Mini Olympics 2012

An energetic 5-session children’s program for weekly or holiday clubs and kids’ camps.

© CEP 2012 ISBN 978-1-922000-21-7 This material is copyright. The purchase of this material gives unrestricted photocopying rights within one group only. No other photocopying or reproduction should take place without the permission of the Publisher.

Scripture references are taken from the Contemporary English Version (CEV) © American Bible Society 1991, unless otherwise noted. Other Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV). Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society.

‘New International Version’ and ‘NIV’ are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademarks Office by International Bible Society. kids@holiday club, kids@club and kids@church resources are available from: Australia Christian Education Publications (CEP) PO Box A287, Sydney South, NSW 1235 Phone: 02 8268 3344 | Fax: 02 9283 3987 or 02 8268 3357 Email: sales@youthworks.net Web: www.cepstore.com.au New Zealand Christian Education Publications (CEP) NZ 118 King St, Palmerston North NZ 4440 Phone: 06 355 2317 | Fax: 06 357 0281 Email: cep@clcnewzealand.com Web: www.cepstore.com.au United Kingdom Inter-Varsity Press Norton Street, Nottingham England NG7 3HR Phone: +44 (0)115 978 1054 | Fax: +44 (0)115 942 2694 Email: sales@ivpbooks.com Web: www.cepstore.com.au Writing and editorial team Julie Firmstone, Robyn McKinney, Rhonda Watson, Kirsty Birkett Design team Andrew Hope, Tim Andrews Images Photographs sourced from Shutterstock.com

MINI 2 OLY YMPICS S!

Contents Welcome

4

About this program: Mini Olympics!

5

Setting the scene

8

Olympic facts

10

Ideas for extending your program!

12

Session 1

Session 2

Session 3

Session 4

Session 5

The race of life: Join the winning team

Acts 16:16–40

13

The race of life: Get into training

Psalm 119:105; Luke 18:1 Romans 8:26; Hebrews 10:25

23

The race of life: Run free

Acts 19:1–20

The race of life: Don’t give up!

1 Kings 18 and 19

The race of life: Wear your colours proudly

Daniel 3

37

47

55

Optional craft activities

65

Music suggestions

67

MINI 3 OLY YMPICS S!

Hi! This program is one of the kids@club series, by Christian Education Publications (CEP), for Australasian and British kids in a kids’ club setting. We’re sure that you will find it really helpful as you plan a program to suit the specific needs of your group.

Our aims kids@club products are strongly committed to bringing the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to primary school children and to making the Word of God relevant to their daily lives.

All of the programs have been written by experienced club leaders who have worked with a wide range of kids in a variety of settings. Many of the program ideas are ‘tried and true’—some of them many times over—so the wrinkles have been ironed out.

Help with Bible talks We have given you lots of help with the Bible teaching segment. This will free you up to spend more time praying for your club members and thinking creatively about how to present your program.

Nothing stifles creativity like the grind of having to prepare a fresh talk every week of term!

What’s in the pack?

Within each pack you will find a Bible teaching outline for each session, visual aids and suggestions for music, craft and games. Leader-training articles on Memorising Scripture and Parent and family contact are also included, as well as ideas for extending the program for an extra session or two.

You may photocopy and print You may photocopy and print out the files of any of the Visual aids or photocopiable activity pages for use within your own club only. We are sure you will want to promote this material with other clubs and encourage them to purchase this material for their own use. The CD-ROM included with this pack contains all the files you need to run this program.

Your ideas Finally, we would like some feedback on this program. Let us know how it went, what ideas it stimulated in you and so on. This will enable us to make the next edition even better!

We’d also like to hear from you if you have planned and run a successful program in your kids’ club and would be happy for it to be made available to the wider Australian, New Zealand and U.K. communities of kids’ clubs.

May God bless you and the children in your club as you discover together the marvellous truths of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Julie Firmstone

MINI 4 OLY YMPICS S!

About this program: Mini Olympics!

Why an Olympics theme?

The Olympics Games, whether summer or winter, are a major international event held every four years which involve hundreds of nations from around the globe. They are a celebration of perseverance, discipline, team work and skill. While we applaud the winners, we recognise all the participants—both able-bodied and disabled—and the hard work, struggles and endurance on their path to this point.

