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The Time Capsule - Week 2

‘Rescued’

This week’s theme and material is based around Peter’s sinking experience, where he is rescued by Jesus. Matthew 14 vs 29 - 31

There is a set of PowerPoint slides for week 2 to accompany this session’s intro, lead-in drama and teaching material.
PowerPoint, Leaders’ notes and other items downloadable from the bottom of this webpage.

SLIDE 1 - ‘The Time Capsule’ series slide

THEME INTRO

SLIDE 2 - Introduce this week’s theme ‘Rescued’ to the children. Later we’re going to be looking at what it means to be rescued and in particular rescued by Jesus. First let’s see what our explorers are up to this week.

PART 1

LEAD-IN SESSION DRAMA

Outline for Leaders

The two explorers Bill and Tom have now arrived on the remote tropical island in the Pacific, where they begin their hunt for the artefacts missing from the time capsule, they found in the desert. This week they locate the second artefact, a replica model boat, which they rescue from the bottom of a pond. In the Bible chat, the children learn of how Peter was rescued by Jesus from drowning in the sea.

Suggested Props:

Bill and Tom - explorers hiking gear - backpacks, boots, desert hats…
Whatever you can come up with to give a tropical island feel to your drama platform - fake plants, tropical backdrops…
Something to represent a pond - possibly a blue sheet
Time capsule (box)
Fishing nets, toy bucket
A model boat - good to have a model that looks old / wooden but any suitably sized model boat will suffice here.

Characters: Two explorers - Tom & Bill, Narrator

Sound effects: Background sounds of birds and animals in the bush.

‘Rescued’

Scene set: Bill & Tom with backpacks walk onto stage looking at the ‘Lost Coin’ and the map.

Narrator:
Last week we left Bill & Tom when they were just heading off to find a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. Do you remember, they were going in search of the missing artefacts from the time capsule they had found buried in the desert. Last week they found a remarkable old coin. Well, they’re now on the island and are hunting for the second piece missing from the capsule.

Bill: (looking at the coin again with his magnifying glass.) It says on this coin that the next old relic will be found in a still place where we’ll see our reflection.

Tom: maybe, glass - I know a mirror!

Bill: There are no mirrors on this island.

Tom: Hey, but I’ve got one in my bag.

Bill: (shaking his head) Tom, what are you like?

Tom: (with a Funny face and hands in the air gesture) Only trying to help.

Bill:
(SLIDE 3) I’ve got it. On the map there’s a place called Crystal Waters. You can see your reflection in clean water!

Tom: (Jumping up and down with excitement) Bill over there - there’s a pool, that must be it.

Narrator: The two explorers hurry over to the pool. Tom immediately starts pulling faces looking into the water.

Bill:
(SLIDE 4) Whatever are you doing?

Tom: Looking at my reflection like the clue said.

Bill: (Gives Tom a nudge) We’re here to find a relic not act as clowns.

Narrator: (Suddenly Bill & Tom both produce fishing nets.) Oh, here we go, they’re getting serous now. They’re going to fish the relic out of the pond.

Tom: Oh, yippee, I’ve caught a fish! Do you have a bucket?

(Bill pulls a small toy bucket from his back pack)

Bill: Hey, I want one, I want one.

(Bill pulls out a crab which bites him on the nose as he looks into his net)

Bill: “Ouch, a crab, it bit me!”

(After putting the crab in the bucket Bill stands on the side of the pond staring into the water and then looks at Tom.)

Tom: What is it, Bill?

Bill: This is no good, we’ll be here all day. Someone has to wade into the pond and get the relic. It’s the only way.

Tom: Had you someone in mind?

(Bill looks at Tom)

Tom: You mean you want me to wade into the water, that is probably very deep, full of bugs and leeches?

Bill: Well, it was so nice of you to offer Tom let’s get going.

(Tom disappears off set and comes back in his gear ready to jump into the pool.)

Tom: Here goes, wish me luck. Come in after me if I get into trouble (Tom jumps into the water to find it is only a few inches deep, he turns and looks at Bill.)

Narrator: After all that fuss, the water is quite shallow.

Bill: Come on then Tom, see if you can find the relic.

(Tom paddles into the pond and feels around in the water)

Tom: Ouch - I’ve been bitten again. Must be another crab. Why is it always me who gets all of the good jobs (and then finally, and excitedly…) I’ve got it, it’s a boat!

Bill: That’s it, terrific quick Tom, let’s take a look.

Narrator: The explorers examine the boat and clean it out with a dry cloth. They see there's an inscription on the back, it's another verse from the Bible. They agree that they’ll look at the Bible verse back at base.

Tom: Hey Bill now the boat is dry let's see if we can float it.

Bill: No, we might lose it.

Narrator: Looking closer the explorers see in addition to the Bible verse there’s another clue on the back of the boat.

Bill: Tom, it says we’ll find the next relic in the dark.

Tom: Where could that be? Hey Bill, there are some caves shown on the map. What’d you reckon?

