Kindergarten-2nd. April 16-17, BRAVE Journey / Elijah. 1 Kings 17-2 Kings 2; Psalm 56:3. We all need to be brave.

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1 Kindergarten-2nd April 16-17, 2016 BRAVE Journey / Elijah 1 Kings 17-2 Kings 2; Psalm 56:3 We all need to be brave. Connect Time (15 minutes): Five minutes after the service begins, split kids into groups and begin their activity. Large Group (30 minutes): Begin 20 minutes after the service starts. Model what it looks like to be engaged in large group. Sometimes when a kid seems disruptive or disengaged, they might just need a positive word of encouragement from you! Try to find one thing they do well, and talk to them about it! Small Group (15 minutes): Keep kids in small groups until parents arrive. If you all have extra time at the end, you can review the video and songs together. As kids leave, ask them about the picture they made, and what they mean! Today we re digging into the life of Elijah! He s an amazing example of someone who followed and obeyed God, even when he faced hard things.

2 GOAL: Connect Time is all about engaging kids in an activity that allows them to connect with each other right away while simultaneously piquing their curiosity for Large Group and preparing their minds for what they re going to hear. OPPOSITE SIMON SAYS *Play as a whole group. Tell kids we re going to play Simon Says. (Give them a command, and if you say Simon Says first, they have to obey.) But there s one more special rule: Whenever you give a command, they have to do the OPPOSITE of what you ask! If they forget to do the opposite, they have to sit down! Example: Simon Says take 1 step forward. What s the opposite of forward? (Help kids figure out that they should take three steps back!) Here are some commands you can give: o Take 1 step forward o Take 5 steps backward o Wave your left arm o Act happy o Put your right arm in the air o Reach as high as you can o Sit down o Reach as low as you can o Hop forward 2 times o Stand up o Hop backward 3 times o Act sad TALK ABOUT IT Was it easy or hard to do the opposite of everything the leader said? What s the hardest thing you ve had to do lately? Before you go to Large Group, you can ask kids how their week went. You can also remind kids of the expectations for Large Group behavior: (1) be kind, (2) listen when somebody speaks, and (3) follow the leader s instructions.

3 Goal: Kids will (1) understand how Elijah was brave (2) identify how God can help us be brave even when it s hard. Why? Kids deal with struggles just like grown ups, and it s important to identify what those struggles are, and how we can rely on God to overcome them. Tip: Prepare for Small Group by thinking of a specific storm you re dealing with, and how you rely on God to help you be brave through it. REVIEW THE STORY *Show picture cards as you ask the following questions. 1. (Picture of Elijah.) a. What special job did Elijah have? (He was a prophet; he heard from God and told others about it.) 2. (Picture of Ahab and Jezebel talking.) a. What did King Ahab and Queen Jezebel do to disobey God? (They worshipped a false idol, Baal; they tried to get others to worship Baal.) b. How did Elijah have to be brave with them? (He had to tell them things that he knew would make them mad.) 3. (Picture of wilderness.) a. Why did God tell Elijah to run to the wilderness? (God was keeping him away from Ahab and Jezebel.) b. How did Elijah have to be brave in the wilderness? (He had to trust God to give him what he needed.) 4. (Picture of altars.) a. What happened when Elijah and King Ahab both built altars on the mountain? (God burned up Elijah s alter and everything around it, while Ahab s alter did nothing.) b. How did Elijah have to be brave during the contest? (He had to trust God would bring fire.) 5. (Picture of Elijah talking to God.) a. Why did Elijah run away? (Ahab and Jezebel wanted to kill him.) b. How did God comfort Elijah? (He sent an angel to cook him bread and he spoke to him in a gentle whisper.) (Continue on the following page)

