God's Special love For us - The Story of Jonah

(Due to show and tell this will be a longer class)

Circle Time

            Opening prayer

            Hello song.

Introduction to Bible Lesson

Each one of us is very special to God. We heard all about this wonderful world God created for us – Earth. We also heard about God’s wonderful gift he gave us – Jesus. Last week we started to learn about God’s great love for the people that obey him and how he gives them special abilities. We heard about Noah and how even though he was just a farmer, God gave him the ability to build a great big boat called an ark. 

                        Today we are going to hear about a scared man who didn’t like to talk that God gave a special ability to. God gave this very scared and silent man a great big voice and lots of courage. Enough courage to yell up and down the streets of a city full of bad people and let them know that God was not happy with them.

Our story begins in the middle of the Bible in a book called Jonah.

Bible Lesson

There was a man named Jonah who loved God very much. One day God told him to go to a city called Nineveh and to tell all the people that God did not like what they were doing. Nineveh was full of very bad people who did very bad things. Jonah did not want to go. He was scared of the people there and he didn’t really like to talk. He didn’t want to do what God told him to, so he ran away.

He ran all the way to the ocean and then he hired a boat. He thought he could run away from God by hiding on the boat.

God sent a big wind on the ocean and caused a big storm. Jonah didn’t know about the storm. He had found a small spot in the bottom of the boat and had went to sleep. He didn’t know that up above him men were very scared and the boat was about to break in half. Everyone on top of the ship was praying to God to save them. Then the captain of the boat noticed that Jonah was not there. The captain became angry and went to find Jonah. When he found him asleep he woke Jonah up and told him to pray so that the boat would be safe.

The storm was so fierce and one of the men said to the others. God isn’t pleased with someone on this ship. God won’t stop this storm until that person does what God wants. Jonah came up from the bottom of the ship. God gave him the courage to tell the others that he was the one God wanted and he was running away. He told the men to throw him to God. The men picked him up and threw him over the side of the boat.

God still wanted Jonah to talk to the bad people of Nineveh so he sent a whale to swallow Jonah up. Jonah spent 3 days and nights in the belly of the whale and prayed for God to forgive him. He promised God that he would do as God asked him to. God made the whale spit him up on dry land.

God told him once again to go to Nineveh and this time Jonah listened. God gave him the courage not to be scared. Once he got there God gave him a big, big voice to shout up and down the streets. Jonah yelled in a loud voice “40 days and Nineveh will be no more. 40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed.”

The people heard Jonah and were very sorry that they had been bad. They all made sure to do only good things. They all decided to do what God wanted them to do. They listened to what God told Jonah to say.

Because Jonah obeyed God, God gave him ability to speak to everyone without being afraid and God gave him a big voice to speak. God loves everyone even if they do bad things. God loved each person in the city of Nineveh so much that when they listened to Jonah and did what God wanted them to do, God decided to keep Nineveh safe from harm.

Crafts

1.      Whale Craft

Materials: mini cardboard flower pots, foam shaped body, chenille stems, google eyes, markers, glitter glue, tacky glue

Children decorate flower pot as desired using markers and glitter glue. They put chenille stems through hole in flowerpot. The turn flowerpot upside down and glue onto foam body. Curl chenille stems to make it look like water coming out of spout. Add google eyes.

 

Snack Time

Circle Time

            Song 1 – Theme song “God Made Me Special”

            Song 2 – God made me

God Made Me Special Activities

Talent Show and tell.

God gave each one of us special abilities. Everyone has 2 minutes to show something they made or something they can do. Let’s start here and go around in a circle.

(This will take a little longer than usual)

Closing

                        Closing prayer

Virtue to work on: Using our talents to help others.