Kindergarten-2nd

September 27-28, 2014

Genesis 37-47, Romans 8:28 (NIRV)

Joseph

God is Always With Us

Connect Time (15 minutes): Five minutes after the service begins, split kids into groups and begin their activity. Large Group (30 minutes) : Begin 20 minutes after the service starts. Model what it looks like to be engaged in large group. Small Group (15 minutes) : Keep kids in small groups until parents arrive. If you all have extra time at the end, you can review the video and songs together.

God’s plan for us isn’t always easy; we all have bad days as well as good. Think of a personal experience that was hard for you to get through and share it with the kids. Whether or not it turned into a good experience isn’t the main focus, what’s important is that God was with you throughout the whole experience!

Ask kids to show you their story and explain why they have both happy and sad stickers in it.

The goal of this week is to help kids know without a doubt that God is with them through thick and thin. Repeat this fact several times, making sure they know that even though they’ll have bad days, God will be with them.

Goal: Connect Time is all about engaging kids in an activity that allows them to connect with each other right away while simultaneously piquing their curiosity for Large Group and preparing their minds for what they’re going to hear. FORTUNATELY, UNFORTUNATELY *For this activity, you can keep kids in a large group or break into small groups.

• Tell kids that you are going to tell them a story about a kid who had some really good days, and really bad days.

• When you describe a good day, kids will run to one side of the room. • When you describe a bad day, kids will run to another side of the room. • Say these situations:

o One day, Joe walked to school. FORTUNATELY, he found $5 on the ground!

o UNFORTUNATELY, when he picked it up, a car splashed him with mud all over.

o FORTUNATELY, his mom packed an extra shirt in his backpack, so he wore that instead!

o UNFORTUNATELY, when he put the new shirt on, it caused him to have an itchy rash all over his arms.

o FORTUNATELY, when he got to school, the school nurse gave him lotion, and his arms felt better.

o UNFORTUNATELY, he squirted some lotion on the ground and slipped and fell on it!

o FORTUNATELY, his friend was there to help him up off the ground! • You can come up with extra scenarios if there’s time. Feel free to be silly and

creative! If you have time, debrief in small groups. Ask kids about the best and worst parts of their week. This question will be particularly applicable to this week’s lesson. Before you head into Large Group, remind them about your expectations for their behavior: (1) be kind, (2) listen when somebody speaks, and (3) follow the leader’s instructions.

Goal: Kids will (1) retell the story of Joseph (2) understand that God is always with us, through the good times and the bad. Why: We will all have hardship in our lives, and people will not always treat us right. But God is always faithful and will be with us through everything. Tip: Kids may not understand why bad things happen to us, and that’s okay. Focus on the fact that God is here with us through everything, and he will always be faithful in the end.    

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Review and Dig Deeper: *Pass around a bean bag to the person who’s speaking. Each group member should be prepared to hold the bean bag and answer questions.

1. Why did Joseph’s brothers want to kill him/sell him into slavery? 2. How do you think Joseph felt when all those bad things were happening to him? 3. Did Joseph think God had abandoned him? 4. Even though God loves us, will we still have bad days sometimes? 5. What is a bad thing that’s happened to you? How about a great thing? 6. Even though bad things might happen today, do you think God can turn them into

something good? OUR STORY

• Give each kid a paper book, 3 sad face stickers, and 3 happy face stickers. • Tell them that we’re going to make a story about ourselves. In our story, we’ll put

both sad and happy faces, because in life, we have both sad and happy days. But no matter what, God is always there with us!

• Hand out markers for kids to further decorate their books. They can write their name on the front, draw pictures of themselves with God, write about their good and bad days, decorate with designs and patterns, etc.

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Prayer Jesus, thank you for being with us always. Thank you for rescuing us and helping us through everything bad that may happen. Amen! Extra time? Go around the circle and ask kids if they want to show their story to the group. They can talk about the happy and sad things that have happened to them, how God helped them through it, or just describe their favorite or not so favorite days!

The story of Joseph is a pretty long one. Kids may not remember all the specific events of Joseph’s life, but we can help them remember how God was with Joseph over and over again, through every bad and good day he had.

