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Welcome Experience 1Perfect TimingSupplies: NoneGoal: To help kids connect and belong, while also getting them to think about the story for today.Quick Instructions: Stand in front of the kids with your back to them, and tell them to rotate between three different positions: one arm up, two arms up, or hands on hips. They can go through the positions as quickly or slowly as they want, but when you say “FREEZE,” they have to freeze. Before you turn around, call out one of the positions. Whoever is in that position is out, and should sit down. Keep playing until you have a winner. Tell the kids that we will be learning that God’s timing is always perfect.Expanded Instructions: Stand in front of the kids with your back to them. Have the kids rotate between three different poses: one arm up, two arms up, or hands on hips. Give them time to do the poses a few times, then call out “FREEZE!”The kids have to freeze in whatever position they are in when you said “Freeze.” Before you turn around facing them, call out one of the positions. Whoever is in the position is out, and should sit down.Keep playing until you have a winner.Say: In this game, you saw that we don’t all have perfect timing. We’re going to hear a story from the Bible to learn that God’s timing is always perfect.Optional Discussion Questions:Have you ever had to wait for something you were excited about, such as a birthday, holiday, or present? How did you feel when you had to wait?What can we learn while we’re waiting for good things to happen?What was the best part of your week? What was the hardest part? Welcome Experience 2Patience TestSupplies: Printable page (1 for each pair of kids that play the game), scissors (prep only)Goal: To help kids connect and belong, while also getting them to think about the story for today.Quick Instructions: Choose two kids come up front, or put all the kids into pairs. Have the two partners face each other. Tell them to sit patiently and look at each other for one minute without laughing, talking, or making any sound. While they are sitting there, they can hold up pictures of cute baby animals to distract the other person. If one partner can get the other person to laugh, or make a sound, they win. Finish by telling the kids that we will be learning from our Bible story that God’s timing is always perfect.Expanded Instructions:PREP: Cut the printable page so that you have two piles of cute animals, one for each child. Choose two kids to come up front to play, or put all the kids into pairs. Have two kids face each other. Say: Let’s play a game to see how patiently we can wait without laughing!Tell the kids to stare at each other patiently for one minute without talking or laughing. They can try to make each other laugh, but whoever makes a sound or smiles is out, and the other person wins. Ask and Say: Did the one minute go by slowly or quickly for you? It can be hard to sit patiently for one minute without talking or laughing! Do you think it’s hard for us to wait patiently for God sometimes? We’re going to learn today about the importance of trusting God and waiting on Him to fulfil His promises in our lives. God can help us be patient as we wait for Him.Optional Discussion Questions:Was it hard to wait patiently and not talk or laugh while watching a friend? Why? Have you ever had to wait on God to answer a prayer or do something He promised? What was that experience like?What was the best part of your week? What was the hardest part? Believing Experience 1Sticky VerseSupplies: Printable page (1 per kid), scissors (prep only), painter’s tape, Bible (optional: copy paper)Goal: Have kids do this activity to become more familiar with the Bible verse so they can better remember it.Quick Instructions: Give each kid a set of verse cards from the printable page. Give them small pieces of tape and tell them to mix up their cards so the verse is out of order and race to see who can tape them up to a wall or a piece of paper, the fastest in order. (Optional: Split them into teams and let one person from the team choose one verse card to tape up during the activity. When they finish, have them say the verse aloud.) Review the meaning of the verse remembering that God is faithful to keep His promises. Expanded Instructions:PREP: Cut out a set of verse cards for each kid. If you decide to do this in teams, make a set for each team.Give each kid, or group, a set of verse cards and pieces of tape. Have the kids put a small amount of tape on the back of each card.Say: To help us remember that God’s promises stick, we’re going to stick this Bible verse to the wall, or to a piece of paper in front of them. Tell the kids to mix up their verse cards and then race to stick them up to a designated area on the wall. When you say “Go,” have them race to stick up the verse in order, one card at a time. You can play this as a relay race, with two teams racing against each other, or let all the kids’ race at once. If you don’t have enough wall space, have them tape their verse to the floor or a piece of paper, or to a partner’s back!When all the kids finish taping up their verse, encourage them to say the verse aloud.Go over the meaning of the verse all together. Remind them that God is faithful to always keep His promises! Say: God was faithful to Abraham and Sarah and gave them a son. God’s promises stick. God is faithful to us too.Optional Discussion Questions:This activity helps us remember that God’s promises stick. What promise did God make in today’s Bible story to Abraham and Sarah that stuck?Why do you think God doesn’t make everything good happen right away?What are some good things