Running the Race

We found five passages in the New Testament that speak of the Christian life as a race that we run, and so we wrote from them five lessons that emphasise lordship, faithfulness, the importance of God's word, holiness, and heavenly rewards. In Galion we initially developed these materials for use in 2005, then we polished them up and used them for the second time in 2011, so they're fairly complete at this point.

This theme is essentially complete, although there are a few bits that I still need to finish posting online (most notably, the teen and preschool Bible lessons).

	Elementary		Preschool		Teens
Monday	Bible Lesson:	David and the Lord's Annointed: Jesus should be Lord and Master of our lives.	Bible Lesson:		Bible Lesson:
	Memory Verse:	1st John 2:3	Shape Lesson:	The Ball	Discussion:	8 questions
	Missions:	(Skit) What is a Missionary?			Missions:	[same as elementary]
	Craft:	Bean Mosaic	Craft:	Felt Pennant	Craft:	Baked Rock
	Game: Baton Relay
	Snack: animal crackers
Tuesday	Bible Lesson:	Daniel and the Satraps: God Expects Faithfulness	Bible Lesson:		Bible Lesson:
	Memory Verse:	1st Corinthians 15:58	Shape Lesson:	The Book	Discussion:	7 questions
	Missions:	(Skit) Why Do We Send Missionaries?			Missions:	[same as elementary]
	Craft:	Suncatcher	Craft:	Lion Face	Craft:	Suncatcher (same as elementary)
	Game: Water Relay
	Snack: Lion Cookies
Wednesday	Bible Lesson:	Josiah and the Book: we should study God's word and apply it to our lives.	Bible Lesson:		Bible Lesson:
	Memory Verse:	1st Thessalonians 2:13	Shape Lesson:	The Heart	Discussion:	9 questions
	Missions:	(Skit) What Does a Missionary Do?			Missions:	[same as elementary]
	Craft:	Painted Silhouette	Craft:	Watercolor Painting	Craft:	Painted Silhouette (same as elementary)
	Game: Obstacle Course
	Snack: cupcakes*
Thursday	Bible Lesson:	The Rich Young Man: throw off things that entangle	Bible Lesson:		Bible Lesson:
	Memory Verse:	2nd Timothy 4:7-8	Shape Lesson:	The Cross	Discussion:	7 questions
	Missions:	(Skit) Where Does a Missionary Go?			Missions:	[same as elementary]
	Craft:	Felt Pennant	Craft:	[Needed]	Craft:	Felt Pennant (same as elementary)
	Game: Sand Relay
	Snack: chocolate coin and fruit cup
Friday	Bible Lesson:	The Finish Line: Heaven (John on Patmos)	Bible Lesson:		Bible Lesson:
	Memory Verse:		Shape Lesson:	The Crown	Discussion:	8 questions
	Missions:	(Skit) Who Can Be a Missionary?			Missions:	[same as elementary]
	Craft:	Potato Painting (heaven scene)	Craft:	Posterboard Crown	Craft:	Colored Sand Design in Glass
	Game: Dress-Up Relay
	Snack: crown cookies

* - Items marked with an asterisk are incomplete or otherwise need work.

Preschool Memory Verse (all week): Luke 11:28, Jesus said, Blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it. (NIV)

Substitute Indoor Games:

• [Needed]

Decorations:

I do have photos of most of the decorations we did. I'll post some at some point, and link to them here once they're up. I wanted to go ahead and get this summary posted first.

Running the Race Snacks

Monday: Animal Crackers

Each person gets a small cup of animal crackers, and punch to drink.

Lesson Tie-In:

The animal crackers go with the preschool shape lesson on creation. We were unable to devise a snack to go with the elementary or teen Bible lesson (suggestions welcome), but you can ask them questions about the lesson while they eat.

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Tuesday: Lion Cookies

Using a lion-shaped cookie cutter, prepare lion-shaped cutout cookies. Frost them in yellow or orange. Optionally, some of them can have manes made of licorice or coconut (but be sure to have some available without, too: a lot of children don't like licorice or coconut). Preschool should get one cookie each, and punch to drink. Older children will be able to eat two cookies.

Lesson Tie-In:

The lion cookies correlate with the story about Daniel, prayer, and God's care for us. Ask the children to tell you about the Daniel lesson while they eat.

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Wednesday: Cupcakes

Each person gets a cupcake, and punch.

Lesson Tie-In:

This one unfortunately does not correlate with the lesson. (If you can figure out a way to make scrolls out of some kind of food, that would correlate with the Josiah lesson, but we were unable to work out a good way to do this. Suggestions welcome.) However, you can ask the children questions about the lesson while they eat.

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Thursday: Chocolate Coins and Fruit

Each person gets one (foil-wrapped) chocolate coin and a cup of fruit.

Lesson Tie-In:

The coin goes with the lesson about the rich young man. Ask them questions about the lesson while they eat. (The fruit cup is just there to make the snack more substantial, so they have something to eat besides a piece of chocolate.)

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Friday: Crown Cookies

Make cut-out cookies in the shape of crowns, frosted bright yellow. If desired, they can also be decorated with gumdrop "gemstones". Preschool children should get one crown cookie each, and punch to drink. Older children will be able to eat more.

Lesson Tie-In:

The crown goes with the elementary and teen Bible lessons (on heaven) and with the preschool shapes lesson (also on heaven). Ask the children to tell you about the lesson while they eat.