4 2 MAKE IT PERSONAL Tell kids we re going to use our imaginations to do a little acting! Have kids stand up and do some stretches to start out. Next, tell kids to start walking slowly around your small group space (Not around the whole room, just in the area you re small group is located.) Now have kids act out some silly things to start off with: o Act like you re walking on top of sticky honey (Let kids respond.) o Act like you re ice-skating. Do some tricks! (Let kids respond.) o Act like you re walking across a rickety old bridge. Okay, now part of the bridge has broken, and it s swinging back and forth! (Let kids respond.) Stop and have kids do some more stretch. Then move onto some more realistic scenarios: o Act like you re asleep, and you re having a nightmare. (Let kids respond.) o Act like you ve just hurt yourself, and now you can t get up. (Let kids respond.) o Act like you have to go to the bathroom really bad, but you re in public, and you can t go yet! (Let kids respond.) o ASK KIDS: What s the hardest thing you ll have to face this week? Share and act them out. MEMORIZE THE VERSE We all face hard things, so let s remember our verse. No matter what, we can trust God! o But when (Tap your wrist.) o I am afraid (Cover your eyes and act scared.) o I will put my trust (Point to your head, then bring the finger downward, and turn your hand into a fist, enclosing it in your other hand. Here s a link of the motion: o In you (Point your finger up, bringing your whole arm up.) Extra Time? Give kids a coloring page. After that, have kids put the Small Group picture cards in order of how they happen in the story. Give kids hints at first, and then let them try to arrange the story on their own!

5 1 In the beginning of the lesson, there s a prompt for you to share a personal example of something that was difficult for you to get through. Think ahead of time about what you ll share, and make sure it s a kid-friendly example. You can find today s video on crossroadskidsclub.net/weekend. It s called God s Story / Elijah. *Today s script might run a little longer than normal! *Click to play intro music WELCOME AND INTRO Welcome everybody! I m so glad you came to Kids Club today. You did really well at Simon Says! Raise your hand if you thought it was hard? (Let kids respond.) Why was it hard? (Let kids respond.) Yep, because you had to think about the opposite of what the leader was saying! It got kind of confusing! That game was pretty silly, but in real life, we often have to face things that confusing or hard. We re going to watch a clip from the movie Inside Out; in it, a girl just moved really away to a new place, and she s about to start her first day of school. Video: Inside Out / Riley s First Day of School So what was hard for Riley in that video? (Let a few kids respond.) Yep, she missed her old home, and was nervous about being in a new place. She didn t know anybody. But was still pretty brave, and got up in front of her whole class to talk! Now I want to hear from you what are some of the hardest things you ve ever had to do? (Let several kids respond.) Those sound pretty difficult. Thanks for sharing. Sometimes we have to do hard things that take a lot of energy and time. And sometimes, things don t always work out like we want them to. (Share a personal example of a difficult thing you did, or a hard period of time you went through.) When those things happen, we have to be BRAVE. INTRO: ELIJAH Remember how we re talking about BRAVE men and women in the Bible? Well, today we re going to talk about someone who went though a LOT of tough times. His name was Elijah. Can you say, Elijah? (Let kids respond.) He was really close to God and part of God s special

6 family. Elijah was also a prophet. (Click to show image of Elijah.) A prophet is someone who hears from God, and then tells others what God said! Pretty cool, right? The sad thing is, not everyone wanted to hear from God. In Elijah s time, there was a guy named King Ahab ruling over God s family, along with his wife, Queen Jezebel. Those names are kind of funny; let s say them out loud. (Lead kids in repeating Ahab and Jezebel.) Ahab and Jezebel did not love God. They actually worshipped a false god called Baal, and Ahab even tried to get everyone else to worship Baal too! Was Baal a real God? (Let kids respond.) No way! How do you think Elijah felt, knowing that the king and queen were leading everyone away from God? (Let kids respond.) I m sure he felt sad, or discouraged, or maybe frustrated. Even though Elijah was doing everything God told him to do, he was facing some really hard things. Let s watch a video and see what happened to Elijah. As you watch, try to figure out how Elijah had to be brave. Video: God s Story / Elijah So what are some ways that Elijah had to be brave? (Let several kids respond. Summarize what they say. It may be something like this): Yep, Ahab was mad at him for saying that there would be no rain, so Elijah ran away to the wilderness and let God provide him everything he needed, even though he didn t know how God would do it! How about when Ahab wanted to show who s God was more powerful? Elijah had to trust that God would show his power. And what about after Jezebel said she would kill Elijah? He ran away but then he let God comfort him. Do you think that we ll face hard things, even when we follow God? (Let kids respond.) Yep, you re right. Following God means that we have to be really brave, and do things that seem scary. Sometimes it s easy, and sometimes it s hard! The thing is, God is with us even during those hard things, just like he was with Elijah. ELIJAH RELIES ON GOD Let s go back to when Elijah told Ahab the bad news about how there would be no more rain. How did King Ahab feel about that? (Let kids respond.) Yep, he was furious. He was so furious, that he wanted to kill prophets like Elijah, so God told Elijah to go into the wilderness. That s how God protected Elijah, and kept him safe. But God still had big plans for him, so Elijah went back to King Ahab. It was probably really scary for Elijah to do that, but he was able to be brave because he trusted that God would take care of him. (Click to show image of two altars; one is unlit, the other is burning.) Elijah and Ahab went up on Mt. Carmel, and set up two altars. Back then, people built altars as a way to worship God, and show him how much you love him. Ahab made an altar to Baal, the false god, and

