Soldiers of God Decorations Photos Part Five

Continued from part 4

Up in the auditorium, where the elementary group has their Bible lessons, we put up the armor of God posters. We also put up this big wooden shield one of the women in the church found at a garage sale, a couple of weeks before we started decorating. (I think she said she paid a dollar for it, something like that. The smaller piece on the wall in the teen room came from the same source, as I understand it.) We chose this spot for the big wooden shield partly because this was a good place to put it up high, where nobody was likely to knock it down on someone. Also, there was already a nail there.

As usual, we also put up the flags for our missions-field countries. (Next year, we hope to add a new one.)

Soldiers of God Decoration Photos Part Four

Back to Part Three

For the preschool bulletin board, we did representation of the five items from the Shapes Lessons.

We also put some soldier-related posters on the preschool-room walls...

And on the door.

Continued in Part Five

Soldiers of God Decoration Photos Part Three

Back to Part Two

We put these two posters on the walls in the teen room.

We also hung this item in there, up near the ceiling. we were a bit careful where we put this one. Those aren't real weapons on it, and they aren't actually sharp or heavy, but we still didn't want any children swinging them around hitting people in the face with them. One of our Bible School workers found this item at a garage sale, along with a much larger one that we hung in the auditorium. (I'll include a photo of that one in another post.)

If you can ignore the workday mess for a moment, you'll see here a foam sword, shield, and helmet hanging from the ceiling.

Continued in Part Four

Soldiers of God Decoration Photos Part Two

Back to Part One

We put these two in the stairwell...

These two in the hallway...

These two at the end of the hallway, and this other one over on the other side of the kitchen serving window. (At this point you may be noticing some power tools and other things that seem out of place for a Vacation Bible School. There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this. As we were decorating, some of the men in the church were also holding a workday, doing maintenance and improvements to the building that aren't directly related to VBS. Those things were picked up before Bible School actually started.)

Continued in Part Three

Soldiers of God Decorations Photos: Part One

For anyone who has not read the decoration posts from other years, the basic jist of what we do is this: we take line art that we find in coloring books or on the internet (most of it this year came from the Open Clip Art Library), and we trace it onto overhead transparencies with wet-erase markers. Then we project it onto a bulletin board, thumbtack up some posterboards, and trace the lines onto the posterboards with pencil. Then we hold a Paint Day, which anyone can help with starting from about age 8 or so, wherein we color in the images with poster paints. It's not necessary to stay completely within the lines, because any deviation less than a marker-width gets covered up in the next step, when after the paints dry we outline them with black marker. Also, even if a little gets slopped too far outside the lines for the markers to cover, honestly, we're our own worst critics. (Once hung, the decorations don't typically get scrutinized that closely.) Anyway, after we outline them, we cut them out and stick them up on the walls with Sticky Tack, or one of the various off-brand versions thereof.

Although, we put this one in the big front window up with clear packing tape.

This one was mounted above the stairs, where you see it on the way down...

Continued in Part Two

Lesson Visuals: Prayer Warrior

Here are the lesson visuals for Prayer Warrior (Peter in Prison):

Prison

Prayer

Jailbreak

At the Door

Images are Copyright 2014, Mary Beth Frey. Permission is granted to use them in your local church to illustrate the Bible lesson. See licensing for information about additional rights and permissions.

Lesson Visuals: Good Soldier (Jeremiah and the Cistern)

Here are the lesson visuals for Good Soldier (Jeremiah and the Cistern):

Idolatry

Cistern

Ebed Melech

Rescue

Images are Copyright 2014, Mary Beth Frey. Permission is granted to use them in your local church to illustrate the Bible lesson. See licensing for information about additional rights and permissions.

Lesson Visuals: Armor of God

Here are the lesson visuals for Armor of God:

Armor

Temptation

Discernment

Images are Copyright 2014, Mary Beth Frey. Permission is granted to use them in your local church to illustrate the Bible lesson. See licensing for information about additional rights and permissions.

Lesson Visuals: Obey Your Commander

Here are the lesson visuals for Obey Your Commander:

100

Sick Servant

Meeting Jesus on the Road

No Need to Come

Arriving at the House

Images are Copyright 2014, Mary Beth Frey. Permission is granted to use them in your local church to illustrate the Bible lesson. See licensing for information about additional rights and permissions.

Lesson Visuals: Red Cord of Salvation

Here are the lesson visuals for Red Cord of Salvation:

The City of Jericho

Rahab

Marching Around the City

Jericho with the Wall Down

Images are Copyright 2014, Mary Beth Frey. Permission is granted to use them in your local church to illustrate the Bible lesson. See licensing for information about additional rights and permissions.

