MISSIONS#7 GOD IS A MISSIONARY GOD K/1 ST GRADE Praying for Missionaries MAIN POINT: Prayer is powerful. PASSAGE: PSALM 6:9 Key Verse: The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord will answer my prayer. PRE-CLASS CHECKLIST PRAY WITH THE OTHER TEACHERS FOR THE DAY S LESSON. Activity Stations PRAY FOR A MISSIONARY card, 1/child Penny, 1/child Tape Markers/crayons Object Lesson #1 Answered Prayer at the Door 1!, 5/class Object Lesson #2 Giving globe Small Group Prayer balls, 3/classroom Prayer cube 2 printed on cardstock, 3/classroom Laminated adopted MK pictures with prayer requests, 3/classroom Game Velcro 1 Answered Prayer at the Door!, The Great Kidmission, 1996 by Gospel Light, p. 40. 2 Adapted from Bright Ideas!, Wycliffe Translators. XENOS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP 1999/00 rev 2013 Missionary God K/1 st Missions#7 Page 1
LESSON PLAN PRE-CLASS PREPARATION Select actors for the narrated story, Answered Prayer at the Door! There are parts for Rhoda, Peter, 2 pray-ers (students), 2 guardsmen and an angel. Color and make prayer cubes for small groups. For the Activity Station, tape a penny to each prayer card, then label for each student present. ACTIVITY STATIONS Craft PRAY FOR A MISSIONARY Instructions: Give each student a copy of this card. They can decorate it if they would like and tape a penny to it. This can be used to remind them to pray for a missionary every time they find a penny or are given a penny by someone. On the card it says the penny is one cent and a missionary is one sent. The back includes specific prayer requests for missionaries. PRAY FOR A MISSIONARY Every time you find a penny Every time you are given a penny INTRODUCTION WHY? It s Missions week again. This week we will learn about praying for missionaries and how important our prayers are for missionaries when they are teaching others about Jesus, so let s begin with prayer. I m going to read you a story about something that happened in the Bible. Then I want to know what you think about it. OBJECT LESSON #1 Answered Prayer at the Door! Introduce the actors before reading the story. Explain that Peter was one of the first missionaries. He traveled and told others about Jesus. Narrate this story with enthusiasm and have student workers or adults act it out. (Read Answered Prayer at the Door! to the class.) Once you have finished the story, have the actors take a seat. I have a few questions: XENOS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP 1999/00 rev 2013 Missionary God K/1 st Missions#7 Page 2
What trouble did the Christians in Jerusalem face? (People were being killed for being Christians.) What happened to Peter? (He was put into prison and was going to be killed.) What could they do about it? (Pray.) Did God hear & answer their prayer? (Yes.) How do we know? (Peter was set free by an angel.) So from this story, do you think it s important for us to pray for missionaries? (Yes.) Missionaries need our prayers. God does great things through them when we pray! People come to know Jesus when we pray! LESSON Today, there are missionaries all over the world telling people about Jesus. Xenos has missionaries serving in many different countries. Recently one of our missionaries in Taiwan, Tim, sent this response about how our prayers have an effect on their work. Listen to how our prayers have impacted the work of Tim and Jen in Taiwan: Col 4:3 talks about how prayer opens doors for the Gospel and equips the workers to take advantage of those openings. I know that every time I have a chance to share the gospel it is because people are praying. Although the people here in Taiwan are friendly, we know that we are working against the evil one here. So we really appreciate prayers for our family and spiritual protection. Tim In 2005, a 24-hour-a-day prayer chain was started for our missionary team and the people they are reaching out to in SE Asia. Do any of you know what a prayer chain is? (It s when different people commit to prayer for a certain period of time, e.g., 15 or 30 minutes, during a certain time of the day.) About 90 people in Xenos have committed to pray in this way for our missionaries in SE Asia. Listen to this recent update regarding how their prayers have impacted the work and our missionaries: Thank you for your prayers and your wonderful support for this part of the world. We have a sense and there is good evidence that God is doing great things here in this land. For instance, just this morning I spoke with a neighbor, whom I work with in our school scholarship program. In the past she has been so nervous and unresponsive to my discussion about Christ. But today she listened and was engaged as I spoke of Christ as our sacrifice. She said she would like to read the verses in her holy book that talk about Christ. I was so pleasantly surprised as she was able to have a calm conversation about faith issues. I believe God is softening hearts. Keep praying without ceasing! Love, Sonya Isn t it awesome to see how powerful our prayers can be, even on the other side of the world? Our verse today is Psalm 6:9, The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord will answer my prayer. This doesn t say you have to be a certain age for God to hear your prayers. In fact, three different times in the Bible, Jesus tells his disciples to be like little children. There is one time when some young mothers are trying to get near XENOS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP 1999/00 rev 2013 Missionary God K/1 st Missions#7 Page 3
