‘The Time Capsule’ - Week 4

‘Open Hearts’ 

This week’s theme and material is based around the story of Lydia found in Acts 16 verses 11 - 15.

There is a set of PowerPoint slides for week 4 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

PART 1   

THEME INTRO

SLIDE 2 - Introduce today’s theme of ‘Open Hearts’ to the children. Later, we are going to be looking at what it means to open our hearts and in particular to open them to Jesus. First let’s see what our explorers discover this week.

LEAD-IN SESSION DRAMA

Outline for Leaders

Bill and Tom are off to find the fourth relic, which turns out to be a piece of purple cloth located within the hollow of a tree. Later in the Bible chat time a piece of purple cloth appears again in the story of Lydia, a seller of purple who came to open her heart to the Good News of the gospel.

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…

  • Some way of representing a tree trunk from which the piece of purple cloth is drawn.

  • A piece of purple material / cloth with a white heart painted in the middle

  • Time capsule (box)

Characters: Two explorers - Tom & Bill, Narrator

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

‘The Purple Cloth’

Scene set: Bill & Tom with backpacks walk onto stage. SLIDE 3 - Secret Island Map

Narrator: (‘Secret Island’ map on screen) Here we are again with our two archaeological explorers, they’ve been looking at the lamp they found last week. The lamp and map have given them a clue as to where they will find the next relic. The clue says that the next relic will be found among olives and there are olive trees on the island. Bill and Tom are just arriving at the olive trees now.  

(Bill and Tom look up at the trees on screen – SLIDE 4 Olive Trees)

Tom: Oh dear, I didn’t realise there would be this many trees, how do we know where to start looking? I know, I’ll close my eyes and walk towards a tree and we’ll try that one.
(Tom closes his eyes as Bill looks on in amazement)

Bill: Tom, Tom, stop! What are you doing? This isn’t a lucky dip you know.

Tom: Okay Bill, do you have any better ideas? 

(Bill scratches his head as Tom gazes up into the trees again) 

Tom: (as he starts to act this out, Bill just looks on in astonishment and then buries his head in his hands) Got it! I’ll stand with my back to the trees and throw this orange over my shoulder and we’ll look at the tree it lands at first.  

Bill: Tom, are you an archaeologist or a clown?  

Tom: Now look here Bill, my ideas may not be very scientific but you don’t seem to be coming up with much yourself.

Bill: (Looking at the map and holding the lamp) There must be some other clue.

Tom: (with real emphasis) Look Bill, standing around isn’t going to find our tree, we got to start looking. I’ll tell you what, as we’re looking for ancient things, we’ll start with the oldest tree first.  

Bill: (looking up in the air with exasperation) And how my friend do we know which is the oldest tree?  

Tom: Ah, now that is a good point. Hey Bill, tell you what it’s getting very hot out here in the sun, let’s go in the shade of the trees and have a drink. 

Bill: Now that’s the best idea you’ve come up with all morning. Let’s go. 

Narrator: (Tom & Bill follow with the narration and run across and sit under a tree) Tom and Bill are going for shade and taking a break.  

(The explorers pour drinks and Bill sits back to relax) 

Bill: This is the life, but we must get back to looking for the next artefact. 

Tom: (Who has been poking around the tree they’re sitting under whilst he’s been drinking and pulls out a piece of purple cloth ) What you mean this one! 

Bill: (Springs to his feet,) YES, YES! Tom, you did it! 

Tom: Yeah, not bad huh.  

Tom: (unfolds the purple cloth to see that it has a heart shape painted in the middle of it) WOW Bill, what does this mean?

Narrator: The two explorers look over the cloth wondering what story it might have to tell. They’ll have to study it very carefully when they get back to base. There’s another Bible verse written on the cloth; we’ll find out what this piece of cloth is all about later. Tom and Bill are overjoyed that they now have four of the pieces to go in the time capsule.  

BIBLE CHAT - (LISTEN-UP TIME SLIDE 5)

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

Lydia Seller of Purple

Acts 16 (part v 14) ‘Jesus opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying’  

Prop ideas for Bible Chat:

(Use the props and pictures as you tell the story of Lydia.)

●    Some dyed cloth, a bit of tie and dye maybe, water and a bowl, stuff that might demo dying material.

●    The purple material with the heart painted on as used in the drama. 

We are talking about hearts today. When we talk about a person’s heart, we are talking about what they are like on the inside, we’re not talking about their physical heart but what they are like as a person. We say that someone has a kind heart, we say that someone has a heart of gold. We don’t mean that their heart is literally made of gold we mean that they are a helpful person, they are certainly good to other people. When we think of the heart we think of love as well, it’s not our physical heart that loves it’s our inner self, what we call our soul, our personality. We talk about people having soft hearts, they really care about others, you can talk to them and they will help you. So, when we talk about a person’s heart, we are really talking about what they are like, on the inside.

When God looks at a person, He doesn’t look at the colour of their skin, the clothes they wear, where they come. God looks at the heart.

SLIDE 7 - Here’s a little story from the Bible about a lady named Lydia. Let’s see what happened to her heart.

Lydia was a businesswoman from a place called Thyatira. Thyatira was well known for many things but one of them was the quality of the water. The water in Thyatira was very good for dyeing cloth, there was nowhere else in the region where cloth could be dyed so well and so permanently as Thyatira. Purple was one of the colours that dyed really well and was so wanted by people that it made Thyatira quite famous. Lydia, was a seller of this lovely purple cloth like the piece our explorers found earlier. In Lydia’s day, there weren’t stores to buy clothes like there are today and more people would make their own. They would go to the market, buy some material and then sew their own clothes. 

One day after work, Lydia went out of the city and down to the river nearby where she met up with some other women. They’d actually gone there to pray. Lydia believed in God but didn’t know anything about His Son Jesus. Whilst Lydia and the other women were down by the river, a man named Paul and his companions turned up because they had heard about this place of prayer. Paul and his companions met the women and it wasn’t long before they were talking to them about Jesus. Lydia, believed what Paul was saying, she trusted God and then something very special happened (as you tell the next bit open up the purple cloth so that the kids see the heart shape).

SLIDE 8- Jesus touched her heart with His love and she invited Him into her life. Wow, Lydia became a Christian, a follower of Jesus.

It wasn’t only Lydia; her whole family became Jesus’ followers too.
SLIDE 9 - Sometimes Christians show that they’re opening their lives to Jesus by opening their hands in prayer like on screen. You can do this too, to show Jesus that you want to open your heart and life to Him.

Pray with the kids.
Let’s pray that God will open up our hearts to receive His Son Jesus just like Lydia did. You can open your hands like me if you want to show God that you want Him in your life too.

Week 4 Time Capsule Activity

Ask the children to write a letter to themselves saying e.g. list of favourite things, their favourite film, their best friends, favourite food/place, what they want to be when they leave school.

Response Time Questions

  1. What did Lydia sell? (Purple cloth)

  2. Where did Lydia go to meet the other women to pray (Down by the river)

  3. Who did Lydia open her life to? (Jesus - she became a Christian. a follower of Jesus)                                              

Downloads

Week 4 drama script, Bible chat & response time leaders’ notes.
Week 4 PowerPoint slides