Schedules

Here is the schedule we are using. Obviously, things vary by a minute or two, but we try to stay as close to the schedule as we can to avoid conflicts with different age groups wanting the same room at the same time, and to get all three age groups back for the closing around the same time, and to keep from running too late and making parents anxious.

Obviously, each local church would need to make adjustments, due to considerations like available rooms, available people, and so on. Think of this as an example. Notice how the elementary (our largest age group) is on the move to a different area every fifteen or twenty minutes. We'd do the same thing with the other age groups if we had enough space to be able to make it work.

Time	Activity
6:00	Registration, Verse Recital, Visitor Registration, and Seating
6:15	Opening — Sanctuary (See below for details.)
Time	Preschool	Elementary	Youth/Teen
6:35	Craft Mess Room	Bible Lesson Sanctuary	Bible Lesson Teen Room
6:40
6:45
6:50
6:55	Bible Lesson Preschool Room	Games Outdoors (Basement if rainy)	Snacks, Verse, & Discussion Teen Room
7:00
7:05
7:10	Snack small portions Mess Room	Missions Sanctuary
7:15
7:20			Craft Teen Room
7:25	Verse Preschool Room	Snack Mess Room
7:30
7:35	Songs Preschool Room
7:40		Verse Sanctuary	Games Outdoors (Teen Room if rainy)
7:45	Secondary Lesson Preschool Room
7:50		Craft Mess Room
7:55			Missions Teen Room
8:00	Games Outdoors (Preschool Room if rainy)
8:05
8:10
8:15	Closing — Sanctuary (See below for details.)
8:35	Dismiss

Opening Schedule
6:15:00	First Song	(2.5 minutes)
6:17:30	Welcome	(4 minutes)
6:21:30	Second Song	(2.5 minutes)
6:24:00	Offering or Third Song	(5 minutes)
6:29:00	Announcements	(4 minutes)
6:32:00	One More Song	(2 minutes)
6:34:00	Dismiss Preschool	(1 minute)
6:35:00	Dismiss Teens and start Bible Lesson

Closing Schedule
8:15:00	First Song	(2.5 minutes)
8:17:30	Did Everybody Have a Good Time?	(2.5 minutes)
8:20:00	Second Song	(2 minutes)
8:22:00	Contest Results	(3 minutes)
8:25:00	Third Song	(2 minutes)
8:27:00	Hand Out Prizes	(3 minutes)
8:30:00	Come Back, Bring Friends, &c	(1 minute)
8:31:00	One More Song	(3 minutes)
8:34:00	Dismiss

Decorations

We'll fill in the links in this table as we get our decoration plans online. See SVG Documents for information about the SVG documents.

Theme	Bulletin Boards	Wall Decorations	Ceiling Decorations	Stage Decorations	Panel Display	Other
Fishing for Christ	Elementary, Preschool, Teen	fish everywhere (artwork needed)	hang from ceiling: fish, bobbers, poles, and so on	Needed	Needed
Running the Race	Elementary, Preschool, Teen	runners, running shoes, pennants, crossed checkered flags, ... (artwork needed)	Needed	Needed	Needed	Starting line / Finish line sign across entryway
Back to the Beginning	Elementary, Preschool, Teen	Needed	Needed	Needed	Needed
God's Sheep	bulletin board plans* (teen comic strips)**	flocks of sheep (artwork)	Needed	sheepfold	Isaac & the Ram (scenes)
Soldiers of God	Elementary, Preschool, Teen	Available	Needed	Needed	Needed
Footsteps of the Fathers (tentative)	Elementary, Preschool, Teen	Needed	Needed	Needed	Needed

Decoration Plans for God's Sheep

Note: See SVG Documents.

Bulletin Boards

We have plans for three bulletin boards (elmentary, preschool, and teen): bulletin-board-planning.svg and comic-strips-for-teen-bb.svg

Wall Decorations: Flocks of Sheep

On the walls, there should be several scenes with a flock of sheep. (There can be big sheep, little sheep, ewes, rams, lambs, white sheep, black sheep, black-faced white sheep, speckled sheep, ...)

• One of these scenes can feature a roaring lion in opposition to the flock.
• One scene should depict a wolf disguised in sheep's clothing, Wolf_in_Sheep_s_Clothing.svg.
• One scene should show a shepherd leading the sheep.
• In the preschool room there can just be sheep all over the walls.

Artwork for some of these scenes is still needed.

Panel Display: Isaac & the Ram

We're thinking in terms of a three-panel display of the Isaac and the Ram story. The first panel can show them going up the mountain; the second panel can depict Abraham tying the boy to the altar, and the third panel should probably show the ram in the thicket.

Artwork for this display is still needed.

Stage Decoration: Sheepfold

For the stage, build sheep-fold walls out of cardboard, with a little wadded newspaper and paper-mache for shape and texture, painted to look like stone wall. Lawn sheep, if available, can be placed within the fold. A door should be left in one place, making the fold enterable (although the wall does not need to be very tall, in any case).

Ceiling Decorations: Needed

We could put mobiles on the ceilings, but what would we hang from them? Yet more sheep? We may skip the ceilings this year.

We could hang sheep from the ceiling in the preschool room.

Other:

We didn't talk about what to do for the stairs, but more sheep on the walls seems like an obvious option...

SVG Documents

A number of the materials, such as craft patterns, decorations, and so on, are in SVG format. We've created them using Inkscape, which can also be used to view or print them. (Inkscape is freely available, so you can download and install it at no cost. I can also convert the documents to other formats (such as eps or PDF) upon request.)

At the time of this writing, I haven't got them all online yet. For a long time we didn't really have a place to put them (online). Update (spring of 2011): Now that we finally do have a place to host them, I still have to get around to putting most of them up. So for now they are available upon request.

