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IT'S COOL TO BE WISE

Week 5 - A STRONG TOWER

This week’s material is based around the wise saying from Proverbs chapter 18 v 10 - ‘The Lord is a Strong Tower, where His people can run for safety.'

Week 4 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 3 key phrase slide ‘The Lord is a Strong Tower, where His people can run for safety.'

Part 1 LEAD-IN SESSION drama

Outline for Leaders

This week, Ed lands right in the middle of a storm and is reluctant to leave the shelter of the wardrobe. Eventually he emerges and seeks refuge in a 'Strong Tower' nearby.

Props: Wardrobe / travelling machine. Improvised strong tower possibly made of cardboard, covering sheets, storm image on screen, lunch box, ‘Mighty Tower’ sign.

Sound effects: Travelling wardrobe sound, storm, suspense.

Drama setting: Open outdoor space, with a ‘strong tower’ on one side, wardrobe on the other, possibly an artificial tree or flowers or other outdoor items. Wardrobe covered by sheet, which are removed just before the drama starts.

Characters: Ed. housekeeper, narrator.

Drama - The Storm

(SLIDE 3 - PowerPoint slide Week 4 chart ‘A’ )

(Sound effect of wardrobe taking off / landing followed by storm sound effect - someone pulls the sheet from the wardrobe to coincide with start of narration.)

Narrator: Wow, looks like Ed’s landed right in the middle of a storm. I don’t think he wants to come out.

(Ed opens the door cautiously, peeps out and shuts it.)

Ed: (from inside the wardrobe, using a microphone) Oh no, looks like I’m off course and have landed in the wrong place, (peeping out again) there’s a real storm out there, not sure what I should do now. I wonder where the code is.

Narrator: Oh dear, is Ed stuck, can he get out?

(Sound effect - suspense)

Ed: I can’t see much out there but I’ll take another look (peeping through the door again) what awful weather – but wait, what’s that over there? I wonder if I make a run for it, I can get to that building? I’m going to try – here goes!

(Ed dashes across to the tower and bangs on the door) hello, hello, anybody there? Oh no, can’t make anyone hear me (banging on the door again) hello, is there anyone in?

Housekeeper: (opening the door) Oh dear, have you been there long, come inside quickly.

Ed: Thanks so much, it’s awful weather out there.

Housekeeper: Yes, you are not the first person to come running for shelter. The weather can get very rough here by the sea, many houses have been destroyed over the years by storms, but not this one, even though it is hundreds of years old. You see this house was originally built as a lookout tower across the sea – it’s as solid as a rock. That’s why it’s named Mighty Tower. It’s a safe place to be in a storm.

Ed: I’m glad I found you then. Mighty Tower certainly is a safe place to be in a storm.

House keeper: Yes, but why are you here? And what about your vehicle?

Ed: Oh, don’t worry about my vehicle, it can look after itself, it’s rather special actually.

Housekeeper: Ah I see, then I think I know why you are here. Is this what you’re looking for?

Ed: Yes, that’s exactly what I’m after but how did you know?

Housekeeper: Let’s just say I know.

Ed: So that’s the piece of the code and the clue is – what is another name for ‘mighty’. Let’s think, another name for mighty, 6 letters beginning with 's' and ending with 'g' – kids can you think of another name for mighty? Big, powerful but this word has 6 letters – YES it could be STRONG. Another name for Mighty Tower is Strong Tower. Today has shown me just how important a strong tower is, particularly in a storm.

Housekeeper: The storm has calmed, you must be off. Take this for your lunch.

Ed: Thanks so much for all of your help and for lunch.

(Ed leaves the house and gets into the wardrobe, he closes the door and is off again.)

( SLIDE 4 - Week 5 Chart ‘B’ with the word ‘Soft’ and Week 5 code piece hi-lighted can now be displayed.)

Narrator: I’m glad the storm has calmed down enough for Ed to leave. Another word and code piece for Ed. Do you know Jesus is like a Strong Tower, we can turn to Him when things in life are not going too well. We’ll hear more about this later. I wonder where Ed will land next.

(Sound effect of wardrobe taking off)

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OPTIONAL CODE BREAKING CHALLENGE
If you want to give the kids the opportunity to see if they can crack the code and discover the special word for themselves, then this is the week for them to take home a code breaker sheet. There are two sheets, numbers 1 and 2..

