Explorers
Explorers for grades K-5, is intended to introduce and discuss Bible stories to learn about God's love for us while having fun! We meet each Sunday at 9:10 am.
Weekly Lesson Summaries:
March 1, 2026
Last week we left the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years – they didn’t want to go into the land that God had promised to them, so God gave them what they asked for. We fast-forwarded things a bit and this week we talked about what happened after those 40 years had passed.
Moses named Joshua as the new leader of the Israelites, and God told Joshua that it was time for them all to finally enter the promised land! The first place God wanted them to go to was the city of Jericho. Joshua sent 2 spies into the city to find out all they could about the people and place. This time things were different. They stayed with a woman named Rahab who told them that the people of Jericho had heard all about what the God of Israel had done for them in Egypt and the Red Sea and they were all very afraid of the Israelites. Rahab said she would hide and protect the spies while they were in the city and asked if she and her family could be saved when the Israelites came to take over Jericho. The spies agreed, went back to the Israelite camp and told Joshua all about it.
God told Joshua that He would help the Israelites take over the city and gave him His plan – they would have a parade! The Israelite priests would lead the way, blowing horns and carrying the ark of the covenant (which held the 10 commandments and other laws that God gave to Moses). All the soldiers would follow next, and they would walk around the city walls one time. They did this for 6 days. On the 7th day, they walked around the city SEVEN times! On the last time around the city, when the priests blew their horns, the soldiers yelled and made as much noise as they could. Guess what happened next?? Those giant stone walls of the city (6 feet thick!) fell down!! And the Israelites walked into the city and took over. (Here’s the video.)
Remember Rahab? She and her family were saved and they all lived with the Israelites from then on. In fact, God blessed Rahab in a big way! She became the great grandmother of King David (a very important person we’ll learn about later) and was part of Jesus’ family tree! Even though she was not an Israelite (God’s chosen people), God blessed Rahab for her faith.
It took the Israelites 7 years to take over the promised land and another 7 years for the 12 tribes of Israel to figure out where everyone would live and get settled. Next week we’ll find out what happened in this new land called Israel….
Last week we left the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years – they didn’t want to go into the land that God had promised to them, so God gave them what they asked for. We fast-forwarded things a bit and this week we talked about what happened after those 40 years had passed.
Moses named Joshua as the new leader of the Israelites, and God told Joshua that it was time for them all to finally enter the promised land! The first place God wanted them to go to was the city of Jericho. Joshua sent 2 spies into the city to find out all they could about the people and place. This time things were different. They stayed with a woman named Rahab who told them that the people of Jericho had heard all about what the God of Israel had done for them in Egypt and the Red Sea and they were all very afraid of the Israelites. Rahab said she would hide and protect the spies while they were in the city and asked if she and her family could be saved when the Israelites came to take over Jericho. The spies agreed, went back to the Israelite camp and told Joshua all about it.
God told Joshua that He would help the Israelites take over the city and gave him His plan – they would have a parade! The Israelite priests would lead the way, blowing horns and carrying the ark of the covenant (which held the 10 commandments and other laws that God gave to Moses). All the soldiers would follow next, and they would walk around the city walls one time. They did this for 6 days. On the 7th day, they walked around the city SEVEN times! On the last time around the city, when the priests blew their horns, the soldiers yelled and made as much noise as they could. Guess what happened next?? Those giant stone walls of the city (6 feet thick!) fell down!! And the Israelites walked into the city and took over. (Here’s the video.)
Remember Rahab? She and her family were saved and they all lived with the Israelites from then on. In fact, God blessed Rahab in a big way! She became the great grandmother of King David (a very important person we’ll learn about later) and was part of Jesus’ family tree! Even though she was not an Israelite (God’s chosen people), God blessed Rahab for her faith.
It took the Israelites 7 years to take over the promised land and another 7 years for the 12 tribes of Israel to figure out where everyone would live and get settled. Next week we’ll find out what happened in this new land called Israel….
February 8, 2026
This week we talked about the story of the Israelites and the golden calf. After God helped the Israelites cross the Red Sea to safety, the Israelites camped around the base of Mt. Sinai while Moses went on top of the mountain to talk to God. Moses was up there for 40 days while God gave him the 10 commandments and the instructions for making a giant tent (tabernacle) for God to stay. While Moses was busy, the Israelites decided that they wanted to have a god to worship, so they asked Aaron (Moses’ brother) to make them one. Aaron gathered gold jewelry from the Israelites, melted it down, and made a cow out of the gold. The Israelites then began to worship the cow. When Moses came down from the mountain and saw what was happening, he was so mad! He threw the 10 commandments stone tablets on the ground (to demonstrate to the Israelites how they had broken God’s commands). He broke the cow up into pieces, burned it up into the fire, ground it up into powder, and then made the Israelites drink it. (To show the Israelites that it had no powers.) God then sent a plague to the Israelites – a lot like what happened with the Egyptians, probably because they were acting like the Egyptians, and worshipping false gods.
We talked about the difference between the Israelites drinking the ground up golden cow powder and us drinking wine during communion. The wine that Jesus taught us to drink is a symbol of the life he gives to us. We drink it to remember him, his power in our lives, and to show our faith in him.
Lastly, we watched a video from the Biggest Story.
