Finally... The Promised Land

After our long break, we resumed class with the exciting climax of our narrative -- God keeps His promise and brings His people into the land of Canaan. We opened with a coloring picture of Rahab's roof and then matched styrofoam bricks to the picture to spell out Psalm 56:3. ("When I am afraid, I will trust in you.") Each brick had one word and then a different color on each side. The children quickly figured out how to do the matching and enjoyed it very much.

To start off our Bible story, I showed the children a pitcher of water and started pouring it into a cup. I asked them if I was strong enough to stop the water. They said yes, and so I did. Then I asked if I was strong enough to stop a whole lot of water rushing toward us, like in a big, big river. I showed them a picture of a big river. They said no and Trey beat me to the punch, by saying, "Only God can do that." I told them that that was just what happened in today's story, right before the Israelites got to enter the Promised Land.

We used the feltboard to tell the rest of the story, and I started by showing Moses (in order to tell the children about him dying), but before I could say anything Melanie jumped in to say, "Oh, no! Moses doesn't get to go into the Promised Land!" What a great memory!

The children especially liked putting the "flax" (strings of yellow yarn) over the spies to hide them, and then pulling apart two blue pieces of felt to show God dividing the Jordan River for the Israelites to cross.

Our snack was Frosted Mini Wheats, which I thought sort of looked like flax. After eating, we acted out the story using props. The most fun was big blue plastic water that we laid out to be the Jordan, then pulled it apart. This got a bit wild, but I hope they will remember the story.

Back at our table, we worked on a page for our book, a reminder that our alll-powerful God never fails His people nor forsakes them." We glued yarn flax and a nice thick red cord for Rahab to hang out her window. Just like Rahab, we are trusting in God to deliver us! And He has promised to do it.