While this program is ideal to tap into the fanfare and excitement surrounding the Olympics, it can be used at any time as a fun, sports-based program to introduce children to Jesus and what it means to be his follower. The Bible teaching underpining Mini Olympics teaches children that, as Christians, we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and to run the race of life with our eternal prize in mind.

What does the Bible teaching cover?

Such a large crowd of witnesses is all around us! So we must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially the sin that just won’t let go. And we must be determined to run the race that is ahead of us. We must keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete. He endured the shame of being nailed to a cross, because he knew that later on he would be glad he did.

Now he is seated at the right side of God’s throne! Hebrews 12:1–2 (CEV) These verses form the basis of the teaching in our Mini Olympics program. The concepts taught are:

1. We have heroes of the faith to inspire us Such a large crowd of witnesses are the men and women of faith who have gone before us. They have finished their race and now wear their crowns of life. For the writer to the Hebrews, these witnesses are those listed in Hebrews 11. For those of us living in the twenty-first century, the list can be extended to include all the New Testament and post-New Testament men and women of faith.

They are witnesses, ‘not probably in the sense of spectators, watching their successors run the race, but rather in the sense that by their loyalty and endurance they have borne witness to the possibilities of the life of faith. It is not so much they who look at us as we who look to them— for encouragement. They have borne witness to the faithfulness of God … There they are then, and with their record to encourage us, let us in our turn, cultivate endurance like theirs as we run “the race that is ahead of us”.’

(F.F. Bruce—The Epistle to the Hebrews)

MINI 5 OLY YMPICS S!

2. We must get rid of everything sinful Top athletes discipline themselves. They shed excess weight, tone flabby muscle, build up stamina.

Their lifestyle reflects their goal. They exercise great self-discipline. The Christian athlete needs to do the same. There are many things that hinder believers in the race of life, things that may not be sinful in themselves but that slow the runners down or distract them from their goal. Examples of these could be relationships, all-absorbing hobbies, unhelpful environments. What is a hindrance to one runner will not be so to another. All runners need to decide for themselves what is a weight or impediment.

But sin, of course, hinders everyone. Presenting itself in all its attractive forms it trips runners up before they have taken more than a step or two. Especially, there is the temptation to give up the race altogether—a temptation that needs decisive rejection and unflinching resistance. Everything that will slow believers down or divert their attention must be put away, and the athlete must keep his eye fixed on the goal.

3. We must be determined to run the race Patient endurance is to be the mark of God’s people. It is the lack of stamina that distinguishes would-be competitors from committed athletes. In the race of life there are no prizes for the runners who are not determined to end their course.

4. We must keep our eyes on the prize This is the secret of perseverance. The strength to run the race is only found by fixing our gaze upon the great object of our faith, Jesus, the one who has run the perfect race of life, enduring the cross and scorning the shame because of the great joy set before him. He has done it all. He knows the prize is worth the struggle. He is our great inspiration.

MINI 6 OLY YMPICS S!

5. Jesus is our coach—the one who leads us and makes our faith complete Jesus’ perfect life of faith is the guarantee that he will enable us to complete what he has enabled us to begin. He is the initiator (leader) and consummator (completer) of our faith. He is the one through whom we receive faith initially, and he is the one who will bring our faith to its perfect conclusion— when we will know him as he knows us, perfectly, and we will love him as he loves us, perfectly.

With Hebrew 12:1–2 as your starting block in this program, you will be: • encouraging the kids in your club to join the winning team and to persevere in the race of life.

• introducing them to some of that ‘large crowd of witnesses’ who have run the course marked out for them, finished the race and won the crown of life, and who testify to God’s faithfulness to his word and in all his dealings with people.

A different aspect of the verse is explored each day in our Bible time segments: Bible time 1—Join the winning team Introduces the concept of life being like a race, the prize to be won and the great crowd of witnesses.

Passage: Acts 16:16–40 The Philippian jailer Bible time 2—Get into training Explores the training program that God’s people need to follow.