I will eventually try to get them all online, at which point I will link to them here, as well as to each of them from the appropriate place (e.g., craft patterns from the instruction pages for each respective craft). But for now, people who need them will need to contact us and request them. If you need a format other than SVG, please specify in your message what format you want (e.g., PDF). To be sure I see your message promptly, include the words Bible School in the Subject.

Snacks

Theme	Day	Key Snack Item	Notes	Additional Items
God's Sheep Snacks (Updated, 2013 July)	Monday	Popcorn	Object lesson goes with Bible lesson.	sandwiches, chocolate-chip cookies
	Tuesday	Cross/Sheep Cutout Cookies	Shapes go with Bible lesson.	tacos, chips
	Wednesday	Donuts	Shape is a reminder for the Bible lesson.	hot dogs, fruit
	Thursday	Jell-O® Jigglers	Shapes go with Bible lesson.	pizza, cupcakes
	Friday	Salad	Salad reminds us of the kinds of things sheep need to eat.	macaroni and cheese, ice-cream floats
Soldiers of God Snacks (updated 2014)	Monday	Twizzlers	Twizzlers look like the red rope Rahab used to let the spies out.	Popcorn & Mini-Burgers
	Tuesday	Grilled Cheese Sandwiches	Grilled cheese sandwiches have bread both over the cheese and under it, like the centurion who had men over him and under him.	Jell-O and Carrot Sticks
	Wednesday	Shield Cookies	The cookies are shaped like shields, which are a piece of armor.	Pizza & Fruit
	Thursday	Mud Pudding	Mud pudding resembles the mud that was in the bottom of the cistern into which Jeremiah was thrown.	Hot Dogs & Nachos
	Friday	Prison-bar cupcakes	The stripes on top of the cupcakes resemble bars, like on a prison; Peter was in prison, but God sent an angel to let him out.	Sloppy Joe & Chips
Fishing for Christ Snacks (updated 2015)	Monday	Chocolate Coins	Jesus told Peter he would find a coin in the fish's mouth.	Spaghetti & Fruit
	Tuesday	Whale Cookies	Jonah was inside a whale for three days and three nights	Tuna Salad Sandwiches & Carrot Sticks
	Wednesday	Fish Sticks	Jesus ate a piece of cooked fish to show his disciples that he was really there.	Applesauce & Homemade Cookies
	Thursday	gummy fish	When their net was full of fish, the disciples knew that it was Jesus, and that they should listen to him.	Hot Dogs & Cucumber Slices
	Friday	cloud parfaits	When Jesus ascended, a cloud hid him from the disciples' sight. Before leaving, he told them to be his witnesses.	Tater Tots & Cheese Chunks
Following the Footsteps Snacks	Monday	Grapes & Pretzels	The men who explored the land brought back an enormous cluster of grapes, evidence of the bounty of the land. The cluster was so large that they draped it across a pole (represented by the pretzel rod) so two men could carry it.	Cookies
	Tuesday	Kool-Aid	Kool-Aid packets come with instructions on the back. If you read the instructions but don't follow them, you don't get good Kool-Aid. The Bible also has instructions in it, and we need to follow them, like the people of Israel when Ezra read the Bible to them.	Spaghetti, Garlic Bread, & Pudding
	Wednesday	Gummy Snakes on Sticks	God told Moses to display a snake on a stick in the middle of the camp, so that people could look to it and be saved, – just like we today look to Jesus for our salvation.	Hot Dogs & Carrot Sticks
	Thursday	Baby Shower Cookies	People have baby showers to celebrate when they have a baby. Hannah had been wanting a baby for a long time; when she prayed, God gave her a son, Samuel.	French Fries & Cheese Slices
	Friday	Homemade Bread & Jam	Epaphroditus brought Paul food (among other things) from the church, to help Paul while he was in Prison for telling people about Jesus. Epaphroditus served God by helping Paul. The Shunnamite also helped Elisha by feeding him, because he was a man of God. Homemade bread is a kind of food they might have had and might have given them.	Fruit & Ice Cream
Running the Race Snacks	Monday	animal crackers	animals go with the preschool lesson on creation
	Tuesday	lion cookies	lion is a reminder that God cared for Daniel
	Wednesday	cupcakes and scrolls	cupcake does not correlate, but scrolls go with the Josiah lesson
	Thursday	chocolate coins and fruit salad	the coins are a reminder of the rich young man; fruit does not correlate
	Friday	crown-shaped cookies	the crown goes with the elementary Bible lesson and the preschool shapes lesson
Back to the Beginning Snacks	Monday	animal crackers	God created animals
	Tuesday	fruit salad	Adam and Eve were permitted to eat any fruit in the garden, except from the tree of knowledge
	Wednesday	animal-shaped cutout cookies	animals go with the lesson on Noah's ark
	Thursday	star-shaped cheese	Abraham was told his offspring would be as numerous as the stars
	Friday	cupcakes	does not correlate**

Footnotes:

* Needs some work (such as improved instructions, etc).

** Does not correlate with any of the lessons and could be replaced if someone comes up with something that does.

Snacks (God's Sheep)

Monday:	Popcorn
Elementary Lesson:	Straying Sheep: Everyone has sinned and that sin has a penalty.
Elementary Verse:	We all, like sheep, have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him all our sin. Isaiah 53:6

Air-pop the popcorn and serve it warm, if possible. Butter, if desired, can be melted in a saucepan on the stove. Popcorn is white and fluffy, like sheep, and when air-popped, sometimes a piece of popcorn comes flying out of the popper and flies across the room, like a lost sheep. Remind the children that, like sheep, we wander astray sometimes.

