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Session6 God Provides Water

Session at What You Need What Learners Do a Glance Ready for the Story (15 minutes) 6 I Love It ¥ Gr. 7-8 LR, Bibles, ¥ Recall people, places, and pencils, markers, self- things that they love. stick notes Thirst ¥ LR, pencils ¥ Consider thirst.

Explore the Story (20 minutes) Bible Text Exodus 17:1-7 Water from the ¥ Poster I (TCK), LR, ¥ Read the story of Rock Bibles, pencils striking the rock for water. Key Verse Faith Traits ¥ LR ¥ Explain what it means I will be standing there in front of to live a life of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike thankfulness. the rock, and water will come out Bible Connections ¥ LR, Bibles, pencils ¥ Evaluate statements about of it, so that the people may drink. the story. Exodus 17:6

Live the Story (25 minutes)

Brain Builders ¥ Poster F (TCK), ¥ Explore various aspects Reproducible Sheets E of the story. and F (TCK), LR, Bibles, pencils, markers, paper Ad for God ¥ LR, pencils ¥ Create an ad to encourage giving thanks to God. Witnesses in the ¥LR ¥ Devise a way to remem- Idea World ber to be thankful. BIG Take It Home ¥ LR, balloons, permanent ¥ Plan to thank family God gives us or dry erase markers members. what we need.

LR = Learner Resource TCK = Teacher Class Kit M&P = Materials and Preparation 31 WRed1Gr78_TG 4/2/03 1:27 PM Page 32

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Teacher Prayer Bible Background What Factors Shaped This Story? Gracious God, I am thankful for Wandering in the wilderness, the need food your steadfast love. Make me and water. At , through Moses the Lord provided sweet water for the aware of all that you have provided people (15:22-25a). In the wilderness of Sin, the Lord provided quails and for me. Grant me a thankful heart manna to eat (16:1-18). Still, when the people are in need, they complain so that your presence and love may against Moses and against God. They inspire the learners as it shines continue to long for what they knew in through me. Amen Egypt. The familiarity of slavery seems preferable to the uncertainties of wilderness wandering and perhaps also to reliance on God.

What Is This Story About? Question for Reflection The people of Israel are still behaving When is it difficult to remember like slaves. It is ironic that although that God provides all you need? their labor maintained Pharaoh’s wealth What distracts you from having and power, they have not yet learned confidence in God’s care for you? that they can survive and take care of themselves. They have not learned that they can trust the God who brought them out of slavery. They have not learned that they have a continuing relation- Learner Goals ship with God. Instead, they blame Moses for their hardship. They blame Moses that they are in the wilderness, though it was their own feet that brought KNOW them there. Out of fear of the unknown, out of anger still smoldering against the story of God providing water Pharaoh, and simply out of thirst, the people quarrel among themselves and for the Israelites in the wilderness rage at Moses. God continues to provide Moses the ability to lead. Striking the rock, Moses uses God’s power to provide water. Maybe striking the rock also GROW helps him vent some of his own anger and frustration! in thankfulness for all that God provides Why Is This Story Important? SHOW Leadership is important in the life of a community. Moses’ leadership is very thankfulness to God important for this newly forming people still without knowledge of the wilder- and to others ness, without skills in community self-governance, and without confidence in God and in themselves. God continues both to support Moses’ leadership, which God called forth, and to provide for the people. Yet Moses’ leadership must echo in the people’s minds with memories of Egypt. In the wilderness they depend on Moses as in Egypt they were forced to depend on Pharaoh and FACTOID his agents. Horeb is from a word meaning “dry.” Horeb Age-Level Connection also is another name for Young people are aware that life is not always easy. Like the Israelites, they “Sinai.” Mt. Sinai is where can find themselves in places that make them long to be anywhere else. It is Moses received the Ten hard to know whom to trust and it is impossible to always be aware and appre- Commandments. ciative of what God has provided. The media offer so many products and val- ues that seem to promise a better and happier life. Encourage youth to trust God and to be thankful for all that God has given.

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Ready for the Story (15 minutes) I Love It

M&P Hang Poster C (TCK). Be sure that Posters A and D from the Grades 5-8 Teacher Class Kit (TCK) are still hanging in your meeting space. , , Horeb Have Grades 7-8 Learner Resources (LR) and pencils available. Bring self- stick notes and markers. Welcome youth by name and share news from the past week with each other. Direct learners to I Love It on page 22. After everyone has had a chance to complete the assignment, form pairs to compare responses. In the large group, ask for questions or comments. Discuss the reasons that youth are thankful for the people, places, and things mentioned in I Love It. What do these people, places, and things add to your life? How is your life better because of these? (Answers will vary.) Distribute a self-stick note to each learner and invite her or him to write down one person, place, or thing for which he or she is thankful. Have youth post these on the Graffiti poster (Poster C [TCK]).

Thirst FACTOID In the desert, water may M&P Have learner resources and Bibles available. lie beneath limestone. Form groups of three or four to read Thirst on page 22 and share their stories There are also oases, about being thirsty. As a group, talk about how God provides water for the spir- watered areas amidst it as well as water for the body. For more information, ask a volunteer to read desert. Massah and aloud John 4:7-15. Meribah were springs at an oasis.

