MISSIONS#5 FAMOUS MISSIONARIES K/1 ST GRADE BRAZIL

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1 MISSIONS#5 FAMOUS MISSIONARIES K/1 ST GRADE MAIN POINT BRAZIL God creates everyone different because He values creativity and variety. The children will learn about Edna Harms, a missionary to Brazil, who despite her fears, loved people who were different from her, and with God s help, did some wonderful things for God. PASSAGE: 2 TIMOTHY 2:2 Key Verse: You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others. PRE-CLASS CHECKLIST Pray with your team Activity Stations Aluminum can, 1/child; squares of heavy aluminum foil, 1/child Rubber bands, 1/child; beans Tan construction paper, ½ sheet/child Markers/gel pens; tape CD player/brazilian music CD Date stamp/stamp pad Passports (made by the kids who were there last missions lesson) Pre-made passports (for those children who don t have one) Brazil flag sticker, 1/child; culture stickers, 2/child Picture book of Brazil* Ethnic snack* Lesson Inflatable globe/world map Celebration book or copy about Carnival Laminated picture of Carnival Object Lesson #1 Current Giving Campaign info Prayer Prayer balls, 3/classroom Game ¼ sheets of different colors of construction paper; 2 safety pins *Missions teacher to bring

2 LESSON PLAN SET UP INCORPORATION MIN INTRODUCTION/ INSTRUCTIONS LESSON LG GROUP Take the pictures of the adopted missionary child and the sponsored children from the poly envelopes in the bottom drawer of your carts. Put them on the white board to remind everyone to pray for them during small group. PLEASE REMEMBER to put them back in the poly folder at the end of class. Have Brazilian music playing as children arrive. Activity Stations: Craft Brazilian Shaker Instructions: Cover the length of the can with a piece of construction paper and glue. Decorate the shaker with markers and glitter. Place a small amount of beans in the can, then cover the open end with aluminum foil; secure the foil with a rubber band. Passport Station Instructions: Have each child pick up their passport. New children will need to get a passport and write their name in it and draw their own self-portrait. Give each child a Brazilian flag and two cultural stickers to place on the Brazil page (page 9) of the passport. Stamp the page with today s date. The children can look through the library books and enjoy an ethnic snack at this station. Let s pray and we ll get started. Well, it s missions week again! Do you have your passports? Do you remember why we each have our passport? Whenever anyone travels to another country, they need a passport to prove what country they have come from. This year for missions, we are pretending to travel around the world and visit other countries. Today we are visiting Brazil. Did all of you get your passports completed? Did you get all the stickers on the page about Brazil? Besides learning some about Brazil and its people, we will also hear from a missionary who served in Brazil. Her name is Edna Harms. She will come and visit us later when we combine with the <<Kindergarten and/or 1 st grade>> class. To start, let s find out where Brazil is and how we would travel there by plane. (Show the class on the inflatable globe or world map.) It takes about 12 hours to travel to Brazil. (Explain what 12 hours is, so they understand.) I would like to teach you a little about the culture of the Brazilian people. Do you know what the word culture means? Every group of people has their own culture. It includes what they believe, how they dress, what they eat, how they speak (their language). Sometimes when we see someone who dresses different or speaks a different language, we might be a little scared of them or think they are weird. Since they don t look like us or our friends, we don t understand them and might think they re odd. Imagine what it would be like if there was only one kind of flower for example, yellow roses; there were no other kinds and/or colors of flowers. Or what if everyone had brown hair? Imagine your mom, dad, brother, sister everyone had the same color of brown hair. That would get kind of boring, wouldn t it? That s what God thinks, too. He enjoys being creative. We re all thankful for the different flowers with their shapes, colors and smells. God also enjoys making each of us special in a different way. It s the same with people of other countries. God values and loves them just as much as He loves us. He put thought and time into creating them to look just the way they do. And He wants us to accept them to and share Christ s love with them. So the next time you see someone who has a different color of skin from you or who maybe has their head covered and a lot of their face, too remember, they are like a different kind and color

