Encourage

Sept. 11th Objective: To be encouraged in the way God made them; to have faith that encourages others and glorifies God, especially in light of 9/11. Welcome, prayer, and ceremony (Coach) Welcome the kids with a big Goooood Morning and welcome to KidZone!! Please acknowledge birthdays for September and any first-time visitors by giving visitors a treat from the basket. Encourage the kids to bring their friends to KidZone! Power Word Review (Leader) Recall the POWER WORD for August : Acts 2:38, NIV. Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. . Give out Bonus Bucks for the first 2-3 who can say it perfectly, without help. Share the new POWER WORD with the kids Obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you- they are your life Deut. 32:46 (It is in preparation for the new trimester teachings- The 10 Commandments). Ask: (Yellow star) What does it mean to obey? To listen and follow rules (Green arrow/blue targets) What is the law? The Bible! What does it mean that the words in the law, or the bible are not just idle words? They are not meaningless. They are words we need to live by and OBEY! (Yellow star) What do we need to follow in our lives? The Bible When we worship with Mr. Bart, who are we worshipping? God Lets show God just how much we love him by singing out praises to him now!! We can thank him for everything he gives us by worshipping him in song. Worship with Bart Recap (Leader) (Green Arrows/blue targets) What book were we studying this summer? Acts (Yellow star) What is the Holy Spirit and what does it give us? The Holy Spirit is the gift God gave us after he ascended into heaven to be with us and live within us. The Holy Spirit gives us POWER! Turn to the person next to you and share one story you learned about and what it taught you. Leaders, monitor conversations and facilitate as necessary, especially Yellow Stars. Encouragement Game (Leader) We are going to play a game now. Lets see who can listen and obey the rules!

Have the children sit in a circle on the floor. Use an object to designate which kid has a turn to speak like a ball or robot. Model the game by sitting in the circle with the children. Have them complete this sentence and then pass the object to the child they were talking about You are really good at ________________( and I can imagine God using your to _____________.) The child who receives the object will go next. Instruct them to not repeat until everyone has had a turn. It creates a little surprise to see who they are talking about. You may need to redirect the comments if they become redundant or negative. Example: You are really good with babies and I can imagine God using you to be a good Mom. Then hand the object to Sara. Example: You are really good at talking and I can imagine God using you to be a teacher.

Look for teaching opportunities. Play the game along with the kids. You might get encouraged yourself!

Lesson (Coach) (Have the bible open and near you, if not in front of you) It was nice encouraging each other during that game, wasnt it? The word encouragement means the act of giving hope or support to someone and it makes people feel better! Who gives us all the hope we need? God Lets learn about Paul who was an encouragement to others. Paul was a man who wanted to tell EVERYONE about God. He had the Holy Spirit living inside of him. Because of this, he was a prisoner and was on his way to Rome. He boarded a ship. (Show ship) It was fall when Paul was sailing to Rome (show fall trees). Sailing at this time of the year could be dangerous. The winds blowing on the sea were very strong. The wind blew the waves so high that they looked like mountains all around the ship. (Have students make waves and make wind sounds) It was blowing so hard that the captain could not turn the ship back. They were caught in the middle of a terrible storm. The waves came crashing down onto the ship. (Show picture of storm) The sailors had to work hard to keep the ship from filling completely with water. (Have students act like they are filling buckets and throwing the water overboard) The ship was being tossed up and down (sway back and forth). It had been dark for many days. No one could see the sun during the day nor stars at night. The winds were still raging against the ship. Everyone was sure they were going to die at sea. It was a very scary sailing trip! (Show picture of scared faces) Acts 27:21-26 Paul was in a very dangerous situation along with all the other passengers on the ship. As humans, it would have been easy to focus on ourselves because we were in danger- We might be scared. Maybe wed want to run away. But, the Holy Spirit helped Paul

to have courage in this terrible, life threatening storm and the ability to encourage others. Listen to this! Paul stood up in front of all the men on the ship. He had to speak in a loud voice to talk over the noise of the storm. He said (in a loud, manly voice), I want to encourage you because last night God sent an angel who stood beside me and said, Dont be afraid Paul(Show picture of man with angel) God will save all those who are sailing with you. So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God! Paul believed God and encouraged the passengers to be brave because God said that he was going to save everyone! (Yellow Stars) What happened to Paul? He was caught in a terrible storm (Green Arrows) How did all the sailors in the ship feel during the storm? They were scared for their lives (Blue Arrows) How did the Holy Spirit help Paul? The Holy Spirit helped Paul to encourage others (Everyone) What did Paul say? That God sent an angel to him who said to not be afraid because everyone was going to live.

Paul could have been too afraid to do anything. But he believed in what God said and was an encouragement to others and made them feel better! Can we be like that? Can we make people feel better? Lets talk more about that in our circle groups. Dismiss each group separately, naming their leader.

Circle groups Yellow stars and green arrows: Show pictures of people looking sad, mad, confused. Everyone needs encouragement, even if they may not be mad or sad. We may see someone who looks as if they need to hear encouraging words or we may just want to make someone feel good about how God made them! There are so many ways in which we can encourage others. There are so many people who are alone or hurting. We are told in the Bible to encourage one another. What could you say or do for some of these people? Have children share. Then, pass out worksheet for children to complete. Have children draw a picture of something they could do or say. In a circle, share how they would encourage people who are sad, mad, or just anyone who might want to hear something nice. Close in prayer, giving the kids a chance to ask God to help them encourage someone today.

Blue Targets: Today is a special day. Does anyone know why? Today we honor people who lost their lives when the World Trade Center in NYC collapsed- Its called 9/11. What have you learned about that? (Invite children to share)

There are families who are discouraged and going through hard times because they might feel sad or mad that someone close to them may have passed away. There are those that helped that day- like firefighters and police officers. Lets think of ways we can encourage them since God encourages us! It makes people feel better to know someones thinking of them, whether they are grieving or whether they were serving. At this time, give out the cards. Have them each come up with a way to encourage someone they know who might be suffering from a loss or someone they know who would just like to hear something nice (maybe someone who serves or uses their time to help others). Have them write an acrostic poem using that persons name (example: to write vertically: M= Magnificent, A= athletic, T= trustworthy, T= totally cool) End by giving the children the opportunity to pray that God would help them to encourage someone this week, along with honoring 9/11.