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‘Who Am I’ series
                     including
    Ed’s adventures around Hope Island

Week 6 - I AM THE WAY

There is a set of PowerPoint slides for week 6 to accompany this week’s theme intro, lead-in session drama and teaching material.
PowerPoint, leaders’ notes and other items downloadable from the bottom of this webpage.

SLIDE 1 may be used to remind the kids that we are looking at the “Who Am I?” series where Jesus is answering that question.
This week’s theme ‘I Am the Way’ may be introduced by a little road sign quiz as below. See if the children can say what the sign is all about. Some signs are warning signs, some for information and some are legal restrictions to be obeyed / observed.

SLIDE 2 - 30 MPH speed restriction. (Circular road signs give orders and must be obeyed.) SLIDE 3 - No ‘U’ turn. SLIDE 4- Beware Hump back bridge. (Triangular road signs give warning. Hazards, bends, things to be aware of - take care. SLIDE 5 - Max vehicle width permitted 6’-6”

SLIDE 6 - Warning sign no footpath for 250 yards. Take care with small children SLIDE 7 - One way traffic only. SIGN 8 - Sign giving directions.

SLIDE 9 - This week in our ‘Who Am I?’ series Jesus is saying ‘I Am the Way’ We’ve just looked at a whole load of road traffic signs which show us how to use the roads safely and help us go in the right direction. They show us the way. Jesus shows us the best possible way to travel through life. His words in the Bible warn us of danger, help us keep out of trouble and keep us heading in the right direction. Jesus is the way! We’ll talk a little more about this later on.

PART 1 - LEAD-IN SESSION DRAMA

Outline for Leaders

**Slide 10 Week 6 map** - Ed is on the final leg of his adventure around Hope Island. The arrows show a completed circuit as Ed heads back to Gateway.

Ed is on the final leg of His journey and heads back to Gateway where he started a week ago. On this final part of his adventure he inadvertently throws away something he needs. Fortunately, there are people on the Island who are looking out for him and he manages to retrieve the all- important item thrown away earlier.

Parts, props and sound effects:

Characters: Ed, Narrator, Traveller, Gatehouse Keeper, Islander, Rubbish Collector.

Props: Rubbish bin, guidebook, newspaper, large shell, Ed's ticket, gatehouse (as WK 1), rubbish bags, Gateway - Waymouth signpost.

Drama PowerPoint slides:
SLIDE 10 - Ed’s Hope Island progress map
SLIDE 11 - Dolphins
SLIDE 12 - Toad
SLIDE 13 - Path back to Ed’s boat waiting in Hope Island harbour

Ed Back at Gateway

Narrator: Here we are on the last part of Ed’s journey around Hope Island and Ed is heading back to Gateway. How’s it going Ed. (Ed walks down the aisle to the front and turns to face the children.)

SLIDES 11,12 & 13 (if required) Background slides for opening part of drama where Ed talks about what he’s been up to and also mentions the boat waiting down in the harbour.

Ed: Great, just look how far I’ve come on the map, what an adventure I’ll be catching the ship home later today. Yesterday I went on a boat to see the dolphins out at sea in Dolphin Bay. Also, I saw a toad in the nature reserve, it was brilliant. I went down on the beach at Waymouth and bought these shells (large oyster shells) to remind me of the sea. Now I’m on my way back to the gatehouse in Gateway.

(Suddenly a traveller runs up to Ed, panting and a little out of breath.)

Traveller: Oh, so glad I caught up with you, have you dropped this (waves the ticket in the air)?

Ed: Yep that’s mine, thanks very much for picking it up I really appreciate it.

Traveller: Well goodbye, glad to have caught you.

Ed: (Facing the children) Mm, to be honest this ticket is not much use to me anymore. I’ve used all of the tokens and I'm finishing my journey today. That’s handy (Ed looking at a rubbish bin).

(Ed puts the ticket in the bin and walks off)

Islander: moments later an Islander comes and drops a newspaper into the bin.

