S.A.L.V.A.T.I.O.N. SURVIVOR

Bible Lessons for Children's Ministry | by Kathy Cook

Hello fellow children's ministers!

I am so excited to see the response to the S.A.L.V.A.T.I.O.N. Survivor series! I am going to attempt something that I hope will work out best for you and in a timely manner. I am going to send lesson one, which is a ‘pre lesson’ to emphasize the importance of responding when God calls. I will do everything I can think of to make this lesson easily understood. If you need clarification, please do not hesitate to question, ok? If this works out and comes through clearly, I will move on to lesson two, and so on. There are 10 lessons in all. I will put them on a word document and send as an attachment. That is about the most computer savvy I can get! 

For clarification: The visuals I send, I put on heavy tag-board. (Cardstock heavier paper that you can get at an office supply or teacher supply store, or even Wal-Mart.) I have never had much trouble putting this through a copier as regular paper. 

For my class, I use four different colors for four different teams. Obviously, you will probably just adjust to whatever you need for your size class. Then I laminate the visual and place each individual verse in a 5" x 7" manila envelope for future teaching.

Each series we have done (ex. Psalm 139, Psalm 1, Psalm 91, Luke 2:1-14, I Corinthians 13, Isaiah 53, etc.) are put in an individual box and marker accordingly, that way, when it is time to teach again in about four years, it can be brought out and all the work is finished! That has certainly proven to be the most efficient use of time! Just a little background before we get started.

For each lesson, I will attempt to pass along game ideas that cost practically nothing to come up with (except your valuable time!) Then, should you need other ideas, oh my, we could be writing for decades!! The pictures I will send you will give you an example of the endless possibilities that can be used for Scripture Memory games. 

Probably the most difficult thing in sharing with experienced teachers is the fact that, this could be something you are already doing in your class. It’s nice to know, isn’t it, when that happens, that we do not have a ‘corner market’ on God’s blessings!! He sends creative ideas all over the place. I must honestly tell you, when I go to purchase or create new games, I have prayed and asked God to please give me ideas that will help the kids to learn, and sure enough, HE is faithful! On to lesson one!

LESSON 1 

"Now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation." II Corinthians 6:2b

1. Song: 
You can use many well-known children’s songs and put your verse to music. This is HIGHLY effective for memory. For this verse we used the song: “The farmer in the dell,” and keep changing keys to move up the scale singing it faster and faster. 

Example using the farmer in the dell:

Now is the accepted time,
Behold now is the day,
Of salvation, of salvation. 

Repeat going faster and moving up the scale.

2. Visual race: Visuals to follow. 
All teams are sitting at their table or in a circle on the floor. Visuals are all spread out and at ‘go’ first team to put the verse in order correctly gets to ***capture a flag*** for their team. (Capture a flag will be shown later)

As a side note, I make all teams put their hands in the air as soon as they hear a team say ‘done!’ This way, if the team would be incorrect, it is fair for all teams to continue until there is a correct winner.

3. Find in order: 
Turn visuals over so the words cannot be seen. Each team is working at their table or on the floor with their own set of visuals. Again, I usually have four different colored sets of visuals.

Alternating people on their own team, each person turns one word at a time over to show the word of the verse. The object is to find the verse in order. If they did not turn over ‘NOW’ first, they turn it back over and try again.
First team to have every word found in order, captures a flag.
(I have them lay it out to the side so the verse is in readable order.)

4. OUT OF THE BOX:
To make this more eye appealing, I spray painted four boxes four different colors, but for the sake of the game, you can just have any box of equal sizes. The kids LOVE this game!! The packing peanuts that come in a shipped box, are also in the box and I spray paint them and shake it all up to have matching color of peanuts. I am sure you probably know that you can buy packing peanuts already colored, through a craft store or teacher store, but I am cheap! So, the spray paint works fine.
This is a relay type game.

Kids are in their own team line:
Visuals are placed in the box and all shook up.
At ‘go’ one person from each team runs to the box and finds a word of the verse.
They run back with it and lay it on the floor in their area.
When all words are found, the first team that has the verse in order captures a flag.

As a side note, no peanuts are allowed to be out of the box, or they are disqualified ~ I do not want to spend time picking up peanuts!! 

5. You can vary the game above by finding each word in order. This takes longer, but is so much more challenging.

6. AFTER WORDS:
Using the visuals from one team:
Choose one person from each team.
Hold up any word of the verse.
Between only those different people you have chosen,
The first person to correctly say the word after it, captures a flag.

To make this game even more challenging,
Each team has a white board and marker, or just a paper and pen,
The first person to correctly WRITE the word after it, is the winner

7. WORD WAR:
Using the visuals that follow,
Again choosing one person from each team,
Show a letter that begins with any word of the verse.
First person to shout out what word of the verse starts with that letter, captures a flag.

8. WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER:
Using the visuals with numbers,
Choosing one person from each team,
Show a number.
First person to shout out which word is the ‘fourth word of the verse’
Captures a flag.

EX: Showing the number four, the word ‘accepted’ would be correct. 

EXTRAS:
We normally play between 6-8 games each Sunday, because our time frame is 1 ¼ hour. We start each week with prayer requests and offering, to which we sing the books of the Bible. So this technically gives us about an hour to play the games.

CAPTURE THE FLAG:
Making a wood base, drill about 8 holes the size of a small dowel rod to fit in. 
Spray paint it the color of the team.
Cut a dowel rod into 8 sections and spray paint to match base.
Cut one large pennant flag for the center of the base. I allow the kids to decorate this with their names, etc. on it to give their team personality!
Then make 7 additional flag pennants attached to the dowel rod.
This is what they capture when they win a game. They LOVE getting the most flags. 
Team with most flags wins for the day the Survivor challenge!!
(Many ways to play this, will follow in future lessons)

WORKSHEET:
For those studious type of kids, they love this type of activity. There is a web site: http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com  
where you can make your own word searches and puzzles to have them figure out the verse. I tried to cut and paste one, but it would not let me. You will just have to play around and make one and print it out directly from the site. Lots of fun things to create on this site!

Copyright 2006 K. Cook

Contact info: 
Kathy Cook
6394 Bell Station Rd.
Circleville, OH 43113
740-474-4287
rkc8@frontier.com

Check out our Survivor-Temptation Island 
Outdoor Bible Game Adventure

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