Genesis 12 v 1 – 9

N.B. God’s promises to Abraham will be covered later

Lesson Aim

To understand that God told Abraham to move to a different country and that Abraham obeyed God

Hook 1: Objects

Have you ever moved to a different country? Bring in a suitcase and a world map.  On the world map point out two countries – one with a hot climate and one with a cold climate (these could be countries in which the church supports missionaries, or in which the children know someone who lives there).   Take out a variety of items e.g. warm coat, sun hat etc.  Discuss which item you would take with you to the two places.

When Abraham moved to a different country he didn’t know what it would be like there.

Hook 2: Tent

Have a small tent or get someone to quickly demonstrate how to put up a tent (make sure this takes only two minutes, a blanket suspended two chairs will do, because it could take all of the story time!) Discuss the things you need to take with you when camping.  Hold up some things that are impractical to take camping.  Explain as part of the story that Abraham lived in a tent.  God told him to pack up his tent and move to a different country.

Hook 3: People

Put up a list of people and a list of countries.  The children need to match the name of the person to the name of the country the person has lived in. The list will need to be people that the children are familiar with or famous people.

Hook 4: Questions

Have you ever moved house?  Have you ever moved to a different country?

Get someone to talk about what it is like to move to a different country.  Allow the children to ask them questions about what it is like (you could ask a couple of children to prepare questions to ask beforehand). It would be even better if these were people in the church who had felt God’s call to live and evangelise in a different country (ex-missionaries).

Application

Sometimes God asks us to do difficult things.  We have a choice, do we obey or disobey God?  Abraham trusted God and obeyed.  What do we know that God has asked us to do?  Are we obedient to God in these things?  God sometimes asks people today to move to different countries in order to tell other people about Jesus.