Lesson 5 – BUILDING OUR LIFE WELL

AS KIDS ARRIVE PRIOR TO THE LESSON (10 minutes) ACTIVITY
Get children to colour the Bible Verse Visual Aids and GOOD and BAD signs.

Supplies needed:
• Obstacles such as Chairs, Tables, Toys, Cones, Boxes, Rocks etc .
• Black cloth for blindfold, you will need half as many as the number of children.
• Print out musical lyrics.
• Print off Bible Verse Visual Aids, crayons.
• Print GOOD and BAD signs.
• Print the chapter 5 of the ‘And Puppy’ book one for each child.

1. GAMES: Research Game
Place the group of children in a circle and the leader says ‘Change places if it’s true for you” and say “If you rode a donkey, have a big brother, like fried plantain etc”

This can start off as a fun activity and once the children relax you can start to add other things relating to the disaster that they are recovering from eg ‘If you lost your roof in the storm’ or ‘If anyone in your family died’ etc

2. TEAM GAMES: (10 minutes)
‘You can Trust me’ team game:
Divided into two groups. Make sure that both the groups have the same number of players. Divide the children into pairs and blindfold one child from each pair. Each pair should have one kid who has the blindfold and one who doesn’t. Depending on the level and intensity of the activity, you can let the path be regular or add obstacles. The kid who is not blindfolded has to guide his partner carefully through the path and reach a safe zone. Once all kids are in the safe zone, switch the blindfold and put it on the kids who did not wear it earlier.

3. ACTIVE PRAISE CHORUS (10 minutes)
Don’t build your house on the sandy land (Use Video if possible and lyrics)
Trust in the Lord – (Dance movements use Video if possible and lyrics) Give each child two Trust track to take home tell them to share one with a friend.

4. INTIMATE WORSHIP (5 minutes)
Jesus I will Trust (Use Video if possible and lyrics)

5. TEACHING
a. Review
Where was the caravan of Ishmaelites going to? (Egypt)
What were their camels carrying? (Spices, balm and myrrh)
Who stopped his brothers from killing Joseph? (Judah)
How much did they sell him for? (Twenty shekels of silver)

.b. Learn a Bible Verse (5minutes)
The LORD was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.
Genesis 39:2

The LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did Genesis 39:3 (Use Bible Verses Visual aids)

c. Teach the Lesson (15 minutes)
Introduction:
When Joseph arrived in Egypt, a lot of things happened to him -- some good -- and some not so good. You are going to help me tell the next part of this story. I will tell you some of the things that happened to Joseph and you will tell me if they were good or bad. (Use GOOD and BAD signs)

Teaching:
This week as Joseph starts to rebuild his life many good things happened. Next week we are going to learn about the bad things that happened to him.

Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. (Bad) Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. (Good)
2 The Lord was with Joseph (Good) so that he prospered, (Good) and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. (Good) 3 When his master saw that the Lord was with him (Good) and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, (Good) 4 Joseph found favour in his eyes (Good) and became his attendant.(Good) Potiphar put him in charge of his household, (Good) and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. (Good)

Joseph had decided that if life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. He served Potiphar with integrity and industry, and when opportunity came, he would talk to Potiphar about Jehovah God. Even when his godly character was severely tested, he shined.

Joseph was actually a spoiled brat. He was proud and egoistic. His character needed a transformation before God could actually promote him.

The LORD was with Joseph. Those four simple words summarize the entire life of Joseph. God was with him. Regardless of the circumstances that came to his life, regardless of what happened in the life of Joseph, the Bible says, but God was with him. Four times in Genesis 39 the Scriptures say, the Lord was with Joseph. That was the secret of the success of Joseph.

Things came into the life of Joseph that would have discouraged most men. Yet, in the midst of it all, Joseph came through with great victory because the Lord was with him.

Many people became instrumental in Joseph’s character formation. God used Joseph’s brothers, Potiphar’s wife to name a few. He will do the same with you, sometimes these people that God uses can really hurt you but they develop character in you, just like in Joseph.

Optional: View ‘Joseph in Egypt’ video if possible

Caribbean Story 'And Puppy': Chapter 5 Life in the Home

Discussion:

6. APPLICATION / ENCOUNTERING GOD

Optional: Play music video if possible ‘In God we trust’

Optional: Encourage the children to talk about life after the storm and create a collage of ‘Treasurers after the Storm’

CLOSING PRAYER
Heavenly Father, there are so many lessons to be learned from the story of Joseph. It shows us how you love and care for us even when times are difficult. It shows us that we should be loving and forgiving even when we have been treated badly. Help us to apply those lessons to our daily life. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

By the end of this lesson the children should be able to:
• Learn from the Joseph story as he arrives in Egypt and starts to rebuild his life. Genesis 39 1-4
• Chose to build their life on God
• Trust that God has a plan for their lives
• Decide to make good choices about their lives
• Know that they should be careful about whom they trust

TAKE HOME PAGE/ACTIVITY
Give each child a ‘Memory Verse Tracks’, Word Search game and Chapter 5 of “And Puppy’

Art Therapy: Go home and draw a picture of you in a strange place during the storm or after the storm.

NEXT WEEK We are going to learn more bad things happened to Joseph.