Resources needed: 7–11 year olds

·  Dressing up costumes for rap band (children and adult helpers)

Title / IN CHRIST I AM… ALIVE FOR HIS PURPOSE / Learning Objectives / ·  Children will understand that TRANSFORMATION means being changed from one thing into another
·  Children will understand that because of Jesus they are now ALIVE on the inside
Session Overview / / Key Bible Verses / Ephesians 1:2–10
Mark 1:40–45 story of the leper
Luke 17:11–19
Romans 6:1–14
MEMORY VERSE
Ephesians 1:12 (The Message) It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for
Timing / Activity / What they will do and learn
5 mins / Intro / Introduction to the series. Game week!
5 mins / Memory verse / RAP BAND. All the children work together to make a rap of the verse
15 mins / Creative Team Time / Drawing an outline around someone to draw or write on
10 mins / Teaching / Teaching as below
The story of the leper
20 mins / Games / Choose 2 or 3 of the following games to help illustrate the point
·  Do you want to be … ALIVE?!
·  Coming ALIVE!
·  Dead or ALIVE!
TEAM SUPERSTAR / Go round the teams and ask ‘who is your superstar today’? Leaders give out stickers

Notes on Leading the Session

INTRO

This week we are carrying on with our series called TRANSFORMED LIFE. What does that mean?

A CHANGED life because we have trusted Jesus.

This week we are learning from Ephesians that IN CHRIST… I AM ALIVE FOR PURPOSE.

MEMORY VERSE

RAP BAND

The children will have picked this up by now and already have a good idea of what they are doing. You could have different fancy dress items to use as costumes for the rap. Always give different children a chance to be the main ‘rapper’ each time. You could try using a different beat – faster or slower.

Split the children into two teams. Both teams clap in a 4/4 rhythm. On 1–2, one team says ‘it’s in Christ’, on 3–4, the other team says ‘who we are’. One person is chosen as the ‘rapper’ and wears a cool hat and sunglasses and raps into the mic over the top: ‘It’s in Christ we find out who we are and what we are living for’. You can choose one person from each team to be the rapper. One of the adult helpers could dress up and give it a go as well, to give the children some encouragement and join in the fun. If possible, make it a different adult from last week.

TEAM TIME

Ask which child would like to lie down on a large sheet of paper whilst a few of the other children draw around their body shape. Alternatively, stick a few larger sheets of paper together than draw around one of the adult helpers.

On the body shape draw (younger children) or write (older children) what a leper might look like using the information given below. Some information is based on attitudes in Bible times. Emphasize that it was sad and wrong and not fair, not that it was disgusting. We want to encourage children to have good attitudes to sick people.

TEACHING

What’s it like to be left out? Who has had to be on their own at playtime or had anyone say “Go away, we don’t want you here”? How did that feel?

Our story today is about a man whose family and friends all rejected him because he had a disease called leprosy.

Who can tell us about leprosy from your team time?

So leprosy was awful. People had sores and could badly damage fingers and toes, and had to go and live away from everyone else. They lived on rubbish tips and had to beg. No-one would go near them because they wrongly thought they would catch it. They lost all their family and all their friends. People told them “go away…we don’t want you here”. There was no cure. They were stuck.

How do you think the leper felt?

No one liked them. No one cared. Everyone treated them as if they were dead.

That’s not right. People shouldn’t have to live like that. Is that a good life? How sad!

Then one day Jesus came to town. The leper shouted “If you want to…Jesus…I know you can heal me.”

Jesus looked at him and loved him. Jesus wasn’t like the other people. He wanted to TRANSFORM the leper.

He reached out His hand and touched him. “I do want to make you better” said Jesus. “Be healed.”

Jesus was the Son of God and He had power! The leper was made completely better. He wasn’t going to be on his own now, in pain and sick. He was going to really LIVE! He could now go and live a great life back with his family and friends!

Meeting Jesus that day changed EVERYTHING for the leper. Jesus made him better and gave him a full life!! He was soooo happy! He wanted to tell everyone about what Jesus had done and how amazing Jesus was. He was ALIVE! And he wanted to serve Jesus.

In Ephesians, Paul tells us that IN CHRIST we are ALIVE too!! Before we trusted Jesus and prayed to ask Him to come into our hearts, we were stuck like the leper. We have sin in our hearts which stops us from really living the way God made us to. When we ask Jesus into our hearts, like Jesus touched the leper He touches us and TRANSFORMS us and makes us really come ALIVE on the inside. And then we want to love God and follow His plan for our lives. His PURPOSE is that we live to love God and love others and tell others about Him.

PRAYER

Ask the children to sit on the floor

Dear God. Thank You for the story of the leper who was stuck. One touch from Jesus gave him new life! Thank You that because of what Jesus did on the cross I can now be ALIVE on the inside. Touch me now by Your Spirit and make me come completely ALIVE IN CHRIST. I want to love You and love others.

Children to stand up, do a star jump and shout IN CHRIST I AM ALIVE ... AMEN!

N.B. It would be good to tell the children that there is now a cure for leprosy but people are still mean to people who have leprosy. Challenge the children to be like Jesus and be kind to those that are sick and willing to love and care for them.

ACTIVITY

Games time!

Do you want to be ALIVE?

Like the game ‘Duck Duck Goose’.

First player walks round the edge and taps heads saying “do … you … want ... to … be …” until they tap one head and say "ALIVE!" The ALIVE person must get up and chase the tapper around the circle. They race to get in the space in the middle of the circle of children. Whoever misses the space becomes the head tapper next.

Coming ALIVE!

One person to be the GUESSER and goes out of the room. The rest of the children form a circle. They must choose one person to be ALIVE! Everyone else must sit completely still. The guesser comes back in and stands in the middle of the circle. When the ALIVE person winks at you, you must “come alive” by yawning loudly and then start to do whatever the ALIVE person is doing. Everyone who is ALIVE must copy the ALIVE person. GUESSER must guess who is the ALIVE person.

Stuck or ALIVE?

The leper was stuck. He wasn’t living fully and he needed Jesus to touch him to really come alive.

Like ‘Stuck in the mud’. Running around game so set rules and keep the floor clear.

Identify 1–4 persons as “it”. They must run and catch the other children. If touched you become stuck and must freeze. However, if an alive person crawls through your legs you become ALIVE!

LEPROSY INFORMATION

How does Leprosy start?

The first sign of Leprosy is usually dark or light patches on your skin.

Disability

Leprosy damages the messages sent from your brain to your elbow, wrist, knee and ankle. This means you can’t feel anything in your hands and feet and your muscles stop working, which causes clawed fingers and your feet drop. You can’t use your hands or walk properly. Not being able to feel your hands and feet means things you do every day are dangerous – you can’t feel if you get burned or hurt yourself. If you had a stone in your shoe it could rub and rub and make a big sore and you would feel it happening. This can make it difficult to get better and sore bits become really poorly. Lots of people with leprosy have fingers and toes missing.

Blindness

Leprosy can damage your face, making the eyelid muscles stop working. You can’t blink and your eyes get damaged, which can mean you go blind. Leprosy can also damage the bones of your nose, causing it to go flat

Social

In Bible times people thought that you caught leprosy from touching someone who had it. They were very scared of catching it so they sent people away from their homes. You can’t catch it by touching someone else who has it but people thought that’s how it happened, so were very mean to lepers. People with leprosy couldn’t get jobs or earn money or go to school, and had to beg for food or eat the rubbish that other people threw away.

.