Jesus so He can bless their babies. When His disciples think this is not important and block them, Jesus rebukes them. This is what he says. (Read Mark 10:14-15, NLT.) God desires all our hearts to be full of simple faith, like a child s, just like yours. As adults, we tend to want to be all fixed up, have everything right before we pray to God. He wants to us to be able to ask him for anything, no matter how big or impossible it seems. That s the kind of faith a lot of you have but many adults don t. So He may very well listen and answer your prayers more than He does mine. OBJECT LESSON #2 Cambodia Scholarships Before we go to music, I d like to update you on our giving campaign. (Hold up the giving globe and refer to the flyer.) We successfully met our goal for our last giving campaign and now we ll move forward with our next giving campaign to raise money for three kids from Cambodia to attend the Friendship School! The Friendship School provides a quality education to rural children, who would not otherwise be able to afford the public educational system. Poverty is a vicious trap for Cambodia s poor. Education is one form of development that can help free them from the cycle of poverty; however, education is also hardest for them to attain. Most children in the provinces are unable to receive a sustained education, and many of them drop out of school by second grade. To meet this need, the missionary team in Cambodia started a small school introducing first grade in the fall of 2009. The staff consists of Cambodian Christian teachers who have a unique opportunity to serve communities and influence students, their parents, and neighbors for Christ. MUSIC SMALL GROUPS Let s talk some more about prayer and then spend some time in prayer. Sometimes it is difficult to know what to pray about for our missionaries. Why? Life can be very different in other countries. Often you don t know the people you re praying for. Sometimes your brain just refuses to come up with the things you could pray for. That s where this prayer cube can help. (Hold up the cube and discuss how each side of the cube is a different picture each picture reminds them of something to pray for.) XENOS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP 1999/00 rev 2013 Missionary God K/1 st Missions#7 Page 4
In addition to giving money, we can also help the Cambodia scholarship kids by praying for them. Not all of the kids we re supporting have a friendship yet with Jesus. We should ask God to help them understand His love for them and their families. We may never meet these kids here on earth, but if they become Christians, we will get to spend forever with them in heaven! Prayer Each small group needs a prayer ball. As a child prays, he/she squeezes the prayer ball. Remember to explain to the children just as they change the prayer ball when they squeeze it, their prayers change the shape of our real world also. Ask God to help you remember and know what to pray for our missionaries. Ask God how He wants you to give for the school kids in Cambodia and to pray for them as well. Remember to pray for your classroom s adopted MK. (Refer to laminated picture with prayer requests in the bottom drawer of your cart.) GAME Are You My Boss? Instructions: This is a variation of Mother May I. God is our boss; He gives us and missionaries the power to do His work. If we don t ask God to help us, we can t do His work. Place Velcro as a finish line. Pick a student worker to be the leader. The leader says Take three giant steps forward. The children must say, Are you my boss? and the leader answers, Yes, I am. Then all the children who asked Are you my boss? can take three giant steps. The children who forget to ask don t get to move. The first child to the finish line wins. The winner can be the boss. The boss can choose baby steps, hops, jumps or any variation they want. XENOS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP 1999/00 rev 2013 Missionary God K/1 st Missions#7 Page 5
Instructions: TRAVEL 1. Color the squares as desired. 2. Cut along outer solid lines. 3. Fold on dotted lines. 4. Apply glue (or tape) to the tabs and form into a cube, with the glued (or taped) tabs inside. HEALTH FAMILY FRIENDSHIPS WORLD PRAYER & FINANCIAL XENOS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP 1999/00 rev 2013 Missionary God K/1 st Missions#7 Page 6
