Service Project Caring for the World God Made Lesson 1: God Creates the World Genesis 1:1 2:3 God made the world in six days by the power of His Word. All creation is God s blessing to us. God created the world and everything in it and gave Adam dominion over all that He had created. As Adam s descendants, we have the responsibility to care for God s creation. Engage students in beautifying your church or community. Small outdoor or indoor plants, such as chrysanthemums or other fall flowers Pots, if plants will remain indoors Potting soil Plant food Gardening tools Paper, markers, tape & other art supplies If your church has an outdoor flower bed, ask permission to plant chrysanthemums or other fall flowers to beautify the area. Work plant food into the soil before planting flowers. After planting, water the plants. If no appropriate outdoor area is available, plant flowers or green plants in pots, and place them in the windows of your classroom or a fellowship area of the church. Give students paper, markers, and art supplies to create a flower picture for your classroom. Option: Contact shut-in members or those in your church family or community who cannot garden but would enjoy having some fall flowers. Have students plant fall flowers in large pots to deliver to these people, or arrange adult workers to drive and supervise teams of students in planting flowers at the homes of these people. Ask What are some of the things God made when He created the world? Allow for a variety of answers, including plants. Say Yes, God created everything in the universe. He made nonliving things, like the sun and stars, rocks and water, and He made living things, like plants and animals. God takes care of all of the things He made, and He works through people to do so. God gave Adam and Eve the responsibility of helping to care for His world. Today that is our responsibility too. Ask Can you think of some ways we can help take care of God s creation? Recycling, turning off lights or appliances not in use, cleaning up trash, caring for plants or animals, reducing our use of natural resources, and so forth. Encourage a variety of answers. Say God gave us dominion over the plants and animals. What does that mean? We are to care for His creation, to rule over it with love and concern. Ask How do we do this? We care for God s creation when we use the things He has made wisely and look after what God made. We feed our pets and give them a good home. We recycle to reduce waste. We pick up trash to keep His world beautiful. We plant flowers and other green plants and take care of them. Say Today you will plant some flowers or green plants at our church to remind everyone who worships here of the beautiful world God created. If you have arranged to plant flowers for shut-ins, instead, describe what you ll do.
Ask Sometimes we don t take good care of the things God created, though, do we? We waste food or paper or energy; we throw our trash on the ground instead of disposing of it properly. When we misuse God s creation, we are sinning. What is God s response when we don t take care of the earth? He forgives our sins for the sake of Jesus, who died and rose again for us. What should we do when we sin? We tell God we are sorry for this and all our other sins. We ask Him to forgive us for Jesus sake and to help us take better care of His world. Hand out art supplies and paper. Say Let s make drawings of the flowers you planted today. You can cut out the flowers on your drawings and tape them together to make a border for our classroom wall. The border will remind us to care for God s creation.
Group Activity Litterbugs Lesson 2: God Creates Adam and Eve Genesis 1:26 2:25 God made us in His image, provided all things for our good, and made us rulers over the earth and everything in it. God appoints us as caretakers of His creation. Play this game to help students understand one aspect of taking care of God s creation. Bible Garbage bags Crumpled sheets of newspaper A large room or gym or large open area with def ined boundaries Cones or jump ropes to def ine the boundaries Stopwatch or watch with a minute hand Before students come in, divide crumpled papers up into garbage bags. For younger students, have more bags; for older students, have fewer bags (only one or two). Decide where your game boundaries will be. Say We have been talking about the creation of the earth. Who made the earth? God did. Because God made the earth, He wants us to take care of it. In fact, the Bible says that He told Adam and Eve that taking care of the earth was their job. Read Genesis 1:27 30 in your Bible, emphasizing the parts where God tells Adam that He gives it to Adam to take care of. Say Some people have forgotten that God has given us the earth as a gift and that we are to take good care of it. We are going to play a game today that will help us to think of one way that we can take care of God s creation. Show students the designated space they have to play in. Make sure to point out the boundaries. Let them know that if they go outside of the boundaries during the game, they will then have to do some type of activity (e.g., 10 jumping jacks or 5 sit-ups) before they can rejoin the game. Explain the objective, how to play, and the rules of the game, as follows: Objective There are two sides in this game: the litterbugs and the cleaners. The litterbugs want to have as much litter on the ground as possible by the end of the time, while the cleaners want to have as little litter on the ground as possible. How to Play Assign one or two students to be cleaners. Start with a small number. The rest of the students will be litterbugs. The litterbugs will take the pieces of newspaper from the garbage bags and drop them in the open space. At the same time, the cleaners will pick up the litter and put it back in the bags. Give a specific amount of time for the students to play (e.g., two minutes), and tell them when to start and stop. After the stop time, count how many pieces of paper are on the ground. The goal will be to have less litter the next round. You can add cleaners each round until you get to this goal. Rules You must stay in the boundaries. Students may carry only one piece of paper at a time. You may not take paper out of anyone s hand, only off the ground or out of the garbage bags. Then allow students to play the game for the time frame you have, or until they reach the goal.