This week we talked about the story of the Israelites and the golden calf. After God helped the Israelites cross the Red Sea to safety, the Israelites camped around the base of Mt. Sinai while Moses went on top of the mountain to talk to God. Moses was up there for 40 days while God gave him the 10 commandments and the instructions for making a giant tent (tabernacle) for God to stay. While Moses was busy, the Israelites decided that they wanted to have a god to worship, so they asked Aaron (Moses’ brother) to make them one. Aaron gathered gold jewelry from the Israelites, melted it down, and made a cow out of the gold. The Israelites then began to worship the cow. When Moses came down from the mountain and saw what was happening, he was so mad! He threw the 10 commandments stone tablets on the ground (to demonstrate to the Israelites how they had broken God’s commands). He broke the cow up into pieces, burned it up into the fire, ground it up into powder, and then made the Israelites drink it. (To show the Israelites that it had no powers.) God then sent a plague to the Israelites – a lot like what happened with the Egyptians, probably because they were acting like the Egyptians, and worshipping false gods.
We talked about the difference between the Israelites drinking the ground up golden cow powder and us drinking wine during communion. The wine that Jesus taught us to drink is a symbol of the life he gives to us. We drink it to remember him, his power in our lives, and to show our faith in him.
Lastly, we watched a video from the Biggest Story.
February 1, 2026
This week we reviewed where we had been with Moses and the Israelites – enslaved by Pharaoh and the Egyptians, saved by God as he showed his power through the 10 plagues, walking through the parted Red Sea to safety – and today’s lesson focused on God’s instructions to his people, outlining how to have a relationship with him. (The Ten Commandments!) Here is a video from the Biggest Story about them.
This week we reviewed where we had been with Moses and the Israelites – enslaved by Pharaoh and the Egyptians, saved by God as he showed his power through the 10 plagues, walking through the parted Red Sea to safety – and today’s lesson focused on God’s instructions to his people, outlining how to have a relationship with him. (The Ten Commandments!) Here is a video from the Biggest Story about them.
We reviewed these first commandments from God (and touched on the fact that he had to give the Israelites many more commands as time went on, since they kept getting into trouble…but we’ll come to that later!) We had a rousing ping pong bucket quiz to sort through and learn the 10 commandments.
January 11, 2026
This week we continued the story of Jacob’s family (the Bible calls them Israelites, the Hebrews, AND the Jewish people – confusing!!)
Last week we learned how Joseph saved his family by feeding them and having them live in Egypt during a 7-year famine. That family stayed in Egypt for several hundred years, and during that time, the Israelite family grew and grew. Eventually everyone that had known Joseph had died, and a Pharoah came to power who didn’t like the fact that there were so many Israelites living in Egypt. He thought that they would take over Egypt, so he made them all slaves and made them build cities and buildings. That didn’t stop the Israelites from growing even bigger, so Pharoah had all of the baby boys killed!
But there was still hope for the Israelites…one Israelite woman hid her baby boy for 3 months, and when she couldn’t hide him any longer, she built a little boat made out of sticks, put him in it, and put the boat into the river, hoping that God would save and protect her son. The baby’s big sister followed the baby boat to make sure he would be safe, and guess where the boat floated…..? Right up to Pharoah’s daughter, who was taking a bath in the river. She knew he was an Israelite baby, and she decided to keep the baby and raise him as her own son. She named the baby Moses.
Moses grew up as part of Pharoah’s family but knew he was an Israelite. One day, when he saw an Egyptian slave master hurting an Israelite slave, he attacked the Egyptian, killed him and buried him in the sand. He thought he could hide what he had done, but people started talking, and eventually the Pharoah himself found out and wanted to kill Moses. So Moses ran away into the desert.
This week we continued the story of Jacob’s family (the Bible calls them Israelites, the Hebrews, AND the Jewish people – confusing!!)
Last week we learned how Joseph saved his family by feeding them and having them live in Egypt during a 7-year famine. That family stayed in Egypt for several hundred years, and during that time, the Israelite family grew and grew. Eventually everyone that had known Joseph had died, and a Pharoah came to power who didn’t like the fact that there were so many Israelites living in Egypt. He thought that they would take over Egypt, so he made them all slaves and made them build cities and buildings. That didn’t stop the Israelites from growing even bigger, so Pharoah had all of the baby boys killed!
But there was still hope for the Israelites…one Israelite woman hid her baby boy for 3 months, and when she couldn’t hide him any longer, she built a little boat made out of sticks, put him in it, and put the boat into the river, hoping that God would save and protect her son. The baby’s big sister followed the baby boat to make sure he would be safe, and guess where the boat floated…..? Right up to Pharoah’s daughter, who was taking a bath in the river. She knew he was an Israelite baby, and she decided to keep the baby and raise him as her own son. She named the baby Moses.
Moses grew up as part of Pharoah’s family but knew he was an Israelite. One day, when he saw an Egyptian slave master hurting an Israelite slave, he attacked the Egyptian, killed him and buried him in the sand. He thought he could hide what he had done, but people started talking, and eventually the Pharoah himself found out and wanted to kill Moses. So Moses ran away into the desert.