3 of flower. They are cool and special because they don t look like us. There s no reason to be afraid of them or think they re weird. It s God s creativity that made them different from us and that s a really cool thing. Today we are going to learn a little about Brazil s culture. Did all of you make shakers? Brazilians have a holiday they celebrate every year before Easter. It is their biggest and most exciting holiday. It is called CARNIVAL. This is a gigantic celebration with costumes, parades, flashy dancers, all-night parties, nonstop music, floats, bands, and much more. (Share information from the Celebrations book or the laminated copy on Carnival with the children.) Let s see if we notice some other differences and similarities as we look through a book about Brazil. (Briefly go through the provided book on Brazil with the children, pointing out cool differences about the Brazilian culture. Make sure to mention the similarities.) As I mentioned, God loves and values the Brazilian people just as much as He does each of you. He wants them to learn about Christ s death on the cross for their sins and He also wants them to learn how to pray, read their Bibles and make good choices. Most importantly God wants them to realize how His love for them can change their life. In a couple minutes it will be time to combine with the other class. Missionary Edna Harms will be visiting with us. She will share how God used her to help the Brazilian people learn about Jesus so they could have a relationship with Him. There will be no music today. LEARNING ACTIVITY #1 LG GROUP LEARNING ACTIVITY #2 SM GROUPS FAMOUS MISSIONARY Edna Harms OBJECT LESSON #1 Sponsorship Program Before small groups, I want to let you know about our current giving campaign! (Show them the flyer and info sheet.) How many of you felt really good when you did special things to make money to give cool Christmas presents? It s amazing how good it feels when we do things for others. Do you know why? It s the way God created us. What do the things we hear and see on TV tell us will make us happy? (Let students answer.) But who really knows what will make us happy? God will because he created us a certain way. Remember this and consider giving to these kids in Cambodia. Discussion Summarize some of the things Edna has done in her lifetime. Why was she able to do these things? (Wait for some answers from the children.) Whose idea was it for her to do these things? Was it hers? Was it God s? Edna prayed and listened to what God wanted her to do. There was times when she was afraid, but she trusted God. Can you tell about a time when you were afraid? How about a time you were afraid, but trusted your parents and did something that was really scary? That s what Edna did. She had to be scared to <give an example or two from the presentations>>, but she trusted in God, like you trust in your parents. She did great things. Do you know why she was able to trust God? He was her friend. She had prayed and talked to Him many, many times and saw how He loved her for a long time. How about you? God has great things He wants each of you to do, great things like Edna did. But first we need to trust Him. We need to have Him as our friend. How can we ask Jesus to be our friend? (Allow children to share the gospel with each other. Help them along as needed.)

4 LEARNING ACTIVITY #3 LG GROUP Prayer Give each small group a prayer ball. Remind the children to squeeze the prayer ball as they pray. As they are praying and changing the shape of the prayer ball, God is changing the shape of the real world through their prayers. Let s pray for a few minutes. Pray that each child would become a closer friend to Jesus, so they can trust Him in scary situations. Pray for children who don t have a friendship with Jesus, that they would want one and ask Jesus to be their friend. Pray the children would look at others who are different from them as a good thing. God created them that way because He values variety and creativity. Pray they would want to learn about the cultures and religions of children from different cultures. Don t forget your adopted missionary child. Refer to the laminated picture/prayer request. Game -- Color, Color Brazilian Game Instructions: The class forms a circle. Choose two children and safety pin a piece of construction paper to each of their backs. They should be different colors. The players run and hop inside the circle, each trying to discover the color of the paper on the other s back, without touching them and without revealing his or her own color. When a player discovers the other s color, both players choose new players from the circle and different colors of construction paper are pinned to their backs. Play continues until all the players have had a chance to play the game.

5 EDNA HARMS November 25, 2018 Good afternoon, children. My name is Mrs. Edna Harms, you can call me Grandma Edna, and it is so good to be with you today. I know that God is here with us and he is here today because he has a plan for your life. The bible says that God has a good plan for you and that he has given each of you who chose to believe in Jesus, special gifts to be used to help others to know him better. I am so excited to talk with you about my story, because God has proven to me that his plans and gifts are perfect for each of us. I have lived 75 years and I am so glad that I chose to listen to his voice calling me when I was a child. Just like you. It has been the greatest privilege and adventure to seek to hear his voice and follow what he tells me. I hope that after hearing my story, you will want to follow our wonderfully good heavenly father too. Now, I always love to serve a little tea and something good to eat when people come to visit in my house. When I was a missionary in Brazil, the young people loved to come to our home to eat and we would talk about the wonderful things God has done and is doing in our lives. Many people have come to know Jesus just that way in our home. So, I want you to get your cup of tea and a little yummy brazilian food to eat and come sit at my feet around my table and imaginary fireplace. Because I want us to go back in time to a land far away and hear the story of a young missionary girl who grew up in Cuba. It s my story. I grew up in the tropical climate of Cuba. That means warm, muggy and sometimes rainy. Can you see Cuba on the map? My parents were missionaries there and so I grew up going to church, hearing my dad and mom talk about God and teach the bible to many young men and women. In fact my father was the founder of World Team which used to be called East Indies Mission. Many of the missionaries from Xenos have gone to other countries through this mission agency. So how does a missionary kid come to know Jesus? Isn t she just born a Christian? No. One thing that was important for me to understand was that I was a sinner. I didn t always do the right thing or always have a good attitude. My parents were very aware of how God saw sin. When we disobeyed, my dad dealt with us as if we had grieved the Lord. My dad spanked us only a few times, but when he did tears ran down his face because we had grieved the Lord and this was serious. When my brother stole something small from a near by store, my dad took him back and made him apologize. So, as a young child, I knew I too was a sinner. When I heard teachings that said Jesus had died on the cross for my sins, I was often convicted of my sin. I knew what I needed to do to be saved, but I felt God wanted me to walk to the front of the church when the pastor asked for people to come to the front to pray and accept Jesus into their hearts. I didn t want to do this because I was embarrassed to admit that I, the missionary s daughter was a sinner. For years I heard God calling, but I resisted doing this and it wasn t until one evening at dinner a visitor asked me if I was ready to go to heaven. I was about 10 years old then, and I admitted I was lost and that night my dad led me to Jesus. It was so good to listen to God s voice and do what I knew he had wanted me to do for so long. He wanted me to accept Jesus forgiveness and payment for my sin. Have you felt like this? Have you thought, "I know that I make bad choices." I don t always obey my mom and dad. I sometimes lie or I hit my brother or sister. I know that I am not right with God and I am not ready to go to heaven. Maybe you ve been feeling this for a long time, but haven t made the decision to

