God Rescues Israel From the Amalekites

God is an all-powerful rescuer, who mercifully answers the cries of His people who cannot rescue themselves. This week we saw God reveal these aspects of His character in the victory He gave Israel over the Amalekites.

We began our Opening Time with a matching game using foam leaves to review our verse ("In quietness and trust is your strength." Isaiah 30:15) Each word of the verse was written on a different shaped leaf. I layed these out in a line. Then I took a second, identical set of leaves and let the children choose and match them up. Al of them were able to do this game with ease. After we finished, we reviewed some of our previous verses using games from other weeks.

To start off our classtime, we took pipe cleaners and shaped them around cookie cutters shaped like fall figures (leaves,acorns, pumpkins). I talked about how the pipe cleaners are easy to bend and shape, and we want to be easy to bend when God wants to shape us, not hard and stiff like Pharoah was. We want to do what God says is right, very quickly. While we did this activity, the children and I got a chance to get to know each other better, just chatting while we worked. This was very sweet.

Then we moved one table over to where I had set out our felt board. I had the children hold their arms out and we talked about how if we did that for very long, our arms would get very tired. Then I told them the story of Moses praying with his arms outstretched, praying for victory. As long as Moses' arms were lifted up, Israel prevailed. When he got tired, his friends Aaron and Hur brought him a rock to sit on and then held up each of his arms. God showed that He was Israel's victory. The felt board really does help to keep their attention.

Then we moved to a clear area of the library and we acted out the story, with Melanie as Moses, Mia as Aaron and Trey as Hur. They really enjoyed this.

Next we moved outside to have our snack break. We drank bottles of water and ate colored goldfish. Again, this gave us some time to chat and connect with each other, which is such a blessing.

Back inside, we worked on our book for our Bookmaking Badge. We glued Moses' rod in place on a coloring sheet that showed him with raised hands, and gave him some scraps of fabric for his robe. The neatest touch on this page was a clear overlay that had an outline of a cross. When you put the coloring page in the overlay, you could see that Moses' hands were stretched out in the shape of the cross. Moses is a real person who lived and did all the things recorded in the Bible, including serving as the mediator between God and the Israelites -- but God intended that Moses would also be a shadow of the one true Mediator to come -- Jesus.

Please do not worry if you do not feel your children totally understand that. We are giving them a broad-brush narrative of the Old Testament, and along the way showing that all of it points to Jesus. They will hear the Old Testament narrative over and over again in their lives, and understanding that it all foreshadows the Messiah will give them a richer understanding of who Jesus is and what He has done.

After we finished our pictures, we played a game to answer questions about the story. Since Moses had to raise his hands, I had cut out outlines of six hands, then bent the fingers down in different combinations. The children had to choose the hand with no fingers up, then the hand with one finger up and so on. Each hand had a question about today's Bible story. The best was when Melanie got the question: "What would happen if God stopped helping you?" Just at that moment, Mr. Rabe came in the library. She looked at him and asked him the question. He gave a great Mr. Rabe-type answer, telling her that he couldn't live a second without God's help, that God was helping him all the time, even making sure that his heart was beating each beat. She looked up at him, listening intently. Then she said, like a little teacher praising a student, "Yes,you are right!"

This class went very well, and we had so much fun.

God Provides Manna, Quail and Water in the Wilderness: Mrs. Braden was so kind to teach this lesson as I was out sick. I was really disappointed because I particularly love this story -- but I was so thankful that Mrs. Braden, of all people, was able to fill in. I knew she would do it justice, and it certainly sounds like she did!

In opening time, the children matched cutouts from a coloring sheet onto a template. Each cutout (of a quail) had one word of our verse on it. "For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish." (Psalm 1:6)

The children started off class gathering white styrofoam circles that Mrs. Braden had hidden in the library, and putting them in a pot. She did not tell them what they were, but said that the story would be about this strange substance.

Then she showed them her felt board and told the story of the grumbling Hebrews, who were complaining that God was not good because they were hungry. God was faithful even when they were faithless. He provided manna (which she told them all about), quail to eat as meat, and then later told Moses to hit a rock with his rod -- and out so provided water, too.

Mrs. Braden, then had each child hit her "rock" (a lump covered with a gray sweatshirt.) Under the sweatshirt were water bottles, and each child took one and went outside for snack time. After snack, Mrs. Braden scattered the manna in the grass and had the children gather them again, reminding them of the story as they did so.

Back inside, the children worked on the coloring sheets of the quail that God had sent, and added round white stickers to represent the manna he had sent as well.

Wish I could have seen it, but Mrs. Braden reports it was very good class.