Prison Cupcakes

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Friday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Prayer Warrior
Memory Verse:	1st Thessalonians 5:16-18
Preschool Bible Lesson:	Peter in Prison

Key Item:

cupcakes, frosted white with dark stripes

Snack Lesson:

What do the decorations on the top of this cupcake remind you of? Stripes? Hmm... what if we imagine that the dark parts are solid, and the white parts are empty space? What would it be then? Bars?

Where would there be bars? On a gate, perhaps, to keep animals out? Maybe on a prison, to keep the prisoners in? Does that work? Do prison bars always keep the prisoners in jail?

Tonight's Bible lesson is about a man who was in prison, but an angel came and let him out.

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served chips and sloppy joe alongside the cupcakes. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Mud Pudding

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Thursday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Good Soldier: Jeremiah and the Cistern (non-interactive version)
Memory Verse:	Romans 1:16
Preschool Bible Lesson:	The Blind Army

Key Item:

Dirt Pudding (e.g., this recipe will work fine, or this one)

Snack Lesson:

What does this pudding remind you of? Dirt? Mud? Would you find something like this maybe in the bottom of a pit, where there used to be water?

Our Bible lesson tonight is about a man named Jeremiah, who was thrown into a pit like that, because people didn't like what he was saying. But he was telling them what God told him to say.

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served nachos and hot dogs alongside the pudding. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Shield Cookies

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Wednesday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Armor of God
Memory Verse:	Ephesians 6:11
Preschool Bible Lesson:	David and Goliath

Key Item:

Shield cookies (cut-out cookies decorated to look like shields)

Snack Lesson:

What's this cookie shaped like? And what kind of person might use something that looks like this? What are shields used for anyway?

A shield protects a soldier, but a shield is just one piece of a soldier's armor. A real soldier has other pieces of armor besides just the shield: boots, a helmet, body armor, ...

Tonight's Bible lesson talks about what kinds of armor we can have to protect us in life.

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served fruit and pizza alongside the cookies. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches: bread overtop, and bread underneath.

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Tuesday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Obey Your Commander
Memory Verse:	1st John 5:3-4
Preschool Bible Lesson:	The Centurion's Servant

Key Item:

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Snack Lesson:

Did you notice that the cheese on these sandwiches has bread above it and also bread under it? It's kind of in layers, with a top, a middle, and a bottom. That's what makes it a sandwich.

Tonight your Bible teacher is going to tell you a story about a man who was like the cheese in this sandwich: he had other people who were above him (his bosses, like the bread on top), and people who were under him, like the bread on bottom – he had to tell them what to do.

Because he was in the middle, this man knew how authority works. He believed Jesus could make something happen just by saying it.

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served Jell-O and carrot sticks alongside the sandwiches. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Twizzlers: The Red Rope

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Monday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Red Cord of Salvation
Memory Verse:	Ephesians 2:8-9
Preschool Bible Lesson:	Joshua and the Walls

Key Item:

Twizzlers

Snack Lesson:

Hey, have you ever noticed the way these Twizzlers are shaped? They're not just straight on the sides, like a pencil. Actually, they kind of look braided, almost like a rope.

But they're red. Have you ever seen a red rope?

Did you know there's a red rope in the Bible? There sure is. Rahab hung a rope from her window, on the wall of Jericho, to let the Israelite spies down to safety, and later she hung a red rope from her window so that God would save her family when the wall fell down.

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served popcorn and mini-burgers alongside the Twizzlers. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Soldiers of God (Updated: 2014)

Soldiers and warfare occur repeatedly in both testaments. We thought about doing an entire week on just the armor of God, but we decided it might be better to generalise the theme. We ended up with lessons covering salvation by faith, obedience to Christ, resisting temptation, enduring the world's contempt, and prayer.

In Galion this was our theme in 2008 and again in 2014.

This theme is mostly complete and online!

