Resources needed:

·  Laptop or computer tablet to show media clip

·  Craft resources for spoon puppet – wooden spoons (or ice lolly sticks), pens, fabric, cord and small round stickers

Title / TRANSFORMED Life: Alive for a Purpose / Learning Objectives / Jesus fills us with His power and gives us a reason to live
Session Overview / We are halfway through the whole church ‘TRANSFORMED Life’ teaching series, based on Ephesians Chapters 1–3. These chapters of the Bible help us find the answers to three of life’s biggest questions:
‘Who am I? Where do I fit? What am I living for?’
Each week we have been looking at a New Testament character who was transformed in a special way through knowing Jesus.
Throughout this series we will be building a firm foundation in the children’s lives of how our God has transformed us in Christ.
Let’s be TRANSFORMED by Jesus as we find out how the answers to the life questions above affect how we live each day for Jesus!
In this session, we learn that God very specially and lovingly made us and that He has given us special gifts to show His love to other people. God wants us to discover and experience more and more of His amazing love for us and experience His power in our lives EVERY day so that we can show this to other people. / Key Bible
Verses / This is the Bible verse for the whole series:
Ephesians 1:11
‘It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for’ (The Message)
Please read and encourage the children to repeat this verse each time you are leading one of the Transformed Life sessions.
This week’s verse:
Ephesians 2:10 ‘We are His work. He has made us to belong to Christ Jesus so we can work for Him. He planned that we should do this.’ (NLV)
This week’s character: The healed leper
Luke 17:11–19 The man who was healed from leprosy and came back to thank Jesus.
Timing / Activity / Instructions
20 mins
10mins
(during free-play time) / Free Play
Craft – Wooden Spoon Healed Man
[Wording on tag:
Jesus showed love to the leper and healed him. Jesus made him alive to serve Him]
5–10 mins / Refreshments and catch up on the week / Sit the children down and give out drinks and snacks.
Ask the children about how they are doing with their parents at home doing the ‘Transformed Life’ activities in their Activity Books during the week (based on the story of Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening).
5 mins
5 mins /

Teaching – Counting rhyme

(The story of the ten lepers)

Use your fingers and thumbs to be the ten men, plus allow plenty of time for sorting out fingers and keep this a fun activity, rather than a test of maths skills!!
Follow Up: / Begin with the series memory verse and encourage them to repeat the words:
Ephesians 1:11 “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for” (The Message )
Now introduce this week’s character, The healed Leper, using this counting rhyme:
Ten sick men all walking in a line,
One saw Jesus, so did the other nine.
Ten men, scared that Jesus wouldn’t wait,
Two ran forward, so did the other eight.
Five called, ‘Jesus!’ ‘We want to stay alive!’
‘Please help us!’ called out the other five.
Ten men limping, leaning on their sticks.
Four saw Jesus stop! So did the other six.
Ten men knocked on the synagogue door,
Six found the priest, so did the other four.
Ten men laughing, shouting ‘Look at me!’
Seven said, ‘I’m well again!’ So did the other three.
Ten men wondering, ‘Now what shall we do?’
Eight said, ‘I’m going home!’ So did the other two.
Ten men leaping and dancing in the sun,
Nine ran into town, but not the other one.
One man remembered who had helped all ten,
He ran back to Jesus, thanked Him and then …
Jesus blessed him; ‘Your faith has made you well’
‘Now keep on praising and loving God every day!’
Let’s talk about it:
·  How many men came back to Jesus? (one)
·  What do you think the man said to Jesus?
(thank You)
·  Was Jesus pleased? (yes!)
Say: ‘The man wanted to please Jesus for the rest of his life. And so do we, don’t we?’
Ask if any of the children want to say ‘thank You’ to Jesus, right now. Stop and pray. Thank Jesus together.
5 mins / Worship – ‘You are shaped for serving God’ by Doug Horley.
Encourage the children to join in and sing the highlighted words.
Familiarise yourself with the song at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5-mowIR1OU
You might like to introduce new actions to learn for each part. You could ask the children to come up with a few new actions.
By now, the children will probably remember the ‘verse’ parts as well as the chorus, so encourage them to join in with the whole song if they know the words. / If you walk like a model or walk with a waddle;
You are, you are, you're God's indeed
If you're very, very funny or good at making money;
You are, you are, you're God's indeed
God had a brilliant plan when He created man;
He knew just how each one would serve Him
Wonderful indeed, gave you gifts you need;
To work on earth for Him
You are shaped for serving God x3;
Holy, holy is His name
If you laugh like a donkey or your hair's a little wonky;
You are, you are, you're God's indeed
If you're really good at caring or a little brave and daring;
You are, you are, you're God's indeed
If you're good at origami or can make a great salami;
You are, you are, you're God's indeed
If you're fast like a whippet or really good at cricket;
You are, you are, you're God's indeed
5 mins /

Prayer Time – Praying Fingers

This would work best in small groups

Encourage the children to talk to Jesus to thank Him – not just about Him making us well, but about anything and everything!

/ Hold one hand out in front of you, with fingers spread.
Touch each of the five fingers in turn, starting with the little finger, and say one word for each finger: ‘Thank–You–Thank–You–Jesus.’
Practise this together. (‘Thank–You–Thank–You–Jesus.’)
Invite the children to use these words to talk to Jesus now. (They could do this individually or as a group prayer).
Extend the prayers, if you wish. For instance, ‘Thank You, thank You, Jesus, for…’
5 mins /

Action game – Ten men came to Jesus one day

/ Explain to the children that they are going to act out the Bible story and are going to pretend to be the men who Jesus healed.
Use this rhyme (which can be sung to the tune of ‘Five little ducks’), starting with everyone in the centre of the room.
Ten men came to Jesus one day, (Children move from the centre of the room, towards you.)
Jesus healed them all – hurray! (All jump and cheer!)
Ten men ran off to the town – (Children run off to the edge of the room.)
But one man came back and kneeled down. (Call one child’s name to come back, kneel down and say ‘thank you’.)
Repeat until everyone has had a turn at ‘coming back’.
5 mins /

Fun Game – ‘Sick, Sick, Healed’

(based on the game ‘duck, duck, goose’) / Sit the children in a circle, facing inwards, with a volunteer child on the outside of the circle (the leader).
Play exactly as you would ’duck, duck, goose’; the ‘leader’ walks around the circle and calls out “sick” each time they touch the head.
But when they touch a head and call out “healed”, that child must stand up quickly and chase the leader, trying to ‘tag’ them before they reach the gap in the circle and sits down.
If the leader does ‘tag’ the other child, the ‘tagged’ child becomes the new ‘leader’.
Partnering with parents / Encourage the children to do the activities with an adult in their family and find out more about the leper who was healed by Jesus that we learnt about today.