Every Wednesday night when I leave church, I have an overwhelming sense of peace and excitement. These kids are incredible, and I love their passion for the Lord and how they are striving to know more and be better. Sometimes I feel like if I just stood in front of the group and told them what verses to read, they would go into it with lots of excitement. I could give the most monotone lesson, and these kids would still be on fire for Jesus. It's so cool watching the Holy Spirit radiate within each of them, and seeing the growth! They come back to church every Wednesday night ready to recite bible verses from weeks ago (and without any reward, other than an awesome high five). They are just the coolest kids I know and are really doing things for the Kingdom. I'm so proud of them.
We start off each week with a simple review of the week before (and what is important up to there). I am constantly surprised how much the kids take in and retain each week--they are walking SpongeKids and should be a show on Nickelodeon. Regardless, we went over the first week (Saul's upbringing), and talked about how Saul had to wear rabbi gear and how he was raised to say his prayers, and do all sorts of religious things. Then we talked about the Stoning of Stephen, and how Saul was there, giving approval on and URGING for Stephen's death. The kids were a little shaky about WHY Stephen was stoned (apart from just being a christian... why that was a bad thing), so before we started the lesson, we went over how important it was in a Jewish culture not to blaspheme God, and how the Jewish followers thought it was blasphemy for Jesus to say He was the son of God (even though we all know it to be true). And on to our lesson, we go.
Lesson: We read Acts 9:1-9, but in short little doses. First, we read Acts 9:1-2. For some reason, the verses tripped me up when I was reading them at home, so I made the kids read them a few times to get the message. We talked about what Saul asked the high priest to do (and who the high priest was), and why Saul would ask such a thing. The kids had great answers. We summarized up the verses by saying that Saul asked the really important guy for letters to arrest people of "The Way". The kids were funny because they knew who we were talking about, but when I asked them who "The Way" is, they didn't know how to explain it! So we did a little call back to John 14:6, and talked about how Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life". It was funny watching their faces. One little girl was really impressed! She thought it was clever of them to call themselves that.
Activity #1: I had the kids pretend to be the high priest and write letters to the churches. This was one of those activities that I didn't really have a reason for doing, it just felt like it should be done, and it gave some time for intrapersonal/linguistic learning styles to shine. So, we wrote letters... One of them says, "Dear churches, please help Saul arrest and kill any followers of "The Way" because they are lying about our God!" (We had to go over the idea that the Jewish people believe in the same God, they just don't believe in Jesus. Thankfully, our Sunday lesson was on The Trinity, so the kids got it). I had all of the kids sign their names and seal their letters, and hand them to our makeshift Saul for the day.
Lesson: We then read Acts 9:3-7. Saul acted out each part as we read, and it was pretty funny. We took it verse by verse. I explained that the light was really bright, and we talked about times when it's been way too bright outside. One child even said that sometimes, when it's so bright outside, she goes blind for a minute. Inside, I'm thinking "oh you just wait!". Then we talked about how God called out to Saul, saying "Saul! Saul!" and how he knew Saul's name. I asked the kids how they would feel when they heard God calling them after what they had done last week. Some said surprised, some said awful, but one little girl (who is 5!) said, "I would feel really scared because I hurt God and God is really powerful and what if he was mad at me?" I thought it was incredible insight! I asked the question, "How did Saul persecute God?" And the kids gave me a few answers --> killing his people, speaking bad about his people, not believing in Him. We talked about how the Bible says that ANYTHING you do to the people around you, you do to God. So if you love the people around you, you love God. To which one of the boys replied, very solemnly, "so if you stone the people around you, you stone God." Ouch and Bingo. These kids are really thinking about this God stuff!! I had the kids scream really loud for the sound the other people heard, and then we talked about how those people hadn't seen what Saul did, and how hard it might be for Saul to explain it to others.
Activity #2: Charades. We sent three kids out of the room, and as a group, came up with a charade. The first child got up, and performed the charade (an elephant swinging from a rope and picking vegetables) for the second child, who in turn, performed it for the third, and down to the last one. We talked about how hard it was for the last child to describe what she saw--especially when it seemed so strange! And there was that point!
Lesson: We read Acts 9:8-9. We talked about a few things here, best summarized:
- One of the reasons Saul might have been the only one to see/hear God is that the people with Saul had letters to arrest any Christians they came across. If they didn't turn and believe in God just like Saul did, they could have arrested Saul. So in a way, God was protecting him.
- God used light because God IS light. People who don't know Jesus are living in darkness, but God called out to Saul, and used his light, to make Saul see how great he is.
- God used light to blind Saul so Saul would have to rely on God, and other people (how hard when you're traveling!)
Activity #4: Our trusty-dusty timeline! We did it as a group this time. We made six squares on the piece of paper, and on the back, listed the five parts of the story we thought were most important. Each child drew in one of the squares, and then another child dictated the words to go with it. We had 1) Saul writes letters asking for help to hurt Christians. 2) Saul goes on a journey. 3) Saul gets spoken to by God and asked why he's hurting Him 4) Saul is blinded 5) Saul needs God and other people. Then in the sixth, we wrote the verse for the week. Taped it up to the timeline, and we're good to go.
Bible Verse: Then we worked on learning our bible verse. We did it in a before and after kind of way, where the kids shouted back and forth. One group would shout "HE CALLED US OUT OF DARKNESS" and the other group would shout "AND INTO HIS MARVELOUS LIGHT!" Then they all recited it together. We played a game where we threw the shoe around... We had a child sit in the mushpot, and whenever the shoe was thrown to someone on the outside of the circle, they had to recite the verse. If they recited it correctly, mushpot person would finish it by saying "1 Peter 2:9". If they recited it incorrectly, mushpot person had to say the verse to get out of the mushpot, and they would switch places. It lasted for a bit, but eventually everyone outside of the mushpot knew the verse, and by that time, I've done my job and the game is shot. I had all of the kids line up and individually tell me the bible verse for the week. Flying colors!
This lesson couldn't have been better timed, and I know that was God and not me. The parents all came down just as I was wrapping up (we played Freeze Dance to Marvelous Light and the kids loved it) and their kids were excited, excited!! I was really glad I did the first activity (writing letters) because it helped enforce the God protecting us point at the end of the lesson (which God revealed to me as I was speaking. SO COOL). All in all, great Wednesday night, and the kids LOVED it. Next week we're off for Catalyst, but the following week, we're going to see Ananais.
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