Passages: Psalm 119:105, Luke 18:1, Romans 8:26, Hebrews 10:25 Bible time 3—Run free Looks at the need for God’s people to throw off the things that slow them down in the race of life.

Passage: Acts 19:1–20 The Ephesian believers burn their magic books Bible time 4—Don’t give up!

Concentrates on running the race with perseverance and not giving up.

Passage: 1 Kings 18–19 Elijah flees to Mount Sinai Bible time 5—Wear your colours proudly Teaches that God’s people please him when they show they belong to him and wear their colours proudly. The children are encouraged to look forward to the joy of eternal life with Jesus.

Passage: Daniel 3 The fiery furnace

MINI 7 OLY YMPICS S!

Setting the scene Dressing the set

The teaching program is set in the exciting context of the Mini Olympic Games. In Session 1, teams are organised, streamers and banners are made and teamwork practised in Race day activities.

From Session 2 on, the kids will be competing for ‘Olympic gold’ in both team and individual events.

The last day of the program (when parents could be invited) will be the Closing Ceremony.

Take time to set the scene for this program.

Make a huge banner from sheeting or calico to stretch across your hall.

If you are running this program when the Olympic Games are on, make the most of the media hype.

Collect photos, headlines, etc. and make large, colourful collages for your walls.

Prepare your visuals Because the race of life is a fairly abstract concept, a mural has been suggested for use with all the teaching segments of the program.

The mural can be found on the Mini Olympics CD-ROM. Simply print the pdf on A3-sized paper and laminate for durability.

It is most important that this aid is completed and on the wall before the children arrive on Session/Day 1. It should stay on the wall for the length of the program.

The runner characters will be added during your teaching sessions. At the end of each teaching session you may wish to write the few words about each runner above them using a permanent marker on the mural. This is also a helpful aid for revising previous learning. The ‘witnesses’ should be attached to the mural from the beginning and referred to during the Bible times as necessary.

All of these characters can be found on the Mini Olympics CD-ROM as print-ready files. You should print, cut out and laminate these as preparation for each session.

MINI 8 OLY YMPICS S!

The runners

Runner #1

Runner #2

Runner #3

Runner #4

Runner #5

Runner #6

Runner #7

Runner #8

Runner #9

Runner #10

Crowd of witnesses

Crowd of witnesses

Philippian jailer

Ephesian Christians

MINI 9 OLY YMPICS S!

Elijah

Shadrach, Meschah and Abednego

Olympic facts Note: A soft copy of this section is available on the Mini Olympics CD-ROM to print off for Session 1.

The Olympic Rings The five circles represent the five continents of the world. The six colours include the colours shown on the flags of all the nations of the world.

The marathon How the marathon got its name …

Champ of champs The record for the most Olympic medals goes to a Soviet gymnast, Larissa Latynina. She competed in the 1956, 1960 and 1964 games and won 18 medals—9 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze. Michael Phelps, a swimmer from U.S.A., has won the most gold medals by any athlete—a total of 14 during the 2004 and 2008 games.

Volunteers needed In the ancient Olympics, the most frightening event was a fight to the death (or surrender) by two naked competitors! The only rules were ‘no biting’ and ‘no eye gouging’!

Out-jumped!

In 1968, at the Mexico Olympics, Bob Beamon jumped so far in the long jump the officials ran out of tape measure! It was a world record 8.9 metres.

MINI 10 OLY YMPICS S!

War’s off—games on!

In ancient times, when the games were on, all wars were stopped or postponed so competitors could travel to the games.

Wars are not stopped for the modern Olympics!

In the beginning The very first Olympic Games were held in 776 BC at Olympia in Greece. (You can see the ruins of Olympia today.) The events were chariot and horse racing, pentathlon, athletics and wrestling.

Select group The modern Olympics began in 1896. Only three countries have been represented at all the modern games: Australia, Britain and Greece.

Women Women did not participate in the modern Olympics until 1900 in Paris. They played tennis and golf.

Small prize—great honour There were no medals at the ancient Olympics— just a garland of olive branches for the winner. But the winners were given great honour when they returned home. In fact the city gates were not considered good enough for them. A special hole was made in the wall for the champion’s return.

