Family Connections by Children at IBC

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8 3 Bible Story Picture

This morning in Children at IBC we finished up in the Book of Joshua. As the Israelites took the promised land, some amazing things happened. In Joshua 10, we read about five kings of the Amorites coming together to fight against the Israelite army. Together the five kingdoms were very powerful, but the Lord was on the Israelites' side, and the Amorites fled. During their escape, God sent a hailstorm to slow them down and stop them, and Joshua knew that the Israelites needed more time to stop this large army. He asked God to stop the sun and moon in the sky, and God DID! For almost a whole day, the sun stayed in the sky as Joshua's army defeated the Amorite kings. Let me repeat that... THE SUN STOPPED IN THE SKY! God clearly had a plan for the Israelites, and we shouldn't be surprised. Joshua's name is actually from the same name as Jesus... Yeshua, which means "the Lord is salvation". And as we talked about last week, God does surprising things when saving His people.  

To engage your kids further this week, here are some starter questions:

Elementary

  1. Why do you think the promised land was so important for to the Israelites? Does it surprise you that they had to fight for the land that God promised them?
  2. Do you think you could stay awake for 24 hours or longer? When the sun stopped, the army didn't just stay awake, but they kept fighting until the battle was done. Where do you think they got the energy to kept at it?

Preschool 

  1. The sun stopped in the sky during the battle. What would be the best way to spend a day where the sun stopped in the sky? Swimming at the beach? Playing in a sandbox?
  2. Who has the power to stop the earth from spinning and make a day longer? How do you think the Israelites felt when the sun didn't go down? 

Finally, to parents of 4th and 5th graders, one of the activities today involved writing a letter to some people who have been imprisoned for their faith around the world. We used an online tool from a ministry called Voice of the Martyrs. You can link to the site here if you would like to talk about others imprisoned for their faith and/or write them a letter. It has a really neat feature that translates into the language of the person imprisoned. 

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