6 say yes to Jesus because you ve been ashamed to admit you are a sinner. You can ask him today to forgive you and come in and be your best friend and the one in charge of your life. At the end of our time here, I will give you a chance to pray quietly where you are sitting. About a year after I asked Jesus to come in to my heart my family went to the United States for furlough or home assignment. We went to a missionary conference at Park Street Church in Boston, Mass. I heard missionary stories and teachings. One night we were asked to stand if we were willing to be a missionary some day. I stood up. I was 11 and probably the only child standing. The lady that was taking care of us while my parents were ministering at this conference pulled on my skirt and told me to sit down. She said this was not for me. But I knew God was speaking to me just like He did about my sin when I was even younger. So, I resisted her and walked down the isle of that church to the front with the young people that went forward. We must obey God even when others are trying to pull us from doing that. From then on I knew God had called me to serve Him. Upon returning with my family to Cuba after our furlough I felt God laying on my heart my need to have a time with him, a time to read the Bible and talk with him. I knew my parents did this early in the morning because I could hear them praying together when I woke up. Do your parents have time with God? When I was young we only had the King James Version of the Bible and I found it hard and uninteresting to read. So, I picked up our Bible storybook and tried to read it every evening. Have you felt that God wants you to take some time to talk with him and learn to know him? By doing this you can learn to hear his voice and find out what he wants for your life. When we take time to read his word we learn more about who God is and what he is like. If you can t read yet, that s okay. You can ask someone older to read the bible to you. Often God speaks through the stories of the bible. For example: God took care of David in his battle against Goliath and from this we can learn that God will help us with situations in our lives that are difficult. I have come to love my time with God. I like to sing to him and read his word. I have a special place in my house that is just for my time to meet with God. Do you have a special place where you and God can meet? Maybe your bed or a comfy corner in the family room would work. Find a place where you can go and talk with God and listen to him regularly. You can always talk to God anywhere, but sometimes we just need to be quiet. Often there are so many noisy things going on it is hard to hear. We may have the television blaring, computer game screeching, headphones squawking and this makes hearing difficult. It is good just to shut off the noise and be quiet. God wants to talk to you. Well, I was still growing up in Cuba and I knew that God wanted me to serve him as a missionary. The place where my family and I lived was a bible training school with apartments where people could live. Many people came to this school to study to be pastors and missionaries. As I got older I greatly admired Delphine who was the wife of one of the young men who was in the bible school. My parents often talked about the people who made good missionaries and they also mentioned the qualities that made for bad missionaries. I decided that I wanted to be one of those good missionaries and I was sure that I had to be just like Delphine. So, when I went to high school in Canada (yes, it s a long way from Cuba) at prairie bible school, I took classes that would help me to be just like her. To be like Delphine I needed to be an excellent secretary, musician, singer, cook, and good homemaker. My mother told me I needed to play piano, so that I could