---

Tuesday:	Cutout Cookies
Elementary Lesson:	Lamb of God: Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, so that we don't have to.
Elementary Verse:	He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Romans 4:25

Serve homemade cutout cookies in the shape of crosses (frosted red or brown) and sheep (frosted white, optionally with black detail, e.g. hooves and an eye). Remind the children that a sheep took Isaac's place, and that Jesus died on a cross to take their place.

---

Wednesday:	Donuts
Elementary Lesson:	Stolen Sheep: We should obey God's instruction.
Elementary Verse:	To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22

Serve traditional O-shaped (i.e., toroidal) donuts. Tell the children that the O stands for Obey, because we should obey God's instruction, even though Saul didn't.

---

Thursday:	Jell-O® Jigglers
Elementary Lesson:	Sheep Security: Jesus is the good shepherd and always looks after his sheep.
Elementary Verse:	I give them eternal life, and they will never die. No one can snatch them out of my hand. John 10:28

Serve thick, jiggly gelatin dessert in the shape of shepherd crooks (like a candy-cane shape) and sheep. The shepherd's crook should remind the children that Jesus is the good shepherd who takes care of his sheep.

---

Friday:	Floats
Elementary Lesson:	Shepherded Sheep: We must follow Jesus.
Elementary Verse:	For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

Serve floats with vanilla ice cream. Let each child choose between root beer or orange pop. (This snack is not related to the lesson, but you can still remind the children of the lesson while they eat it.)

Games

The plan is to fill in the links in the table below as we get more of the games online...

Theme	Day	Elementary Game	Preschool Game	Teen Game
God's Sheep	Monday	Pass the Sheep	Pass the Sheep	Pass the Sheep
	Tuesday	Sheep Gate Tag	Sheep Gate Tag	Marshmallow Ram
	Wednesday	Sheep Golf	Sheep Golf	Sheep Golf
	Thursday	Sheep Maze	Sheep Maze	Sheep Maze
	Friday	Sheep Chin Relay Race	Sheep Relay Race	Sheep Chin Relay Race
	Indoors (in case of rain): Tangled Wool Sheep Soccer Have the preschool play standard games they know such as Duck Duck Goose
Soldiers of God (2008)	Monday	Water Balloon Toss	Marching Around the Wall	Water Balloon Toss
	Tuesday	Sealed Orders (orders)	Water Balloon Toss	Sealed Orders (orders)
	Wednesday	Soldier Dress-Up Relay	Soldier Dress-Up Relay	Soldier Dress-Up Relay
	Thursday	CTF Wargame	Hiding from the Bad King	CTF Wargame
	Friday	Enlistment Tag	Play with Hula Hoops**	Enlistment Tag
	Indoors (in case of rain): [needed]
Fishing for Christ	Monday	Oven Mitt Relay	Fish Coin Hunt	Oven Mitt Relay
	Tuesday	Team Slide	Diving into the Whale	Team Slide
	Wednesday	Wet Sponge Relay	Twelve Baskets Full	Wet Sponge Relay
	Thursday	Hula Hoop Net Race	Hula Hoop Net Race	Hula Hoop Net Race
	Friday	Fishermen's Relay	Fishermen's Relay	Fishermen's Relay
	Indoors (in case of rain): Indoor Fish Relay Don't Break the Rod
Following the Footsteps	Monday	Wet Sponge Dodgeball	Floating Stuff	Wet Sponge Dodgeball
	Tuesday	Soak the Paper	Through the Hoop	Soak the Paper
	Wednesday	Crabwalking in the Footsteps	Crawling in the Footsteps	Crabwalking in the Footsteps
	Thursday	Pile-Up	Pass the Sheep	Pile-Up
	Friday	Footsteps of Service	Gather & Sort the Balls	Footsteps of Service
	Indoors (in case of rain): Footsteps Memory
Running the Race	Monday	Baton Relay	[Needed]	Baton Relay
	Tuesday	Water Relay
	Wednesday	Obstacle Course
	Thursday	Sand Relay
	Friday	Dress-Up Relay
	Indoors (in case of rain): Telephone Game (Race Version)
Back to the Beginning	Monday	Animal Match-Up Relay	Animal Game (Pretending)	Animal Match-Up Relay
	Tuesday	Board Foot Race**	Bubbles**	Board Foot Race**
	Wednesday	Two by Two	Animal Match-Up Race	Two by Two
	Thursday	Egg-Push Race**	Hot Potato**	Egg-Push Race
	Friday	The Church** (similar to blob tag)	Needed	Frisbee® Basketball**
	Indoors (in case of rain): Animal Memory Balloon Stomp

Footnotes:

*
Needs some work (such as improved instructions, etc).

**
Needs substantial work or should ideally be replaced.

Sheep Soccer

Equipment Needed:

• cotton balls (many)
• drinking straws (one per)
• two identical goals

Overview:

Cotton balls (sheep) are strewn through the playing area (e.g., a table or floor). Each participant gets a drinking straw through which to exhale in the general direction of said cotton ball sheep, gathering them into that team's sheep fold (i.e., goal area).

Instructions:

Divide the participants into two approximately even teams. Hand out one straw to each player as you explain the rules, then stage a short countdown and let everyone start at once, blowing to herd the sheep into their team's fold. Inevitably some cotton balls will leave the playing area, and a leader may collect them and restore them to play as time allows, but if a few don't make it back in, don't worry about it. When there are no or very few sheep left in the playing area, call a halt to the action and count up the score, i.e., the number of sheep in each fold. The team with the most sheep in its fold wins the round. If time allows, you can rescatter the sheep and repeat the game.

