Finding People Leader s Guide

Transcription

1 Leader s Guide Four missions experiences seeking out those who need Jesus Location: Amazon region Focus verse: For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost. Luke 19:10 (HCSB) Overall message: More than 100 people groups live in the Amazon region in South America. Most of these groups number less than 1,000 people. Some are hard to reach geographically; some are hard to reach spiritually. Those obstacles are being overcome by committed Christians who believe that no community, no matter how remote, should miss the opportunity to hear about Jesus. This set of missions experiences can encourage kids to actively search for opportunities to share God s love. Before you begin: This resource is a collection of experiences to plug your kids into global missions. The leader s guide includes plans for four, short missions experiences designed to last 10 to 15 minutes. Add these to existing children s programs or combine them for a longer missions focus. Through these experiences, kids will learn about other cultures and also about developing lifelong patterns of praying, giving and being personally involved in God s plan to reach all nations. Names of Christians around the world or Christian workers are often changed or withheld to protect the spread of the gospel. KOM writer: G.G. Mathis is a veteran children s Bible study, missions and VBS writer, testing her teaching ideas on boys and girls at Forest Park Baptist Church in Joplin, Missouri. When she s not working or writing, there s either a cat, a book or a cup of tea in her lap. This is a product of IMB, 3806 Monument Ave., Richmond, VA For comments or questions, contact Kids On Mission at IMB by calling (800)

2 Experience 1 Prepare From the DVD-ROM or kidsonmission.org, prepare to show the Up a river video. Download and print the Amazon River map and the focus verse. Post the verse in the room to use throughout the experiences. Write 4,000 on a sheet of construction paper. Bring one small throwaway object (paper clip, button, small pebble, mismatched earring, etc.) per child. Hide the items in your room. Introduction Call for a volunteer to face the rest of the group. The volunteer s job is to guess the length (in miles) of the Amazon River in 60 seconds or less. Hold the 4,000 sign above his head. The volunteer will call out a number; the rest of the group will respond, Higher! or Lower! to guide him to the correct answer. Show the Amazon River map and lead kids to identify the countries touched by the river or one of its tributaries (branches). Comment that no bridge completely crosses the Amazon, but that doesn t stop dedicated missionaries from traveling to the most remote regions of the Amazon basin to find people who need to hear about Jesus. Meet Kathy Show the Up a river video. Ask: What obstacles or difficulties do Kathy and her team experience? Why do you think they seek for groups of people who have never heard about Jesus? Hide and seek Show kids the focus verse and prompt them to read it aloud. Say: Jesus came to find people who need Him. That s why missionaries like Kathy keep looking for people who need Jesus, even when it s hard! Explain that you have hidden some small objects around the room and you need help finding them. continued on next page

3 Experience 1 continued from previous page Call out the name of one of the hidden objects, then say, Ready, set, seek! The first person to find the item should say Luke 19:10 aloud. Continue until all the objects are found. Kids who find more than one item should share so that everyone has an object. Pray Challenge kids to think of ways to pray for Kathy and her team that begin with the same letters as the objects they found. (Safety pin safety; eraser endurance; button that many people will believe in Jesus, etc.) Each time a volunteer offers a suggestion, pause and invite him to pray aloud. Encourage everyone to take the lost and found object home as a reminder to pray that Kathy s missionary team can find lost people and show them how Jesus can change their lives.

4 Finding Needs Experience 2 Prepare From the DVD-ROM or kidsonmission.org, prepare to show the Away from it all video. Recap Many people live along the Amazon River. Some villages are hidden deep in the jungles and are hard to find. The missionaries featured in this Kids On Mission package travel and live among people in hard-to-reach Amazon communities sharing stories about God s plan for all people. Meet the Jansens Show the Away from it all video. Lead kids to discuss daily tasks and chores that are different or more difficult for the Jansens* because of their location. (*Name changed) Call for kids to indicate with their hands, on a scale of 1-10, how well they think they could adapt to these everyday family activities (1 No way! 10 No problem!): Living without a phone Washing dishes by hand Washing clothes by hand Cooking food from scratch Going to town only once a month Building your own house by hand Renting a ride to town on a flatbed truck Small numbers, big difference Tell kids that the Jansens have lived in their Amazon community since 2012; so far, six people have chosen to follow Jesus and be baptized. The family plays games with a group of kids each week. The games lead into a story time where boys and girls can, for the first time, hear Bible stories about God s plan for all people. Show the focus verse, then discuss this question: Why have the Jansens chosen to live (what we would consider) a hard life to help such a small number of people? Guide kids to conclude that no person and no community should be excluded from the opportunity to know about God s love. Pray Invite kids to suggest ways they could pray for the Jansens and the people they serve. Call for volunteers to pray aloud.