Find the God’s Story video here: http://vimeo.com/66760375   The worship videos can be found here: All Our Hope: http://vimeo.com/99668247 You Come in a Hurry: http://vimeo.com/49927835

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*Click to play intro music Hi guys! How’s everybody doing today? We’re so glad you came to Kids’ Club! It looks like you got a bit of exercise playing that game; can someone remind me why you were running back and forth so much? (Let a kid respond.) Wow, that sounds pretty hectic! So let’s get this straight. You all heard a story about Joe. First, he was having a great day. Then he was having a bad day. Then he was having a good day again! Then he was having a bad day again! Does anybody ever feel like that happens to you? Like something good happens, and then something bad happens to ruin it? (Let a kid respond.) That happens to me too! (Share a personal example of something that was hard for you to experience; it could be something that made you mad, sad, etc.) We all go through hard stuff sometimes. INTRO: JOSEPH Today we’re going to learn about a guy named Joseph who went through a lot of good stuff and a lot of bad stuff. He was the favorite son of his dad Jacob, and he had 10 brothers! His dad loved him so much that he gave him something very special; a really fancy, colorful robe! (Show slide of colorful robe). Joseph was really happy. But guess what? His brothers were jealous of him. And they decided to do something to Joseph that would cause him to be very sad and hurt. We’re going to watch a video about Joseph’s life, and I want you to pay special attention to who is with Joseph through everything, good and bad.

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VIDEO: GOD’S STORY/JOSEPH Wow, what a story! Joseph went through a lot of things both good and bad, but who was with him the ENTIRE TIME? (let kids respond). That’s right, God was with him! In fact, God had an amazing plan for Joseph. Everything bad that would happen, would eventually turn into something good! JOSEPH TRUSTS GOD So first, Joseph’s own brothers decided to sell him as a servant! How would you feel if your brother or sister did that to you? (Let a kid respond.) Yep, it would be really hurtful. You might even wonder if God is still looking out for you. But you know what Joseph did? He trusted in God. He knew in his heart that everything would work out. Let’s do something special. As I tell the rest of the story, listen really closely, and whenever you hear “God was with him” I want you to yell out “YAY!” as loud as you can! Okay, here we go. Joseph was sold as a servant to a rich family, and GOD WAS WITH HIM. (Let kids respond.) The master put him in charge of the other servants! But then he got blamed for something he didn’t do, and he was thrown in jail. But GOD WAS WITH HIM. (Let kids respond.) While in jail, he got put in charge of the other prisoners! Some prisoners had bad dreams, so God helped Joseph explain them! But he had to stay in jail for a long time. And GOD WAS WITH HIM. (Let kids respond.) Finally, when the king himself had a bad dream, he called for Joseph to explain it to him! Again, God helped Joseph explain the dream, so the king put Joseph in charge of his kingdom! AND GOD WAS WITH HIM. (Let kids respond.) Woah. God wasn’t just with him some of the time, was he? (Let kids respond.) No way! He was with him all of the time! JOSEPH FORGIVES HIS BROTHERS Joseph helped take care of the kingdom when there was no food, and that’s when his brothers came for help! Did his brothers know it was Joseph though? (Let the kids respond ‘no’.) Nope, they had no idea; they were amazed when he revealed himself. The really amazing part is that Joseph FORGAVE them even though they treated him so horribly! Just like Joseph forgave his brothers, God forgives us! He’s always with us, and he even sent his son down to earth to rescue us! Do you all know who that son is? (Let kids respond ‘Jesus’.) Let’s look at this special verse that tells us how God makes all things right. As I read it, I want you to close your eyes, open your ears and really listen to what God is telling you through this verse. SLIDE: Romans 8:28 “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” Would someone like to tell me what you think that verse means? (Let a kid come up to the presentation area to respond.) Wow, thanks! You’re absolutely right. When we love God and

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trust him to take care of us, he will be there always! And even on the bad days, we can trust him. Now let’s celebrate that and sing about how we can put all our hope in God! VIDEO: ALL OUR HOPE VIDEO: YOU COME IN A HURRY PRAYER God, thank you for always being with us, even when we go through hard things. Help us to always trust you. Amen!                  

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Fortunately, Unfortunately game – no supplies needed

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Per kid: One paper book (2 piece of paper stapled together), 3 sad face stickers, 3 happy face stickers (Amazon.com happy and sad face stickers, #B00JRFRFZC) Per group: markers

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Tell me about Joseph. When is God with us?

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Daily Talk Starts separate doc

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Bible

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1. AV Needs: Song slide: for when kids enter the room (All that You Need instrumental; mp3 only; can be downloaded on website)

2. Slide: Picture of Joseph’s coat 3. Video: God’s Story/Joseph

http://vimeo.com/66760375 4. Slide: Romans 8:28 “We know that in all

things God works for the good of those who love him.”

5. Video: All Our Hope http://vimeo.com/99668247

6. Video: You Come in a Hurry http://vimeo.com/49927835

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