	Elementary		Preschool		Teens
Monday	Bible Lesson:	Red Cord of Salvation	Bible Lesson:	Joshua and the Walls	Bible Lesson:	Red Cord of Salvation (teen version)
	Memory Verse:	Ephesians 2:8-9 (Covered Words)	Shape Lesson:	Ball	Discussion:	5 Questions
	Craft: Braided Red Cord Bookmark
	Game:	Water Balloon Toss	Game:	Marching Around the Wall	Game:	Water Balloon Toss
	Snack: Twizzlers: The Red Rope (updated 2014)
Tuesday	Bible Lesson:	Obey Your Commander	Bible Lesson:	Centurion's Servant (Jesus is God)	Bible Lesson:	Our Commanding Officer (teen version)
	Memory Verse:	1st John 5:3-4 (Popcorn)	Shape Lesson:	Book	Discussion:	7 Questions
	Craft: Shrinkies*
	Game:	Sealed Orders	Game:	Water Balloon Toss (preschool version)	Game:	Sealed Orders
	Snack: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches & Centurions (new in 2014)
Wednesday	Bible Lesson:	Armor of God	Bible Lesson:	David and Goliath (Trust in God)	Bible Lesson:	Armor of God (teen version)
	Memory Verse:	Ephesians 6:11 (Scrambled Verse)	Shape Lesson:	Heart	Discussion:	5 Questions
	Craft:	Picture Frame	Craft:	Picture Frame	Craft:	Start Cap Curtains
	Game: Soldier Dress-Up Relay
	Snack: Shield Cookies (updated 2014)
Thursday	Bible Lesson:	Good Soldier (Jeremiah and the Cistern): regular version or interactive version	Bible Lesson:	The Blind Army	Bible Lesson:	Good Soldier (teen version)
	Memory Verse:	Romans 1:16 (Clapping)	Shape Lesson:	Cross	Discussion:	6 Questions
	Craft:	Chalk Painting	Craft:	Chalk Painting	Craft:	Continue Cap Curtains
	Game:	CTF Wargame	Game:	Hiding from the Bad King	Game:	CTF Wargame
	Snack: Mud Pudding (new in 2014)
Friday	Bible Lesson:	Prayer Warrior	Bible Lesson:	Peter in Prison (prayer)	Bible Lesson:	Prayer Warrior (teen version)*
	Memory Verse:	1st Thessalonians 5:16-18 (Voice Contest)	Shape Lesson:	Crown	Discussion:	7 Questions
	Craft:	Praying Hands	Craft:	Praying Hands	Craft:	Soap Sculpture (or finish Cap Curtains)
	Game:	Enlistment Tag	Game:	Play with Hula Hoops*	Game:	Enlistment Tag
	Snack: Prison-Bar Cupcakes (updated, 2014)

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

Substitute Indoor Games:

• [needed]

Original Music:

Theme Song: Soldiers of God

Decorations:

There are some wall decorations available.
See also our decoration photos:
part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5.

Training for Missions (Teen Version)

Monday:	Training for Missions
Bible Lesson:	Red Cord of Salvation: Rahab was saved because she believed in God, and we are saved the same way.
Memory Verse:	Ephesians 2:8-9
Missions Concept:	Missionaries Need Training.
Missions Example:	Nigeria: Samuel Ngum
Bible Passages:	James 3:1, 2nd Timothy 2:1-19

[Distribute Monday's packet, with the map of Cameroon.]

Introduction: Samuel Ngum

Samuel Ngum is from Cameroon, but he wants to be a missionary in Nigeria [Refer to map.]. (Ask for a definition of a missionary. Accept some answers. Discuss.) Missionaries are trained men and women whose job is to take the gospel to the people in an area and start churches.

Before Samuel could go to Nigeria as a missionary, he had to be prepared. He couldn't just leave immediately the first time he thought about doing this. He wasn't prepared.

The Point: Missionaries Need Training

One of the things Samuel needed was good Bible training. If he's going to tell people about Jesus, he'd better know what he's talking about! Just going to church all your life isn't enough. If he's going to start churches, and wants them to have a good start, he should know his Bible inside and out. The Bible says teachers will be held accountable. (Look at James 3 together.) That means if you're going to teach people, you should be responsible to make sure you are teaching them the truth.

Story: Samuel's Studies

Samuel studied at a practorium – a school for pastors and missionaries, run by the church at Keyon in Oku, Cameroon [refer to map].

A practorium is a higher level of education, like seminary: a Master's-level program. In the United States we usually do this sort of thing after college. Samuel had to study hard, do homework, write long papers, ... He learned Greek, Hebrew, Hermeneutics, ... To be a missionary, Samuel needed all the classes that someone has to take to be a pastor. He studied for several years, until he finished all the classes that he needed.

Secondary Point: Language Training

Samuel already speaks English, the major language in Nigeria, so he won't need language classes to go there. But sometimes a missionary has to study language and culture before he can go. How can you tell people the good news of Jesus, if you don't speak their language? Anyone who wants to go as a missionary to a place where they don't speak the same language, needs to learn the language that they speak in that place.