Bill: Well done Tom, I reckon you’ve got that one. We’ll head over to the caves in the morning. Think we’ve had enough excitement for one day.

Narrator: So, our two archaeological explorers have had another successful day. I wonder where they’ll end up next week. We’ll hear more about the boat later. .

BIBLE CHAT - (LISTEN-UP TIME SLIDE 5)

SLIDE 6 - Remind the children of this evening’s theme ‘Rescued’

'Rescued'

‘Jesus Rescues Peter’ - Matthew 14 vs 22 - 33

Props: A model boat (the one used earlier in the drama), You can use the boat to illustrate the chat as you go along telling the story. Alternatively, the story could also be acted out with a cardboard boat and waves. Another option would be for people to be the waves.

Earlier we saw how our two explorers rescued a boat from the bottom of a pond.

Everyday people rescue things.
SLIDE 7 - Sometimes people accidently throw things away that were valuable and important and they have to rescue them.
Some years ago, my brother accidently threw a large sum of money into an old household bin which along with a load of other rubbish he threw into a skip at the council tip. Having realised his mistake, he got up early the next day, prayed he would find it and went back to look for it. He jumped into the skip and started digging down. He came across a heavy window frame which he couldn’t move. He reached down under the window frame and amazingly pulled out the bin he’d thrown away the day before. The money was still in it! The council worker standing by said “you’re lucky mate, they’ve usually taken the skips away by now!” My brother rescued his own money!

SLIDE 8 - And then there are other kinds of rescue. What can you tell me about these pictures? (Let the kids tell you about the pictures.)
A – Life Boat rescue
B – Coast guard or helicopter rescue
C – Beach patrol and lookout
D – Breakdown truck – rescues people whose vehicles have broken down

In the Bible there’s an amazing story about a guy called Peter who was rescued by Jesus. Jesus had been talking to local people near the sea of Galilee. When He finished the crowds went off to their homes. Jesus told His disciples to get into a boat and go on ahead of Him to the other side of the sea. So off they went, Jesus Himself went off to the mountainside to pray.
Later that night the disciples were struggling with their boat journey because there were very strong winds. As they battled in the winds they saw a figure coming towards them on the water. They were terrified and very frightened. They thought they were seeing a ghost. But it was actually Jesus! Jesus shouted out to them, ‘‘don’t be afraid it’s Me Jesus.’’

Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples said, ‘‘If it’s You Jesus, tell me to come to You on the water’’, “Come” said Jesus. Peter got out of the boat and walked towards Jesus. At first everything was okay and Peter walked on the water. But suddenly, Peter took his eyes off Jesus and started to look around, he saw the winds and the waves, he became afraid and he began to sink. He shouted out to Jesus - “Jesus help me”. Jesus immediately reached out His hand and rescued Peter from the water and they both climbed into the boat. “Why did you doubt?” Jesus asked Peter. The disciples were amazed and realised that Jesus was special, He was the Son of God.

Kids, we’re not going to be walking on water like Peter but I wonder what we can learn from this remarkable little story. At the beginning Peter was doing okay. He’d got out of the boat and was walking on the water towards Jesus. The very fact that Peter got out of the boat in the first place shows us that he trusted Jesus. But then it all went wrong and he started to sink, why was that? He took his eyes off Jesus and started to look at the winds and the waves. As Peter started to sink into the water he called out to Jesus for help, and Jesus stretched out His hand to rescue him. The winds and the sea unsettled Peter and for a moment, he forgot all about Jesus and just started worrying about what was going on around him.

Sometimes we can feel that we’re in the middle of a storm. Not a literal storm with howling winds and roaring waves but things around us don’t seem to be going okay and it’s a bit tough. There could be difficulty with friends or things at school or something going on in the family. Sometimes we just get a bit fed up. Jesus wants you to know that He cares about you and all of this stuff and he loves you. Jesus wants you to put your trust in Him. And when we struggle to believe and doubts creep in that’s okay too, Jesus just wants to hear from you, speak out to Him just like Peter did tell him about your worries and cares and He will help you.

Let’s remember from this amazing Bible story that Jesus wants us to trust Him. He wants us to talk to Him. And when things in life go wrong Jesus wants us to tell Him, just like we’d tell our best friend.

There is a little verse in the New Testament that says this:
“Bring all your cares to Jesus, because He cares for you” And, you can!

(Another way in which this wonderful story may be used is to talk about the greatest rescue ever. When Jesus died upon the cross, He did it to rescue the whole wide world from all of the bad things the people do. He died so that we might be forgiven and live forever. Jesus died to rescue us so that we might live a life of love and peace…)

Week 2 Time Capsule Activity

Ask the children to draw around their hand, name it and date it on the back to put in the capsule.

Response Time Questions

Have you ever been rescued from something?
Can you imagine what it must have felt like for Peter walking on water? What words could you think of to describe his action - brave, daring, impetuous, reckless…
Holding Jesus’ hand in life can make all the difference to difficult situations. Let’s pray and if you have a difficult situation ask Jesus to hold your hand and help you.