7 help my husband as a missionary. I studied piano for 12 years and never became very good at it I just wasn t that coordinated. How I cried! I thought, I will not be a good missionary. I took the secretarial course and I failed the note taking part and I found it very hard to keep track of all the financial numbers and such. How could God use me! I m not like Delphine. By now you should be asking me, Grandma Edna, what does God say makes a good missionary? I learned that God had given me special gifts that he wanted me to use as a missionary and they weren t the same as Delphine s, but they were just what was needed for what God had wanted me to do. God calls each of you in a special way also. Your gifts are not the same as your friends, necessarily, and that is okay. We are each unique. While I was at Prairie Bible School, we had a missionary conference and missionaries came and told of the many people around the world who are longing to hear the good news that Jesus came to pay for our sins so we can be right with God. Many people have never even heard of Jesus and those of us who do know him are responsible to tell others. They challenged us by saying that we will one day stand before God and give an account of what we have done to take this good news to those who have never heard. Right then, deep within my soul was born the earnest desire to so live that on that day when I stand in God s presence and He examines my life He will say, well done, good and faithful servant. I believed that if I saved my own life and lived for myself, I would be guilty of sending lost people to hell. So this is what drove me to be a missionary. Now I had been away from my parents and family for several years in high school already and so when the time came for me to decide to actually go to the mission field, I had a real struggle. I dearly adored my mom and dad, but during that time God spoke to me through his word. He brought to my mind Jn. 15:16 You have not chosen me but I have chosen you and ordained that you should go and bear much fruit. Do you know what that meant to me? I knew that God was saying I have called you to be a missionary and will work through you. So I told him Lord, if this is you calling me, I will go. I eventually married a man named Sam Harms and we had two girls and a boy. Our family went to Southern Brazil, the land of the southern cowboy. I don t have time today to tell you about all the adventures that God gave us there, but I will tell you this. As I learned to listen to his voice and follow him, he used my family and me to love many people to Jesus. We invited them into our home for something to eat and drink, we played games, sang songs, did skits, laughed and cried together and we taught them about Jesus, God s word and what he wanted for their lives. We prayed that God would give us 25 faithful young men who could lead the church and he did. We prayed that God would bring godly young women to marry these men so that they could have healthy families to witness for Jesus in their city and beyond. God answered so many of those prayers. I learned that I did not have to be Delphine to be used by God. Instead, God gave me the gift of inviting people in to our home and making them feel welcome, the gift of teaching, evangelism and compassion and he used those gifts to bring others to Jesus. We ll have to get together again for me to tell you more of my story because it is too long for today. Now is the time, I would like for you to talk to Jesus and if you have never asked him to come in to your heart and forgive you for your sin, you can do that now. You can use your own words or you can say what I say in my prayer. If you have done this already, I would like for you to talk to God too. Ask him to help

8 you to hear his voice and tell him that you want to follow him and do what he wants for you to do. As an old lady now, I am so thankful that I decided to say yes to God. There is no greater thing than being used by God to rescue someone from hell and help them come to know and follow Jesus. I am so thankful that God used me inspite of my many failures, sins and weaknesses. He did it!! And he can do the same with you. Let s pray together. Dear Jesus, thank you for coming to earth and for dying on the cross for my sins. I ask you to forgive me and to come into my heart and be my best friend. Thank you. You can, also, say, Dear God, I want to hear your voice and I want you to lead me. I know your plans for me are good and that you have given me gifts to show others who you are. Help me to learn how to do this and help me to meet with you each day. I want to know you better. Amen. If you have prayed to ask Jesus into your heart or told God that you want to hear his voice and follow him, I encourage you to talk with your mom and dad or with one of the teachers about this. They would love to talk with you and help you. It has been wonderful to be together today. Thank you for your good listening! Props: Picture of Edna, Sam and family, Cuba, Caxias Map of the world Chimarrao Tea set, table and flowers, table cloth

9 Brazilian Recipes Baked Bananas November 25, banana 4 teaspoons sugar mixed with cinnamon whipped topping (optional) toothpicks Directions: Heat oven to 375. Peel the bananas. Cut lengthwise and then into quarters. Place the banana sections in a buttered baking dish. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake until the sugar melts. one small potato, peeled and cooked 2 tablespoons butter 1 cup grated Cheddar or Swiss-type cheese 1 cup flour ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon baking powder milk or beaten egg yolk Cheese Biscuits Directions: Preheat oven to 375. Mash the potato and combine it with the butter and cheese. Sift the dry ingredients and add them to the potato mixture. On a lightly floured board knead the dough three or four times and then roll out to 1/3 thickness. Cut with a round cutter. Place the biscuits on an ungreased cookie sheet and brush the tops with mild or beaten egg yolk. Bake for minutes or until the tops are lightly browned. Makes biscuits. Brigadeiro 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa 1 tablespoon butter 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk Directions: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine cocoa, butter and condensed milk. Cook, stirring, until thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest until cool enough to handle. Form into small balls and eat at once or chill until serving. Fruits like mango, papaya, coconut and pineapple are also very traditional.