5 Experience 3 Prepare Download and print the Jansen family photos and one Gearing up to give activity page per child. Provide one mailing envelope per child. Recap Many people live along the Amazon River. Some villages are hidden deep in the jungles and are hard to find. The missionaries featured in this Kids On Mission package travel and live among people in hard-to-reach Amazon communities sharing stories about God s plan for all people. Bumper to bumper Guide kids to form a circle with their chairs. Remove one chair. Assign everyone one of these vehicle parts: accelerator, radiator, spark plug, tires. Choose a volunteer to stand in the center of the circle and call out one vehicle part. Kids assigned that item must switch seats while the volunteer attempts to capture one of the unoccupied chairs. The player left without a chair will call out a new car part. At any time, the player in the center may say, bumper to bumper! When he does, everyone must switch seats. Gearing up to give Show the Jansen family photos and ask for volunteers to read the captions and review facts about their work in the Amazon region. Comment that before they were provided with their own truck, the Jansens rented rides to town, three hours away, on the back of a flatbed truck. Remind kids that when they give to missions they help provide missionaries with things they need to do their jobs like four-wheel drive vehicles. Give everyone a copy of Gearing up to give and a plain envelope. Explain that kids can use it to track their progress as they set aside funds for a mission offering. continued on next page

6 Experience 3 continued from previous page Help kids complete the giving goal blanks on the activity page. Explain that each time they place money in the envelopes, they can color or mark one space on the giving pathway. Offer to help collect and combine kids offerings on a specific date. Pray Invite a volunteer to ask God to help keep missionaries vehicles in good repair so they can do their jobs well and safely. Challenge kids to pray the same prayer each time they see a truck or four-wheel drive vehicle this week.

7 Experience 4 Prepare From the DVD-ROM or kidsonmission.org, prepare to show the Up a river video if you have not done so. Provide drawing paper and markers or crayons. Recap Many people live along the Amazon River. Some villages are hidden deep in the jungles and are hard to find. The missionaries featured in this Kids On Mission package travel and live among people in hard-to-reach Amazon communities sharing stories about God s plan for all people. Storytellers Show or replay the Up a river video. Explain that both Kathy and the Jansens tell Bible stories, starting from creation and progressing forward, to show people how God has always loved and cared for people. Invite kids to identify stories from the Bible they think everyone should know. Common answers will probably be Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark or Jesus story. Share this anecdote from Kathy in your own words: Kathy was helping some friends learn Bible stories so they could tell their relatives. The men planned to visit their villages in December and wanted to tell the story of Jesus birth. As Kathy told them the story, she was met with blank stares. Kathy asked God for help and God gave her the idea to use pictures. She got a picture storybook about Jesus birth and flipped through the pages slowly, telling the same story again, and it was [like] blinders came off their eyes. Kathy thought about making a story set with pictures of events from Creation through Jesus resurrection. By then it was around September, so they were pushed for time. She and her team rushed to create a set of 36 pictures along with each basic story written on the back of each picture, to help people learn the stories. Picture this! Lead kids to find partners. Give everyone a sheet of paper. Direct everyone to draw one random squiggle or shape somewhere on the paper. continued on next page

8 Experience 4 continued from previous page Direct kids to swap papers with their partners and draw a picture of a Bible story that incorporates the squiggle or shape. Invite kids to share their finished artwork. Suggest that playing the squiggle picture game with friends who don t know the Bible well could provide kids with opportunities to tell stories about God s love and care. Pray Ask God to help missionaries like Kathy and the Jansens tell Bible stories with so much excitement that people are eager to hear more!

9 Going Further More ideas using this theme Download and print the parent letter. Give to parents so they can continue investigating this theme as a family. The Jansen family s elder daughters were inducted as princesses in their Amazon community. This story explains how and why: Encourage your kids to do some research on interesting facts about the Amazon. They might be particularly interested in things like mega-fishes that swim in the river and bite strength of pirahnas! Consider the real dangers that missionaries traveling in a canoe might face. Older kids may enjoy investigating information about unreached people groups in the Americas using americanpeoples.imb.org. Always encourage them to share what they learn with the group. Don t forget to visit kidsonmission.org for more activities and KOM experiences you might have missed. Also, like us on Facebook and see how other churches are using KOM.