Introduction

This series of three lessons was designed for discipleship. The children will have an opportunity to learn Bible stories that have an important message for everyday life. It is our aim to try to give the children some knowledge of Biblical content. This will hopefully help them to grow stronger in their faith and develop spiritually.

Props

Decorations for submarine - The Zoo Bus was used as the set for this series. It is long and like a capsule so it is easy to use your imagination to help make it into a submarine. This could be done using a long classroom. Fish on windows to give the under the sea look. Old rustic control panels and dials, periscopes and radar equipment.

Lesson # 2 - Jesus Walks on Water

In this second lesson in the Submarine Days Series, the children will learn about Jesus walking on the sea. This is a miraculous showing of God's amazing power but it holds in it a very important lesson. "We may not walk on water, but we do walk through tough situations. If we focus on the waves of difficult circumstances around us without looking to Jesus for help, we too may despair and sink. To maintain your faith when situations are difficult, keep your eyes on Jesus' power rather than your own inadequacies." (Taken from the "Life Application Bible". New International Version edition, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. and Zondervan Publishing House; 1988.)

Goals

• to teach a Bible Story
• to teach the children that life isn't always easy so
• they need to stay focussed on Jesus.
• to teach them that Jesus loves them

Opening

In the opening there will be a video playing. This will occupy the children as they enter the bus. The video is a music video called "The Miracles of Love". It is from the Nest Entertainment Series. This will introduce the lesson theme.

Rules

It is important to be aware of the age characteristics of the children enrolled in your program. Younger children have a shorter attention span and can become fidgety faster. It is essential to adjust the program appropriately or your discipline system will fail. The children will find it more difficult to be quiet for an event geared at adults. Make sure to use a variety of shorter activities with lots of visual aids and activities they can participate in. Know your age group before you plan. If you have a good program, discipline problems will be reduced.

Prayer

This is an important part of the program so leave your "Christian jargon" at home. Remember that some of the words that we use freely in our churches are not part of the everyday language of an eight year old. Some of the words are even difficult for adults to grasp. Take the word "sanctify", how many people off the street can define that. Make sure to use simple language when you pray. This will make that kids feel like they can do it too.

Games

All games are adapted to suit the Submarine theme of this teaching unit. Both of these games are adaptations of games taken from "50 One Minute Games".

Game #1 - Sea Tongue Twisters

Select one player at a time. The contestant represents their team. The participant will repeat a tongue twister as many times as possible in one minute. The player that says their sentence most wins.

"Silly Sally sells seashells at the sea shore"
"Big Bob builds blue boats badly"

Game #2 - Starfish Balance

Select one player from each team. They will participate one at a time. The contestant will sit on floor and start the timer. Balance a starfish on their nose. The player will stand up and then sit back down. See how many times the player can do this in one minute.

Memory Verse

The sea captain puppet, CAPTAIN C. LEVEL, presents the memory verse leader with an old captain's log book. It is very dusty. It has some very important messages in it. The message corresponds with the story.

Leader: Look who came back, it is Captain C. Level. Do you remember him from last week? (allow for response)

Captain C. Level: Good afternoon to you guys! I'm glad to be back. We learned a lot last week. I brought that old captain's log with me again. Would you like to see it?

Leader: Sure!

Captain C. Level: I went home last week and I decided to read some more of the log and I found a really important message. I'll show it to you. (Captain C. Level shows the children the encoded verse) It is written in the ancient sea code that I showed you last week, would you like to try to solve it?

Leader: We will try! (allow time for the children to take turns trying to solve the puzzle) Let's read it together: "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Never rely on what you think you know." Proverbs 3:5

That verse comes right out of the Bible and it is supposed to help us to live our lives everyday. But that verse is no good to us if we don't know what it means! Do you know what it means? (allow for response)

This verse means that we are supposed to trust God. We are supposed to depend on, believe and be sure about God. The verse says not just a little bit, but with all of our hearts. Some times things are not easy for us. We have a bad day or something really bad happens to us but God will be there with us, we can count on that. The next part says that we shouldn't rely on ourselves. We don't always know everything and we don't understand but God does.

Captain C. Level: That is a very important verse for everyday. Each day we should trust God and know that he will help us.

Leader: That is right Captain. Thanks for bringing that log book, maybe you can bring it again next week.

Captain C. Level: Sure. I'll see you later. (Exits)

Object Lesson

This segment of the lesson was used to introduce the story. The two puppet characters JACQUES CRUSTEAU and Captain C. Level appear on stage.

Jacques Crusteau :(scrambles on to stage) Hello, there everyone. We are still searching for the treasure but nothing yet.

Captain C. Level: (yells from off stage) Heh, Crusteau. Check our location on the plotting table please? I'll be up in a minute I'm just checking the ballast control panel.

Jacques Crusteau: (busy checking some equipment) Hmmmm, I guess I had better check on our location.

Captain C. Level: (enters) How does it look?

Jacques Crusteau: Oh my goodness, you'll never believe it.

Captain C. Level: Believe what?

Jacques Crusteau: We are at de location where a man walked on water a long time ago.

Captain C. Level: I know that you have been studying the ocean for a long time but you must be confused. Maybe the guy went swimming or something.

Jacques Crusteau: No, I am serious. It wasn't just anyone it was Jesus.

Captain C. Level: Sure Crusteau , sounds awful strange to me.

Jacques Crusteau: Let's go to the galley and get a snack. I'll tell you all about it.
(They exit)

Story

The story will be a video. It is an excerpt from a video called "Miracles of Jesus." It is put out by Nest Entertainment.

At this point Captain C. Level and Jacques return:

Captain C. Level: That was an amazing story.

Jacques Crusteau: I thought that you might want to hear it. I like to hear about the exciting things that Jesus did. It was a miracle. I probably would have been like Peter. I would have sank. It would be too scary for me. Lobsters don't swim too well let alone walk on water.

Captain C. Level: That story was about a lot more than just walking on water. We probably will never walk on water but we do walk through hard times in our lives everyday. If we keep our eyes on all those bad things we will find it impossible. Peter was supposed to keep his eyes on Jesus. That is what we are supposed to do too.

Jacques Crusteau: When times are bad we need to remember how much Jesus loves us and he will help us.

Captain C. Level: That is really important. I learned a lot from that story.

Jacques Crusteau: So did I!

Leader's Conclusion

This time is used to review the contents of the story and find out who paid attention and how much they understood.

• That was a neat story wasn't it?
• Do you know what a miracle is?
• Why did Peter walk and then sink?
• What does this story teach us?

Dismissal: Quiet seat prizes and closing prayer.

Copyright 1997, Bread of Life Ministries