Ask How did it feel to be a litterbug? Answers will vary. How did it feel to be a cleaner? Answers will vary, but should get to the point that when there were more cleaners it was easier or less frustrating. Say It certainly was easier to keep the area clean when we had more people helping, wasn t it? God has given us the job of taking care of His beautiful world. When we don t take care of God s creation, it causes a lot of trouble for us. Discuss some of the problems that might come from not taking care of creation (e.g., dirty water, pollution, harm to animals, running out of resources). Say We don t always do a great job of taking care of the earth, do we? Allow responses. Ask When you forget to take care of His creation, does God forgive you? Yes, God forgives us for the sake of His Son, Jesus, who died and rose again for us. Say Jesus makes you clean, just like our cleaners made our space clean. And He helps you to be a good steward of what He s given us. Let s remember to spread the word so that we have more helpers to keep the earth as beautiful as it can be!
Food Activity Healthy Food; Healthy Bodies Lesson 2: God Creates Adam and Eve Genesis 1:26 2:25 God made us in His image, provided all things for our good, and made us rulers over the earth and everything in it. God created our bodies and all we need to keep them strong and healthy. He gave us the intelligence and responsibility to choose the foods, activities, and lifestyle that will preserve the bodies He created. Use this activity to discuss good choices for healthful living. My Plate chart (there is an excellent chart available at www.choosemyplate.gov/kids /index.html; this site also includes great nutrition games) Whole-grain crackers Cheese slices Apple slices Carrot sticks Small pieces of turkey luncheon meat Small paper plates, 1 per child Paper circles, 1 per child Pencils or markers Help children use the pencils or markers to divide their plates into sections like those on the My Plate chart. Label the sections Grains, Fruit, Vegetables, and Protein; label the circle Dairy. Challenge the children to place the appropriate food item in each section of their plates. Children may eat the food after you make the point. Ask Which food did you place in the Grain section of your plate? in the Fruit section? in the Vegetable section? in the Protein section? Which food belongs in the Dairy circle? Children will place whole-grain crackers in the Grain section, apple slices in the Fruit section, carrot sticks in the Vegetable section, turkey in the Protein section, and cheese slices on the Dairy circle. Say That s right. You have filled your plates correctly. Ask Can you think of other foods that might belong in each section? Accept answers. Children will name a variety of foods; help them determine the appropriate placement on the plate. Why do you think some of the sections of the plate are larger than others? Our bodies need more of some kinds of foods than others. Why do we even care about eating foods that are good for us? Accept answers. Say God created our bodies, and He created the foods that our bodies need to stay healthy and strong. He gives us the responsibility and intelligence to choose foods that are good for our bodies. Sometimes we choose wisely; sometimes we harm our bodies by failing to make good choices. When we make bad choices and harm our bodies, we are sinning. Sin makes us feel guilty and bad, doesn t it? But Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins. We can ask God to forgive us for making poor choices and to help us take better care of our bodies. He will forgive us for Jesus sake.