Colored Sand in a Bottle

Friday:	Colored Sand in a Bottle
Bible Lesson:	The Finish Line: Heaven (John on Patmos)
Memory Verse:	2nd Timothy 4:7-8

Age Groups:

• elementary
• preschool
• teens

Supplies Needed:

• small (clear) glass containers with lids or corks
• colored sand

Preparation:

You can actually dye sand, but the colors come out fairly muted in my experience. Brighter colors can be achieved by rubbing colored chalk into the sand so that chalk dust mixes with the grains. You can also use salt instead of sand.

Instructions:

Give each teen one glass container (skinny jar, cork-lidded vase, etc). Allow them to pour in different colors of the colored sand, in layers, to make a design. Tilting the container when inserting some of the layers may result in a more interesting design. When the design is complete, fill the remainder of the container with plain sand and attach the lid.

Posterboard Crowns

Friday:	Crowns
Bible Lesson:	Fishing All Night
Shape Lesson:	The Crown: Heaven

Age Groups:

• preschool

Supplies Needed:

• yellow posterboard
• gold glitter
• gemstones (can be construction paper)

Preparation:

Pre-cut the posterboard into bands (strips) with decorative protrusions along one edge, so that when the ends are brought together a crown shape results.

Instructions:

Give each child one of the posterboard crown shapes. Allow them to decorate the crown by glueing gemstones and stuff on it it, maybe beads or gold glitter. When they finish, fit the crown to their head and staple it together. Let the teacher hold onto the crowns until time to go upstairs.

Potato Painting

Friday:	Potato Painting
Bible Lesson:	The Finish Line: Heaven (John on Patmos)
Memory Verse:	2nd Timothy 4:7-8

Age Groups:

• elementary

Supplies Needed:

• raw potatoes, cut in pieces
• paint, paper, damp paper towels

Instructions:

Each child gets a hunk of paper. Put several pieces of potato with each color of paint – each piece should stay in the same color. Children dip the potato pieces in the paint and stamp it onto the paper, picking it up and down like a stamp, to create a scene depicting heaven.

You should provide them with a list of things the Bible says about heaven. For example:

• pure gold as pure as glass
• streets of gold
• river flowing from the throne through the middle of the city
• tree of life on the banks of the river
• many homes (John 14)
• great, high wall
• twelve gates, three on each side, always open
• each gate is a giant pearl
• the city is a square, as long as it is wide
• the foundations are decorated with gemstones (rubies, emeralds, and so on)
• no night, the glory of God gives it light

Felt Pennant (Elementary and Teen Version)

Thursday:	Felt Pennant
Bible Lesson (elementary and teen):	The Rich Young Man: throw off things that entangle.
Memory Verse (elementary and teen):	Matthew 19:29
Bible Lesson (preschool):	The Paralytic Man

Age Groups:

• elementary
• teens

Supplies Needed:

• felt

Preparation:

Depending on age group and time considerations, you may want to pre-cut the felt into pennant shapes. Leave scraps for them to cut out the shapes for on the pennant.

Instructions:

Make pennants out of felt, by cutting out shapes and gluing them on. Each child or teen gets an oblong isosceles triangle of the stuff (solid color), plus little bits to cut out letters and shapes and stuff, to glue on. The pennant should display a Christian battle cry (such as “Jesus”, “Victory”) or symbol (e.g., a cross or ΙΧΘΥΣ) or a runner or something from the Bible lesson. Once it is decorated, attach it to a length of dowel rod, and they can take it home afterward and hang it on a wall.

Lion Faces

Wednesday:	Lion Faces
Bible Lesson:	Josiah and the Bible

Age Groups:

• preschool

Supplies Needed:

• paper plates
• construction paper
• yarn (yellow, orange, or brown)
• glue and cotton swabs

Preparation:

Cut out the needed pieces (see image) from the construction paper ahead of time. Cut short pieces (2-4 inches each) of yarn for the manes.

Instructions:

Give each child a large paper plate and construction paper eye, nose, and mouth pieces. Let them glue these in place. (Put some glue on a small paper plate and let the children use cotton swabs to brush the glue on – no bottles of glue.) Show them where to glue them. Give them pieces of yarn about three inches long to glue around the edge for a mane.

Painted Silhouette

Wednesday:	Painted Silhouette
Bible Lesson:	Josiah and the Book: we should study God's word and apply it to our lives.
Memory Verse:	John 3:14-15

Age Groups:

• elementary
• teens

Supplies Needed:

• squares of white cloth
• black paint, brushes, and pencils
• stencil of a boy reading the Bible
• stencil of a girl reading the Bible
• lengths of dowel rod

Preparation:

Find silhouettes of a boy reading and of a girl reading. (It should be possible to find these with an image search on the web.) Trace each silhouette onto posterboard and cut them out, creating the stencils. Depending on the number of children you have, you may need multiple copies of each stencil, so that several children can trace them at once.

Instructions:

Children place the stencil on their cloth and trace around the edge with a pencil, mount a dowel across the top (for hanging), and paint inside the lines.

Watercolor Painting

Tuesday:	Watercolor Painting
Bible Lesson:	Daniel and the Lions

Age Groups:

• preschool

Supplies Needed:

• Paper suitable for painting on, with a coloring page copied onto it (depicting a scene from the Bible lesson).
• Watercolor paints and brushes

Instructions:

Give each child a copy of the picture from the lesson, on a somewhat heavier grade of paper. Let them paint it.