that could happen while we’re waiting on God to answer a prayer or fulfill a promise?Believing Experience 2 Make The FamilySupplies: Play-Doh? or cutout from printable page 1 per kid), Bible or Bible story scriptGoal: Have kids do this activity to become more familiar with the Bible story so they can better remember it.Quick Instructions: Give each kid a container of Play-Doh or a paper cutout from the printable page and assign each kid a different character to create from the Bible story (Abraham, Sarah, three visitors, baby Isaac), and then have them act out the Bible story using the Play-Doh or paper characters. Read the story from the Bible or summarize it from the script. As they’re acting it out, ask them the discussion questions. After they finish, have them talk about how God has kept promises in their family or what they are waiting on God to do in their family. End by talking about how we can use the time of waiting to grow in our faith and learn to lean on God. We can use it to help others and strengthen our prayers. Expanded Instructions:Give each kid a paper cutout or a container of Play-Doh and assign each of them a character to create from the Bible story: Abraham, Sarah, three visitors, and baby Isaac. Read the Bible story from the Bible, or use the script to summarize it, and have the kids use their characters to act it out as you say it. After they are done acting out the Bible story, ask them the discussion questions. Say: God made a lot of big promises to Abraham. Some of them may have even seemed impossible, but with God, nothing is impossible! He didn’t forget about Abraham and Sarah, even when they had to wait a long time to get what God promised them. What can we do while we’re waiting on God to give us the things He has promised us? We can grow in our faith and keep praying. We can help others and share about Jesus. Ask: How has God kept promises in your family? What are you waiting on God to do in your family? Say: We can use our time of waiting on God to grow our faith in Him and learn to lean on God. We can also remember that we can talk to Him. Optional Discussion Questions:We just heard about Abraham and Sarah being blessed with a baby. Have any of you ever welcomed a new baby into your family? If so, what did you and your parents do to prepare for the new baby? What do you think Abraham and Sarah did to prepare for the new baby?How do you think Sarah felt when she heard she would have a baby? Why do you think she laughed?What can you do when you get impatient for God to work in your life or keep a promise?Becoming Experience 1Guess the AgeSupplies: Sticky notes (one per kid), pencils or crayonsGoal: Help kids remember that God’s promises aren’t impossible, we can trust Him, and learn how they can apply this to their lives.Quick Instructions: Have the kids get in a circle and go around the circle guessing each other’s age one at a time. The person whose age is being guessed can’t talk until the kids are done guessing. After they guess each other’s ages, have them go around and guess each other’s birth month. Ask them if anyone can guess Abraham’s and Sarah’s ages when they were having their baby. Remind them that God kept His promises to Abraham and Sarah even when they were very old, and it seemed like God had forgotten about them, but God made it happen in His time. End by having kids share about how we can trust God to keep His promises in His time, and then have them draw a way they can trust God this week on a sticky note.Expanded Instructions: Ask: What is the longest you’ve ever had to wait for something good to happen? Maybe you’ve been excited about going somewhere fun or seeing someone, or a trip. Abraham and Sarah had been waiting and hoping for a baby for many years! Do you remember how old they were? Let’s see if we can guess how old each of our friends are today!Tell the kids to get in a circle and go around the circle guessing each other’s age one at a time. The person whose age is being guessed can’t talk until the kids are done guessing. After they guess each other’s ages, have them go around and guess each other’s birth month.Say: God kept His promise to Abraham and Sarah even when they were very old, and it seemed like He had forgotten about them. They thought they were too old to have a baby and it seemed like God had forgotten about them, but God made it happen in His time. Have kid share about how we can trust God to keep His promises in His time. Give each kid a sticky note and writing utensil. Have them draw how they can trust God this week. Have kids share what they drew. Pray and thank God for keeping His promises.Optional Discussion Questions:Was it easy or difficult to know everyone’s age and birth month without having them talk?Do you think it was easy or difficult for Abraham and Sarah to trust God to keep His promise to them even when they were old? Why or why not? What should we remember?Why do you think God doesn’t always do what we expect when we expect it?Becoming Experience 2Unbreakable ExperimentSupplies: Piece of paper, thick book, piece of cloth, piece of toilet paper, piece of uncooked spaghetti pasta, pipe cleaner (or use a printable page with images of all the objects), small paper cards (1 per kid), crayons Goal: Help kids understand the difference between promises of humans and the promises of God, and how God’s timing works in our lives.Quick Instructions: Set out the supplies (or images from the printable) grouped into pairs: paper and book, cloth and toilet paper, spaghetti and pipe cleaner. In each pair, hold them up and ask the kids which they think will break in half the easiest. If using the objects, let them try it out themselves. Talk