High Wire

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September 11th, 2016 .:. .:. Room 301

Pathways Kids Weekend Small Groups

This curriculum is for the 4th, 5th and 6th graders.

This Weeks Scope

Unhappy Days
Bible Story: Unhappy Days (Joseph in Jail) Genesis 40 (Supporting: Genesis 39)
Bottom Line: When life doesnt make sense, you can trust God is with you.
Memory Verse: Trust in the LORD with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding.
Proverbs 3:5, NIrV
Life App: Trustputting your confidence in someone you can depend on.
Basic Truth: I can trust God no matter what.

Welcome Time
Welcome kids and spend time engaging in conversation and catching up. Get ready to experience
todays story.
Before kids arrive, pray for each regular attendee by name. Pray for those who might visit your group
for the first time. Pray for the conversations your group will have today. Ask God to give you wisdom
and guidance to respond to any difficult circumstances that may come to light as a result of todays
content. Pray also for the kids whose families are doing well. Pray that they would internalize todays
message and be able to recall it during times when life doesnt make sense.
Bible Story: Genesis 40 (This is for your reference if you need it!)
Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of
Egypt. Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and put them
in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined. The
captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them. After they had been in
custody for some time, each of the two menthe cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who
were being held in prisonhad a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own.
When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected. So he asked Pharaohs
officials who were in custody with him in his masters house, Why do you look so sad today? We both
had dreams, they answered, but there is no one to interpret them. Then Joseph said to them, Do not
interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams. So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He
said to him, In my dream I saw a vine in front of me, and on the vine were three branches. As soon as
it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaohs cup was in my hand, and I took

the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaohs cup and put the cup in his hand. This is what it means,
Joseph said to him. The three branches are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your
head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaohs cup in his hand, just as you used to
do when you were his cupbearer. But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me
kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison. I was forcibly carried off from the land
of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon. When the chief
baker saw that Joseph had given a favorable interpretation, he said to Joseph, I too had a dream: On
my head were three baskets of bread. In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but
the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head. This is what it means, Joseph said. The
three baskets are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and impale your body on
a pole. And the birds will eat away your flesh. Now the third day was Pharaohs birthday, and he gave
a feast for all his officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in the
presence of his officials: He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, so that he once again put the
cup into Pharaohs handbut he impaled the chief baker, just as Joseph had said to them in his
interpretation. The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.
What You Need: No supplies needed
What You Do:
Ask kids to give you an example of cause and effect. Tell them that when something happens,
its usually because something happened before it. Most things that happen then cause
something else to happen.
Play a quick game of Because:
o Say something like, My shirt is wet because , and then the next kid continues,
because water came shooting out of the water fountain , and the next player says,
because the plumbers were working on the line , and the game continues, getting
more and more ridiculous.
Change up the story if kids start running out of ideas or get too crazy.
Encourage kids to share about some crazy things that have happened to them. (Be sensitive,
as these stories could run the gamut from silly to distressing.)
Lead your group to the Large Group area. (We are transitioning back to this format for the fall)

Activity #1
What You Need: masking tape
What You Do:
Have the kids help you make a zigzag tapeline on the floor. Keep this for another activity!
Line kids up at one end of the tapeline and say that theyre going to need to walk the tight rope
tapeline very carefully.
Add one more detail: They need to walk it using their hands, upside down.
Let them try (and fail). Ask if anyone can think of a way that the player can complete this nonsense challenge. Guide them to the answer: if others help!
Let kids help their friends walk the tapeline on their hands, by holding their feet, wheelbarrow
style.
Make sure kids all get a chance to walk and help.
What You Say:
This felt like a crazy assignment! It would be really hard to walk this tightrope on your hands, even if
you were a trained acrobat, which none of us are! But you all came up with a great solutionthe best
one there is! God didnt intend us to walk through this crazy upside down life alone. He is with us every
step of the way. When you were walking the tightrope you couldnt really see your friends who were
helping you. When were in the midst of lifes ups and downs, we dont see God walking with us, but we
can know Hes there. When your parents let you down, when your friends forget to invite you to
something, when you have to work harder than others at school, when youre punished for someone
elses mistake, when the good you do goes unnoticed, [Bottom Line] when life doesnt make sense,
you can trust God is with you. Hes got you just as sure as we all did in this game.

Activity #2
What You Need: Secret Decoder Activity Pages; 1 for each kid, pencils or pens, Bibles
What You Do:
Let kids use the Activity Page to find out how to decode the nonsense words.
Look up the verse together and let kids check their answers.
What You Say:
These words didnt make any sense at first! Then you were able to use the decoder to find out what
they meant. A lot of times, life works that way. Things that dont make sense eventually become
understandable when you see how God is working. God uses all kinds of things in His planeven the
parts that we dont really get. Waiting to see how God will use crazy situations is a great way to
remember that [Bottom Line] when life doesnt make sense, you can trust God is with you.
If you lead mostly older kids, consider asking these discussion questions:
Look up Romans 8:28 together. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those
who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Ask, Does this mean that God
will use everything that happens to make us happy? Or does it mean that God wants bad things
to happen to us?
Can you think of a time when God worked something good out of a difficult situation? [Make It
Personal] (Share a story about a time when you were in a situation that seemed hopeless
and you felt like you couldnt trust God. How did you eventually see Gods presence in
that situation and did you see Gods goodness through the difficult times?)
When is it easiest to feel God is with you? When is it the hardest?
Sometimes our feelings can be confusing. What should we do when we dont FEEL like we can
trust God? Can you think of a couple people you can turn to when you feel that way?

Prayer
Opposites

Time

What You Need: Tapeline from the Zigzag Upside Down activity, markers or pens
What You Do:
Gather around the tapeline and pass out the markers/pens. Explain that theyll be writing on the
tapeline.
Encourage kids to think carefully and then to write down a situation in their life that doesnt
make sense and they need to trust that God is with them.
Close in prayer.
What You Say:
Dear God, thank You that You are always with us, like You were with Joseph. Please help us in all
these situations weve written down. Help us to see that you are with us even in these unfair or difficult
or just plain crazy times. Thank You for never leaving us. Amen.
Let parents see the before part of the Secret Decoder Activity Page and guess what the words really
are; encourage kids to share the verse with them.