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Explore the Story (20 minutes) Water from the Rock

Go Global! M&P Hang Poster I (TCK). Bring the Witness CD (TCK) and a CD player. Have learner resources, Bibles, and pencils available. M&P Make a copy of Gather around the map (Poster I [TCK]). Locate a possible location for Mt. Reproducible Sheet T for each Horeb (also known as Mt. Sinai). (The location of Mt. Horeb is not known with learner. Cut out the shape for certainty. We do know that Mt. Horeb was on route—this is where Session 6. Display a globe. God gave the Ten Commandments.) Provide scissors, glue, stiff card- Introduce the Bible story as an event that took place along the exodus route. stock or foam core, and a magnet Listen to the story in “Moses Strikes the Rock,” Track 6 of the Witness CD. for each learner. Direct learners to Water from the Rock on page 23. Ask for volunteers to Ask a few learners to locate Sri read aloud each section of verses. Discuss the questions as a group. Lanka on the globe. Distribute the Exodus 17:1-3: What is familiar about the response of the Israelites? (The shapes to each learner. Ask learn- people are complaining and questioning Moses and God.) ers to trace the shape onto stiff cardstock or foam core and cut it Exodus 17:4-6: How is Moses feeling about the whole situation? (Answers out, then glue the Go Global! text will vary.) What does God instruct Moses to do? (Strike the rock with his staff to it. Learners can glue or stick a and produce water.) What does God promise? (To be with Moses—standing in magnet to the back and hang it at front of him.) home to remember how people Exodus 17:7: What does Moses name the place? (Massah: test; and around the world rely on rice for Meribah: find fault.) Why? (Because the names are descriptive of what went on their daily meals. there.) Look together at Witness Words on page 22 to learn more about the Rice is the staple food of many Hebrew words in this story. Asians. In Sri Lanka, people eat Close by asking the question in Let’s Review on page 25. If you had been rice twice a day, sometimes even an Israelite, might you have complained? Why or why not? (Answers will thrice! There are several vari- vary.) eties of rice, prepared and served in many different ways: there’s white rice, red rice, and even yel- low rice; plain boiled or steamed & rice; fried rice, which has bits of M P Have learner resources available. chopped-up vegetables in it; and Direct learners to Faith Traits: Thankfulness on page 25 and allow youth to “lamprais,” which is rice and respond individually. What does it mean to live a life of thankfulness? (We accompanying curries served in don’t take anything for granted, we don’t assume that we accomplish anything a banana leaf! Thank God for on our own, we recognize that God provides.) yummy food. Bible Connections

M&P Have learner resources, Bibles, and pencils available. Form pairs to read and respond to Bible Connections on page 23. Ask pairs to share their responses, giving their reasons. The people were thankful that God had always provided what they needed. (The passages suggest that God had provided what the people needed. Perhaps they should have had more confidence in God and in Moses.) Moses knew there was water at Mt. Horeb. (Moses had once tended sheep at Mt. Horeb. He probably knew that there was water in this area, under the lime- stone.)

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Teacher Boost Live the Story (25 minutes) Today you have helped learners understand that God provides Brain Builders everything we need and that God is present in even the most difficult M&P Bring Poster F (TCK) and copies of Reproducible Sheets E and F times of our lives. You have (TCK). Have learner resources and Bibles available. Bring pencils, markers, encouraged them to live their lives and paper. with thanksgiving to God. Direct learners to Brain Builders on page 24 and ask them to join one of the groups. Give Poster F and copies of Reproducible Sheet E to the code breakers. Give copies of Reproducible Sheet F to the linguists. Allow about 10 minutes to work, then invite each group to share its work with the class. (Answer for code breakers: Strike the rock, and water will come out of it. Exodus 17:6.)

Ad for God

M&P Have learner resources available. Turn to Ad for God on page 24 and discuss the questions there about television ads. Form groups of three or four and challenge each group to create an ad as described in the learner resource. After five minutes, share ads with the group.

Witnesses in the World

M&P Have learner resources available. Our attitudes in life provide a powerful witness to the faith and trust we Closing Prayer have in God. Read aloud Witnesses in the World on page 25 and form pairs to devise a word or signal that they can use to remind each other to perform an Invite the learners to bring their attitude check when they are complaining. balloons and gather in a circle. Designate one person as the “starter” and establish the direction Take It Home you will move around the circle. Start by saying, Dear God we give M&P Have learner resources available. Bring balloons and permanent you thanks for… The starter then or dry erase markers. Before using latex balloons, check with caregivers for reads what is written on her or his learners who may have serious allergic reactions. Substitute materials, if balloon and bats it to the middle of necessary. the group. The second person does Distribute balloons and markers. Invite learners to blow up the balloons and the same. Move around the group write something for which they are thankful on each balloon (learners may use until all have tossed in their bal- more than one balloon). Set the balloons aside for the closing prayer. Challenge loons. See how many balloons the learners to set goals as described in Take It Home on page 25. group can keep in the air at the same time.

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