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Week 2 - IT'S COOL TO BE WISE
CHOOSE YOUR FRIENDS WISELY
This week’s material is based around the wise saying from 1 Corinthians 15 v 33 - Don't be fooled. Bad companions ruin good character.
Week 2 PowerPoint slides, leaders’ notes and various other items downloadable from the bottom of this page.
SLIDE 1 - Series theme slide ‘It’s Cool to be Wise’
SLIDE 2 - Week 2 key phrase slide ‘Choose your friends wisely’
PART 1
LEAD-IN SESSION Sketch
Outline for Leaders
Ed's travelling wardrobe lands on board a ship - H. M. S. Friendship. Ed has a misunderstanding with the captain, who initially insists that Ed is a pirate but eventually they work together to look for the piece of code needed by Ed.
Characters: Ed, Ship's Captain, Crewman
Sound effects: Wardrobe taking off and landing, a sea noise of waves.
Props: Anything you can use to create the impression of a ship's deck. Things could include, rope and boxes, ship's wheel, anchor, lifebuoy, could be made from cardboard / cardboard tubes…),
Captains and seaman’s hats.
(HMS Friendship sign downloadable from the bottom of this page.)
See props section of website for other ideas.
Drama setting: Wardrobe on the stage with mock-up ship's deck. Wardrobe may be covered in a black sheet until the point where it lands on deck, one of your team will be needed to pull the sheet away.
Drama - Ed Lands on H. M. S. Friendship
Narrator:
(PP SLIDE 3 - PowerPoint slide Week 2 chart ‘A’ )
As we can see from Ed’s chart, last week we saw Ed land in Trustington in New Zealand and we heard all about the key word TRUST. I wonder where he’ll touch down today.
(Sound effect time travelling wardrobe, someone pulls the sheet from the wardrobe just before Ed opens the doors.)
Ed: (Opening wardrobe doors and wobbling about a bit as he comes onto the ship’s deck.)
(Sound effect ship at sea)
Ed: (swaying a little) It’ll take me a while to get used to this thing landing, not the smoothest ride you know. It’s a bit breezy out here better get a coat on. (Ed leans back into the wardrobe and pulls out his coat.) Oh my goodness, we’ve landed on a ship out in the ocean, no wonder I’m swaying about!
(Captain approaches Ed)
Captain: Hey, what are you doing on my ship and what is that? You’re a pirate, I knew it.
Ed: (Gesturing by putting his hands up to the captain) Now, just hang on a minute, let’s not get too excited. I’m no pirate, I landed on your ship in a travelling wardrobe – I’m looking for clues, and there’s one somewhere on this ship. I need it to help me crack a code.
Captain: A likely story, you’re a pirate. I'll have you walk the plank!
Ed: Don’t you think you’re over reacting a little captain? And, considering the name of your ship is (with real emphasis) – H. M. S. Friend-Ship, you don’t seem very friendly to me.
(Captain turns his face apologetically)
Ed: Now I’ve got to find this clue, are you going to help me or not?
Captain: Well alright, I’ll help, but this does all sound a bit of a ridiculous tale. Yes the ship is named H. M. S. Friendship but you do have to be careful who your friends are, because pirates are not the sort of people you want on board a ship.
Ed: OK captain but I’m not a pirate and you’re safe being friends with me.
Narrator: (speaking slowly, allowing Ed and the captain to make their various moves) Ed and the captain look all over the ship, searching high and low, and return back up on deck to turn crates over but can’t find anything that looks like a clue.
Ed: It’s just got to be here somewhere but where?
(Ed deep in thought picks up the lifebuoy off the deck and unknowingly turns it so that the back faces the audience. On the back of the lifebuoy is a piece of the code once again in Roman numerals and a clue. Hopefully, at this point the children will shout out, if they do Ed can play along pretending, he doesn’t understand what they are saying. If the audience don’t shout out the narrator will need to step in.)
Narrator: (If needed) – hey, Ed, there’s something on the back of the lifebuoy, is that what you are after?
Ed: (turning the lifebuoy around) Hooray! Well what do you know, that’s it, a piece of the code and a clue to the important word. A seven-letter word that’s part of the name of this ship?