Tangled Wool

Equipment Needed:

• one ball of white yarn for each small circle of participants

Instructions:

Have several people (up to about a dozen) stand in a circle. (Make as many circles as you need for all your participants.) Take a ball of white yarn (wool) for each circle and tie the starting end to a stationary object.

Hand the ball of wool to one of the sheep in the circle. Each person (sheep) who gets the ball passes it behind his back or around an arm or leg or something (avoid the neck) then tosses the ball to another person (sheep) somewhere across the circle.

When the ball runs out, everyone must untangle himself, then the group must attempt to untangle the knotted wool and reroll the ball. (They will not get all the knots out before time expires, but let them have fun trying for a while. If excessive frustration ensues, an adult can make a couple of strategic cuts with scissors (sheep shears) to free things up a bit. Do not give scissors to the sheep/children.)

Sheep Under the Chin Relay

Equipment Needed:

• two identical stuffed sheep, about the size of an apple, or a little larger

Instructions:

Line up the participants in two teams, each team in straight line. Start a sheep at the beginning of each line, tucking it under the first person's chin. All players must keep their hands folded behind their backs at all times. (For a preschool group you can skip the no-hands requirement.) The player with the sheep (on each team) must run down to the line/marker/whatever and back, then (keeping hands behind back as always) pass the sheep to the next person, who must then hold it under their chin while they run, and so on. If the sheep is dropped or the hands come out from behind the back at any time, the player must stop running, collect the sheep, return to the starting line, put the sheep back under their chin, put their hands back behind their back, and start running over again.

For a teen group, if the sheep is dropped, make them pick it up with their chin, keeping their hands behind their back. If they drop the sheep while passing it, make the person who just ran pick it up with their chin and start over with passing it to the next person.

Sheep Maze

Equipment Needed:

• tall wooden stakes (56 of them, if possible)
• twine (lots of this)
• maze layout
• blindfolds

Instructions:

Days ahead of time, prebuild the sections of fence, from the stakes and twine, with measured lengths of twine between the stakes. Construct also eight twine gates, made to hang between two of the stakes, closing off various gaps.

On the morning of the day when the game is scheduled, lay out the maze, driving the stakes into the ground, according to the basic layout.

Excluding the entrance and exit of the maze, there are 27 gate locations in the layout — these are the places where there is an opening between two stakes that are the right distance apart for one of the 8 twine gates to hang there and close it off. The games leaders and their helpers can re-hang the eight movable gates from time to time over any of these places, so that the maze is slightly different for every person who goes through it.

(Mathematically speaking there are over two million possible arrangements, and although some of those cannot be used because they would make the maze unsolveable, there still should be thousands of distinct ways to place the eight gates so that the maze can be solved. The layout shows twelve examples.)

Each sheep is blindfolded and must follow the shepherd's voice through the maze. The shepherd goes through ahead of the sheep and calls the sheep by name. If there are a large number of children to get through, more than one shepherd can be used, so that as one sheep is in the second half of the maze another can be just starting.

When playing this game with preschool, let them run the maze together as a group, perhaps without blindfolds.

When playing with teens, have a second leader play the part of a stranger, who stalks around the maze and attempts to mislead the sheep by calling them in the wrong direction. The sheep must follow their shepherd's voice, rather than the stranger's, to successfully navigate the maze. After blindfolding each teen, be sure to change the gates, so that they cannot use a memorized knowledge of the maze layout and must rely on the shepherd.

Sheep Golf

Equipment Needed:

• lightweight (preferably plastic) balls
• paper towel tubes (lots of these)
• cups or other containers to serve as holes

Instructions:

Each child gets a lightweight plastic ball and a single (1) paper towel tube to use as a club. They must care for their clubs, because if a child's club becomes unusable, he is out and cannot play any more.

Set cups (or other containers) out on their sides, large enough that the balls can be hit into them easily. Children must go on hands and knees like sheep. Set up nine holes and have the kids start at different places. Instruct them ahead of time how to each keep their own scores in their heads.

Sheep Gate Tag

Equipment Needed:

• none

Instructions:

A circle of children stands with hands clasped, each two people on the circle forming a gate with their arms. (Adults can form part of the circle if there are not enough children.) When the arms are up, the gate is open, and when they are down it is closed. A wolf chases one or more sheep around and through the circle, but sheep and wolf alike can only go through open gates, not closed gates. When the wolf catches a sheep (by tagging), he becomes a sheep, and a new wolf is picked from the circle; the captured sheep returns to the circle. Members of the circle can raise or lower their gates at will, allowing sheep through but barring the wolf, or vice versa, or whatever.

Pass the Sheep

Equipment Needed:

• Several stuffed sheep. They can each be different.

Instructions:

Everyone sits in a circle and passes the sheep around the circle, all in the same direction. Start with 2 sheep (1 for preschool) for the first round. Each time a sheep comes to a player, the player must pass the sheep on to the next person before the next sheep arrives.

If the next sheep arrives, so that the player is caught with two sheep at once, that player is out and must step out of the circle and watch. When someone gets out, move the sheep so they are spread out around the circle before passing resumes. (For teens, don't stop: the person who gets out takes one sheep out with them, but the other players must continue passing the remaining sheep as they were. The leader should add the removed sheep back into the circle at a different place.)

When there are the same number of people left as sheep, the round ends, everyone comes back into the circle, and an additional sheep is added. (For preschool, start each round with just one sheep again, and add a second sheep once the first one has gone around the circle a couple of times. Depending on the number of children, you may or may not be able to add any more than that.)

Crafts

General Notes:

The Materials Needed lists for these crafts omit certain standard items that we assume you have, such as crayons, scissors, and glue. We also assume you have cleanup supplies, such as paper towels, soap, and access to a couple of sinks.