Conclusion: Churches Must Provide Training

Samuel's not the only missionary who needs training. When churches want to send missionaries, one of the things they have to do is find ways to provide that training. The churches in Cameroon have the practorium in Keyon, where Samuel was trained. We have them in the United States too, places where people can study to be pastors and missionaries. Sometimes even Sunday School teachers receive training.

[As time allows, go over the discussion questions together.]

Invitation: Missions Training

Close in prayer and invite any teens who want to consider training for missions, or to help train others, to stay after the lesson and discuss it further.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

A Plan for Missions

Friday:	A Plan for Missions
Bible Lesson:	Prayer Warrior: We should be praying; prayer is effective. (Peter in prison)
Memory Verse:	1st Thessalonians 5:16-18
Missions Concepts:	Missionaries must prepare to go and must plan for the work.
Missions Examples:	Uberlandia, Brazil: Project Timothy
Bible Passages:	Luke 14:25-33
Maps:	Re-used from 2007: Brazil, showing Uberlandia and Araguari Uberlandia neighborhoods

Introduction: What to do?

How many of you remember learning about our missionaries in Brazil last year? [show map] We learned about Magno who teaches kids at the schools about Jesus. How do missionaries like Magno decide what they are going to do today? Do they wake up and pack their bags and move to a new city? Do they leave their Bible study and start a new one? How do they choose where to go and when? They have a plan.

Example: Brazil

The Tubelina church in Brazil has a plan. They want to start churches in many neighborhoods all around their big city (Uberlandia). They have men that are studying to be pastors and missionaries in their church, but where will these men go, and who will be a pastor and who will be a missionary? The men and the leaders of the church talk together and pray before anything happens. While the men are still studying, before they are even ready to go, they start praying for the place where they are going to go. Some go home to the neighborhoods they grew up in. Others go to a different neighborhood, or a nearby city (like Magno, who went to Araguari). The church makes a plan so that all the new Pastors have places to go, and so that they don't all go to the same neighborhood!

The Point: Missionaries need a plan.

In the book of Luke, Jesus gives an example. He tells the crowd that if they were going to build a tower it would be a good idea to make sure they have a plan – to know how big they're going to build the tower and how much it will cost – before they start. Otherwise, they might not be able to finish, and people would just laugh at them, and what good would that be? Jesus wasn't just talking about a real tower, though: it's an example. He's really talking about God's work. When we set out to do something, we should make sure we know what we have to do before we start, so that we can finish. We should know how much it is going to cost, so that we can afford to finish. We need to know what we are going to do so that it works out well. If we know how much it costs, we know how much money we need to save up before we start. If we know ahead of time what we have to do, we'll be less likely to forget something important.

Tuesday, we learned that a missionary needs to be approved and sent by a church to do missions. One of the things our Foreign Mission Panel tells missionaries they have to have is a written plan. The plan has to tell where they are going, what they are going to do, and how long they are going to spend on it. The Pastors on the panel are not giving the missionaries homework for no reason. The written plan is important because it helps the churches who are sending the missionaries, praying, and sending money. It helps the churches to know how to pray and where the money is going. It also is important for the missionary himself to have a plan so that he knows what to do every morning. He knows what his goal is and that helps him do a better job.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Support for Missions

Thursday:	Support for Missions
Bible Lesson:	Good Soldier: We should endure the world's contempt when living and sharing our faith. (Jeremiah and the cistern)
Memory Verse:	Romans 1:16
Missions Concepts:	Missionaries need prayer and financial support.
Missions Examples:	Paul
Bible Passages:	Ephesians 6:18-20, Romans 15:23-24, 2nd Corinthians 11:7-12, Philippians 4:14‑19, Colossians 4:2-3, 2nd Thessalonians 3:1-2, Philippians 1:12-14

Introduction: Support

God calls a person to be a missionary. But then what? How does that missionary live while he is doing his job, and how do the people he talks to come to know God and start churches? Two of the most important things a missionary needs are other Christians praying for him and sending money so that he can do God's work where he is. The Bible talks about this in a lot of places. Paul specifically asked churches to pray for him, and sometimes they also sent him money. The Antioch church had sent Saul (whose new name was Paul) to be a missionary, but other churches helped too. The Antioch church was sometimes too far away to help Paul -- they didn't even know what was going on -- but other churches were closer when Paul needed them.