What can it be? (the kids might have a go here) yes H. M. S. Friendship! The word is Friends I need to go. You need to choose your friends carefully captain, make sure they’re not pirates. Sorry captain, I’m starting to get a bit sea sick, must go – thanks for all of your help.
Narrator: And with that, Ed shakes the captain’s hand, gets back into the wardrobe and he’s off again.
(The captain throws his hands in the air and just smiles.)
(Sound effect travelling wardrobe.)
(SLIDE 4 Display Week 2 chart B showing this week’s key word and code piece.)
Narrator or someone else gets up on stage to round the drama off:
Do you know children, what Ed said there is very true, you do need to choose your friends wisely. There may not be pirates around to lead us the wrong way, but sometimes other children and even older people can try and get us involved in things that are no good for us.
We’ll hear more about this later.
PART 2
BIBLE CHAT - LISTEN UP TIME (SLIDE 5)
choose your friends wisely
Props needed for this chat: A fruit bowl of good apples and one badly bruised apple. Bury the bruised apple in the fruit bowl of good apples.
SLIDE 6 - Don't be fooled, bad companions ruin good character so choose your friends wisely.
(1 Corinthians 15 v 33 - Proverbs 13 v 20, 14 v 7, 12 v 26)
Does anyone here like apples? Apples are one of my favourite fruits. Does anyone have an apple tree in their garden? My brother-in-law had an orchard and he grew apples and pears. I loved to go after the summer and pick a basket full. Yummy! There are lots of things you can make with apples. (Ask the children for their ideas, pies, juice, upside down cake, strudel). Apples generally will stay fresh for a couple of weeks if you keep them cool.
Here’s my fruit bowl of apples, I’ve had them for a couple of weeks now but when I picked one up to eat it earlier today, I found that it was all bruised and soft, it had gone bad. Then I looked at the one next to it and it too was starting to go bad. I’m glad I didn’t take a bite of it!
Did you know that if a rotten apple is touching another apple the good apple will start to rot too? Then it spreads quickly from apple to apple. Before you know it all the apples in the fruit bowl will be bruised.
The Bible says, 'don't be fooled, bad companions ruin good character.’ That means don't make the mistake of being around people who are a bad influence, they will begin to affect you too. You might not even notice it at first, but you will start picking up their habits and doing what they do. Jesus wants us to be a good influence in this world and His way is the way of love and kindness towards others.
So, we need to choose our friends wisely. Choose friends that aren't going to get you into trouble. Friends who encourage you, friends that want to help one another, who tell the truth and are kind and considerate. Sometimes it's easy to go along with the crowd, even when you know what they are doing is wrong, but our theme today is, don't be fooled into thinking it's just OK to go along with them, because just like a bad apple in the bowl, bad friends can spoil our good character.
If one of your friends starts to do or say things that you know are wrong or they start going to places where they shouldn't be, talk to them about it. Tell them that you think what they are doing is wrong and discuss it. But if they don't want to listen to you, then it's time to find other friends.
You can choose Jesus to be your friend too and that's amazing! Jesus is a great friend and anything He says to you will always be good, loving and true.
It might be that you've got involved with the wrong crowd and you've done some things that you are not proud of. You may realise that you would not make a good friend. There's GOOD NEWS. Jesus can change all that. Tell Jesus you are sorry for the wrong things you have done and He will forgive you. That's fantastic isn't it!
SLIDE 7 - So choose your friends wisely, be very careful when you are around people who are a bad influence and don't forget, you can always talk to Jesus in prayer, asking Him to help you find good friends and also to help you to be a good friend to others.
part 3
Response time (in small groups)
Download H M S Friendship handout sheet from below.
Have prepared pieces of paper one for each child in your group with the outline of a ship on it.
1. Discuss with the children what a good friend is like.
2. Ask the children to think about their friends and whether they fit the description of a good friend. If not, ask them to think what they should do about it.
3. Use the Friend-ship outline and write in characteristics of a good friend.
Week 2 DOWNLOADS
Drama Script, Bible Chat & Response Time Leaders’ Notes.
Week 2 PowerPoint slides
Week 2 Code Piece (Morse code for ‘I’)
‘H M S Friendship’ Ship Name
Response Time Hand Out Sheet (Boat Outline)
Alternative Week 2 adventure chart (B) with blank centre for inclusion of your travelling machine