MINI 11 OLY YMPICS S!

Ideas for extending your program!

This pack has been designed for weekly kids’ clubs in a church setting. However, the material could easily be adapted to a Holiday Club program at any time in any year or for an evangelistic event held at the time of an Olympic or Commonwealth Games (or even better, should your country be in the enviable position of hosting the Games!) Here are some ideas to extend the program from half days to full days or to add one or more days’ activities: • Have a sports outing … go ice skating, ten pin bowling, abseiling (with an expert), grass skiing, canoeing or cycling. If you have a lawn bowls fanatic in your congregation, organise to visit the club and learn the rudiments of the game.

• Tell the story of Eric Liddell, the great Olympic runner. Show the very last section of the video Chariots of fire.

• Invite a champion athlete to club. All the better if he/she is a Christian.

• Involve the kids in making a huge Olympic collage for the wall or your hall. Use news headlines and/or magazine cutouts. Decide on a suitable text.

• Organise a fun run. Raise money for a Christian organisation or a mission program your church is involved in.

• Run a Boot Camp, led by a local Personal Training Professional who could explain what training to be an athlete involves. Boot Camp is basically a fitness program, including sit-ups, push-ups, running etc. Your Personal Training Professional may give an explanation of how diet and exercise are important (and include some healthy snacks for the kids to prepare and eat!) Note: Be sensitive of children with health issues and/or who may be overweight and find some exercises difficult. Encourage all kids who ‘give it a go’ and reward effort rather than skill.

• Each country has its own Olympic Committee and Commonwealth Games websites. These are a great source of information on the history of the games as it applies to your country and most also have educational page with additional resources. You could use the information to: - run a family trivia night with the Olympic Games/Commonwealth Games or just International Sports as the theme.

- make activity booklets for the children to complete in ‘quiet times’ (a good way to settle the children down after an energising sports session!)

- download video clips for a Games montage. Your church may have a Media Team or at least a technology-savvy individual who could create the montage to add atmosphere to your program or introduce a guest speaker.

- Source a guest speaker who may have participated as an athlete or volunteer in past Games (either Olympic, Paraolympic or Commonwealth Games) in your city and could tell the children what it was like.

At the time of publication, these site links are: Australia corporate.olympics.com.au www.commonwealthgames.org.au

U.K. www.olympics.org.uk www.cgcs.org.uk

New Zealand www.olympic.org.nz International International Olympic Committee – www.olympic.org Commonwealth Games Federation – www.thecgf.com

MINI 12 OLY YMPICS S!

Join the winning team Acts 16:16–40

Aims • To introduce the children to the idea of life being like a race.

• To encourage them to join the winning team by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

You will need: • Race of Life Mural, Crowd of witnesses, Runner #1 and Philippian jailer cutouts.

• The Philippian jailer’s story animation from the Mini Olympics CD-ROM. • Data projector, projector screen and computer. Alternatively use a television and DVD player.

• Materials for Team selection and craft activities. See page 15.

• Equipment for Race day activities. See pages 16–18.

• Olympic Facts sheets, one per child. See Mini Olympics CD-ROM. • Runner’s shirt to be worn by the main leader each session.

• A marking pen to write on Runner’s shirt.

• Felt pens and Blu-tack.

• Theme song animation. See Mini Olympics CD-ROM. • Gold, Silver and Bronze medals printed and cut out. See Mini Olympics CD-ROM. • Medal tally update poster. See Mini Olympics CD-ROM.

Key verses Athletes work hard to win a crown that cannot last, but we do it for a crown that will last forever. 1 Corinthians 9:25 (CEV) Such a large crowd of witnesses is all around us! So we must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially the sin that just won’t let go. And we must be determined to run the race that is ahead of us. We must keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete. He endured the shame of being nailed to a cross, because he knew that later on he would be glad he did. Now he is seated at the right side of God’s throne! Hebrews 12:1–2 (CEV)

MINI 13 OLY YMPICS S!