Example: Thessalonica

When Paul went to Thessalonica to start a church, he was far away from Antioch. The church in Philadelphia, which was nearby, sent him money so that he would have food and clothing and whatever he needed. By supporting Paul, they were helping to bring the good news of Jesus to the people in Thessalonica.

Another time Paul was in Rome and wrote to the Christians in Colosse and asked for prayer. He said, Pray that God may open a door for our message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should. Paul was chained and on house arrest because he was telling people that Jesus had died for everyone, and some people didn't like that. Paul needed prayer so that he would have a chance to tell people about Jesus, because when you're arrested you can't just go wherever you want. Paul needed God to make a way for him to do his job as a missionary. So Paul asked the Colossians to pray.

The Point: Missionaries need prayer and financial support.

Was Paul the only missionary that ever needed money? Do you think other missionaries need the same thing? What about prayer? Do other missionaries need prayer like Paul did? Who is going to pray for and send money to our Grace Brethren missionaries? Will people from other churches do it? (Not likely.) What about people that don't go to church? Will they pray for our missionaries? (Probably not.) They don't even know about them. It is up to us to pray for the Bejenkes, Pastor Meeker, Samuel Ngum, and others. It is up to us to make sure that these missionaries have the money they need to do God's work. If we don't pray and send money, how will they do the work? We don't know if Paul would have had opportunities to lead the guards to Christ if the Christians hadn't prayed. But we do know that God answers prayers.

Invitation: Supporting Missions

Invite any children who want to support our missionaries to bring offering on Friday and to pray for our missionaries.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Opportunity for Missions

Wednesday:	Opportunity for Missions
Bible Lesson:	Armor of God: Resist temptation using God's word, not human reasoning.
Memory Verse:	Ephesians 6:11
Missions Concepts:	Missionaries need an opportunity – an invitation or contact in the community.
Missions Examples:	South Whitley, IN: Marvin Meeker
Bible Passages:	[Needed]

Introduction: Need for Churches

How far did you drive or walk to get to Bible School tonight? Did anyone come more than ten minutes? Do you drive more than ten minutes to get to your own church on Sunday morning? Did you know that some people in the United States live in places where they have to drive half an hour or more just to get to a church that believes the whole Bible? Some towns do not have one church that teaches the whole Bible. Some people in Vermont drive an hour to go to a church that teaches the Bible. Other people in the same communities decide that it's easier to go to a church they know doesn't teach the whole Bible, because it's closer. They think they don't have time to go far enough to get to a better church.

Example: South Whitley, IN

Dave Swensen was from Vermont and went to the Irasburg church but when he and his wife Tonya moved to her hometown of South Whitley, Indiana, they looked for a church there. They had trouble finding a church in their town that taught the whole Bible. Instead of going to a church that left part of the Bible out, they decided to drive twenty miles each way to attend the Lakeland Grace Brethren Church in Warsaw [show map]. That doesn't seem too far, but for a family with young children it was a little much. And if they wanted to invite their friends to church they had to ask them to drive for half an hour to get there. How many people want to drive that far to go to a friend's church. Their kids probably have friends and want to invite them to Bible School. How many of their parents will allow them to go that far to Bible School? It's too far. So, the Swensens wanted to start a new Grace Brethren Church in their own town.

In the Lakeland church there is a retired Pastor named Marvin Meeker. When the Swensens came to the Lakeland Church they met him. So, when they started praying with their church about finding a church in their own town, Pastor Meeker prayed with them. They prayed for a long time that something would happen in South Whitley. Eventually, they decided to start a Bible study to see if there were people in the town who would start a new church. Maybe there were others going to churches that don't teach the whole Bible that would like to find a better church. Maybe there were people who didn't go to church at all or didn't go very often because there was no good church to go to. Maybe some of the Swensens' friends would come. God might have put several families together in South Whitley to start a church there.

The Point: Missionaries Need Contacts

Marvin Meeker wasn't looking for a new town to start a church. That's not why he started a Bible study. People wanted a church in South Whitley, so they started a Bible study there. The Swensen family was already there. Any time a missionary wants to start a new church, he has to make contact with people in the community. That's hard. Sometimes it's very hard, but if you start someplace where you already have contacts, it's a little easier. Marvin Meeker didn't go through the phone book to try to find people to come to the church. The Swensens just started inviting their friends.

Conclusion: South Whitley GBC

Now the group has grown to about twenty people. They have baptized several and have started having Sunday morning services. The Swensens can take their family to church and invite friends. They no longer have to drive to another town to find a good church.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.