When he was in the desert, he met a woman named Zipporah and her sisters, who were taking care of their dad’s animals. They took Moses back to meet their dad, and Moses married Zipporah and lived with them all, taking care of the animals along with the rest of the family. Life was good for Moses, but not for the Israelites. They were still suffering and working as slaves in Egypt. One day, Moses was in the desert taking care of the animals and found a bush that was on fire but not burning up. We watched a video clip from The Prince of Egypt that shows what the bush was and what it said (it could speak!) to Moses. And then we watched a Biggest Story video summary of Moses’ story. God had a plan to save His people, and Moses was the person He would use to do it. Next week we’ll learn what happened next….
January 4, 2026
We dove back into the stories of the Old Testament, reviewing what we covered in the last semester - particularly the stories about Abraham and his family (Isaac and his sons, and Jacob and his sons) which led us to today’s story about Jacob’s most favorite son, Joseph (you shouldn’t have favorites, Jacob!)
But yes, Jacob did have a favorite son, which ended up causing lots of problems…. Jacob gave Joseph a special coat as a present, which made all the other brothers jealous, and to make matters worse, Joseph bragged about it, was a tattletale when his brothers did something wrong, and told them all about a dream he had in which all his family bowed down to him. Joseph’s brothers didn’t like this one bit, and one day, they did something really mean to Joseph. They took his special coat, threw him into a pit, then sold their brother to a slave trader and told their dad that Joseph had been attacked by a wild animal and died. Boy, that’s pretty awful.
But even though things looked really bad for Joseph, God protected and blessed him in every situation. When Joseph was sold to a man in Egypt named Potiphar, Potiphar liked Joseph so much that he put him in charge of his whole house and made him the boss of everyone in it. When Potiphar’s wife told lies about Joseph because he wouldn’t kiss her, Potiphar sent Joseph to jail but God protected him again and Joseph was put in charge of everything in the jail and was just below the head jailer himself.
When Joseph was in jail, he met some men who had worked with Pharoah. These men had some crazy dreams and God gave Joseph wisdom to help them understand what those dreams meant – and what Joseph said came true! Years later Pharoah himself had a dream, and one of those men told Pharoah about Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams, so Pharoah asked Joseph to interpret his. Pharoah dreamed that 7 skinny cows ate 7 fat cows – Joseph said that God was telling Pharoah that Egypt would have 7 years where they would be able to grow tons of food, but after that there would be 7 years of a famine. Joseph told Pharoah he should put someone in charge of saving extra food during the 7 years of a lot of food so they could eat it during the years there wasn’t any. So Pharoah gave that job to Joseph!
When Jacob’s family ran out of food, they went to Egypt to buy some. They didn’t recognize Joseph and bowed down to him (remember his dream??) When Joseph told them who he was, they were scared because they had been so mean to him. But Joseph said, I know that you meant to harm me, but God turned it all to good. He told his family to move to Egypt with him and they did. Because of Joseph, the family of Jacob (Israel) had enough food to survive the famine.
This week's video.
After our lesson we had a rousing Flamingo Hat Ring Toss Quiz! Next week we’ll learn what happened to Jacob’s family when they were in Egypt. See you there!!
We dove back into the stories of the Old Testament, reviewing what we covered in the last semester - particularly the stories about Abraham and his family (Isaac and his sons, and Jacob and his sons) which led us to today’s story about Jacob’s most favorite son, Joseph (you shouldn’t have favorites, Jacob!)
But yes, Jacob did have a favorite son, which ended up causing lots of problems…. Jacob gave Joseph a special coat as a present, which made all the other brothers jealous, and to make matters worse, Joseph bragged about it, was a tattletale when his brothers did something wrong, and told them all about a dream he had in which all his family bowed down to him. Joseph’s brothers didn’t like this one bit, and one day, they did something really mean to Joseph. They took his special coat, threw him into a pit, then sold their brother to a slave trader and told their dad that Joseph had been attacked by a wild animal and died. Boy, that’s pretty awful.
But even though things looked really bad for Joseph, God protected and blessed him in every situation. When Joseph was sold to a man in Egypt named Potiphar, Potiphar liked Joseph so much that he put him in charge of his whole house and made him the boss of everyone in it. When Potiphar’s wife told lies about Joseph because he wouldn’t kiss her, Potiphar sent Joseph to jail but God protected him again and Joseph was put in charge of everything in the jail and was just below the head jailer himself.
When Joseph was in jail, he met some men who had worked with Pharoah. These men had some crazy dreams and God gave Joseph wisdom to help them understand what those dreams meant – and what Joseph said came true! Years later Pharoah himself had a dream, and one of those men told Pharoah about Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams, so Pharoah asked Joseph to interpret his. Pharoah dreamed that 7 skinny cows ate 7 fat cows – Joseph said that God was telling Pharoah that Egypt would have 7 years where they would be able to grow tons of food, but after that there would be 7 years of a famine. Joseph told Pharoah he should put someone in charge of saving extra food during the 7 years of a lot of food so they could eat it during the years there wasn’t any. So Pharoah gave that job to Joseph!
When Jacob’s family ran out of food, they went to Egypt to buy some. They didn’t recognize Joseph and bowed down to him (remember his dream??) When Joseph told them who he was, they were scared because they had been so mean to him. But Joseph said, I know that you meant to harm me, but God turned it all to good. He told his family to move to Egypt with him and they did. Because of Joseph, the family of Jacob (Israel) had enough food to survive the famine.
This week's video.
