and admission of sin, the sailors would never have known and believed in the true God. 

Secondly, God sent a whale to swallow up Jonah and then spit him out on the beach after 3 days. In this pit Jonah was able to see his disobedience clearly and prayed, “The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head…yet you brought my life up from the Pit, O Lord my God.” (Jonah 2:5-6). Jonah finally obeyed and went to Ninevah to preach to the people there.

In the same way that Jonah was imprisoned by his sin, so many people are literally and metaphorically imprisoned. We reached out to some women that are in prison from things they have done by creating drawings with messages of grace to send with a parishioner attending a weekend retreat for these women. The message of Jonah is one of consequence for sin, but ultimately, grace from God for our disobedience and applies to all of us who are trapped by the bondage of sin.

 

“As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple… Deliverance belongs to the Lord!” (Jonah 2:7, 10)

Pre-K and K:
 God Provides Food
God cared for the Israelites by giving them food. God still provides for his children's needs (Exodus 16).

 

"Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today."  Exodus 14:13b  

1st to 5th Grade:
This week we spent another week talking about Elijah. Because this story is full of drama, we decided to act it out and perform it for our parents. The show was called “True or False?”: you’ll see why.

This time, God called Elijah to go speak to King Ahab. It was a scary thing for Elijah to do—because Elijah had been the one to predict the drought, Ahab had been trying to kill Elijah for three years!

God gave Elijah the courage to speak to Ahab and suggest a means of determining who was the real God—God, the God of Israel, or Baal, who most people worshipped. They would both build altars to their respective god and whichever God sent fire to the offering was the true God. 

Elijah called the 450 prophets of Baal and the people to Mt. Carmel. The prophets of Baal built an offering to Baal and then pleaded with him to send down fire. But nothing happened. 

Elijah told them to call louder, for Baal might be asleep or on a trip. Still, nothing happened. 

Finally, it was Elijah’s turn. He built an altar with wood and stones and dug a trench all around the altar. He asked four servants to pour jugs of water, drenching the altar. Three times he commanded the servants to pour out the water, which soaked the altar and filled the trench.

Then Elijah prayed.

Immediately, God sent down fire, which burned up the soaked wood, stones and even the water in the trench. The people knew that God was the true God.

Pre-K and K:
God Leads His People

God saved the Israelites at the Red Sea, and they praised God for who he is and what he did for them. (Exodus 13-15)

 

"Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today."  Exodus 14:13b

1st to 5th Grade:
This week in Sunday school we emphasized the true meaning of grace through a fun example. Since we have been working on memorizing Psalm 23, Christie brought Spud-Nuts and told the class very seriously that whoever could recite Psalm 23 in its entirety got a Spud-Nut. Of course, no one could--we haven't even learned it all yet! But Mary Boyce learned in back in her Sunday school years and offered to get it a try. After she said it and earned the Spud-Nuts, she decided to give them away to the class and each person there got a Spud-Nut. This example was meant to emphasize that grace is all about getting the reward even though--and especially because--we didn't earn it. The kids got the point!

Onto the lesson: Elijah

Elijah prophesied a drought in Israel. He escaped to the desert where God provided for him food brought by a raven and water from a stream. 

When the stream dried up, God told Elijah to go to a widow’s home, where he once again provided enough oil and wheat for the widow, her son, and Elijah to eat. When the son became gravely ill, God used Elijah to heal the son. Through that experience, the widow was able to see that God had truly called Elijah and that he was a true prophet of God. 

God showed Elijah that even when he walked through the valley, God was with him, taking care of him every step of the way.

Psalm 23:4

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou are with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Sunday School, October 10th

Pre-K and K:

God Saves His People

God's people were saved from death by putting lamb's blood on their doorframes. (Exodus 11-12).

"This is what the Lord says: 'Let my people go, so that they may worship me.'"  Exodus 8:1b

1st to 5th Grade: 
"He guides me in paths of righteousness."

All semester we have been emphasizing the notion that it is God who initiates any good work that we may do. Our memory verse for this week indicates just that. 

God is the one who guides us to "paths of righteousness," places where we are obedient to him and trust his word.

The 1^st and 2^nd graders studied Joash, who was raised by a Godly mentor to be a great king. He repaired the temple and worshipped God as long as his mentor, Jehoiada, was alive. But, when Jehoiada died, Joash turned away from God. In mercy, God sent the prophet Zechariah, but Joash did not listen. In spite of Joash’s rebellion, God used him to preserve the family line leading to Jesus.  

The 3^rd to 5^th graders talked about Solomon and were introduced to the idea of grace as “unmerited favor.” Solomon was the product of David and Bathsheba’s sin but ultimately, because of God’s work in him, asked for wisdom. Known as the wisest king, he made many great decisions. Still, he was human and erred as well. Thus, we can recognize that any greatness in him was a result of God’s work—His grace working in Solomon. 

Both Solomon and Joash show us that the people of the Bible were humans, not heroes. They made mistakes and sometimes did not even repent! But God is the true hero in that He is always faithful to his covenants and chooses to work through even us, who are also human.

Psalm 23:3
He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

  

He restores my soul, Sunday School Oct. 3

1st to 5th Grade: 

This week in 3rd to 5th grade, we took a break from our regular lessons in the 3^rd-5^th grade class to do a project emphasizing the idea of restoration.

In our classroom, we had many prayer books that had broken bindings and were just generally in bad shape. Instead of throwing them out though, we gave one to each child and allowed them to re-create it using colorful duct tape and fancy contact paper. 

It was so interesting to see how each child took the same materials and made it into something different. And how each book, with the addition of those materials, became stronger and more usable! 

Although perhaps the spiritual lesson was not explicit, the idea is that God does the same with us—takes our broken parts and restores them, just as Psalm 23 says, “He restores my soul.”

We loved seeing the children be so energetic about the project and the re-creation of those prayer books. When they were done, we had them familiarize themselves with the contents by searching for Psalms 23 and 51 as we continue to work on memorizing Psalm 23.

Pre-K and K:
God Shows His Power

God showed his mighty power by sending the plagues to Egypt. He protected his people and kept them safe from the plagues. He was getting ready to keep his promise and lead his people out of Egypt. (Exodus 7-10).  
God says, "Let My People Go!" 
 

Sunday School Recap, September 26th

1st to 5th Grade: 

What do we do when we mess up?

In 2 Samuel 10-11, David took what wasn’t his and when he thought he was going to be caught, he covered it up. As he worked to cover his tracks, David still didn’t recognize that he had sinned.

God, in his grace, sent Nathan to reveal to David what he had done. David was able to see his sin.

Out of his despair upon realizing what he had done, David wrote Psalm 51 asking God for forgiveness.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  (verses 1 and 2)

Pre-K and K:

God Sends Moses

Even though cruel Pharaoh said he would not let Israel go, God promised to use his mighty power to free his people. (Exodus 4-6). 

"This is what the Lord says: 'Let my people go, so that they may worship me.'"  Exodus 8:1b