Make sure that your crafts leader has access to the lessons (or at least the lesson summaries), so that they can be aware of lesson tie-ins.

Your craft leader should go through all the crafts ahead of time and understand fully how they work. Do think ahead.

Many of these crafts call for auxilliary documents (e.g., scenes from the lesson, patterns, and so forth). When we have these online, we will include links to them in the chart below and/or from the page on each individual craft. See SVG Documents for a general explanation.

Theme	Day	Elementary Craft	Preschool Craft	Teen Craft
God's Sheep	Monday	Shadow Box (Moses and the Rock)	Sheep Bank (face, ears and tail)	Vase Candle
	Tuesday	Ram in the Thicket (ram pattern)	Watercolor (David playing the harp for his sheep)	Cloth Painting (ram in a thicket, or Abraham & Isaac)
	Wednesday	Bookmark (Obedience)	Pull-Through Film Strip (Saul and the bleating sheep)	Bookmark (Obedience)
	Thursday	Plate Masks** (Sheep, Bear, or Lion)	Plate Masks (Sheep)	Soap Molding
	Friday	Noodle Mosaic* (Follow God)	Chalk Drawing (Sheep)	Noodle Mosaic** (Follow God)
Soldiers of God	Monday	Braided Red Cord Bookmark	Braided Red Cord Bookmark	Braided Red Cord Bookmark
	Tuesday	Shrinkies	Shrinkies	Shrinkies
	Wednesday	Picture Frame	Picture Frame	Cap Curtains
	Thursday	Chalk Painting	Chalk Painting
	Friday	Praying Hands pattern/silhouette	Praying Hands pattern/silhouette	Soap Sculpture (or finish cap curtains)
Fishing for Christ	Monday	CD Fish** (see here, here, or here)	CD Fish (see here, here, or here)	Polished Aluminum**
	Tuesday	Sign of Jonah	Paper Bag Whale**	Sign of Jonah (teen version)
	Wednesday	Sponge-Painted Tomb Scene	Basket of Fish and Bread (molding dough)*	Colored Sand Tomb Scene
	Thursday	Fishing All Night Boat Scene	Peat-Pot Tomb Scene	Memory Verse on Heart**
	Friday	Wordless Bracelet	Wordless Bracelet	Wordless Bracelet
Following in the Footsteps	Monday	All ages: Footprint Placemat
	Tuesday	All ages: Sukkot Shelters
	Wednesday	Cross Necklace	Foam Cross Necklace	Cross Necklace
	Thursday	All ages: Prayer Can
	Friday	Gift Baskets	Gift Cards	Gift Baskets
Running the Race	Monday	Bean Mosaic (scenes needed)	Felt Pennant	Baked Rocks
	Tuesday	Suncatchers (scenes needed)	Lion Faces	Suncatchers
	Wednesday	Painted Silhouette on cloth (silhouettes needed)	Watercolor (Hilkiah finding the scroll - outline picture needed)	Painted Silhouette on cloth (silhouettes needed)
	Thursday	Felt Pennants	[Needed]	Felt Pennants
	Friday	Potato Painting (Heaven)	Crowns	Colored Sand Design in Glass
Back to the Beginning	Monday	Creation Box	[Needed]	Wax-Dipped Origami*
	Tuesday	Cross wall hanging**	Paint by Shape**	Cross wall hanging
	Wednesday	Ark Scene	Ark Scene	Ark Scene
	Thursday	Window Hanging	Window Hanging	Window Hanging
	Friday	Garden Stones**	Garden Stones**	Garden Stones**

---

Footnotes:

* Needs some work (such as improved instructions, etc).

** Needs substantial work or should ideally be replaced. (In some cases the idea is sound but the implementation lacking. In other cases, the craft does not correlate well with the Bible lesson. In the case of the plate masks, they just don't seem age-appropriate beyond about second grade.)

Chalk Drawing: Sheep

Materials Needed:

• black construction paper
• white chalk
• hairspray or sealer spray

Instructions:

Each child gets a sheet of black construction paper and draws a sheep on it with chalk. Show them how to use the side of the chalk, making circles, to create a sheep-wool effect, and show them how to hold the chalk like a pencil when they're working on the head. Hold up an example for them to copy.

When they finish, an adult can spray the pages with hairspray to set the chalk drawings.

Noodle Mosaic

Materials Needed:

• mosaic outline (photocopy)
• thick paper that you can photocopy onto
• pasta, in various colors and shapes

Instructions:

Ahead of time, photocopy the mosaic outline onto the thick paper.

Have them glue various colors and shapes of pasta onto the page to make a noodle mosaic. The general idea is to use different colors or shapes of pasta in each area of the page, to create a visually distinct look, so that the shapes on the page can be seen even though the drawing is covered with noodles.

Soap Molding

Materials Needed:

• bulk soap
• molds (1-2 per teen)
• soap coloring
• fragrances
• items to embed (optional, and only if the soap is translucent)
• toothpicks (for stirring)
• thermometer that goes past 150F

Instructions:

Have the soap melted ahead of time in a crock pot (preferably with a removable liner). Heat to around 145F. (If it's more than 150F you cannot pour it into the molds.)

Each teen can select a mold. (Have groups of teens sit together that are using adjascent molds.) Then have them select color and/or fragrance as desired.

Let one teen at a time pour or ladle soap into the mold (assisting as necessary) so that it is nearly, but not quite entirely, full, leaving just a little room for stirring. Fragrance, if used, should be added about 6-10 drops, and stir with a toothpick. Add color (if desired) one drop at a time, stirring with a toothpick after each drop, until the desired shade is reached. Colors can be combined.

Soap will take an hour or so to cool before it can be removed from the mold.