After our lesson we had a rousing Flamingo Hat Ring Toss Quiz! Next week we’ll learn what happened to Jacob’s family when they were in Egypt. See you there!!
November 23, 2025
This week in Explorers, our 5th & 6th graders shadowed the Truthseekers’ class, in anticipation of their move up next school year. We will have them shadow one more time in the spring semester so they will feel comfortable and confident as they transition to the middle & high school class.
For our K-4th graders, we reviewed some of our past stories to make sure everyone was up to speed….there are a lot of characters, and sometimes those names get a bit confusing! Specifically, we reviewed what happened after Noah’s ark: the Tower of Babel, Abraham & Sarah, Isaac, Jacob & Esau.
There will be no Sunday school for Explorers (or Truthseekers) next Sunday, 11/30. We will resume classes the following Sunday, 12/7. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone, and safe travels if your celebrations take you out of the Tampa Bay Area!
This week in Explorers, our 5th & 6th graders shadowed the Truthseekers’ class, in anticipation of their move up next school year. We will have them shadow one more time in the spring semester so they will feel comfortable and confident as they transition to the middle & high school class.
For our K-4th graders, we reviewed some of our past stories to make sure everyone was up to speed….there are a lot of characters, and sometimes those names get a bit confusing! Specifically, we reviewed what happened after Noah’s ark: the Tower of Babel, Abraham & Sarah, Isaac, Jacob & Esau.
There will be no Sunday school for Explorers (or Truthseekers) next Sunday, 11/30. We will resume classes the following Sunday, 12/7. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone, and safe travels if your celebrations take you out of the Tampa Bay Area!
November 16, 2025
Over and over again humans continued to make bad choices…..so God decided to pick out one person (Abram/Abraham) and teach him and his family how to have a relationship with God. This family, who would become the nation of Israel (the Jewish people) would teach the world how to have a relationship with God. Abraham (and the rest of his family!) wasn’t perfect, and he made many mistakes and bad choices, but God had made a promise that He would use this man and his family for the good of the world - and God always keeps His promises. God was determined to work with humans. Even His chosen, special people were/are broken & imperfect. And He loves them (and us!) anyway.
This week we learned more about Abraham’s family…. Abraham & Sarah’s son Isaac grew up and married a woman named Rebekah. Soon after, Rebekah became pregnant with twins. While she was pregnant, it felt like the babies were fighting inside her! God told her that the babies would be the fathers of 2 nations, and the older brother would serve the younger brother. Esau, the older brother, was a hunter and was very hairy all over. Jacob, the younger brother, took care of his father’s animals, and he was very tricky.
In order to have all the rights and privileges of a firstborn son in Bible times (and Abraham’s family), that son had to have 2 things:
1. The birthright
2. The blessing of the firstborn
Instead of waiting for God to fulfill the promise that Jacob would have the firstborn privileges, Jacob and his mom, Rebekah, took matters into their own hands (which caused a ton of problems for them both later on!!)
The Birthright:
One day Esau had just finished a long day of hunting and was super hungry. He saw that Jacob was making some yummy smelling soup. Esau said, “give me a bowl of that soup, I’m starving!” But Jacob said, “I will sell you this bowl of soup for your birthright.” Esau cared more about that bowl of soup than for his birthright, so he said, “ok”. He ate and drank and then left the tent.
But what is a birthright?? Only the oldest son could be the next leader of the family. He also got twice as much of everything that their other brothers got after their dad died (land, money, and animals, etc.)
This meant that Jacob would be the leader of the family after Isaac died, and he would have twice as much of everything that Esau had. It’s crazy that Esau sold all of that to Jacob for a bowl of soup!!?
The Blessing:
Years later, when Isaac was old & blind, he told Esau to go hunting and make his favorite soup, and Isaac would give him the blessing of the firstborn. So Esau went out to hunt for meat to put into the soup. But Rebekah had heard what Isaac had said, and she wanted her favorite son, Jacob, to get the blessing, not Esau. So Rebekah made Isaac’s soup. She put animal skins on Jacob’s arms (so he would feel hairy) and dressed Jacob in Esau’s clothes (so he would smell like Esau) and told Jacob to give Isaac the soup and pretend he was Esau….so HE would get the blessing of the firstborn! And that is what Jacob did. When Esau found out what had happened and realized that Isaac couldn’t bless him in the same way, he was super mad at Jacob….so Rebekah & Isaac sent Jacob to live with his Uncle Laban.
What is so special about the firstborn blessing?? This was the passing on of God’s promise to Abraham to make the nation of Israel God’s people and a blessing to the world.
This meant that God Jacob’s family would become the chosen family and nation, and not Esau’s family. The Bible stories we will read about in the rest of the Old Testament are all stories of Jacob’s family, who are the Israelites (Jewish people).
For a great summary, here's the video we watched.
Over and over again humans continued to make bad choices…..so God decided to pick out one person (Abram/Abraham) and teach him and his family how to have a relationship with God. This family, who would become the nation of Israel (the Jewish people) would teach the world how to have a relationship with God. Abraham (and the rest of his family!) wasn’t perfect, and he made many mistakes and bad choices, but God had made a promise that He would use this man and his family for the good of the world - and God always keeps His promises. God was determined to work with humans. Even His chosen, special people were/are broken & imperfect. And He loves them (and us!) anyway.