Rubbish Collector: Comes to empty the bin and walks off with the black bag liner.

Narrator: Hey - someone’s come to empty the bin.

(Meanwhile Ed arrives back at Hope Island gatehouse)

Gatehouse Keeper: Hello there, good to see you again, had a good time?

Ed: Yes fantastic thanks! Hope Island is a great place, I’ve had a real adventure.

Gatehouse Keeper: So glad to hear that – have you got your ticket?

Ed: Well actually no, I threw it away, all of the tokens were gone.

Gatehouse Keeper: Oh dear, I wonder if you might get it back – you see it’s quite valuable really.

Narrator: Ed is looking a little worried but tells the gatekeeper he’ll be back. Ed is hurrying back to the rubbish bin but finds it has been emptied. Oh no, what will he do now?

Ed: What happened to the rubbish?

Narrator: Ed, the bin was emptied but not long ago. If you hurry you might catch the rubbish collector. Ed is hurrying off again.

(Ed does a circuit of the hall and meets the rubbish collector coming from the opposite direction across the front of the hall carrying a number of black bags.)

Ed: So glad to see you. I’ve put something in a bin that shouldn’t have been thrown away. But how will we find it in all of those bags and I don’t have much time?

Narrator: Ed is looking really worried now, his boat leaves shortly, there’s not another boat for several weeks.

Rubbish Collector: Mm, I don’t suppose by any chance this is what you’re looking for (holds up the ticket)?

Ed: Wow, am I relieved to see that, thank you - thank you.

Rubbish Collector: I just happened to see it in the bag when I closed it up. You see people rarely throw Hope island tickets away they are very special you know, so I thought I’d better hang on to it.

Narrator: Ed says thank you again and hurries off to the gatehouse. He’s given the ticket to the keeper.

Gatehouse Keeper: So glad you found this, you see it’s a ticket for life. You can come back to Hope Island anytime you like, and whenever the tokens run out you can change it for a new one. Always look after it – remember someone paid a lot of money for you to have this, it will last forever.

Ed: There’s just one thing that puzzles me? Who did exactly pay for this ticket, they must be a very special person, and I really would like to meet them.

Gatehouse Keeper: Well who knows maybe one day you will, perhaps you have already met them, here on Hope Island.

Narrator: So Ed's adventure has come to an end, his boat is down in the harbour ready to go. Ed will have so much to tell his friends back home and he will wonder for some time to come who paid for his ticket – do you know who it might be?

PART 2 BIBLE CHAT (LISTEN-UP TIME – SLIDE 14)

THE WAY

For Leaders

On this final session of Hope Island - ‘I Am the Way’, we briefly review each of the previous weekly themes. The teaching takes the form of discussion, questions and feedback from the kids. There are summary PowerPoint pictures, appertaining to each stage of Ed’s journeying around Hope Island and the ‘I Am’ sayings of Jesus.

There are many parallels that may be drawn with Ed’s experiences and real life. We can again emphasise to the children that whilst Ed’s journey around Hope Island is a made up story, we can learn a lot from it. Equally, Jesus’ statements of who He is, can be highlighted again during this final week of the series.

Let the children comment about their recollections from the PowerPoint weekly summary of images. Prompt them here and there to get the main points over. Remember this is a brief review over the teaching material of the past 5-6 weeks and needs to be kept snappy and interesting. It’s good to cover all 5 slides within the usual chat time allocated. It’s important not to get side tracked or stuck for too long on any one particular week. There’s no need to cover all of the prompts and notes given if the conversation is meaningful in other ways.

As far as possible let the children tell of what they remember from the picture prompts. They will need to be guided to give fairly short replies and to help them keep on track but it’s good for the kids to respond and comment.

One point that is of particular note is the recurring theme of people trying to get Ed to go the wrong way. It’s good to really drive home the thought that sometimes people do this in real life and care is needed that we don’t follow bad advice or direction. See point 3 regarding slides 16/17 or more on this.

