Welcome to the Ark!
This week we are doing the Ark in our families at home, and we hope to connect with each other by sharing our thoughts with each other at the end via videos or pictures or anything that comes to your mind!
Below are some ideas to look at and discuss as a family. Don’t feel you need to look at everything, just use it as a guide to help lead your time together.
Goodness
Intro / Recap
This Sunday we are continuing to look at the Fruits of the Spirit.
Can anyone remember what these are? (There are 9)
Galatians 5:22-23 says:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.”
Last Ark we looked at Patience and what it means.
Does anyone remember one thing they learnt about peace from that week?
This week we are going to be looking at another one of the fruits… Goodness!
Worship
Let’s start by worshiping God together and remembering His awesome creation today:
Goodness! What does it mean?
What do you think the word ‘Goodness’ means?
When might you be asked to show goodness?
What do you find hard about being good?
What is the opposite of being good?
Story
This story is told by a gruff pirate captain who is a puppet. He requires interaction with the audience. Use pictures to illustrate the story.
Welcome to Pirate Boot Camp. We are going to train all you wanna-be pirates to be ship shape. When I’m in charge I expect your complete attention at all times. I expect you to answer me when I speak to you. These are the rules at the Pirate Academy. All right let’s see if you can respond to my commands. Every time I yell out a command I want you to do it. (Have the children act out the commands).
Swab the deck, Hoist the sail, Batten down the hatches, Full steam ahead.
I’m not impressed, that wasn’t good enough. If you want to be good pirates, it has to be better than that! Let’s try it again: Swab the deck, Hoist the sail, Batten down the hatches, full steam ahead.
Not bad. I might let you join me on my ship. You make a pretty good class of Pirates. But I’m here to tell you about the last group of pirates that come to the pirate academy. They seemed really good but that is only half the story.
We were training a new bunch of Pirates. They had just joined the Pirate Academy. I spent four months with them. We did sit ups, push ups and jumping jacks. I worked them really hard. You have to get them in shape! You have to straighten them up. They were really good. They were always polite. They listened, they answered, and they obeyed. They were becoming a tough group of Pirates. But I didn’t know that they weren’t always being good. In fact, they were horrible behind my back. Every time I wasn’t around they changed. When I was there they were excellent but when I wasn’t they weren’t so good.
One afternoon when it was really sunny I gave the new recruits some jobs to do. I asked some pirates to fix a crack on the side of the boat. I asked another group to practice tying knots for the sails and I asked the others to practice emergency drills. They all said, “yes sir” and I expected them to do this. I went down to my cabin to catch a nap.
While I was sleeping, a storm came up. Suddenly, it got so bad that I fell out of bed. I heard a huge bang. I ran upstairs to the deck. The waves were crashing. The deck was almost covered in water. It was a terrible disaster. I began to yell orders to the crew. They ran around trying to fix the boat. They tried to mend the crack that they hadn’t fixed earlier. The pirates were attempting to tie the sails down but couldn’t. They were confused and scared, so they kept bumping into each other. It was terrible. Fortunately, the storm let up. I began talking to them. I asked them why they didn’t know what to do in the storm. It was then that they confessed that they hadn’t been practising. When I had gone to my room to have a nap they hadn’t practiced. They played games. They were good but only when I was watching.
Leader’s Conclusion: Being good isn’t easy. Goodness is something God can give you. He can help you to be good all the time. When you talk to Jesus and you ask him to come and be your best friend, he will live in your heart. He will help you to show goodness.
Five minute video on Goodness – watch the video and see what you can learn about goodness
Memory Verse
Try and remember this bible verse and see if you can remember it at the end of the ark
For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. [Philippians 2:13, NIV]
A banana palava!
Supplies: Bananas, Pens or Sharpie Markers
Instructions:
- Pass out a banana to each member of your family.
- Instruct everyone to decorate the outside of their banana – make them as colourful as you can and don’t forget to add a big smiley face.
- Once everyone is finished decorating, peel open the bananas. Talk about how what we see on the outside appearance of a person doesn’t show us what is on the inside (in their heart). Only God sees our hearts & only the Holy Spirit working inside of us can create goodness in our heart. If someone opens up a banana that has brown spots, that’s a great opportunity to reiterate how what’s on the outside doesn’t always show us what’s on the inside.
Now why don’t you eat the banana, don’t forget the custard! If not you can make a banana loaf later.
Bible story – The story of Zaccheus
- Do you think Zaccheus was a good man?
- What happened when he spoke to Jesus?
- What did he do to show his goodness?
Memory Verse – can you remember your memory verse?
Pray
Thank Jesus for the goodness that He shows to us.
Ask Jesus to give you goodness by filling you with his Holy Spirit.
Tell Jesus some of the times when you find it hard to be good.
Ask Him to give you His strength next time you are in those situations.
Share
If you want to take a video of what you have learnt and share it with the rest of your Ark friends what would be so encouraging!