Matt. 8-9 & Mark 2-5 (Mar. 4-10)

Thy Faith Has Made Thee Whole

The object of this lesson is to review and expand upon the many miracles Jesus performed during his mortal ministry. 

Invite Sharing:

Ask the children to share one of their favorite stories of Jesus. 

Teach the Doctrine:

Brian and I are at an advantage this year that we are teaching children 7-8 year olds which means that we can really pick and choose activities from both the "younger children" and the "older children" sections.

Beforehand, gather together:

 1. Download the movie (link found in activity 1) "Calming the Tempest."
2. Poster board, spray bottle (with a mist setting).
3. Picture of Christ and clouds with trials written on them (Activity 3)
4. Paper and crayons for the kids to draw their pictures.
5. Treat. 

Some Activities We Plan to Do:

1. When I am Afraid or in Danger, Jesus Can Help Me Feel Peace.
We will show the children the movie, "Calming the Tempest" after we have watched it all the way through once. We will replay it. This time we will turn the lights off during the movie. I will give Brian a poster board to shake (creating a thunder sound) and have him sporadically turn the lights on and off to imitate lightening. I will have a spray bottle that will occasionally mist "rain" onto them. We will perform our actions during the movie until Christ says, "Peace, be still." And we will instruct the children to be very very still and quiet when that happens.

2. Jesus Has Power to Perform Miracles.
We will have the children close their eyes and turn the lights off as Brian or myself recites the story of when Jesus heals a blind man found in Matt. 9:27-30. We will instruct the children to open their eyes when they hear us read the phrase, "And their eyes were opened." At that point we will turn the lights back on. We will then discuss how Christ has the power to make us whole and perfected just as he did all those many years ago. He is able to perform the miracles according to our faith. We will discuss what that phrase (according to our faith) means. 

3. Before the children arrive I will write on the board, "The 'Son' Will always shine through the clouds." I will take a picture of Christ on the board and cover it will black clouds that I will just make with construction paper. On the front of each cloud write a difficult trial the children may have to face. (I did black construction paper and wrote on it with chalk) Cover the picture of Christ with the clouds. One at a time, allow the children to remove a cloud, read the trial to the class and suggest ways you could cope with that trial using Christ as an example.

Some examples of things to write on the clouds:
Lying. Cheating on an exam. Bullying. Stealing. Death. Jealousy. My friends want me to do something that isn't right. Scared/Nervous. Etc.

4. Jesus Can Perform Miracles in My Life If I Let Him In.
Have the children draw a picture of a scripture story of their choice and summarize the story afterwards:
-Mark 2:1-12
-Mark 5: 22-23
-Mark 5: 35-43
-Mark 5: 24-34

If we have time, we might talk about some miracles Christ has performed for us in our own lives.

5. Treat.
I plan to make cupcakes similar to the one pictured below with a tag on the box that reads, "If we have faith in Him, Jesus can be as a rainbow after the storm." Also kind of goes along with St. Patrick's Day so... Win Win. :D

Encourage them to share their favorite miracle performed by Christ with their families after church today.

I hope this has been helpful to you. See you next week!