This week we learned more about Abraham’s family…. Abraham & Sarah’s son Isaac grew up and married a woman named Rebekah. Soon after, Rebekah became pregnant with twins. While she was pregnant, it felt like the babies were fighting inside her! God told her that the babies would be the fathers of 2 nations, and the older brother would serve the younger brother. Esau, the older brother, was a hunter and was very hairy all over. Jacob, the younger brother, took care of his father’s animals, and he was very tricky.
In order to have all the rights and privileges of a firstborn son in Bible times (and Abraham’s family), that son had to have 2 things:
1. The birthright
2. The blessing of the firstborn
Instead of waiting for God to fulfill the promise that Jacob would have the firstborn privileges, Jacob and his mom, Rebekah, took matters into their own hands (which caused a ton of problems for them both later on!!)
The Birthright:
One day Esau had just finished a long day of hunting and was super hungry. He saw that Jacob was making some yummy smelling soup. Esau said, “give me a bowl of that soup, I’m starving!” But Jacob said, “I will sell you this bowl of soup for your birthright.” Esau cared more about that bowl of soup than for his birthright, so he said, “ok”. He ate and drank and then left the tent.
But what is a birthright?? Only the oldest son could be the next leader of the family. He also got twice as much of everything that their other brothers got after their dad died (land, money, and animals, etc.)
This meant that Jacob would be the leader of the family after Isaac died, and he would have twice as much of everything that Esau had. It’s crazy that Esau sold all of that to Jacob for a bowl of soup!!?
The Blessing:
Years later, when Isaac was old & blind, he told Esau to go hunting and make his favorite soup, and Isaac would give him the blessing of the firstborn. So Esau went out to hunt for meat to put into the soup. But Rebekah had heard what Isaac had said, and she wanted her favorite son, Jacob, to get the blessing, not Esau. So Rebekah made Isaac’s soup. She put animal skins on Jacob’s arms (so he would feel hairy) and dressed Jacob in Esau’s clothes (so he would smell like Esau) and told Jacob to give Isaac the soup and pretend he was Esau….so HE would get the blessing of the firstborn! And that is what Jacob did. When Esau found out what had happened and realized that Isaac couldn’t bless him in the same way, he was super mad at Jacob….so Rebekah & Isaac sent Jacob to live with his Uncle Laban.
What is so special about the firstborn blessing?? This was the passing on of God’s promise to Abraham to make the nation of Israel God’s people and a blessing to the world.
This meant that God Jacob’s family would become the chosen family and nation, and not Esau’s family. The Bible stories we will read about in the rest of the Old Testament are all stories of Jacob’s family, who are the Israelites (Jewish people).
For a great summary, here's the video we watched.
November 9. 1015
This week we learned about Abraham and Isaac. God had given Abraham a promise that he would be the father of many nations, but Abraham and Sarah had to wait 25 years for that promised son to arrive. I wish I could tell you that Abraham and Sarah did a great job waiting, but they got impatient (like we all do sometimes) and made some pretty bad choices. Sarah told Abraham to marry another woman named Hagar and have a son with her (and he did!). Abraham & Hagar’s new son was named Ishmael. (Ishmael became the father of the Arab nations.)
The only problem was that that wasn’t what God had promised or His plan. His plan was for Abraham and Sarah to have a son. That finally happened when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 years old, and Sarah gave birth to their son, Isaac. They weren’t finished with their bad choices though and created an even bigger mess when Sarah told Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away. Hagar and Ishmael went into the desert and wouldn’t have made it, if not for God’s kindness to them. He made sure they got the help they needed and to a safe place.
When Isaac was a boy, God decided to test Abraham. Not like a math or spelling test, but a chance for Abraham to show his trust in God and loyalty to Him - just like Adam & Eve’s test in the garden (the tree of knowledge of good & evil), Cain’s test (resist sin & give your best to God), and Noah’s test (build an ark). This was a scary test for Abraham. God told Abraham to give up his son Isaac – to sacrifice him to God. Abraham knew that God had promised that many nations would come from this son. He didn’t know how God would work out His plan, but he trusted God, even when things didn’t make sense. Abraham & Isaac went to the top of a mountain, and just as Abraham was ready to do as God had asked, God said, “STOP Abraham! Now I see that you trust and love me. Turn around and you’ll see a ram caught in a bush. Go get the ram and sacrifice him in Isaac’s place.” Abraham did as God had said, and both he and Isaac went home.
God gives each of us opportunities to show we trust God and are loyal to Him. Sometimes it’s hard to see how things will work out, and some things don’t seem to make sense, but we need to remember that God loves us more than we could ever possibly imagine and He always wants what’s best for us. We should always trust in Him.
November 2, 2025
This week we talked about Abraham. All of the stories we’ve talked about so far have ended in humans messing up. They choose to make up their own rules and try and be the boss instead of following God and having a relationship with Him.
God decided to try something different….He chose one person named Abram and made a promise to him (a covenant) that He would bless Abram, that Abram would now be called Abraham because he would be the father the Israelites (the Jewish people) and many nations, and that all the world would be blessed through Abraham. (The Snake Crusher that God had promised all the way back in the Garden of Eden would even come from Abraham’s family!) Since humans had done such a terrible job doing the right thing on their own, God was going to hold Abraham’s hand and teach him and help him to follow God and have a relationship with Him. The only problem was that Abraham and his wife Sarah were super old and didn’t have any kids. But God told Abraham to trust Him because He had amazing things in store for Abraham. We watched two videos (part 1 and part 2 of Abraham’s story) and everyone participated in a quiz in order to earn their spot in the super fun Donut Challenge!