ANSWERED PRAYER AT THE Door February 11, 2018 Frightening Times Today seemed like it was going to be one of the worst days of my life! First of all, we're celebrating the Passover. So for me, Rhoda, there's lots of extra work because it s a feast day. And I'm a servant girl. I don't mind that, really. But the other reason this started out to be a terrible day is because we got some FRIGHTENING news: Herod, the Roman ruler, just had a Christian KILLEDI You see, I'm a Christian, too! So you can imagine how nervous I was feeling. All the Christians were wondering what Herod would do next! Mary (she's the lady I work for) had invited Peter to come and share the feast dinner with us, Peter's famous. He's a missionary! And he is a friend of Jesus. Peter travels around telling many people about Jesus. We were all glad to see him! But right while I was serving dinner, Roman soldiers BURST into the house! They arrested Peter and took him away. It was horrible. We were all afraid that Peter would be killed, too. Mary had also invited many other Christians to her house. So as soon as Peter was gone, guess what we did? That's right! We prayed! We prayed with all our might to God, begging Him to protect Peter. It was hard to pray about anything except Peter!! A Knock at the Door We prayed and prayed. Sometime later that same night, all of us were still together, praying for Peter. I heard a knock on the dooi. Uh-oh! Guess whose job it is to answer the door? That's right! So up 1 went to the heavy wooden door. I was nervous about who might be on the other side of the door. So I didn't open the door. Instead 1 called out, "Who's there?" "Peter," said a voice. That was a voice I KNEW. That WAS Peter's voice! But how could this be? I was so startled that I ran back to the room full of praying people. I didn't even open the door! How Rhoda learned that God answers prayer. Acts 12.1-18 "Peter's at the door! Peter's at the door!" I said breathlessly. "WHAT?" they asked. I told them again. You must be crazy! Peter's in prison. He can't be at, the at the door," But I tell you he is at the door, I said again. I was so excited! The others talked among themselves; someone said, Maybe she s seen an angel. I guess they thought Peter s ghost was at the door! But meanwhile, Peter was still POUNDING on the door! So they sent me to answer it again. When the door was opened, there he was! Everyone could see it was Peter. It was really him! Everyone was astonished. We all began talking at once. God s Answer to Prayer Peter put his finger to his lips. He told us, "My friends, heard your prayers for me. I was taken to prison, as you saw. A prison guard was chained to each of my hands AND two more guards stood at my cell door. I fell asleep expecting that in the morning Herod would put me on trial-and have me put to death." Yes, we were afraid of the same thing. That s why we were praying! We were pleading with God to stop Herod," someone said as I hurried to get Peter some food. Well, God did! Peter said cheerfully. He sent an angel to me, right there in the prison cell. The angel touched my side and woke me up. My cell was full of light at NIGHT. Then the angel told me to get up quickly. I didn't even have time to think before my chains just fell off. The angel told me to get my coat and follow him. And 1 did. We walked right past the first guard, then past the second. Ahead of us now was the huge iron gate into the city. How will we get through this? I wondered. But the gate opened for us as if an invisible hand were pushing XENOS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP 1999/00 rev 2013 Missionary God K/1 st Missions#7 Page 7
it! I thought I must be dreaming. I thought I would wake up in the cell, still chained to the two guards. But after I had followed the angel to the end of the street, the angel simply DISAPPEARED! Suddenly, I knew. 1 wasn't dreaming. God had sent an angel to rescue me! God heard and answered your prayers this very night!" Peter finished. I was so happy that Peter was safe. Then I understood. God had heard and answered our prayers! I was so amazed, I nearly dropped a dish! As soon as I had the food on the table for Peter, we all stopped right then and there to pray again. We wanted to THANK God for sending Peter safely back to us! After we visited with Peter for awhile, he quietly left for another town. The Rest of the Rescue Well, the next day while I was sweeping the porch, I heard that there had been a huge commotion at the prison. Everyone was talking about the missionary named Peter. No one could figure it out. This man who was chained to two guards and guarded by two more had just vanished! Bet they'll never guess how that happened! So my day that began so terribly ended wonderfully! Even though Peter had been arrested, God wanted him to keep on being a missionary telling others about Jesus. And when we prayed for God to rescue Peter, what a RESCUE JOB God did! I learned that day just how important it is to pray. God really hears-and He ANSWERS our prayers. 1996 by Gospel Light. Permission to photocopy granted XENOS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP 1999/00 rev 2013 Missionary God K/1 st Missions#7 Page 8
February 9, 2014 OASIS ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM FEEDBACK FORM Name: Unit #: Lesson #: Classroom: 1. Is the main point of this lesson stated in a simple and clear way? 2. Is the information in this lesson simple enough to understand and communicate to the children? 3. Was the application of the main point age-appropriate? 4. Was the outline of the lesson clear and easy to follow? 5. What should be changed about or added to the format, content, teacher preparation of this lesson? 6. Did the lesson challenge the children to think or learn? If so, in what way? XENOS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP 2001/02 God is a Missionary God K/1 st Missions#7 Page 9 1340 Community Park Drive, Columbus, Ohio 43229 www.xenos.org 1-800-698-7884