Session S ess s ion n 1

The race of life:

Session Se e ssio on 1

Program outline for Session 1 Welcome Team selection and craft Race day activities Bible time Big question Mural The Philippian jailer’s story—animation Theme song Medal tally update Closing prayer

Welcome Welcome the children and introduce yourself and the other leaders.

Open with prayer.

Enthuse the kids about the Mini Olympics. It doesn’t matter if the timing of your program doesn’t coincide with an actual Olympic Games; you can still tell the children about the fun and exciting things you’ll be doing with them in the coming weeks.

Hand out the Olympics facts sheets to each child and discover some interesting facts together. (You could find out more in the internet! See page 12 for some websites that may help you in this regard.)

MINI 14 OLY YMPICS S!

Session 1 is Race day and this will require you to place the children into Olympic teams for the remainder of the program. Allow friends to be together in the one team but ensure that each team has a fair mix of ages, sizes and athletic abilities. Encourage the children to be kind and considerate in this process, welcoming each member with enthusiasm and good sportsmanship!

The ideal group size is 6–8 members but of course, this will depend on the size of your whole group. Be sure to have at least three groups.

Allow each team to select a name for their group. We would suggest: • colours to avoid the possible racial issues which may cause problems with country names and also to make it easy for the children to wear team colours.

• city-states associated with the Ancient Games such as Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Corinth; Olympia (the site of the first Olympic games) or the Roman Empire (as the games were eventually opened up to its citizens). Avoid using the names of pagan gods and goddesses!

• Fun names such as the ‘Vipers’, ‘Gold diggers’, ‘Bombers’ or ‘Angels’.

Once you have decided on your Olympic teams, assign each team its particular spot in the hall for the next few sessions.

Now it’s time to allow the teams to create their own banner, streamers, flags etc. Provide each group with loads of cardboard; crepe paper; white paper; paint or thick felt pens; thin dowel/bamboo garden stakes; string; strips of white sheeting, tape, glue etc. Give the teams a time limit and assign a leader to each one to give suggestions and help with practical tasks.

MINI 15 OLY YMPICS S!

Session S ess s ion n 1

Team selection and craft

Session Se e ssio on 1

Race day activities There are five different relay races detailed here. Depending on the time available to you (for example, you may only have 1.5 hours in total for a weekly kids’ club), choose as many activities as you wish the teams to complete. Don’t forget you still have the Bible time and Theme song to cover after this part of the session is done.

Officially, the Opening Ceremony is not until Session 2. So you can use these activities as ‘team training’ or as ‘preliminary events’. If the latter, you may choose to award ‘Gold’, ‘Silver’ and ‘Bronze’ Medals for each race’s winners or just one set to the teams with the three best accumulated points over all the races.

Horse and jockey races You will need: • Ropes to mark out start and finish lines for each group.

• Witches hats to mark out the track.

• Knee pads, one set per team (optional).

The aim of this challenge is to race your ‘horse’ with a number of ‘jockeys’ around a track. Each team nominates two people (or teams of two if you have a large group) to be the ‘horse(s)’ —these should be older or stronger kids who are able to carry another child on their backs while crawling along the ground.

The remaining members of the team will be the ‘jockeys’.

See the illustration to the right.

Mark out the start and finish lines of your track. You may choose to make the track a straight line—particularly if you have limited space and many teams. In this case, the teams may change jockeys and horses at the end of each line. The race will be over for that team when all the horses and jockeys have ridden one leg of the track.

Swap horses and jockeys

Swap horses and jockeys

If you choose to make your track like a race track in an oval, make sure there is enough room for the teams to pass one another safely without bumping or pushing each other over. Mark points along the track where the horses and jockeys swap over.

Swap horses and jockeys

Start and Finish line

Swap horses and jockeys

Swap horses and jockeys

Horses who falter or jockeys who fall off must return to the start of their leg of the race and try again.

The winning team will be the one that races all their horses and jockeys around the track in the fastest time.

MINI 16 OLY YMPICS S!

You will need: • A list of Olympic sports events. See the explanation below.

Send the teams in to the corner of the hall. A leader stands in the centre of the hall with a list of about 20 Olympic events (such as running, discus, marathon, basketball, swimming, javelin, hurdles, rowing, high jump, shooting, horse riding).