Next week we’ll learn about how God kept that promise, with the birth of Abraham & Sarah’s son, Isaac.
This week we talked about Abraham. All of the stories we’ve talked about so far have ended in humans messing up. They choose to make up their own rules and try and be the boss instead of following God and having a relationship with Him.
God decided to try something different….He chose one person named Abram and made a promise to him (a covenant) that He would bless Abram, that Abram would now be called Abraham because he would be the father the Israelites (the Jewish people) and many nations, and that all the world would be blessed through Abraham. (The Snake Crusher that God had promised all the way back in the Garden of Eden would even come from Abraham’s family!) Since humans had done such a terrible job doing the right thing on their own, God was going to hold Abraham’s hand and teach him and help him to follow God and have a relationship with Him. The only problem was that Abraham and his wife Sarah were super old and didn’t have any kids. But God told Abraham to trust Him because He had amazing things in store for Abraham. We watched two videos (part 1 and part 2 of Abraham’s story) and everyone participated in a quiz in order to earn their spot in the super fun Donut Challenge!
Next week we’ll learn about how God kept that promise, with the birth of Abraham & Sarah’s son, Isaac.
October 26, 2025
This week we continued our study of the New Testament by learning about the Table of Nations and the Tower of Babel. In the next chapter after Noah’s Ark (Genesis 10), we learn about a long list of the 70 tribes/clans/families that came from Noah’s 3 sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth (the Table of Nations). In those days, all the people spoke the same language. They decided that they wanted to build a giant tower to be like God, show how amazing they were, and to get to heaven on their own. (Wanting to be like God…..we’ve heard this before. I’m looking at you, Adam & Eve!) God didn’t like this, and had to stop them from building the tower, so he mixed up their languages so no one could understand each other. They stopped building the tower and all moved to different lands.
This week we continued our study of the New Testament by learning about the Table of Nations and the Tower of Babel. In the next chapter after Noah’s Ark (Genesis 10), we learn about a long list of the 70 tribes/clans/families that came from Noah’s 3 sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth (the Table of Nations). In those days, all the people spoke the same language. They decided that they wanted to build a giant tower to be like God, show how amazing they were, and to get to heaven on their own. (Wanting to be like God…..we’ve heard this before. I’m looking at you, Adam & Eve!) God didn’t like this, and had to stop them from building the tower, so he mixed up their languages so no one could understand each other. They stopped building the tower and all moved to different lands.
Humans kept messing things up. But God was (and IS!) committed to this relationship and was going to have to figure out a different way to help humans make good choices and follow Him. Tune in next week to find out the first step of His creative plan…..
October 19, 2025
This week we resumed our study of the Old Testament by learning about the story of Noah’s Ark. Several generations had passed since Cain & Abel, and things weren’t looking good….in fact, they were looking very bad!
We read Genesis 6:5 –
And the Lord saw that the evil of the human creature was great on the earth and that every scheme of his heart’s devising was only perpetually evil (people were only thinking bad things all the time and only doing bad things all the time)
and Genesis 6:12 & 13 –
And God saw the earth and look, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its ways on the earth. And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with outrage by them, and I am about to destroy them, with the earth.” (People were ruining God’s beautiful earth with all their evil. God could see where things were headed - that in the end they would destroy everything, so in His mercy, God sped up the process by “un-creating” all that He had made.)
It was kind of like God was “ripping off the band-aid”. We all put on band-aids and experimented with how it felt pulling it off slowly vs ripping it off quickly. (We all decided that pulling the band-aids off slowly didn’t feel very good!)
After we watched a video about the story of Noah’s Ark, we had fun with paper boat races in the fountain in the church garden.
Next week we’ll learn about the Tower of Babel.
This week we resumed our study of the Old Testament by learning about the story of Noah’s Ark. Several generations had passed since Cain & Abel, and things weren’t looking good….in fact, they were looking very bad!
We read Genesis 6:5 –
And the Lord saw that the evil of the human creature was great on the earth and that every scheme of his heart’s devising was only perpetually evil (people were only thinking bad things all the time and only doing bad things all the time)
and Genesis 6:12 & 13 –
And God saw the earth and look, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its ways on the earth. And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with outrage by them, and I am about to destroy them, with the earth.” (People were ruining God’s beautiful earth with all their evil. God could see where things were headed - that in the end they would destroy everything, so in His mercy, God sped up the process by “un-creating” all that He had made.)
It was kind of like God was “ripping off the band-aid”. We all put on band-aids and experimented with how it felt pulling it off slowly vs ripping it off quickly. (We all decided that pulling the band-aids off slowly didn’t feel very good!)
After we watched a video about the story of Noah’s Ark, we had fun with paper boat races in the fountain in the church garden.
Next week we’ll learn about the Tower of Babel.
October 5, 2025
Today we talked about the story of Cain & Abel. Cain & Abel are the first new characters we meet after God’s promise of a Snake Crusher. Could one of them be the promised rescuer?? Sadly, we realize neither of them will save the world from the power of sin and death, and instead it seems like they are part of the same (but worse!) pattern of bad choices and consequences we saw with Adam & Eve.