Sheet 1 requires a little research from the children as they will need to look up Roman numerals and Morse code for themselves. They may require the assistance of an adult to do this.

Sheet 2 includes charts for both Roman numbers and Morse making it easier for the kids to decipher and complete the code. Some children may also need help here.

Code breaker sheet number 1
(Below) Code breaker sheet number 1 complete with code pieces filled in, but now needing someone to crack it by first finding out as to what letters the Roman and Morse symbols ascertain.

Code breaker sheet number 2
This code breaker sheet comes complete with both Roman numeral and Morse charts enabling kids to move to cracking the code using the information on the one sheet.

(Below) Here’s what the completed code breaker sheet should look like, the word ‘WISDOM’ being the key code word. If you want to put this on screen on the last week of the series (next week) there is a PowerPoint slide available. (Downloadable from the week 6 web page.)

Needless to say, you might like to do the complete series by just covering the week to week stuff on stage and not getting the kids involved with code breaker sheets. Ed can crack the code up front and the completed code breaker sheet can be put on screen with PowerPoint. For many kids this will be sufficient fun but options are there.

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PART 2 BIBLE CHAT - LISTEN UP TIME (SLIDE 5)

Bible Verse: Proverbs chapter 18 v 10,

SLIDE 6 - Remind the children of today’s theme - ''The Lord is a strong tower, where His people can run for safety.'

SLIDE 7 - By way of intro show the children slide 7 and see if they know the names of the towers around the world and where you would find them.
* Eifel Tower - Paris, France
* Big Ben - London England
* Leaning Tower of Pisa - Pisa, Italy
* Empire State Building - New York, America

Another little intro would be for a responsible adult to supervise a couple of children in building a small tower with some Jenga blocks, then test its strength by seeing if it can support a bucket with a little weight in it. The bucket may only be tried on the tower when the children are safely sat back in their seats and right away from the stage. A responsible adult only should then try the tower out for its strength.

SLIDE 8 - Kids, this evening we're talking about Jesus being like a STRONG tower, to which His people can run when they are in trouble or having difficulty. In our drama Ed was in a spot of trouble, he ran to the STRONG tower to get out of the storm. That tower was firm, solid and secure, it was storm-proof, a safe place.

Sometimes our days are a bit stormy aren't they, I don't mean literally stormy, as with hail and rain but like when something goes wrong and we get upset. It might be that we've not done so well in a school test, or one of our friends won't speak to us or perhaps we've broken something. Other bigger things can also really upset us, like when someone close to us is sick or even dies. There are all sorts of things that can happen in our lives to make us feel we want to run to someone and feel safe.

Who do you run to when you are upset? A brother, sister, friend, dad or mum or other member of your family. We often run to people who make us feel safe when we are worried or anxious. It's kind of like running for the safety of a strong building in a storm.

Jesus wants us to know that we can go to Him too! Jesus is always there for us to talk to. He is like a STRONG TOWER. Always know that you can talk to Jesus at any time. In the Bible it says that Jesus is like a friend that’s close, like a brother or sister.

SLIDE 9 - Ask the children what it takes to build a tower strong? (The stone or bricks, a good foundation, a good builder, a good plan.)

SLIDE 10 - (THIS SLIDE INCLUDES ANIMATION - this will need to be activated)
A tower is a shelter from a storm, where you can feel secure and safe. No matter what goes on outside a strong tower is a safe place to be on the inside.

SLIDE 11 - Here's our verse again reminding us that Jesus is just like a strong tower and He is a safe place for us to go to when we are worried, anxious or afraid. Sometimes we can find ourselves in situations where we may not feel safe and at those times we can pray and ask Jesus to be with us, and help us, and He will. He is always watching over us as we place ourselves in His care. Remember Jesus is like a STRONG TOWER we can go to Him at any time.

part 3 Response time (in small groups)

1. Ask the children if they have ever felt afraid, discuss sensitively their responses. Reinforce the message that we can always pray to Jesus who is like a STRONG TOWER.

2. Give out a piece of paper and ask the children to draw a tower and then write a prayer that they can keep for whenever they feel afraid.

3. An alternative option to 2. above, would be to make a min-model tower using a suitable cardboard tube and flat pieces of card. The scripture verse may be written around the base of the tower.

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