7 Elijah made an altar to the real God. What happened when Ahab asked Baal to burn up his altar? (Let kids respond.) Absolutely nothing! There wasn t even a spark! And what happened to Elijah s altar? (Let kids respond.) God burned up the whole thing and everything around it, even though it was wet. It was clear whose God was real! Now, surely, King Ahab and Queen Jezebel would worship God, right?! (Let kids respond.) No! They didn t! They actually wanted to kill Elijah. ELIJAH NEEDS GOD TO BE BRAVE/RESPONSE TIME Ahab and Jezebel wanted Elijah dead, because Elijah had shown that their God wasn t the real God. When they got angry, Elijah was upset and wanted to stop doing hard things. But God actually sent an angel to bake Elijah some bread, which is pretty nice right? Then Elijah got to SEE God! Let s find out what happened. Slide: 1 Kings 19: Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. Then a great and terrible wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. God wanted to speak to Elijah, so showed up on Mt. Horeb to talk to him there in a pretty unique way. There was a huge wind (Click to play wind loop.) Then there was a massive earthquake. (Click to play earthquake loop.) Then a raging fire! (Click to play fire loop.) Did God choose to speak through those big, exciting things? (Let kids respond.) No, he spoke in a gentle whisper. (Lower your voice and whisper the next part into the microphone.) Sometimes we hope that God will do something big or exciting to show us that he s here, but you know what? He might just want to talk to us in a soft, gentle whisper. He might just want to tell us how much he loves us, and that we can trust him when we re afraid. Everybody turn to a friend, and whisper really quietly, God loves you. (Let kids respond.) Good job everybody! TRUSTING GOD Something that Elijah had to do all throughout his life, no matter what tough things were happening, was be brave and trust in God. He had to trust that God would give him food to eat and a place to stay in the wilderness. He had to trust that God would protect him from people who wanted to harm him. We have to do the same thing when we face hard things. Let s look at a special verse, and do some motions with it. Slide: Psalm 56:3 But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. But when (Tap your wrist.) I am afraid (Cover your eyes and act scared.) I will put my trust (Point to your head, then bring the finger downward, and turn your hand into a fist, enclosing it in your other hand. Here s a link of the motion:

8 In you (Point your finger up, bringing your whole arm up.) We will all feel scared sometimes. That happens in life. But no matter how afraid we are, we can be brave and trust in God. PRAY Dear God, please help us to trust in you when we face hard things. Help us to be brave. We love you so much. Amen! WORSHIP Let s put our trust in God by worshipping him and telling him out loud what he means to us. This first song is all about how God comes to us when we need him most, no matter what or when! Music Video: Be Strong Take Courage Music Video: Dance Laugh Love *Dismiss kids to small groups

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10 Opposite Simon Says No supplies needed Per kid: coloring page Per group: markers, Bible, One set of 5 images on cardstock: Elijah, Ahab and Jezebel, wilderness, altars, Elijah under the tree Bible 7. Song slide: for when kids enter the room (All that You Need instrumental; mp3 only; can be downloaded on website) 8. Video: Inside Out / Riley s First Day of School (1:35-2:32; 9. Image: Elijah 10. Video: God s Story / Elijah (Link not yet available.) 11. Image: Two altars 12. Slide: 1 Kings 19:11-12 Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. Then a great and terrible wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 1. Loop: Wind (0:00-0:10 / a. Overlay with Wind image 2. Loop: Earthquake (0:10-0:20 / a. Overlay with earthquake image 3. Loop: Fire (0:00-0:10 / a. Overlay with fire image 4. Slide: Psalm 56:3 But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. 5. Music Video: Be Strong Take Courage ( 6. Music Video: Dance Laugh Love ( Tell me about Elijah How did Elijah have to trust God?