Plate Masks

Materials Needed:

• paper plates
• elastic
• cotton balls (for sheep masks)
• orange yarn (for lion masks)
• brown paint (for bear masks)
• whatever the ears are made of (e.g., construction paper or felt)
• ear patterns

Instructions:

Photocopy the ear patterns ahead of time, onto the appropriate colors of paper (or make stencils so the children can trace onto construction paper). For the lion, precut yarn into many pieces 3? - 4 inches long. (Each child will need a generous pile.)

Each child gets a paper plate and cuts along the embossed line around the middle of the plate, making a circular hole. Staple a strip of elastic to the edge of the plate in two places so that if the hole in the middle is placed over the child's face, the strip of elastic around the back of the head is just tight enough to keep the plate in place. (The bottom of the plate is the front of the mask, so the top side of the plate goes toward the child's face. For preschool, give them a pre-cut plate with the elastic already attached.)

Each child chooses an animal (sheep, bear, or lion). Each animal has inner and outer ears, which are different colors. The dotted line on the pattern represents the edge of the plate - the base of the ear glues onto the back of the mask, and the main part of the ear sticks out beyond the edge of the plate. Have each child cut out the inner and outer ears, left and right, and glue the inner ear onto the outer ear, before gluing the entire ear onto the plate.

For the lion, have the children glue yarn all around the edge of the plate to form a mane. Each strip of yarn starts at the inner edge of the plate and goes beyond the outer edge, so that it sticks out, making a mane.

For the sheep, have the children glue white cotton balls onto the plate, covering the entire surface.

For the bear, have the children paint the plate brown. (Hint: smaller brushes occupy the children longer.)

Pull-Through Filmstrip

Materials Needed:

• film strip [Needs Pictures] (photocopy)
• frame pattern (photocopy)

Instructions:

Each child gets a strip of pictures from the story of the day's lesson. They can color the pictures. They also get a frame page (which looks something like a television). The frame page has two slits on either side of the screen, so that when the strip is threaded through the slits, exactly one picture from the strip shows in front of the frame at a time, and the others are hidden. By pulling the strip back and forth, the picture can be changed to show the different scenes from the lesson.

Help the children cut the two halves of the filmstrip apart and attach them end to end. Have them color the pictures from the lesson, then thread them through the slits on the frame and show them how to pull the strip along to show each picture.

Bookmark

Materials Needed:

• bookmark pattern (photocopy)
• white cardstock (teens only)
• permanent markers (teens only)
• hole punchers (several to pass around)
• clear Contact paper
• yarn (any color, or a selection)

Instructions:

Each child gets a photocopied two-sided bookmark. (For elementary, the two sides are side-by-side on the same physical side of the paper, and the bookmark folds lengthwise after being colored. For teens, photocopy double-sided onto cardstock. The pattern has the fronts of two bookmarks on the left and the backs of two bookmarks on the right.)

They color these with colored pencils or crayons (elementary) or permanent markers (teens), fold (if applicable), and laminate them with clear Contact paper. A hole is punched near one end, and a piece of yarn is looped through to make a simple tassle (by pulling the middle of the yarn through the hole, then pulling the ends of the yarn through the yarn loop). Teens may braid a more elaborate tassle.

Cloth Painting

Materials Needed:

• embroidery hoops (one per)
• white cloth
• scenes from the lesson
• paint (not watercolors; poster paints will do in a pinch, or acrylics are good)
• brushes with variously sized tips

Instructions:

Each teen gets a square of white cloth and an embroidery hoop. There are available scenes from the lesson to choose from, and they pick one and paint the scene on the cloth. (Either they have to freehand it, or your crafts leader comes up with a way for them to transfer or trace the scenes.) Use the embroidery hoop for the frame.

Watercolor (preschool)

Materials Needed:

• scene from the day's lesson (like a coloring page)
• watercolor paper that you can photocopy onto
• watercolor paints and brushes
• small dishes of water

Instructions:

Each child gets scene from the day's lesson, photocopied onto water-color paper, which they paint with watercolors.

Ram in the Thicket

Materials Needed:

• picture of a ram (photocopy)
• sticks
• (optional) cardstock

Instructions:

Each elementary child gets a photocopied ram. They glue the paper onto the middle of construction paper, creating a frame (and adding sturdiness, hopefully; cardstock can be used in between for added sturdiness, if desired). Then they paint the ram.

Then they glue on sticks to make the thicket, in which the ram is caught.

Vase Candle

Materials Needed:

• vases (one per)
• colored sand in various hues
• parafin wax
• wicks (one per)
• pencils
• coloring for wax
• (optional) scent for wax
• (optional) shells or other items to embed in the sand

Instructions:

Each teen gets a glass flower vase that is sturdy enough to withstand a burning candle inside it. (Do not use delicate vases or ones with narrow necks.) They can layer colored sand in the lower portion, alternating colors to create whatever interesting pattern they like. Optionally, other items (e.g. shells) can be embedded.

The top half will be a candle. (This seals in the sand.) After the sand, have them tie a wick to a pencil, so that the pencil can be laid across the opening, allowing the wick to hang just so the base touches the sand. (This prevents the wick from drooping when the wax is poured.)

Then pour the wax in, with a ladle.

Heating the Wax:

The parafin wax should be broken into chunks well in advance and placed in something easy to clean (e.g., a ceramic crock pot with a removable liner, or a double-boiler). Start heating the wax about two hours before the teen craft time, to make sure it will be melted in time. Shortly before the craft, melt in the desired color and/or scent.

Sheep Bank

Materials Needed:

• empty nut cans (one per child)
• sheep faces (photocopy, one face per child)
• construction paper ear parts and tails (see pattern)
• cotton balls (white)

Instructions:

Each child gets a nut can with a coin-slot pre-cut in the lid. Line the outside of each can with white paper. (This can just be glued on.)

