Scripture: Matthew 8:1-4 and 9:1-2, Mark 1:40-45 and 2:1-5 and Luke 5:12-20
Learning Objectives:
- Students will learn Jesus thought it was important to take regular breaks in his ministry to be alone and pray.
- Students will learn Jesus respected the faith of the men who loved their friend enough to do anything to get him to Jesus.
- Students will learn Jesus thinks having our sins forgiven is more important than healing someone of an illness.
- Students will learn and practice medical vocabulary by diagnosing various illnesses.
Guiding Question: How does forgiveness of sins bring us closer to God?
Materials: Index cards, pencils/pens
Procedure: Review the story of the Lepers and the Paralytics. Remind students the kind of friends the men were who had so much faith in Jesus to heal their friend. Ask the students to share how they think they can become that kind of friend with others. Tell students that the first way to start is to have a relationship with Jesus and accept Him into our life. Through that, we learn more about God and have forgiveness of sins when we repent. Having our sins forgiven is so important to God and in our relationship with Him. It is what allows to to know Him and be close to Him because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. As we grow closer to God, we will learn how to be a godly friend to others and how to take time out of our lives to spend with Him and pray to Him.
Introduce the activity. Explain that some students are going to pretend to be doctors and other students are going to have “symptom cards” that will have various symptoms on them that will relate to one illness. The “patient” must go to the doctor and explain what symptoms he/she is feeling while practicing language used to describe body parts and symptoms. After students have done this and if they feel comfortable, they can make up their own symptoms for an illness to practice with.
Additional Questions: How can students practice use medical vocabulary to relate to real world situations?
Supplemental Activity: Give students real world situations such as: having to go to the doctor for a broken bone, allergies, ear infection, etc. and have them tell you how they would go about taking care of themselves (where would they go, what kind of doctor, how would they describe the symptoms, what would they need to get better, etc.) and have them practice using medical vocabul