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Children's Messages and More - Summer 2008, Week 01 (June 1)

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Each week, these children’s messages match the Bible lessons in FaithWeaver Sunday School, KidsOwn Worship: FaithWeaver Children’s Church, and FaithWeaver Friends.

Lesson 1: Sunday, June 1, 2008
Elisha Helps a Widow and Her Sons
Bible Story: 2 Kings 4:1-7
Bible Verse: “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing” (Deuteronomy 10:18).
Simple Supplies: You’ll need a Bible, small paper cups, and a medicine dropper filled with water. Give each person in the congregation a small paper cup, and tell them to hold onto the cups until the children ask for them.

What are some of the things that you need? Pause for children to answer. Who gives you the things you need? Pause. Most of you get the things you need, such as a place to live, food, and clothing, from your parents. But who do you think would give you those things if you didn’t have your parents to give them to you?

In today’s Bible story, we’ll hear about a woman whose husband died, making her a widow. This also meant that her two boys didn’t have a father anymore. Let’s listen to their story. Open your Bible to 2 Kings 4:1-7, and show the passage to the children.

The widow and her two sons were probably very sad that this man, who loved God, had died. I want you to show me your saddest faces. Pause for children to show you their saddest faces. But to make matters worse, there were people who wanted money from the woman, and they were coming to take her sons away to be slaves! What do you think the woman should have done? Pause. Well, she turned to Elisha, the prophet, and told him her story.

Elisha asked her how he could help. What do you think Elisha did? Pause. You might think Elisha offered to give her money to pay her debts, or offered to buy her food and clothing, but that’s not what he did. Instead, Elisha told the woman to go and collect empty jars from all of her neighbors.

Like the widow, I want you to go and collect empty cups from the adults in our service today. You just need to go up to as many adults as you can in one minute and ask them for the empty cups. Give children one minute to collect as many cups as they can, and then have them come back and sit down.

Wow! Look at all of the cups you found! Now let’s find out what happened in our story. Elisha told the widow to fill all of the jars with oil. The widow agreed to do what Elisha told her to do, even though she only had a little bit of oil. It would be like trying to fill all of your empty cups with water using only a medicine dropper. Have kids pass around the medicine dropper full of water and try to fill their cups.

We weren’t able to fill all of our cups, but the widow was able to fill all of her jars. How do you think she was able to fill all those jars with just a little bit of oil? Pause.

God did something miraculous for the widow. He allowed all of her jars to be filled, and once they were filled, the oil stopped flowing. How do you think the widow felt when she saw that she was able to fill all of the jars with just the little bit of oil she had? Pause.

Elisha told the widow to sell the oil and pay her debts and then live on what was left. How did God take care of the widow’s needs? Pause. How does God take care of our needs? Pause.

Let’s take a look at our Bible verse for today and see what it says. Open your Bible to Deuteronomy 10:18, and show the page to the children. Deuteronomy 10:18 says, “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.” Do you think this verse means God will take care of you? Why or why not? Pause. This verse means that God will take care of everyone, even widows, orphans, and aliens—people who are from other places. God loves each and every one of us so much that he will take care of us even when the situation may seem impossible. How does God take care of you? Pause. How have you seen God take care of other people? Pause.

Let’s thank God right now for all he does for us.

Dear Lord, thank you for caring so much about us! Help us to remember that whenever we need something, we can ask you and you’ll take care of us. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.