Each child also gets a sheep face (photocopied) and construction paper ear parts and tail. Then they cut them out, fold the flaps, and glue them to the can, with the tail opposite the face, and the ears on the sides, pointed downward. The "inner" ear parts should be made from pink construction paper, and the larger main parts of the ears from another color, probably white. The two tail pieces should be glued together with the tabs folded opposite directions before gluing onto the can.

Then allow the children to stretch out cotton balls and glue them onto the tail and the body of the sheep for texture. Show them how they can save money in the sheep bank.

Moses and the Rock Shadow Box

Materials Needed:

• boxes (one per child)
• sand
• small rocks (at least one per child, preferably more)
• Moses (photocopied) [Pattern Needed]
• blue paint or paper
• (optional) additional desert scenery items

Instructions:

Each child will make a scene in a shoebox, depicting Moses in the desert striking the rock.

Turn the box on its side, so that the open side is the front.

Moses will be photocopied onto paper, and they can color him, cut him out, fold the base, and glue him into the box. The top part of him may need to be glued against the back of the box to keep him from flopping over.

The bottom of the scene (one side of the box) can be lined with sand (glued in) to represent the desert. For the sky, the back side of the box can be lined with blue paper, or painted blue. The rock should be glued to the ground where Moses' staff can just about reach it.

Missions Maps for 2007

Most of these maps are available at higher resolutions, and in vector formats (SVG or eps) upon request.

Missions

Below, we have included a table showing the different missions lessons that we have written. As we write more, we will update this table to link to them.

Year	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
2013	God's Sheep
	Lesson: Feeding the Sheep Teen Discussion Questions	Lesson: Where the People Are Teen Discussion Questions	Lesson: Lost Sheep of Israel Teen Discussion Questions	Lesson: Unwatched Flocks Teen Discussion Questions	Lesson: A Shepherd's Priorities Teen Discussion Questions
2011	Running the Race
	Skit: Missions Marathon I Lesson: What is a Missionary?	Skit: Missions Marathon II Lesson: Why Do We Send Missionaries?	Skit: Missions Marathon III Lesson: What Does a Missionary Do?	Skit: Missions Marathon IV Lesson: Where Does a Missionary Go?	Skit: Missions Marathon V Lesson: Who Can Be a Missionary?
2010	Following the Footsteps
	Missionaries Trust God	Missionaries and the Bible	Missionaries Share the Good News	Missionaries and Prayer	Missionaries and Service
2009	Fishing for Christ
	Goin' Fishin' Missionaries go where the people are. Missionaries need consent to come. Discussion Questions	Fishin' Gear Missionaries must be prepared and equipped for missions. Discussion Questions	The Right Bait Missionaries look for opportunities to interest people in the good news. Discussion Questions	Reel 'em In Missionaries must present the gospel to unbelievers. Discussion Questions	Now What? Missionaries disciple new believers, plant churches, and train pastors. Discussion Questions
2008	Equipped for Missions: What Missionaries Need to Do the Work
	Training for Missions (Nigeria: Samuel Ngum) Teen Version Discussion Questions	Called, Approved, and Sent (Barnabas and Saul) Teen Version Discussion Questions	Opportunity: Invitation or Contact (South Whitley, IN: Marvin Meeker)	Prayer and Financial Support (Paul) Teen Version Discussion Questions	Preparation and Planning for Missions (Uberlandia, Brazil: Project Timothy) Teen Version Discussion Questions
2007	The Importance of Missions
	Beautiful Feet People need to hear the good news of Jesus God asks us to do missions Teen Discussion Questions Map: Cameroon (showing Abong Mbang and Baktala, far to the southeast of Ki-Yon)	Credited to Your Account Missions is valuable for the sending church Teen Discussion Questions	The Power of God It is more important to teach the good news of Jesus than anything else (e.g., cultural norms). It is more important to start churches than to do physical works. Teen Discussion Questions Maps: Brazil (showing Uberlandia and Araguari), Uberlandia Neighborhoods	God Chose the Weak Sending missionaries is important for all Bible-believing churches, of all ages, in all countries. Teen Discussion Questions Map: Cameroon and Nigeria	Where the People Are We should send missionaries wherever there are people who need to hear the good news of Jesus. Teen Discussion Questions Map: Vermont (showing Burlington, Morrisville, and Rutland
2006	What is a Missionary? Be a missionary where you are.	Not Available (We used material for which we do not have redistribution rights.)	Church Planting Churches start from people who believe.	Good News (Covers the gospel.)	Beginning of Our Church History of Galion GBC Churches grow when people bring their friends.
2005	None Available. (We used guest speakers this year and have no written lessons to share. Sorry.)
2004	Dresden Missions is hard work. Missionaries need financial support.	Blümberg Missionaries hope to eventually produce indiginous local churches. Why missions is important.	Keyon church Missionaries sometimes have to learn foreign languages. Sending missionaries is important even for a new church.	Keyon practorium How pastors and missionaries get training. Why pastors and missionaries need good training.	Vermont Missionaries try to start churches. Getting more people to church is something anyone can do.

