High Wire

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September 25th, 2016 .:. .:. Room 301

Pathways Kids Weekend Small Groups

This curriculum is for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders.

This Weeks Scope

Family Re-Ties
Bible Story: Family Re-Ties (Joseph Forgives His Brothers) Genesis 4245
Bottom Line: You can trust God no matter what.
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. Ask God to help you wrap up this month by impressing on kids hearts that He is a
trustworthy God who will never leave them and always wants and does whats best for them. Pray for
kids who dont yet have a relationship with God. Pray that todays story and message would stir some
questions in their hearts. Ask God to guide you as you answer those questions.
Bible Story: Genesis 42-45 (I chose parts of Genesis 45 for your reference!)
Then Joseph said to his brothers, Come close to me. When they had done so, he said, I am your
brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with
yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two
years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and
reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives
by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to
Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. Now hurry back to my father and say to him,
This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; dont
delay. You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near meyou, your children and grandchildren,
your flocks and herds, and all you have. I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are
still to come. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute. You
can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you. Tell
my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my

father down here quickly. Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and
Benjamin embraced him, weeping. And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his
brothers talked with him. When the news reached Pharaohs palace that Josephs brothers had
come, Pharaoh and all his officials were pleased. Pharaoh said to Joseph, Tell your brothers, Do this:
Load your animals and return to the land of Canaan, and bring your father and your families back to
me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you can enjoy the fat of the land. You are also
directed to tell them, Do this: Take some carts from Egypt for your children and your wives, and get
your father and come. Never mind about your belongings, because the best of all Egypt will be yours.
So the sons of Israel did this. Joseph gave them carts, as Pharaoh had commanded, and he also gave
them provisions for their journey. To each of them he gave new clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three
hundred shekels[b] of silver and five sets of clothes. And this is what he sent to his father: ten
donkeys loaded with the best things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and
other provisions for his journey. Then he sent his brothers away, and as they were leaving he said to
them, Dont quarrel on the way! So they went up out of Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the
land of Canaan. They told him, Joseph is still alive! In fact, he is ruler of all Egypt. Jacob was stunned;
he did not believe them. But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw
the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. And Israel said, Im
convinced! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.
What You Need: No Supplies Needed
What You Do:
Collect kids offerings as they arrive.
Ask kids if theyve ever had to forgive someone. What happened? How did they respond?
Lead your kids to large group.

Activity #1
What You Need: Paper; 1 for each kid, markers
What You Do:
Tell kids that trusting God no matter what means we can trust Him no matter what were
FEELING!
Ask them to name some feelings. As kids name feelings, guide the group to make the faces that
go with those feelings.
Make sure to cover all of these emotions: happy, sad, scared, disappointed, surprised, angry,
and excited.
Give each child a piece of paper.
Assign a different emotion (emoji) to each kid to illustrate. You can assign one emotion to more
than one kid.
Give them a few minutes to illustrate their emoji.
Go around the circle and give each kid the opportunity to hold up his emoji.
Name it for the group (for instance, say, Sam has the excited emoji!) and then have the kids
say, I can trust God when Im excited.
Go around the circle repeating phrases like the ones below, letting those kids with the
corresponding emotion hold up their plates.
o Examples:
I can trust God when Im scared.
I can trust God when Im sad.
I can trust God when Im happy.
I can trust God when someone is mean.
I can trust God when Im disappointed.
I can trust God when I fail or mess up.
I can trust God when I win.
I can trust God when I lose.
I can trust God when things dont go my way.
After youve gone all the way around the circle, have the kids all hold up their emojis at the
same time as you say, [Bottom Line] I can trust God no matter what!
What You Say:
Awesome! No matter how youre feelingwhether youre happy or sad or scared or frustrated or
disappointed or angry or just plain fed up[Bottom Line] you can trust God no matter what. We
dont know what will happen tomorrow or a week from now but God does. And He has a good plan for
each of our lives. Our job is to trust that He is with us just like He was with Joseph. We may not
understand the things that happen to us until WAY later but we can believe without a doubt that God
has a good plan and that He is in control. [Bottom Line] You can trust God no matter what.
[Make It Personal] (Choose one of the kids emojis and hold it up. Tell the kids about a time
when you felt that emotion and chose to trust God no matter how you felt. Make sure your
example is age-appropriate.)

Activity #2
What You Need: Clay or Play-Doh; 1 lump for each kid, Plastic bags; 1 for each kid
What You Do:
Ask kids to think about the thing that makes them most stressed and in need of trusting God. It
could be math, PE class, parents or other family members fighting, or an upcoming move.
Give each kid a lump of clay or Play-Doh and tell them to create something that represents the
thing that stresses them out.
Put kids into groups of two or three. Try to match up kids whose colors of clay or Play-Doh will
create a fun color when squished together.
Tell groups they can tell each other what their objects are and what they stand for if they wish,
but they dont have to.
Then tell kids to squish their objects together to make a colorful blob.
What You Say:
Those are some fun-looking blobs! And just thinkthey came out of stressful situations! Thats kind of
like how when you give things over to God and trust Him, He will make something beautiful. That thing
might not go away, and you might not see any change for a loooong time, like Joseph, but you can rest
assured that God is working and He is in control and He is worthy of your trust. [Make It Personal]
(Tell kids an age-appropriate story about a time in your life when you were stressed about
something, but you gave it over to God and ultimately you saw something great come out of it.)
[Bottom Line] You can trust God no matter what.

Prayer
Opposites

Time

What You Need: Kids clay or Play-Doh blobs from the previous activity,
What You Do:
Tell kids to each take a piece of their groups blob and hold it in their hands.
Give them 20 seconds to pray for the other person/people in their group.
Hand out baggies and tell kids to put their blobs in them.
What You Say:
[Bottom Line] you can trust God no matter what. Remember this playdoh and to pray for your
partners this week. Ask God to help them trust Him no matter what!