Scripture: Acts 10:1-11:30
Learning Objectives:
- Students will learn God wants everyone in the world to become a Christian.
- Students will learn we are to share our faith with everyone – even if they are people we don’t particularly like.
- Students will learn early Christians helped Christians in other parts of the world when there were disasters like famine.
- Students will recreate the dream while learning about the different animals that appeared in the dream.
Guiding Question: Why does God want us to share our faith with everyone no matter who they are?
Materials: Student-made props, samples of meat: bacon, ham, pork, etc.
Procedure: Review the story of Cornelius and Peter’s dream. Ask students why they think God gave Peter the vision about the animals. Explain that part of the vision and the story of Cornelius are meant to be used to share God with others. Explain that visions were often given by God to give His believers an understanding of what He wanted them to do or to share with other people. Tell the students that God wants us to share our faith with everyone – even if they are people we don’t know well, don’t like, or are not like us. God may place us in the path of certain people to be able to share our faith and encourage them in their walk with God.
Introduce the activity. Explain the words for different kinds of animals and the meats that come from them. Have the students make props to recreate the dream that Peter had. Once the students have made props, have the students practice and perform the dream. When the students are done, have them look at and try samples of meat that come from animals in the dream: bacon, ham, pork, etc. As they sample the various meats, have them practice using the words for the cuts of meat and the animals from which they came.
Additional Questions: How can students use learn to interpret different visions/dreams in the Bible?
Supplemental Activity: Have the students research various visions and dreams given in the Bible. Once students have found several and worked to interpret their meaning, have the students recreate the visions through acting them out or rewriting them in their own words.