Members from each team come to the middle and are shown the first event on the list. They run to their teams and mime this event. When it is guessed, a second player runs to the middle, whispers the answer and is shown the next event on the list. The first team to identify all events wins.

Note: • try to have a leader with each group to curb the mimer’s temptation to speak!

• point out to the groups that if they yell their answers, they are helping everyone else!

Corner spry You will need: • Balls, one per team.

The kids in each team stand behind a line, facing their leader who stands on a mark opposite the centre of the team (as shown).

On a given signal, a ball is thrown back and forth between leader and group members until the last group member receives the ball. He then becomes the new leader and the old leader becomes the first person in the line.

The first team to have its original leader back in position is the winner.

MINI 17 OLY YMPICS S!

Session S ess s ion n 1

Olympic charades

Session Se e ssio on 1

Islands You will need: • Music on CD. • CD player.

• Frisbees, one per six children.

• Chairs (optional).

Children move around the edge of the hall to upbeat music. When the music stops they must race into the centre of the hall to touch one of several frisbees placed at random on the floor.

They must touch the Frisbee without touching any other person. The last person to touch a frisbee is out, as are any two people who touch each other in the process.

As people are eliminated, remove some of the frisbees.

Note: • when playing this or any other game that requires kids to keep to the edges of the hall, place a few chairs around as boundary markers.

Monster race Each team forms itself into a unit by interlocking arms, riding piggyback, or some other way of combining.

This is the monster. But the monster is limited in the number of hands and feet it can use for walking! The number of people who make up the monster determines the number of hands and feet. You have to subtract two.

This means, if there are eight people in the monster, only six hands and six legs can be used for walking. This will take some organising but it will be fun.

When all teams are ready, start the race. It will probably be a case of the monster that gets the furthest before collapsing wins!

Medal presentation (if using Race day activities as ‘preliminary events’) At the conclusion of the Race day activities, announce the winning and place-getting teams and give each team member their respective Gold, Silver or Bronze medal.

MINI 18 OLY YMPICS S!

Big question Explain to the children that life is a bit like a race—a cross-country race! Everybody runs in the race of life—everybody who’s ever been born.

Place your little runner (Runner #1) on the mural, at the beginning of the road.

Tell the children: For some people the race is a really long one; for others the race is very short. But everybody runs. The race of life begins when we are born and ends when we die.

Some people win the prize. Some people don’t.

Leader: What is the prize in the race of life?

(Accept responses.)

A: (Children should be able to find the answer on the mural.) A crown that lasts forever.

Mural Explain to the children that the prize in the race of life is a prize that lasts forever! That’s much better than a crown of olive branches that dries out and breaks up after a while; much better even than a gold medal! The prize we can win is the crown of life or the crown of righteousness. That’s a way of saying that we can win a place in heaven and live forever with God in that wonderful place! WOW! What a prize!

Draw attention to the great ‘crowd of witnesses’ on your mural, at the end of the race.

Say to the children: Don’t they look happy? These people have finished the race and won the prize.

How can we get the prize? How can we make sure that we are one of the winners?

Let’s meet one of these people who finished the race and won the crown of life. He can tell us how we can be winners, too.

The Philippian jailer’s story Introduce the Philippian jailer cutout and position him near your runner.

Play the Philippian jailer’s story animation for the children. For your own reference, following is the script from the animation.

G’day! You want to know how you can win the crown of life?

That’s easy, man! You’ve got to make sure you’re on the right team!

You know how Olympic athletes represent their own countries? And how proud they are to do it?

Well, you’ve got to represent Jesus in the race of life. You have to be on his team if you want to win. You’ve got to be one of God’s people.

I’d run a long way in the race of life before I realised I was on the wrong team. Let me tell you about it …

MINI 19 OLY YMPICS S!

Session S ess s ion n 1

Bible time

Session Se e ssio on 1

I was in charge of the prison in Philippi (that’s in Greece, you know). I was a Roman citizen and worshipped the Roman gods. One day the town magistrates sent me up a couple of prisoners—foreigners they were.

‘Guard these fellows closely’, was the message I got. ‘They’re real trouble makers.’

