Creative Teaching Idea Description
Kids will be encouraged to “travel” to various destinations as they look at missions.

Central Truth
God called and used the disciples, Paul, and other Christians in the early church to bring the Gospel to the lost.

Bible Text
The life of Paul – Various passages from Acts

Resources
scissors, crayons or markers, small stickers or white address labels, and one “Missions Passport” or template for each participant.

Preparation

• Prepare a Missionary passport for each person. The amount of work you do in advance will depend on the age of your group. For the youngest participants you may have passports already cut out and assembled. For older youth or adults, you may leave all the work to them and have the materials available. If done well, you may also use this after missions month, as you study other Bible Stories taking place in different places.
• Look at a real passport and create a version of your own with places for VISA stamps etc. Here’s some sample text you can us on the inside: “The King of Kings hereby requests all who it may concern to permit this citizen of Heaven (statute Phil: 3:20) named herein to go into all the world and in case of need to be provided with all necessary aid and protection from enemies of God’s Kingdom. (statute John 17:17-18)
• If you have a polaroid camera, you can even take pictures of the participants for their passports. Another option is to ask them to bring a picture of themselves for the next week. Neoprint pictures also work well.
• Get stickers or make stamps for various locations that Paul visited with the Gospel. Set up stations where youth can learn about each location or study one each week and let the youth get a stamp for that week!

What to do
“Traveling, through the Bible takes us to many wonderful places. We can travel through the promised land with Joshua, or wander in the desert with Moses. We can travel with Paul to Asia Minor and with Philip to see the Ethiopian. The Bible is like a passport to many places. As we read the scriptures, we will travel to different places, meet different people, and learn more about missionaries. ”
Talk about some of the places PAUL visited in his missionary journeys. You may wish to summarize some of the places Paul visited and or read a narrative to the students. If you are really feeling creative, have someone dress up as Paul and tell them about the various places he visited. Have youth write down the names of places Paul visited and what happened there.

Variations

• Options aside from Paul are: Peter, Timothy, etc. Look in the book of Acts.
• The Church and the Golden Age of missionaries – William Carey, and other famous missionaries.
• The church and World Evangelism – Unreached People Groups
• Current Missionaries supported by your church and the places they are serving

Paul’s Missionary Journeys
This is an outline of a few of the places Paul visited with possible object lessons or symbols.

• Antioch – was called the “Queen of the East” because of its beauty, being situated on a river, with an island civic center linked to the shore by 5 bridges. It was situated at intersection of caravan routes between east, west, north, and south. Could be symbolized by a beautiful island in the middle of a river with a bridge and palm trees or by a caravan of camels.
• Philippi – was located on the east-west highway connecting Rome to Asia. Here Paul preached the gospel beside a river, was later beaten, placed in stocks, and placed in prison. It was here he established the first church on the European Continent. Famous among its ruins today is the foundations of a great arch believed Paul passed through to go to the river and preach the gospel. Could be symbolized by an arch next to the river or a whip or prison bars.
• Cypress – Third largest island in the Mediterranean, famous for its copper mines. Paul traveled by ship to reach it.
• Paphos, on the island was a naval station. This location could be symbolized by an island with lots of ships around it or by a copper pot.
• Pamphylia – Was a fortress surrounded by marshes full of malaria carrying mosquitos. A fortress and mosquitos or insects could symbolize this location.
• Pisidian Antioch – here Paul proclaimed the gospel but was driven out of the city by an angry mob – Could be symbolized by the mob.
• Lystra – Here the people thought Paul and Barnabus were gods. The people here also had a mob, but the stones Paul until they thought he was dead and drug him outside the city. Stones could represent this city.
• Jerusalem – Could be symbolized by the star of David (two intersecting triangles) or the temple or a menorah.
• Troas – Near the ancient city of Troy – famous for its wooden horse. It was here where Paul saw his vision of a man from Macedonia asking Paul to come help them.
• Thessaloniaca – located on the great northern highway and could be symbolized by this highway.
• Athens – Could be symbolized by the Acropolis and Parthenon or by a question mark as it was here that Paul delivered his famous presentation of the Gospel in front of the temple to an unknown God.
• Corinth – was famous for its temple to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. It was here he met Priscilla and Aquila, tentmakers like himself. A tent would be a good symbol for this city.
• Ephesus – was famous for its temple to Artemis and a sacred stone which had fallen from the sky (meteorite) and its magicians and healers. The people didn’t like him because he was taking away their business by doing real acts of God instead of magic tricks etc.
• Caesaria – while in Jail here he wrote many of his letters to the churches. Letters might be a good symbol of this place.
• Rome – Paul was placed under house arrest here and later out under trial for treason, convicted and beheaded outside the gates.

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