Part 1 – No Entry Island

Published by

Linda

on

July 29, 2023

This is part one of a five part Sunday School lesson plan – 🚢 Sea Cruise

Objective:

Children learn that when God tells them to do something, it is always the right thing to do. The outcome of obedience will show that what God said was right – it will help them and those around them.

Schedule:

Introduction
Singing Time (10 mins)
Let’s Talk (10 mins)
Bible Event (20 mins)
Activity (10 mins)
Game (10 mins)

introduction

There is always someone telling you to do something. It could be someone in a video you watch, or a friend at school, or even your own mind. The challenge is to find what is right to obey. I am going to show you a smart way to choose the best one. [Answer: The best way to find the right way is to find out what God says in the scriptures]

LET’s Talk

J4K Sea Cruise is an adventure cruise that takes the kids through 5 islands. The ship is captained by a Pirate who was a very bad person. She had gone on a trip to five islands. During that time she met the greatest friend (Jesus) and his life changed for good!

You will introduce the kids to this Pirate and help them learn from her experience. To do that you will go on a video call. Pretend to make a video call on the phone while showing the video to the children. You will have to pause the video intermittently and say a few words to make this session interactive. Please find the instructions in the script below. This session will be used to teach the Memory verse of the day as well.

Please find the script for the No-Entry Island (Island #1) video below:

You: Children, guess what! I found an interesting pirate online! Shall we talk to her? Let me make a video call (Act as if making a video call using your phone)
Pirate Video: (Pirate will say Hi)
You: Pirate, you said you would take us on a journey. Could you please, please, please take us?
Pirate Video: (Pirate will ask for a password)
You: (Password is the Bible verse of the day. Help the children repeat the verse thrice. Pause the video if the verse takes longer to read and then continue.)
Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. [Psalm 119:105]
Pirate Video: (The pirate will take you around the island and talk about it)
You: (Bid goodbye to the Pirate)

Bible Event

Bible Portion: Jonah 1:1-3
Story Outline:

Jonah is one of the great prophets in scripture. Jonah knew how to hear from God. Jonah knew that what He said was good and right. He also knew that doing what God said would help him and those around him.

One day, God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and warn the people as they were living bad lives. He warned that destruction would come if the people did not change and live well. Do you think God asked Jonah to do the right thing? Yes! Why do you think that is right? [Let the children answer]

But Jonah disobeyed God. Although he knew what was right, he did the wrong thing. He took a ship sailing towards Tarshish and fled. He thought he had gotten away with doing the hard thing. He slept on the bottom deck of the ship. He possibly had valid reasons to disobey – (1) The Assyrians (People of Nineveh) were enemies of Israel. They might kill him as he was an Israelite; (2) The people of Israel might think he is committing treason, helping out their enemy; (3) God might forgive them and not punish them for their mistakes. Then he would turn out to be a liar for prophesying destruction in 40 days. Jonah could have thought of many more excuses.

However Jonah’s wrong choice led to dire consequences. The boat he took to Tarshish was caught in a storm. Everyone in the boat, including Jonah, was in great danger. Want to know what happened next? Don’t miss next week!

Activity

The activity would differ for each of the age groups – Special (3-7 years), Strong (8-12 years), Deep (13-15 years)

Special (3-7 years)
Page 1: Ask the children to draw the elders they should obey (parents, grandparents, teachers).
Page 2: Ask them to look at the pictures and retell the story.

Strong (8-12 years)
Page 1: Kids should find the way from where they are (bottom right) to where Jesus is (top left). Then fill the blanks with the letters they collect along the way. Answer: I OBEY Jesus
Page 2: The sheet has four matrixes (boxes). One of the four boxes will be used every time you play the game. Ask the children to circle a number in the first matrix. Then show the instruction sheet #1. If they had selected any number with the bomb they don’t score points for that round. Play the game three more times. From the second time, provide instructions verbally before you show the sheet (Ex. Bombs are there in the first column) This time if they listen to you carefully and obey they can save themselves from the bomb.
Fill in the blank answer: Where is Ravi getting his instructions from? BIBLE

Sea Cruise | Strong – Day 1 | Game sheet Download

Game

From this game the kids will learn to search for scripture reference in the Bible. If there are not enough Bibles available for all the kids in the class, divide the children into small groups. Prepare references that have a command to obey before the class (Example. Ephesians 6:1). When the game starts call out the references one after the other. The child/ team that finds the verse first and reads it aloud wins the round. After each verse ask the children what it means and discuss how the Bible teaches us to live a good life.