Today we talked about the story of Cain & Abel. Cain & Abel are the first new characters we meet after God’s promise of a Snake Crusher. Could one of them be the promised rescuer?? Sadly, we realize neither of them will save the world from the power of sin and death, and instead it seems like they are part of the same (but worse!) pattern of bad choices and consequences we saw with Adam & Eve.
We talked about story patterns in some familiar favorites – If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, The Magic School Bus, Harry Potter, etc.- and talked about the story pattern that we’re beginning to see in the Old Testament. Over and over again, we will see the same thing:
1. We meet a new person and ask ourselves, “Is this person the Snake Crusher?”
2. They have a choice – follow God’s rules or make up their own
3. They mess up and don’t listen to God
But why do humans keep messing up?
1. God lets us make our own choices. We are people, not puppets. We explored what this means with some actual puppets. All our puppets had to do what we wanted them to do, but all of the people in the class could choose whether or not they wanted to follow the instructions (all of the people opted out of the nose-picking instruction, but all of the puppets had to follow that one….)
2. We want to be the boss.
3. The devil wants to trick us to do bad things & we’re not smart or powerful enough to see his tricks or resist them.
That’s why we God sent the Snake Crusher to save us.
Next week Mike & I will be out of town and Father David will be leading both Explorers and Truthseekers classes for a service day activity. They will meet in the Youth Room and make cards for hospitalized kids. All adults are welcome to join! The following week, 10/19, we will continue our journey through the Old Testament and learn about Noah’s Ark.
1. We meet a new person and ask ourselves, “Is this person the Snake Crusher?”
2. They have a choice – follow God’s rules or make up their own
3. They mess up and don’t listen to God
But why do humans keep messing up?
1. God lets us make our own choices. We are people, not puppets. We explored what this means with some actual puppets. All our puppets had to do what we wanted them to do, but all of the people in the class could choose whether or not they wanted to follow the instructions (all of the people opted out of the nose-picking instruction, but all of the puppets had to follow that one….)
2. We want to be the boss.
3. The devil wants to trick us to do bad things & we’re not smart or powerful enough to see his tricks or resist them.
That’s why we God sent the Snake Crusher to save us.
Next week Mike & I will be out of town and Father David will be leading both Explorers and Truthseekers classes for a service day activity. They will meet in the Youth Room and make cards for hospitalized kids. All adults are welcome to join! The following week, 10/19, we will continue our journey through the Old Testament and learn about Noah’s Ark.
September 28, 2025
Last week we talked about the perfect world God created for us. Unfortunately, it didn’t last very long…. God told Adam and Eve that they could eat from any tree in the Garden of Eden except from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If they ate from that tree, God said they would die. One day Eve met a talking snake that convinced her that she wouldn’t really die but would become wise like God. Both Eve and Adam ate from the tree and when God found out, He was very sad.
What’s the big deal? Why would God care that they ate the fruit from that tree??
By trying to be like God, Adam & Eve brought the powers of sin and death into God’s perfect and beautiful world. Eve and Adam didn’t eat that fruit because they were hungry. They ate it because they thought it would make them the boss instead of God. They wanted to be the ones who decided what was good and bad, and they tried to take that power for themselves instead of relying on God as the source of all goodness & and knowledge. That is one of the problems with all of us humans – we all want to be the boss of everything and everyone! And before you get too upset with Adam & Eve, let’s talk about that snake….
The snake (the devil) wants to trick us to do bad things, and humans (Adam, Eve, me, you, everyone!) aren’t smart or powerful enough to see his tricks and resist them. But it wasn’t all hopeless. God promised He would fix His world by sending someone to crush the snake and the powers that he wielded.
It all begins here. The whole story of Bible begins with this terrible start. It is the story of humans trying (and failing!) to get back to what we had in the Garden of Eden and God stepping in to fix His world and make everything right again.
We watched another video from The Biggest Story and had a rousing game/quiz of Hands & Feet Hopscotch. Next week we’ll continue learning about the Old Testament stories by looking at the story of Cain & Abel. Hope to see you there!
Last week we talked about the perfect world God created for us. Unfortunately, it didn’t last very long…. God told Adam and Eve that they could eat from any tree in the Garden of Eden except from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If they ate from that tree, God said they would die. One day Eve met a talking snake that convinced her that she wouldn’t really die but would become wise like God. Both Eve and Adam ate from the tree and when God found out, He was very sad.
What’s the big deal? Why would God care that they ate the fruit from that tree??
By trying to be like God, Adam & Eve brought the powers of sin and death into God’s perfect and beautiful world. Eve and Adam didn’t eat that fruit because they were hungry. They ate it because they thought it would make them the boss instead of God. They wanted to be the ones who decided what was good and bad, and they tried to take that power for themselves instead of relying on God as the source of all goodness & and knowledge. That is one of the problems with all of us humans – we all want to be the boss of everything and everyone! And before you get too upset with Adam & Eve, let’s talk about that snake….
The snake (the devil) wants to trick us to do bad things, and humans (Adam, Eve, me, you, everyone!) aren’t smart or powerful enough to see his tricks and resist them. But it wasn’t all hopeless. God promised He would fix His world by sending someone to crush the snake and the powers that he wielded.
