Random Lessons: Tower of Babel

This was a shorter Sunday lesson plan because we started in the service for some worship. So we only had about twenty minutes of lesson, but it was still good. We had about 12 kids--an even split of boys and girls which worked really well.

The first thing the kids did was open their bibles to Genesis 1:28, which reads, "God blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth!" We asked the kids what each of these phrases meant, including what it meant to fill the earth. We talked about why God would want us to fill the earth--if God created a big, gigantic universe for us to live in, why wouldn't he want us to inhabit and enjoy every bit of it. God loves to show off his creation--especially his prize creation, US!

Lesson: We then read in Genesis 11 about the Tower of Babel. We stopped every few verses to ask questions. We talked about how awesome it was that at one time, everyone in the entire world spoke the same language. We talked about how that would make everything a lot easier than it is now--easier to play, easier to communicate, easier to tell people about Jesus. Then we read the part about how the people built the tower to be closer to God, and how back then, people thought if they could be closer to God, they became more like God. And how they wanted to do things to be like God so they could be God. Then, we read about how the people said they wanted to build the tower so that they wouldn't be spread out. DUN DUN DUN! We talked about how the people were completely disobeying God! God wanted them to fill the earth, and they were trying to not do what God said! We talked about the consequence of their disobedience--that they now had a lot of languages and were going to have a hard time understanding each other. We brought a few kids up and had them speak gibberish, and all the kids laughed. Then we asked the kids what they would do if they showed up at school and only one other person spoke their language... Who would they befriend first? They said the person that spoke the same language as them because friendship is all about understanding each other. We talked about how at the Tower of Babel, people felt the same way, and that's how certain languages got isolated into certain areas. Then we asked the kids: Didn't God do what he said he would do? Aren't people filling the earth now? They all answered yes, so we led to the follow up question... Wouldn't it have been easier for the people to just obey God, since his will was done anyway? YES.

Activity: We split the boys and girls up into two teams, and blindfolded one girl, and one boy. We made a rope circle somewhere in the room, and placed kids from both teams around the room. The kids had to try and direct the blindfolded child to the rope circle, but the opposite sex team tried to distract the child. We timed them to see how long it took them to get to the rope circle and talked about how hard it is to give good information and hear good information when people are speaking differently and distracting you. We talked about how the Tower of Babel showed that disobeying God only made things harder for us.

Camp Araminta: Where Faith Takes Flight

I just got back from a week long "vacation" to volunteer at our local Anglican overnight summer camp. The camp ranges from kids going into 4th grade to going into 8th grade as campers, then a flight crew (which are campers that help out with things) who are going into 9th and 10th grade, and then CITs who are going into 11th and 12th grade. I was a counselor, with 10 4th-6th grade girls and a CIT in my cabin. It was a joy and a blessing to be able to be there this week, and I know that God moved in huge ways this week, and these children's lives are going to be blessed because of it.

The week is full of lots of fun things to do: archery, canoeing, funny skits and staff videos, indoor/outdoor games, the MUDBOWL (basically a huge field of mud where the kids can play fun games and get really dirty), dirty games (with pudding and sardines and YUCK!), scavenger hunts, counselor hunts, all camp Clue games, great box races, and all sorts of really fun things! The kids love it and have a blast!

My favorite thing about Camp is the spiritual atmosphere of it all. There's absolutely no hiding why we're at camp: for Jesus. Every camper, every counselor, every parent that walks through those doors knows it. From starting every morning with morning prayer, to program, to prayers before food, to devotions, we're centered in the love of Christ, and that's something kids desperately need. This year, our program time was amazing. We started in a big group with all of the kids singing songs (which nearly blew me away! If you've never had a taste of heaven, try being in a room with 4th-8th graders lifting their hands and singing to our Lord!) and then we split up into two groups on the same track. This year, the track had a different word each day: good, escape, together, different, tell. We talked about how God made us to be a good creation, how when we sinned he planned our escape, how the Christian walk is one that we're called to be on together, and how we need to look different, and how to tell others about the amazing love we have in Christ. The kids really loved it and seemed to get it!

One of my favorite parts of camp is cabin time. I love having devotionals with my girls before bed. This year, we were kind of scattered but it was so good! The first night, we read Psalm 139. But then I lost the sheet of questions, so the other nights we talked about other things. We talked about how God created us each with gifts and we have to find our purpose in him. After this, the kids were really into gifts and actually asked to go deeper into that, so the next day we did one of the activities from PSK 1 and tried to help kids find their gifts. The last day was by far my favorite day of camp.

Friday is always River Day. You go down to the river and play in the sand and in the water and it's just great fun! Then we came back, went to town (to get ice cream! yum!) and went on a scavenger hunt and went swimming. After dinner we went in for our last program time. it was amazing. We were talking about telling every nation and every tribe about Jesus, and how ALL nations praise him. And we played the song "He Reigns" by Newsboys to a slideshow of different people all over the world praising God. The most amazing thing was that the kids watched during the verses, but during the chorus, I heard little voices all singing, it's all God's children singing glory, glory, hallelujah, He reigns up to our God. Hands raised, voices lifted, with no words on the screen and nobody egging them on. These kids were doing it voluntarily and in the moment, moved by the Spirit. And I sat there and could feel heaven. I had a moment where I actually thought, "okay, God, take me away" because the glory of it all was just too incredible.

We had a friday night campfire and say-so, where kids could get up and say whatever they wanted about what God did this week at camp. A lot of times, these turn to "I thank God Suzie wore her spiderman shirt because it led to this and it was really funny!" but this year, we didn't have a single silly one. We had kids stand up and talk about how they wanted to read the bible more, how they were going to skip TV to be with God, how they were going to do a book report on the Bible, how they were going to write a story about Jesus for other people, how they were going to pray more. We had three girls stand up and say they gave their lives to Jesus. Welcome Home, kids. Incredible.

I felt a nudging by the Holy Spirit that night to share my testimony with the girls in my cabin, which was scary because my testimony seems a little too "grown up" for 4th-6th graders, but then I reminded myself that it's about life, and I was their age when I lived it. As I shared, I could see them all crying, absolutely taken aback that these things could happen to someone. It was amazing watching their faces change. One of the girls had been struggling with whether to believe science or God, and after hearing my testimony, she said, "see, I can't argue with that. You shouldn't be here, but you prayed to God, and you are. That's proof." My heart nearly soared hearing that. All of a sudden, it was all worth it. And I'd do it over again in a heartbeat just to help that one little girl. But, testimony sparked lots of crying, lots of sharing of hearts, and it was the most amazing part of the whole week (with He Reigns). We got to know each other, share each other's burdens and struggles, and really counsel the girls that were hurting so, so, so deeply. Share God's truth with them in a way that words couldn't always do, and knowing that we didn't live a perfect life and we came as imperfect, broken people really spoke to them.

It was an incredible week, and I wish some of the kids from my church had been able to make it. But I'm so pumping it up for next year. It's an incredible week of fun, laughter, and love, but most importantly, it's a week of coming so close to Christ that you can feel him on your skin and taste heaven on your lips.

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come. You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." - Revelation 4:8&11, 5:9-10 (our theme verse for the week)