bible truth: key verse
Transcription
bible truth: key verse
LESSON 3 LEADER GUIDE MEET ANGELIQUE FROM RWANDA BIBLE TRUTH: When you follow God, others can see a difference in you. KEY VERSE: In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father Who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16 (ESV®) NOTES FOR THE TEACHER As you prepare for this “GO Reach Kids” lesson about Angelique and her native country of Rwanda, here are a few ideas for adapting the experience to your particular situation: • Prior to this lesson, hang several large blank sheets of paper around the room and place two or three markers with each sheet. These will be used in the “Focus on the Nations” section. Also, make four signs using the following words: Rwanda, Family, God’s Word, Savior. These will be used in the “Focus on the Video” section. • In the “Focus on the Bible” section, we provide a Bible story based on the Bible truth and the key verse. You might consider extending the study over two weeks with the first week looking at the “Focus on the Nations” emphasis and the second week studying the “Focus on the Bible” information. • In additional to the core lesson, we also provide optional activities. Feel free to use these as time allows. They also make fun pre-class activities or can keep kids engaged as a wrap-up to the lesson. • The PowerPoint slides we have provided can help you during the “Focus on the Nations” piece of the activity. These extra tools can enhance the learning experience. • We have provided a downloadable parent handout related to this lesson. Simply make copies of the handout and distribute them to your parents. ESV® Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copy right ©2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. 1. Focus on the Nations (About 5 minutes) To start today’s lesson, direct the kids to the large blank pieces of paper hanging around the room. Encourage them to go to one of the sheets of paper and to write two or three words they think of when they hear the word “Africa.” After the kids are done, read some of the words and discuss why those words were chosen as time allows. Talk about any stereotypes that might pop up. Remind the kids that many children just like them live in Africa—including one who will be featured in today’s video. Share that while Africa includes many nations, today’s study focuses on the country of Rwanda. Show the PowerPoint slide with map of Rwanda and the Rwandan flag. Explain that it’s in eastcentral Africa. Share the “Rwanda Fun Facts” provided on the PowerPoint slides. 2. Focus on the Video (About 10 minutes) RWANDA FUN FACTS Show the video of Angelique telling her story. After the video, allow several children to share some things that stuck out to them. • Rwanda once was a colony of Belgium. Point out the signs hanging in four corners of the room. Remind them how each of the signs relate to Angelique’s story on the • Population: approximately 12 million. video. Explain that you have four signs. When you hold up a sign you want a couple of volunteers to share how the word on that sign relates to the story. Begin with the “Rwanda” sign and let a couple of kids explain what that means to Angelique’s story. Talk about some of the Fun Facts mentioned earlier and fill in additional details the kids might have left out. Repeat the process with the other three signs. After going through the signs, review the story again. Remind the kids that Angelique has grown in her relationship with Jesus by going to church, praying and studying the Bible. Share that today’s Bible truth is “When you follow God, others can see a difference in you.” Ask them to explain how Angelique influenced others through her witness. Affirm that she helped lead her parents to Christ because they saw something different in her. Share today’s key verse from Matthew 5:16. Encourage the kids to live their lives in a way that others can see the light of Jesus and come to know Him better. © 2014 Awana® Clubs International • Capital: Kigali, which is also Rwanda’s largest city. • The official language is Kinyarwanda. If you wanted to say “hello” in Kinyarwanda, you would say, “Muraho.” • Rwanda has mountains and valleys—but it also has savannahs, which are African grasslands. Almost half the nation’s land can be farmed. • The Hutus make up the largest tribe in Rwanda (almost 85% of the population), followed by the Tutsis (about 15%). Most of the nation’s population lives outside of cities. • Rwanda’s biggest exports are coffee and tea, followed by animal hides and tin. • The endangered mountain gorillas make their home in Rwanda. Many tourists visit the Parc National Volcans every year to see these animals. 3. Focus on the Bible: Lights in the World Instruct the kids to close their eyes. Then, ask them what they see. (Note: The answer should be something along the lines of “nothing” or “darkness.”) Encourage them to imagine a world without light. Tell them to open their eyes and to suggest things that would be really hard to do without any kind of light. Show the children a candle. Remind them that electricity brings light to our homes, but when the electricity goes out because of a storm or some other event, we often use candles to help us see in the darkness. Share that in Jesus’ day, candles and oil lamps were the only ways people could shine some light in a dark place—so they would put them high on a lampstand to create as much light as possible. Select a child to read Matthew 5:14-16. Point out that Jesus wants us to be like lights in a dark world. He wants us to let Him shine through us so others can see Him. Note that often we hide our lights because we’re afraid of what others will say or do, but God really wants us to shine brightly. When we do, those around us can see what Jesus really means to us. Talk with the kids about how Angelique let her light shine in front of her parents—and that they came to Jesus because of what they saw in her life. Challenge the kids to live that way so others can see Jesus in them. 4. Focus on the Key Verse: Matthew 5:16 Group the kids into teams of three or four and give each team a card with today’s key verse written on it. Tell the teams that they will have five minutes to create a rap, a song, or a series of hand motions using the words of Matthew 5:16. Let them know that they have the freedom to choose how they share the verse, but they have to use the words of the verse in their song, rap, or motions. Give the teams a few minutes to do their work, then pick a team at random to perform their version of Matthew 5:16. Once they have shared their work, encourage them to lead the other kids in performing the verse as well. Repeat this with each group—letting the teams perform first and lead the others afterward. This way, kids will hear the verse several times in several different ways. ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES: Intro Activity: Crack the Code To start the lesson, group the children into teams of 4-6 kids and give each team a piece of paper and a pencil. Explain that the members of each team will work together to unscramble a special code word about today’s video. Tell the kids that the way to discover the word is to use the key to the code. Share that for the key, every letter of the alphabet corresponds to a particular number: A-Z corresponds to 1-26. So, A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, and so forth. Tell them you will show them a series of numbers. When they figure out the right letters, they will need to unscramble the word to find the final answer. Write the following code on the board or on a large sheet of paper: 6-3-1-1-9-18. This code reveals the scrambled word: F-C-A-A-I-R. The unscrambled word is “Africa.” Give the kids a few minutes to work and tell the teams to stand up when they have solved the code. Explain that today’s lesson focuses on an African nation called Rwanda and a young girl who lives there named Angelique. Read the Rwanda Fun Facts. Point out the Bible truth and key verse for the lesson and encourage the kids to see how Angelique is living each of them out in Rwanda. If time allows, play the game a second time. After the game, review the story again. Share the Bible truth and the key verse as mentioned in the main lesson. FOCUS ON THE HOME: DIG DEEPER (DOWNLOADABLE HANDOUT) For the Parents During this week’s GO lesson your child FOCUS ON THE VIDEO: SUPPLEMENT FOR “FOUR SIGNS” You can supplement the “Four Signs” game from the “Focus on the Video” activity to make it a little more active. Prior to the session, hang the four signs in different corners of the room. learned about a girl named Angelique, who lives with her family in the African nation of Rwanda. Angelique was not a Christian when she started going to Awana, but she soon became a believer and has enjoyed playing games and learning Bible verses. She also tries to live out her faith around others—and it’s After the video, allow several children to share some things that stuck out to them. Point out the signs hanging in four corners of the room. Remind them how each of the signs relate to Angelique’s story on the video. made a big difference. Because of the Explain that you will close your eyes and count aloud to 10. While you’re counting, the kids can move to one of the four corners. When you reach 10, you will pick one of the corners. Anyone caught in that corner is out—and can help you count in the next round. Whenever a group is caught in a corner, take a minute to review how that corner relates to Angelique’s story. The object of the game is to be the last child caught. also can use these questions to start change in her life, Angelique’s parents wanted to know more about Jesus and eventually became Christians, too. To learn more about Angelique, you can view her story at awana.org/stories. You the conversation with your child about what he/she learned from Angelique and how they can help others know Jesus better: • How did Angelique describe her life before she became a Christian? Have you ever felt that way? What difference does Jesus make when you feel like that? Family Activity: The Least of These the difference between the sheep and goats was how they treated “the least of these.” Point out that the Bible challenges us to take care of folks who are suffering or who are the weaker members of society. Challenge your child to identify some people in their school or neighborhood who might be picked on because they are weak and how they can befriend those individuals in the days ahead. Unfortunately, Rwanda has a long history of violence within its borders. Since the late 1950s, the nation has endured two bloody civil wars. During those conflicts, thousands of Rwandans died, including many who were murdered. Thousands more had to leave their homes and take refuge in other countries. Ask your child to read Proverbs 31:8-9 aloud. Talk about what it means to speak up for others and to defend the rights of the poor and needy. Explain again that Jesus wants us to minister to “the least of these” and that making a difference in their lives is one way our lights can shine for Him. This week, encourage your child to think about what it would be like to have to leave their homes and live in another country. Read the story of the sheep and the goats from Matthew 25:31-46. Emphasize that AWANA.ORG/EVERYCHILD • Why do you think Angelique tries so hard to live out her faith in front of others? How has it made a difference to her family? • Read Matthew 5:16. What does it mean to let your light shine? How can you shine each day? You see the benefits of your children participating in Awana. Would you prayerfully consider partnering with us to reach kids around the world and give them the same opportunity your children have to hear the gospel (maybe for the first time) and grow in faith in Christ? I T O NLY T A K E S $ 10 to reach a child and provide longterm discipleship (generally up to four years) by trained Awana leaders. $ 30/MONTH reaches 36 children each year. Go to awana.org/everychild to reach children today.