There are two slides for each week. The first has the week’s key word blanked out so that the children can say what it is before it is revealed on the second slide.

Introduce the session with SLIDE 15 today’s theme where Jesus is saying ‘I Am the Way’. If you have used an interchangeable road sign throughout the series you might like to now use it now, displaying Jesus said - I am the Way.

Interchangeable road sign bearing today’s theme of Jesus saying **‘I Am the Way’.**

Bible Chat

Kids this week Jesus is saying “I Am the Way”. Over the last few weeks we’ve been travelling around Hope Island with Ed and looking at Jesus’ ‘I Am’ sayings. All of the things we have looked at show us that following Jesus is the best way to live. So, this week we are going to quickly whiz round Hope Island again, to see how much we can remember. Although Hope Island is a made-up story, we can learn a lot from it and also from the amazing words that Jesus has spoken to us during this series answering the question ‘Who AM I?’

Prompts and notes WK 1 Slides 16 / 17: (17 reveals the word Gate to be shown after the kids have answered the first point)
1. So, kids let’s kick-off with week 1 what can you remember? Who was Jesus saying He was on week 1? (Yes Jesus was saying to us “I Am the Gate”. Just like a shepherd looks after the sheep in His care so Jesus wants to look after us. Jesus is the Good Shepherd.)
2. Ed’s Hope Island ticket was very valuable. What was special about it? (Someone had already paid for it.) How does this remind us of Jesus? (Jesus has already paid with His life for us to go through His gate and live the best life as God intended for us.)
3. What did the gold prospector try to get Ed to do? (Go with him to Golden Valley instead of following his guide book to Gateway.) Some people that we will meet in our lives will try to get us to do things that are wrong, or go somewhere we shouldn’t. If we know it’s wrong we shouldn’t do it. Jesus always shows us the right way and His words in the Bible are the best guide ever. If in doubt don’t!

Prompts and notes week 2 slides 18 / 19
1. So, kids what about week 2, what can you remember? What was Jesus saying to us? (Yes, Jesus was saying “I Am the Truth”.)
2. In the drama who didn’t tell the truth? (The traveller [Bash] who ended up getting Ed stuck in a bog.) In what way did the traveller lie? (The traveller [Bash] said that he knew a short cut but it wasn’t going to take Ed to the right place and it wasn’t a good path at all. Once again someone had tried to get Ed to go the wrong way and this time he did. Eventually Ed got back onto the right path using his guide.)
3. Does everyone always tell the truth? (No) Where do people sometimes mislead us as to the real truth? (Adverts, court of law…)
4. Who always tells the truth? (Jesus) Where can we find Jesus’ words of truth? (The Bible)

Prompts and notes week 3 slides 20/ 21:
1. And on week 3, Jesus was saying to us “I Am the …?” (Yes, I am the Light of the World.”)
2. Where does Jesus’ Light shine on us? (On the inside…)
3. What happened to the person who paid no attention to the ‘Danger’ sign on the cliff? (They got stuck on the cliff.)
4. We talked about light & darkness. What words or things did we think of when we thought about ‘Light words’? (Kindness, love, forgiveness, help, comfort, goodness…)

Prompts and notes week 4 slides 19/ 20:
1. On week 4, Jesus was saying to us “I Am the …?” (Yes, I am the Bread of Life.”)
2. Can you fill in the words of the Bible verse?
3. Bread and other foods feed our physical body. What does the bread Jesus gives us feed? (Our inner self, soul… )

Prompts and notes week 5 slides 20/ 21:
1. On week 5 Jesus was saying “I am the …) (Yes “I am the Life Transformer.”)
2. Who did we hear about who was transformed - changed by Jesus? (The lady at the well)
2. Once again Ed was persuaded to ignore his guide. Who got him to go off his map? (the ferry person)
3. Ed’s guide book showed him the right way to go. What do we have to show us the right way to go through life? (the Bible)
4. Jesus was transformed in a miraculous way. What happened? (Jesus died and came back to life again…)