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Sitting on a blanket with stick and begging bowl is a good hook to get the kids’ attention.
Encounters with Jesus
(1) Blind Bartimaeus Healed
St. Mark chapter 10 verses 46 - 52
Props: Blanket to lay on the floor for Bartimaeus to sit on, begging bowl and a few coins (tin bowl is best), rod (walking stick or similar).
Bartimaeus Meets Jesus
PP - 3 Slides of how we might get noticed
Slide 1 - Shouting out and waving our hands.
Slide 2 - Making a noise by clapping our hands together.
Slide 3 - Ask question, what is guy? (Football referee) How is he going to get heard (By blowing his whistle).
PowerPoint downloadable from the bottom of this page.
What do you do if no one is paying attention to you and you want to be noticed? (Take answers from the children - there’s also 3 slide PowerPoint to use.)
You might wave your hands about in the air or shout, maybe clap your hands or you might whistle. I suppose shouting out is one of the most usual ways in which people draw attention to themselves. Sometimes people cup their hands to direct and amplify their voice - Hello there!
I’m now going to tell you about an incident that happened a long time ago where someone had difficulty getting people to notice him. At first people wanted to ignore him, but finally he was heard. This account is found in the Bible. In a moment I’m going to turn around and when I turn back I’m not going to be me, I’ll be someone else, a character from many years ago - here we go...
Hello, my name is Bartimaeus I’m going to tell you what happened to me on one very special day. Well I couldn’t see, I hadn’t been able to see all of my life. I couldn’t see the trees and flowers, the sky, the birds; I couldn’t see other people or the food I was eating. Can you imagine not being able to see, close your eyes for a moment? Well, I was blind and all I could do was to sit at the side of the road and beg. Here’s my bowl, I would just sit here and wait hoping that someone would throw something into my bowl.
(Shout out whilst simultaneously dropping a coin or two into the tin bowl), “money for the blind, money for the blind, anyone spare a penny for the blind.”
A tin bowl of some kind is really good. The coins make an attention drawing sound as they are dropped in.
When I got up to move I’d use my stick to poke around and feel my way, it was like being in the dark all of the time. Imagine, being in the dark all of the time! Well for some reason I wasn’t that popular, they said I use to get in the way.
“Money for the blind, money for the blind.”
But one day something amazing happened to me. I heard a crowd approaching and then I heard people saying Jesus’ name. I’d heard about Jesus, He did miracles, healing people and making them better. Well, the crowd were coming my way. I didn’t want to miss out so I started shouting “Jesus help me!”, “Jesus help me!”. The people around me were not nice they told me to shut up but I didn’t listen to them, I shouted louder and louder “Jesus, please help me!” Suddenly, Jesus heard me, He saw me, HE CALLED FOR ME – the people around me said, “He’s calling for you” I got up as quick as I could and Jesus was there. “What do you want me to do for you He asked me?” Wow, Jesus I want to see”. There and then Jesus just spoke some words and I could see! Yippee, it was amazing. So I followed Jesus.
You know, people can be blind in other ways too, they can be blind to Jesus, shut off from His wonderful love. But Jesus wants us to know Him, He wants us to open up our lives to Him so that He can shine His great love right into our hearts. Jesus loves you!
DOWNLOADS
Blind Bartimaeus Leaders’ Notes
Lead-in PowerPoint Intro for Bartimaeus Chat