It all begins here. The whole story of Bible begins with this terrible start. It is the story of humans trying (and failing!) to get back to what we had in the Garden of Eden and God stepping in to fix His world and make everything right again.
We watched another video from The Biggest Story and had a rousing game/quiz of Hands & Feet Hopscotch. Next week we’ll continue learning about the Old Testament stories by looking at the story of Cain & Abel. Hope to see you there!
September 21, 2025
We had a lot of fun today as we began our journey through the Bible with the story of Creation! Did you know that based on what we know from math and science, the chances of our world being randomly created on its own without a Creator is so incredibly small that it is hard to wrap your brain around…it would be as if every single planet and star in the universe was made of nothing but sand and you had to pick one pre-selected grain of sand out of the 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (100 sextillion!) planets in the universe!! (WHAT?!) We tried it in class by just looking for 1 blue grain of sand in a cup that contained ½ million grains, and let me tell you, it was HARD!!!
We watched a video about the story of Genesis 1 and 2 from The Biggest Story and talked about how humans are God’s most special creation because they are reflections of Him. We can love, think, create, and know right from wrong because these are parts of God that He shared with us. And these things that we can do with our hearts and our heads reflect parts of God to the world. This means that we have a responsibility as God’s images to make good choices in our relationships with each other and with the earth.
Next week we will learn about Adam & Eve, and a very bad day in the garden. Hope to see you there!
We had a lot of fun today as we began our journey through the Bible with the story of Creation! Did you know that based on what we know from math and science, the chances of our world being randomly created on its own without a Creator is so incredibly small that it is hard to wrap your brain around…it would be as if every single planet and star in the universe was made of nothing but sand and you had to pick one pre-selected grain of sand out of the 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (100 sextillion!) planets in the universe!! (WHAT?!) We tried it in class by just looking for 1 blue grain of sand in a cup that contained ½ million grains, and let me tell you, it was HARD!!!
We watched a video about the story of Genesis 1 and 2 from The Biggest Story and talked about how humans are God’s most special creation because they are reflections of Him. We can love, think, create, and know right from wrong because these are parts of God that He shared with us. And these things that we can do with our hearts and our heads reflect parts of God to the world. This means that we have a responsibility as God’s images to make good choices in our relationships with each other and with the earth.
Next week we will learn about Adam & Eve, and a very bad day in the garden. Hope to see you there!
September 14, 2025
Hi All! We had a great start to the semester! To set the stage for the year, we began by talking about the Bible – God inspired 40 different people to write 66 books that contain between 600-800 stories (depending on how you count them) over a span of 1,500 years! Whew!! That’s a lot!!
So why should we care about a super old book about a bunch of people from a long time ago in a faraway place??
We talked about how God made us because He loves us and wants to have a relationship with us. The Bible is a book that helps us learn all about Him, so we can have that relationship with Him. When we make friends with someone, we get to know them better by talking to and listening to them. That’s exactly what God wants to do with us! We can talk (and listen!) to God by praying and by reading about Him in the Bible.
Although there are a LOT of stories in the Bible, they are all connected, and are small parts of one whole story, like the pieces of a quilt that make up one blanket or a photo mosaic that has many small photos that, when put together, make up a new giant picture.
Hi All! We had a great start to the semester! To set the stage for the year, we began by talking about the Bible – God inspired 40 different people to write 66 books that contain between 600-800 stories (depending on how you count them) over a span of 1,500 years! Whew!! That’s a lot!!
So why should we care about a super old book about a bunch of people from a long time ago in a faraway place??
We talked about how God made us because He loves us and wants to have a relationship with us. The Bible is a book that helps us learn all about Him, so we can have that relationship with Him. When we make friends with someone, we get to know them better by talking to and listening to them. That’s exactly what God wants to do with us! We can talk (and listen!) to God by praying and by reading about Him in the Bible.
Although there are a LOT of stories in the Bible, they are all connected, and are small parts of one whole story, like the pieces of a quilt that make up one blanket or a photo mosaic that has many small photos that, when put together, make up a new giant picture.
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So what IS the one giant story of the Bible??
· God made humans to be his friends and to help Him take care of the world He created
· Humans messed up
· God made a promise to send someone to fix it
· People kept waiting for that special person who would fix the world
· Jesus was that special someone, but He wasn’t at all what people expected
· The end of the story brings us back to the beginning. Jesus fixed it!
· Now get to live with God forever, just as He had originally planned it.
To help us remember that the Bible is full of many stories that all point to the one main story, we finished up today’s lesson with a “craftivity” – puppy and kitten photo mosaics!
· God made humans to be his friends and to help Him take care of the world He created
· Humans messed up
· God made a promise to send someone to fix it
· People kept waiting for that special person who would fix the world
· Jesus was that special someone, but He wasn’t at all what people expected
· The end of the story brings us back to the beginning. Jesus fixed it!
· Now get to live with God forever, just as He had originally planned it.
To help us remember that the Bible is full of many stories that all point to the one main story, we finished up today’s lesson with a “craftivity” – puppy and kitten photo mosaics!
This school year we will be focusing on stories of the Old Testament and will start next week with the story of Creation. Hope to see you there!
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St. Thomas Episcopal Church
1200 Snell Isle Blvd NE St. Petersburg, FL 33704 727-896-9641 office@stthomasstpete.org |
