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Bible Story Experience: God Rescues Noah Genesis 6:17–22; 8 12–14 minutes Welcome the Teams. Direct Teams to sit with Leaders on the Team Spots. Give Leaders the Team Supplies. SAY: Welcome to Rainforest Explorers Storytelling. I'm (your name). I'm so glad you have come to volunteer at God's Creation Rainforest Station! We are always looking for people to help with our research and our efforts to protect God's creation here in the rainforest. Hold up your Bible. Each day, you'll help me with some of our conservation work, and we will explore true stories from the Bible—stories about the God who made the rainforest and each of us! SAY: RAINFOREST EXPLORERS! (One hand on hip, one shading eyes, look around.) GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES! (Point up with one hand.) TEAMS: GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES! (Point up with one hand.) JESUS LEADS THE WAY! (Point up with both hands.) Animal Adventure Materials: Bible, binoculars, cardboard boat that you and several children can stand inside SAY: I hope you brought your binoculars today, because our first adventure is one of my favorites. I'm sure you know all about the big rivers here in the rainforest. Why don't you climb into your boats with me? We'll go search for some animals. Have the children pretend their tarps are boats. Have them pretend to row their boats along the river. Encourage them to hold up pretend binoculars as they look for animals. Climb into your cardboard boat on the river, look through your binoculars, and SAY: Oh! I see a spider monkey! There in the tree over there! What other rainforest animals do you see? Encourage children to look around the room. Accept answers. God Rescues Noah Option: If you choose not to have the children move around the room acting out the story, read the script dramatically and indicate locations, people, and events on the Bible Story Poster. Use the following script, adapting as needed. Use your Bible Story Poster for reference. Set the Scene: Choose one child to be Noah and a few others to be his family, and have them put on Bible- times costumes. Give them toy tools. Choose an even number of children to be pairs of animals on the ark. Provide animal masks or headbands. Choose a few children to hold streamers for the "rain" portion of the story. Have one child dress up as a dove; you might use a large white dress shirt or an acolyte's white robe. Give the "dove" a branch. Choose two children to hold the rainbow paper (rolled from both ends like a scroll). Holding the Bible or having it nearby, SAY: I really enjoy taking a boat ride on the river and looking at all the wonderful animals God created to live in the rainforest. Hey! That reminds me of a Bible story! Do any of you know a story that involved a boat and some animals? Accept responses. That's right. The story of Noah and the ark. Let's take a look at the Bible story together. Will you help me? SAY: A long time ago, God watched people on earth and found only one person and his family still loved God and obeyed Him. That was Noah. Invite Noah to come stand with you. God decided He needed to clean the earth up. Point to your Bible and read Genesis 6:17. SAY: God said, "For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die." Gasp and invite the children to show you their most shocked expressions. God was going to get rid of all the bad in the world. But . . . He promised to save Noah and his family! He told Noah and his family to build an ark—a big boat. Have Noah and his family pretend to build your cardboard boat with their toy tools. God said (read Genesis 6:18), "But I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you." Heave a sigh of relief and invite the children to join you. SAY: Everyone say, "Whew! What a relief!" A covenant is a promise. So God was promising to save Noah and his family. LEADER: God keeps His promises! TEAMS: Jesus leads the way! SAY: God told Noah to collect one pair of every kind of animal and seven pairs of every clean animal and to bring them onto the ark with him. That included rainforest animals like the ones we just saw and lots of other animals too! Foxes, bears, frogs . . . Invite your "animals" to come onto your boat, two by two. As each pair approaches the boat, have all the children in the room make the appropriate animal sounds or actions. SAY: As soon as Noah had finished building the boat, loading all the animals, and getting his family on, it began to rain. Have the children with streamers come to the front of the room. Have them wave the streamers to symbolize a rainstorm. SAY: It rained and rained, and soon the whole earth was covered with water. Noah and his family and all the animals stayed safe and dry on the boat. But it rained for forty days and forty nights. Let's count to forty together. Ready? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 . . . Count quickly to 40 with the children's help. Use with Elementary Children in grades K–5. Storytelling

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