to them about the difference between human promises, which are breakable, and God’s promises. Ask them to name promises people make that can be broken. Talk about how sometimes people forget things or circumstances change, and they have to break promises. Give kids a card and have them draw a picture that reminds them that God keeps His promises in His time. End by talking about how God never breaks His promises, even when it seems like He’s forgotten.Expanded Instructions:Set out the supplies in pairs: piece of paper and thick book; piece ofcloth and piece of toilet paper; piece of pasta noodle and pipe cleaner. Say: For each pair, one of them is more easily breakable than the other. Let’s try out which one would break. Let the kids try to break one of the items in each pair. Ask: Which was easier to break? Allow kids to respond. Say: The one that was easy to break are like the promises that others make to us. Sometimes people forget things or circumstances change, and they have to break those promises. Ask: What about the one that was harder to break, and didn’t break at all? What do you think that helps us to remember? God doesn’t break His promises! Ask and Say: Was it easy to tell which item would break easily? Do you always trust God to keep His promises? Even if we have to wait on Him, God always keeps His promises to us in His own time.Give kids a card and have them draw a picture that reminds them that God keeps His promises in His time. Have kids share what they drew.End by talking about how God never breaks His promises, even when it seems like He’s forgotten Optional Discussion Questions:Were you right on every guess about which item would break and which wouldn’t?Have you ever had a person break a promise to you? How did it make you feel?How does it make you feel knowing God never breaks a promise?Challenge Experience 1 Choose Your Challenge Goal: To help provide kids with an active way of applying what they have learned from the Bible story and allow them to choose real ways of practicing it during the week.Quick Instructions: Each kid is given a printable page that gives them options to choose from to apply what they learned. Encourage them to think about which challenge they want to try this week, and have them check the box for that challenge. Have the kids tell the story through the illustrations provided and the extra illustrations of their ownSupplies: Printable page (1 for per kid), pencils or crayonsExpanded Instructions:Pass out the Choose Your Challenge page to each kid and give them a writing utensil.Say: Let’s think through some of the experiences we have had today in small group. Review the different activities you did together. We all know that what we learned is not meant to stay here but to help us build God’s kingdom out there! Let’s look over our Challenge Comic page . Review the three options with your small group. Ask: Which one of these challenges do you think you could practice this week and why? Allow kids to share which challenge they are choosing to do this week.Have the kids look at the Bible story illustration. Invite the kids to help you tell the Bible story by using the illustrations.Say: I think that God is going to do something amazing in you this week through these challenges. I can’t wait to hear about how it went next week when we are together. Remember, God is always with you. Discussion Questions:When could you practice one of these challenges this week? Is there one of the challenges that you find easier to do? Which one and why?Whom could you ask to do the challenge with you?Challenge Experience 2God’s Promises PrayerGoal: Kids will review some of God’s promises and practice thankfulness through prayer. Quick Instructions: Give each kid a set of God’s Promises Prayer cards and a crayon. Read over each of the cards with them. Have the kids draw a symbol on the back of their card to help them remember the promise. Then lead them through a time of giving thanks to God for each promise, and asking for help believing and remembering the promise. End with talking about how we are to thank Him for His faithfulness. If we need help trusting God with a certain promise or area of our lives, we can ask Him for help. Supplies: Printable page (1 per kid) on card stock, scissors (prep only), crayons Expanded Instructions: PREP: Print and cut out the prayer cards, enough for a set per kid. Pass out a set of God’s Promises prayer cards to each kid and a crayon, or writing utensil. Say: We were reminded today that God is faithful to keep his promises and do things in His time. Let’s go over some of His promises He has made to us. Read through each promise, then instruct kids to draw a symbol on the back of their card to help them remember the promise. Say: We’re going to pray together and give thanks to God for His faithfulness in our lives and for the promises. We will also ask Him to help us trust Him in each promise. Lead kids in prayer through each promise. Say: God promises to always love us, always be with us, forgive us, to help us when we are tempted, to make us new. God promises we will live with Him forever if we trust Him. He promises to give us strength and comfort. Does He promise everything will always go perfectly for us, and we’ll always get what we want, when we want it? No! But we can trust God to lead us and help us through anything we face.Discussion Questions:Which promise is the easiest for you to remember and trust?Which promise is the one you need the most help remembering or trusting?What can you do when you’re waiting on God to answer a prayer or fulfill a promise in your life? ................
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