The Anglican Chaplaincy of St. Andrew,
Costa Del Sol East, Spain
Bible Study for Children
Welcome to Families on Faith Adventures @ Home!
We hope you will enjoy sharing a time of faith and fellowship together as a family through these stories, games, activities and prayers. They are designed as a ‘pick and mix’ of ways to experience God’s message through the Bible, explore what it means to you and express that in words and action.
Get to know your Bible
The Bible is like a library made up of 66 books written by many different people over many years. The Old Testament books were written before Jesus was born. They are the holy stories he would have grown up hearing and reading. There are 39 of these. The New Testament tells us the stories of Jesus and his followers. There are 27 books in the New Testament.
Can you find the book in the Bible that this week’s story is from? If you have a Bible, see if you can find the story in there.
Download as a PDF...
Listening to God Exodus 3
Bible context
It is believed that Moses wrote the book of Exodus.
It follows his story from birth to leading the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt.
Moses and the burning Bush – retold from Exodus 3
Moses was a Hebrew child who was brought up as an Egyptian prince after Pharaoh’s
daughter found him hidden in the riverbed and adopted him. His people, the Hebrews, were slaves in Egypt, being treated cruelly by Pharaoh and building the pyramids. Moses sees the suffering of his people. One day, he sees an Egyptian guard hitting an Israelite slave with a stick and he defends the slave, killing the guard in the process. Moses flees Egypt and goes into the Sinai desert.
He meets a Midianite tribe and marries the priest’s daughter (Zipporah). He is now a shepherd, looking after the sheep and goats. God has not forgotten the Hebrews and has heard their cries for help. God had a plan and would use Moses to bring it about. One day Moses is out in the mountains trying to find pasture for the cattle and he reaches Mount Sinai (The Holy mountain of God); there was a fresh water spring and green grass. As his cattle graze, he notices something strange; a bush that was on fire but was not burning up. Moses was fascinated and went closer to investigate. A voice comes from the flames calling Moses’ name. It was God speaking. God tells Moses to remove his sandals as he was standing on holy ground. God tells Moses that he had heard his people’s prayers and would free them from slavery in Egypt. He told Moses that he must go and talk to the Pharaoh on God’s behalf. After much bargaining, Moses agrees to the task, with the help of his brother Aaron, and leaves shepherding to return to Egypt.
God gives Moses 4 statements
➢ I have seen and heard my people
➢ Remember who I am – I am God
➢ I will bring my people out
➢ I will be with you.
Watch and listen
Cartoon version by Saddleback kids –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kNTUX0mWP8
Clip from Prince of Egypt film –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ds9y3lJGig
Dance and sing, Ideal for teenagers –
Ideas for telling the story
Why not tell the story as you sit around a fire – either a real one outside (or BBQ) or a
pretend one inside?
A story about listening
Practice the skill of listening by telling this story, full of sound words.
Encourage the family to listen for the sounds and bring them to life.
‘Moses is now a shepherd in the Sinai desert. He spends his days looking after the sheep and goats; he lies on the grass, listening to the animals munching the dry grass and bleating loudly. He can hear the sounds of birds flying overhead, snakes hissing and rustling over the hard ground and he hears the wind rushing and blowing around the mountains, brushing over the tall grasses. He can hear the rumbling of rocks falling from the mountain’s overhead; the babbling water trickling from the spring. He can hear his own breathing as he lies quietly, almost able to hear his own heartbeat. This is very different from the sounds of Egypt, the sounds of the whip cracking on the backs of slaves who cry out to their God in pain.
This day was different; today everything was going to change.
Moses could hear something else. A crackling sound like snapping twigs, a growing crescendo of whooshing sounds and popping. Moses follows the sounds to investigate further, perhaps it is something which is a danger to his sheep who are still grazing and bleating gently. As he turns a corner, he sees a bush completely on fire. He hears the crackling of the wood as the flames whoosh and dance and flutter around the shrub. As he looks more closely, he feels the burning heat on his face and can hear the air rushing through the fire; But he notices that the bush is not being destroyed; it is not burning up. In fact it seems to be more alive than ever.
As Moses is stood watching intently, he is surprised by a voice coming from the flames. It sounds like a whisper and shout all mixed together. A voice like thunder and lightning, yet as gentle as a rippling stream. The voice spoke to Moses. It told him to “remove your sandals” as it was holy ground. It told him that it was the voice of God. With each word the flames burst upwards like a rocket, the ground rumbled under Moses bare feet. God told Moses that he had heard his people’s cries, that he had seen their suffering and that he had a plan to rescue them and bring them out from slavery. Moses argued and stuttered “Not me, send someone else” but God had chosen Moses.
