3-5s
Intros:
·
Find
some activity which they all need to be involved in eg have a large sheet and a
balloon and they have to stop the balloon falling off, or something similar
Teaching:
[you will
need lots of jenga blocks/matchboxes/books for the wall]
Recap and
reminder – God’s people had been living in the land of Israel but had disobeyed
God. So God sent the Babylonian army to punish them and they were led off to
live in a distant land for 70 years. Now they are coming back, but the walls
and gates around Jerusalem have been broken down and Nehemiah, the King’s
cupbearer has come back to fix them.
[Have a
puppet Nehemiah] Nehemiah has seen the walls of Jerusalem and fells sad. Can he
fix them all by himself? No!
This is a
big city with great big walls – Nehemiah can’t do it all. What do you think he
could do? [take suggestions]
He got
everyone involved from the priests to the goldsmiths to the perfumers to the
shopkeepers [if possible give each child something representing a job they
could do, eg for a baker give one a rolling pin].
Do you
think you could have done some wall building as a baker/perfumer/etc? Of course
you would have got stuck in! Boys and girls were involved. It wasn’t just for
some, it was for everyone.
Only one
group of people didn’t get involved – the leading men of Tekoa. They thought
they were too important to get their hands dirty serving God! Of course, they
were totally wrong.
Jesus wants
to build his kingdom – but that’s not bricks and walls, its people: he wants
people to hear about his wonderful forgiveness and to trust him more. We can
all help with that. Some of us can chatter with our friends in class about how
great Jesus is; some of us can help the older people in church by chatting to
them; some of us can help build Jesus’ kingdom by writing a little card to
people who are poorly in church.
What could
you do? [take answers]
Pray
Craft:
·
Writing
cards to encourage people in church – elderly or poorly
·
Prayer
bricks – get them to think of someone to pray for and stick their name onto a
Jenga brick then add to the pile as they pray
·
Coloring
page
5-11s
Intro:
·
Keep
up the balloon – everyone needs to touch it
·
Large
cloth with balloon – everyone has to hold onto it and stop the balloon coming
off
Talk about
was it easier or harder everyone working together?
Teaching:
Recap on
Bible history and what has happened so far in the story
This week
it looks like a really dull chapter – just a long list of who did what on the
wall. But the important thing is that everyone got involved.
Even the
baker [give one a baker’s outfit] – he got stuck into building around the dung
gate!
The priest
– he got stuck into building the sheep gate!
Boys and
girls got stuck into building – Nehemiah divided up the area of the wall and
gave everyone a part to fix. [put them in a circle and give them a section to
‘build’]
Only one
group of people didn’t get involved: the leading men of Tekoa. They thought
they were too important! Do you think they were? No, of course not.
What is
Jesus building now? It’s not a wall. [take suggestions]
He’s
building his church – and that’s something that we can all be involved in. What
can we do to be involved in building up his people? [take suggestions]
[possible
suggestions – chatting about Jesus, inviting, welcoming, looking after those
who might be missing or sad, visiting, sending cards, getting cups of tea for
the older folks, etc]
Which of
these could you do? Don’t be like those who do nothing, we’re serving Jesus
together.
Table Time:
Knowledge
·
What
needed done in Jerusalem?
·
Who
got involved?
·
Who
didn’t get involved?
Understanding
·
Why
didn’t some people get involved?
·
Why
do you think the others got stuck in?
·
What
is Jesus building now?
Application
·
What
could you do to help build Jesus’ kingdom?
·
How
are you going to do it?
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