The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. 2He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. 3He said, ‘My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant.

9 They said to him, ‘Where is your wife Sarah?’ And he said, ‘There, in the tent.’ 10Then one said, ‘I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.’ And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. 11Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12So Sarah laughed to herself, saying,

‘After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?’ 13The Lord said to

Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh, and say, “Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?”14Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.’ 15But Sarah denied, saying, ‘I did not laugh’; for she was afraid. He said, ‘Oh yes, you did laugh.’

Begin: Guide reads the background, scripture & prays for the class

Unwrap-Opening Activity 10:00-10:10 AM

Investigate: Tell & Wonder about the Story 10:10-10:25 AM

Learn by Doing 10:30-10:45 AM

Dismiss: 10:55 AM

Review the Cornerstone & Closing Prayer

Explore the concept of how God seeks us out in a variety of ways.

2

Abram hears God’s call to leave his country and he obeys God without question. When God calls Abram, he also invites Abram to join a covenant (a binding agree-ment) with God. God promises to make Abram into a great nation and to bless him. The members of the great family will be as many as there are stars in the sky and grains of sand in the desert.

We know very little about the call Abram – we don’t know if it was in a dream or a vision or a soft whisper but what we do know is that it must have been a power-ful experience because he was willing to give up every-thing and set out to discover what God had in mind for him.

In today’s story, Abram and Sarai are quite old so having a family seemed impossible to them. Outside of their tent, Abram has another encounter with God and God again promises to make him the father of a great family and Sarai will be the mother. Abram finds himself laugh-ing – what is God thinking? Both Abram and Sarai were

too old to have children. One night three strangers came out of the desert. Abraham invited them in and offered them dinner. The strangers told him they would have a son. Again, Abraham laughed. Sarai overheard the con-versation and began laughing as well.

God then changes Abram’s name to Abraham (which means the father of nations) and Sarai’s name to Sarah. A person’s name was very special in ancient times. It was supposed to summarize that person’s destiny. Changing one’s name gave them a whole new direction in life.

And then it happened just as God promised. Abraham and Sarah did have a son. They named their son Isaac, which means laughter.

We are the proof that God kept the promise to Abram. We are God’s children living thousands of years and on the other side of the globe from Abram and there are lots of us. We are as many as the stars in the sky. We can count on God to keep promises.

Jenga! Borrow a few sets of this wooden stacking game from friends or ask Church Staff in advance to help you locate some for your classroom. You’ll want one set (or even a half-set) for every 4-6 kids to share. You will later refer back to this game to represent Abraham disassembling his life (and his tent and belongings, etc.) and having to rebuild it when and where the Lord told him to.

3

Begin this inquiry with the children:

“Imagine that the doorbell rang at your house. When you and your parents approach the door, there are three people standing on the porch, but you don’t know who they are. They do not look dangerous or angry; they are friendly and safe, but they are strangers to your fam-ily. None of you has seen them before.

“Now, imagine that your mom or dad opens the door, and invites them into your home for a talk and some lemonade. Of course, your parents would not put you in danger, but you don’t know who these people are or why they’ve come to your house. It’s a little weird.

“These kind strangers say they have a message for your family from God, and that you are all to leave your home and go to a foreign place to start a new life. You are to say goodbye to your friends, your school, and your neighbors. Imagine that this happened…. how would you feel ?

Allow the class to wrestle with this idea through conver-sation. Prompt them with wonders like:

Would you believe that the strangers were speaking the truth?

Would you be sad, angry, excited or nervous to hear this news?

Would you feel special that God had chosen your family for an important task, or would you be upset that you were being asked to change your whole life around?

“Well, this is exactly what happened to Abraham and Sarah! They were living a nice, settled life when three strangers came to their home (which was actually a large tent), and said that God wanted them to pack up everything they owned and start walking across the des-sert to a new place, and that God would show them the way.

What do you think that Abraham did next? Did he think they were crazy and send them away? Did he start packing up? (let the children answer).

Hebrews 11: 8 says, “By faith Abraham obeyed when called to set out for a place that he was to receive as his inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going.” Abraham went obeyed and went willingly, not hesitantly. Abraham trusted God and listened to God.

It is interesting that God reveals his message through strangers in this story, and there are MANY ways that God shows himself throughout the bible. Let’s

More Wonders

How do we know when a message is from God?

Do you think that God sometimes speaks to us through strangers? What about strange situations?

I wonder what you will trust God to help you with this school year?

I wonder where you have seen God at work in unex-pected places?

“I hope the next time you feel ‘afraid of the un-known’ (at school, sports, a new neighborhood, or when trying something new) that you will pray to God and TRUST that God will provide you with the courage and strength you need.

4

Here are some ideas for the children to apply the lesson through creating or playing:

Play a Trust Game

Blind folds/bandanas will be provided for this game.

Divide the class into groups of 4-5 children (perhaps the same ones that played Jenga together). Or, a fun way to create groups is to call out “Rock, Paper, Scissors, SHOOT!”— and have them “freeze” afterwards with whatev-er symbol they chose to show. The “rocks” are Group 1, the “papers” are Group 2, and “scissors” are Group 3.

One student in each group is blindfolded (or they can just cover/close their eyes) while the others in the group try to guide them around the tables and chairs in the room using only words. They may not lead them by the arm or aid them in any way except with their voice.

Tie his into TRUSTING the unknown (God’s request of Abra-ham) and STRANGERS (not all students in the class know each other yet!)

Say: Today we learned that God uses strangers or strange situations to speak to us.

Call: The Lord be with you.

Response: And Also with you.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and earth is named, grant you to be strengthened with might by

his Holy Spirit, that, Christ dwelling in your hearts by faith, you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Amen

This prayer is used in the baptism service, BCP Page 311

In teaching try to balance the activities. Most children like the opportunity to play games or creative projects. Reading, writing and discussion is great but offering a variety helps to keep the class interesting as well.