St. Mary’s Anglican Church, Regina

FAITH QUEST -- THE BAPTISM OF JESUS

DAILY BREAD BISTRO
Lesson written from Ideas on rotation.org with permission

Objective:
(See Leaders’ Background Notes) In this workshop, the learners will review the events of Jesus’ baptism and remember them through making and tasting strange foods.

Scripture: Matthew 3: 1 – 17 Memory Verse: Matt. 3:17

Materials: (Note: many of these need to be prepared in advance – they are not made by the learners)

1. Gross food-tasting: ants on a log (pea [not peanut] butter or hummus, celery, toasted sesame seeds), worms (canned spaghetti in sauce), eyeballs (peeled grapes in jello)
2. Real food: dirt (fresh topsoil), chocolate-covered bugs [from Dessart]
3. Treats to take home: gummi worms/lizards/frogs
4. To make: Honey bugs: crescent roll dough, pretzel sticks, raisins, honey. Chocolate-covered grasshoppers: dry chow mein noodles, chocolate chips, wax paper
Bibles, newsprint or white board, blindfolds
NOTE: When this lesson was first taught in 2006 the leaders ran out of time. It would be good to have an extra shepherd so as to do the cooking (number 4 above) with two groups of kids at the same time. The leaders could have left out the real food but didn’t want to!

Opening:
Welcome the children, introduce yourself, and open in prayer. Practice the memory work via ASL (on sheet in binder).
Review the story by adding a sentence at a time from each child as you go around the room. For example: 1st child says “John the Baptist was in the desert.” 2nd child says, “John the Baptist was in the desert and he said “Repent”…and so on…
As the children tell you the story, draw a stick figure story line on newsprint or the white board.

Lesson Content:
1. Now explain that they will be tasting some unusual foods and making some others to help remember the story. Say that foods can help us recall things that happened: where we were and what we were doing. Hopefully that’s one thing which will happen today!

Choose who will be blindfolded first – perhaps two kids and a sampling of “gross food” for each (because they are allowed to touch the food as well as eat it!). Have the shepherd lead them into the Bistro once the first food is on a table. (Note: these foods should not be visible to the kids or it will spoil the surprise for all.)They are led to a chair and first feel the food. Explain that, for example, the branch has fallen from the tree and there are ants on it. Then they both taste the “log”. Can they guess what the foods are?
Repeat with the remaining kids and “gross foods”.

2. Next explain that in some countries today there are people who have to scrounge food from the ground by eating dirt, insects etc. Perhaps John was not all that weird – if you were in the wilderness you would have to eat wild onions, leaves, berries and roots…

Ask for a volunteer to eat some fresh dirt (talk about why their parents never allowed them to eat the garden dirt or sandbox sand (danger of disease from cat feces etc.) and to try the chocolate bugs. If no-one wants to try then leader and shepherd might have to demonstrate!

3. Finally, go into the Bistro and prepare the “Honey Bugs” and “Chocolate Covered Grasshoppers” for sharing at coffee hour. You might want to divide the children into two bug groups so that the cooking is concurrent.
Honey Bugs: Shape dough into body and head of a bug. Add pretzel limbs and raisin eyes. Brush with honey after baking & leave to cool.
Chocolate Grasshoppers: Stir melted chocolate into the noodles. Shape & cool on wax paper.

While the bugs are baking & then cooling, clean up.

Closing:
Back in the Oasis, recall the important teaching concepts. You can phrase each of these as a “wondering” statement to draw the children in, eg. I wonder why God sent John the Baptist…?

1. God sent John the Baptist to prepare people to receive God’s Son, Jesus, our Savior.
2. God loved us before we were born, and has a plan for each one of us to know Him by faith in his Son Jesus Christ.
3. God calls us turn away from sin and to His Son, Jesus, by faith.
4. When Jesus has forgiven our sins, the Holy Spirit gives us power live for Jesus and to share with other people about who Jesus is.
5. Baptism is a symbol of our faith that Jesus took our sin away by being killed on a cross and being raised again to life.

End with prayer, thanking God for sending Jesus his Son and for making us his own through baptism.
Hand out a treat (see materials list for suggestions) and then help the children share the prepared bugs at coffee as they pass on the Good News of Jesus’ baptism.

Fun lesson! I think I'll have each group make a different item to bring to the Baptism celebration at coffee hour. Thanks!