I want to be clear that we encourage each local church to rewrite or modify the missions lessons each year to use examples from the missions works supported by the local church wherever possible. While the specific missionaries and their particular endeavors are not the point of the lessons, nonetheless we feel it is best to take examples from the missions supported by the local church, for several reasons. For one thing, it makes the examples seem more concrete and real to the children, especially if some of the missionaries in the examples have visited the church. Showing photographs of the missionaries standing next to people the children know, such as the Pastor or other adults in the church, makes them seem more like real people. Furthermore, even in cases where the missionaries themselves have not visited the church, the children (at least, the ones who attend the church regularly) are still more likely to have heard the names of these missionaries and fields before if they are ones that the church supports, as they may have been mentioned from the pulpit, in Sunday School, at prayer meetings, or various other times. This increased familiarity makes the examples stick better in the mind. Finally, we like to have the offering moneys collected at Bible School go to support a missions work outside the local church. We collect offering at Bible School because we want to teach the concept of giving in a concrete way, but imploring children with offering contests and bucket scales and team competitions, especially in a context like Bible School wherein many of the children are from outside the church, might, if the money were going into the local church, raise questions of motivation. We feel that sending the money to a missions work outside the local church eliminates this concern. By using missionaries that the church supports as examples in the missions lessons, it is possible to correlate one or more of the missions lessons with the project that the offering money will go to support.

With that said, we try in our lessons to teach the concept of missions, and various related concepts that go along with it. Indeed, the details of particular missions concerns tend to change over time so that whatever specific things you might teach children at Bible School now will probably be obsolete by the time the children grow up. It is far more important to teach the children to understand and value missions work in general. Consequently, our missions lessons cover conceptual points, and as such parts of them are sure to be reusable, so that when a local church sets out to write up their own missions lessons for Bible School, it is not necessary to start from scratch. It is our hope that many of these lessons we present here, while they may not be suitable as they stand for use in each local church, may be able to be adapted by other local churches for their own needs.

Lastly, we are aware that these missions lessons are not very polished, compared with some of the other materials.

Missions Discussion Questions for Teens, 2007

Monday:	Beautiful Feet
Question:	Why is missions important?
Fields:	Abong Mbang, Cameroon and Baktala, Cameroon
Missionaries:	Roger Yoda, Russ Simpson, Valerie ???
Objectives:	People need to hear the good news of Jesus. God asks us to do missions.
Bible Passages:	Matthew 9:35-38, 28:18-20, Acts 1:7-11, Romans 10:6-17

1. Roger Yoda is a free man. Why does he go into the prison?
2. How did Pastor Valerie hear about Jesus?
3. Why would Pastor Valerie want to leave his home town of Baktala, and the church he has started there, and go to the city of Bertoua?
4. If Pastor Valerie leaves the church he started in his home village of Baktala and goes to the city of Bertoua, who will lead the church in Baktala? What can be done about this?
5. Who will lead our church after Pastor Simpson retires? What about other churches in the United States?
6. All of the churches will eventually need new pastors. The population in the United States is growing. Are the workers growing too? What are we doing to help prepare?

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Tuesday:	Credited to Your Account
Question:	Why is missions important?
Field:	Cameroon
Missionaries:	Pastor Russ Simpson, Paul Chema, Bill & Adele Crabbs
Objectives:	Missions is valuable for the sending church.
Bible Passages:	Philippians 4:10-20

1. How did God use Paul Chema? What good came from his willingness to go to Africa?
2. What is a seminary? What is its purpose? Why is that important?
3. How did God grow the faith of the Galion church?
4. Why is it important to have faith? Why is it valuable to participate in things that help our faith to grow?
5. What would you be willing to do for God, so that he can grow your faith?

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Wednesday:	The Power of God
Questions:	What is it important for missionaries to do? What is it important for missionaries to teach?
Field:	Uberlandia, Brazil
Missionaries:	Project Timothy
Objectives:	It is more important to teach the good news of Jesus than anything else (e.g., cultural norms). It is more important to start churches than to do physical works.
Bible Passages:	1st Corinthians 1:17 - 2:2

1. What city in Brazil is the church in that is training men to be pastors? What neighborhood?
2. Name one man in Brazil who is doing missions work. What country is he from?
3. Why did Magno request financial support for his work with the Bible clubs?
4. What makes the work in Uberlandia one that it is good for us to support?
5. What scripture passage can you think of that tells us that the most important thing to do is to preach Jesus?
6. When our men train to be pastors, they take a variety of courses, but what is the focus of their training? What makes these men different from other men who go to church and study their Bibles? What makes them different from other men who take courses (e.g., at college) and study various subjects?

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Thursday:	God Chose the Weak
Question:	For whom is missions important?
Field:	Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Missionaries:	Samuel Ngum
Objectives:	Sending missionaries is important for all Bible-believing churches, of all ages, in all countries.
Bible Passages:	1st Corinthians 1:18-29, 3:7

1. Where does Samuel Ngum want to start a church?
2. Samuel and Ernestine have already been there once. Why do they want to go back?
3. Keyon is a small, poor church in rural sub-Saharan Africa. Why would they feel that they should raise money to send missionaries somewhere else, when they have so little themselves?
4. The Galion Grace Brethren Church is not very large. What impact does this have on our missions? Why?
5. There are other denominations in Africa, as well. If there are other churches, why do we need to start churches?
6. What qualifications does Samuel Ngum have to have before he can go as a missionary?
7. 1.What are you doing for missions?

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Friday:	Where the People Are
Question:	Where is it important for missionaries to go?
Field:	Vermont
Missionaries:	Ethan & Leah Kallberg
Objectives:	We should send missionaries wherever there are people who need to hear the good news of Jesus.
Bible Passages:	[Needed]

1. Why did the Alexanders want to move to Vermont?
2. What was the problem the Alexanders thought they would face, moving to Vermont?
3. Why did Ethan Kallberg feel a burden for Vermont? What made him choose to go there, instead of somewhere else?
4. Why would there be churches that do not teach the good news of Jesus? Where do such churches come from? Do they start out that way?
5. How can we protect our churches so that they do not fall away from teaching the whole Bible?
6. What could you do for missions?