So I did.

I shoved them in this cell right in the middle of the prison and I locked their feet in the stocks. There was no way they were going anywhere, man!

They were pretty roughed up as you can see—the magistrate had ordered a severe flogging for the pair of them. But they seemed to be handling it okay.

They interested me, these guys—Paul and Silas were their names. Apparently they’d come over from Troas to share their religion with us. They were followers of a man called Jesus Christ (supposed to have come back from the dead).

In the name of this Jesus they ordered an evil spirit to come out of a slave girl—and it did! Pretty powerful stuff, eh? There was talk that they were servants of the Most High God. It had me wondering.

Anyway, the slave girl’s owners accused them of being troublemakers so that’s how they ended up in here.

I couldn’t believe my eyes (or my ears) when I did the midnight check.

There were Paul and Silas sitting up in their stocks singing songs to their God at the top of their voices! All the other prisoners were listening. Can you see them?

I listened, too. Sometimes they stopped singing and talked to their God. They talked to him as though he was their friend. This was all new stuff to me. I crept away to do some quiet thinking.

Then it happened! A most violent earthquake just ripped the prison (and half the hill!) apart. By the time I climbed over all the rubble I knew the prisoners would have gone.

I mean, there was hardly a door left on its hinges!

There was only one thing to do. I’d have to kill myself. That’s the Roman law, you know: if the prisoner escapes the prison officer dies!

Just as I drew my sword, there was a shout from the prison (or what was left of it!).

‘Stop!’ yelled Paul. ‘Don’t kill yourself. We’re all here. We haven’t escaped.’

And he was right. They were all there—every one of them.

I was convinced that these men were servants of the Most High God. Why else would they have hung around?

‘What must I do to be saved?’ I asked them.

‘Believe in the Lord Jesus’, they replied. ‘Believe in him and you and all your family will be saved.’

And they explained to me, that Jesus, the Son of the Most High God, became a man.

They told me that he had come to Earth so that people like me, who had not been living God’s way, could be changed from God’s enemies into his friends. They told me how Jesus had been crucified and taken the punishment for all my wrong attitudes and behaviour. They told me how the Most High God had brought his Son back to life.

And I believed them. That was the day Jesus became our Saviour and Friend. Me and all my family. That was the day we became God’s people. That was the day we joined the winning team!

MINI 20 OLY YMPICS S!

Secure the Philippian jailer cutout next to the Crowd of witnesses on the right hand side of the road.

Leader: What must we do to make sure that we win the crown of life?

(Accept responses) A: Make sure that we are on Jesus’ team, that we are one of God’s people. We do this by believing in the Lord Jesus.

The child who answers the question correctly can print the letters J.C. on your runner’s shirt— and maybe draw a cross, to show that he/she is representing Jesus in the race of life.

Theme song Begin to teach the theme song, God’s team (Part 1). See the animation on the Mini Olympics CD-ROM. Alternatively, you might like to project the words onto a screen or wall nearby or hand out printed versions.

Leader: ‘All you’ve got to do is trust God’s Son.’ These words became true for the jailer when he believed what Paul and Silas told him about the Lord Jesus. They can be true for us, too.

Jesus has died so we can become God’s friends. He can be our Saviour and Friend. He invites us to be on his winning team. Everyone on his team will win the crown of life!

Medal tally update Prior to the session, print out the Medal tally update poster from the Mini Olympics CD-ROM. You will have filled-in your club’s team names following the Team selection and craft activities (see page 15) and then tallied up the Gold, Silver and Bronze medal winners after the Race day activities as a part of the Medal Presentations (if you have chosen to use them as preliminary events).

Medal Tally Update Team

Gold Gol Go old o

Silver ilver ilver v

Bronze Bron ronze

Now give the children an end-of-session medal tally update to excite them to attend Session 2. Remind the children to wear their team colours next session. © CEP 2012 Mini Olympics

Closing prayer Lord Jesus, help us to believe in you and join with you in the race of life. Help us to join the winning team by believing in you. Amen.

MINI 21 OLY YMPICS S!

Total

Session S ess s ion n 1

Conclusion