Moses agreed to the plan with the help of his brother Aaron and God’s last words were, ‘Remember, I am with you.’ The flames died down and the bush stood strong and unharmed. Once again, it was silent.
Pray Together
Holy Ground
God tells Moses to take off his shoes because he is standing on Holy ground. What does 'Holy' mean? Somehow God is part of a place. His presence is there. Moses knew that God was with him.
Gather some sticks as you go for a walk or perhaps you can find some in the garden. Take some ribbon, string or wool and wind it around your stick, thinking about all the people and things you want to talk to God about. Don’t worry if you are not able to gather sticks - you could use coloured pencils or pipe cleaners.
Take off your shoes and socks. In turn, each taking your stick, place it in a pile as if you are making a fire together.
Sit quietly and listen to all the sounds that you can hear and know that God is with you. I wonder what God is saying to you.
Candle Prayers
Think about times when you have felt God being near to you, or times when you wanted God to be near.
Light a candle - either a real one or a battery tea light or candle. Watch the flame. Spend some time in silence and pray that everyone will know that God is with them during the coming week.
Flame Prayers
As a family using your own unique fingerprints, create a tree together on a piece of paper. Cut out some flame shapes in different colours. Do not worry if you do not have coloured paper you can always colour the flames in. As Moses met God in the burning bush, God is always waiting to meet us. Take the paper flame and sit quietly, thinking about the people and things you would like to talk to God about.
Pray together
Thank you, God, that you are always waiting to meet us.
Thank you for the people who keep us safe
Thank you that you know each of us by name
Please help me to be burning bright with your love and to show your love to others.
Thank you, God, that you are always waiting to meet us. AMEN
At Home:
Find somewhere in your home which is quiet. Still yourself to hear each sound you can around you. Can you hear people? Ask God to take care of them. Can you hear birds singing? Thank God for creation. Can you hear traffic? Thank God for those who travel because they are essential services. Can you hear God? Go for a walk outside, using all your senses. Where do you sense God? Or What does God help you to notice or see?
TO DO TOGETHER...
Online Listening Games
Why not try some listening games online.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/eyfs-listening-skills/zbc4y9q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT8u1ge58jc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGRKZ-tctvM
Here are some ideas…
write a thank you message
write your name or draw your face
draw a stick person doing something
draw a heart or write a person’s name
Stick your flames to the tree.
As a family sit around your collage that you have made together and place a hand on it.
Burning Bush Cakes
A fun twist to the all-time favourite chocolate cereal cakes.
Recreate a small burning bush to eat and enjoy, taking time to listen to God
You will need:
200g cooking chocolate broken into pieces. Chocolate bars work just as well, including Mars (avoid ones with wafers or biscuit fillings)
85g cereal – corn flakes or crunchy nut flakes good for a bush effect
Smarties, or other coloured sweets such as M&M’s or Skittles
Cupcake cases or muffin cases
Makes approximately 12 cakes (depending on how large you make them!)
Melt the chocolate in a small bowl placed over a pan of barely simmering water (adults be alert for this and maybe do this bit for younger children).
Whilst the chocolate is melting (be patient) you can sort the smarties or other sweets you have, picking out the colours you would like for the ‘flames’. For example; red, yellow and orange. Keep these chosen ones ready and put the other unwanted colours aside for another occasion (tasting one or two perhaps just to make sure they are okay).
Once the chocolate has melted you can pour the chocolate over the cereal or if the bowl is large enough and not too hot (wrap a t-towel round it if it is), add the cereal a little at a time to the melted chocolate, stirring well. Keep adding the cereal until you are happy with the cover of chocolate. (You can always add more, but you can’t take cereal out if you run short of chocolate.)
Once mixed, spoon a small amount of the mix into the cases as a first layer. Then add some of the chosen sweets for low level ‘flames’ (3 or 4). Then add some more chocolate mix, and some more sweets (3), and if there is enough chocolate mix try for a third level with a final 1 or 2 sweets for the top.
Put the finished cakes in the fridge to cool and set. Scrape the remainder of the chocolate mix out of the bowl and enjoy licking the spoon!
Outside
Put a candle (adults) or an LED candle (children) in the window each evening to shine God’s light and God’s promise to the people passing by in the street? Maybe put a picture, too, to illustrate God’s promise to be with us in good times and bad.
Next time we will return to the new testament to look at the story of The Parable of the Lost Sheep – Luke 15: 1 to 7
Meanwhile we finish with a prayer:
Dear God,Thank you that Jesus showed his friends how much he loved them by becoming like a servant.Help us to show how much we love and care for others by being kind to them and putting their needs before our own. Help us not to be proud and to think of ourselves as too important to do little things. Help us to treat all people with respect. Amen
