Holy Land Tours of Beersheba and Jericho

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Activities

This web-site is for everyone interested in learning more about the Bible.

This section helps Sunday school teachers find new ways of teaching familiar materials. Our goal is to augment lessons you may already have in your Sunday school curriculum.

Holy Land Tours
This month we are finishing our Kids’ Tour of the Holy Land. There is still time for you to do the complete tour, get your passports and stamps, and complete the quizzes. If students submit their completed passports and quizzes online, we will send them each a t-shirt. Instead of referring you to the traditional Bible stories, we are asking you to read Olene Carroll’s retelling of these wonderful stories or you might like to listen to Marilyn Utz narrate the tour. There will be some exercises on Fun and Games for kids to do on the bus tour. The tour is a wonderful adventure in looking beyond the stories and learning about the setting and the customs of that time period. Please encourage your church members, families, and friends to join us on this summer’s tour.

In June, we traveled to Mount Tabor, the Jabbock River and Peniel. In July, we went to Mount Pisgah, Moab, and Petra. In August, we are journeying to Beersheba and Jericho.

Get your Passport ready for Adventure!
This year we've added passports, stamps, and quizzes. We've also added Passport Covers and Passport Question and Answer Pages for each stop on the tour. Students can choose a passport with a picture or with a blank page, where he or she can add his or her own picture.

Each tour has two corresponding Passport Question and Answer pages.

After completing the Question and Answer pages, print out the corresponding tour stamps and paste them in upper-right corner your passport pages.

Earn a BibleWise Shirt
If students send us their completed passports and quizzes, we will send them a BibleWise t-shirt.

To receive your t-shirt, email, fax or mail a copy of your completed Passport pages. Don't forget to include your mailing address so we can send you your t-shirt.

Email: TShirt@Biblewise.com

FAX: 408-354-3857

Mail:
1484 Pollard Road, Suite 525
Los Gatos, 95032

Additional Stories
Use your Bibles or look for stories in Swap Shop to augment your tour. You might want to find a good children’s Bible for easier reading and understanding by young people.

If you are finding you don’t have enough stories, please see our Swap Shop for specific stories or themes for your Sunday school to use. If you missed our last Kids’ Tour of the Holy Lands, you might want to add that to your summer “to do” list.

About Olene Carroll
Since 1995, Olene Carroll has co-hosted 23 Bible Land tours to Israel, Jordan, Greece, Turkey and Egypt. She provides biblical insights for all ages. Tours specialized for young people have included kayaking down the Jordan, digging at Bethsaida, walking the Jerusalem ramparts, and climbing higher and farther at Petra.

The Holy Land tour is excellent for vacation Bible school.

We’d like your help with bringing our Swap Shop section up to date. If there is a Bible character or an event not covered by BibleWise, please contact us at biblewise.com.

Contest Results
The winning name for the former Swap Shop is "Character and Theme Index".

The entire Activities section is divided into Memory Work, Activities, and Discussion Questions. You can go to any of these sections and select what best works for your pupils.

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Memory Work

Activities

Discussion Questions

You can now download all three sections for ease in using these materials for teaching.

MEMORY WORK

Teachers and Parents
It is so important to encourage our little ones as well as ourselves to memorize Bible verses and stories – to become so familiar with the passage or story that its timeless relevance appears to us more and more clearly with every retelling. A major difference was evident between Sunday school pupils required to tell the story versus those who gave nodding recognition to the same story. We can not overlook the significance of memorizing a verse or story.

Consider sharing with your Sunday school pupils and parents ways to help little ones learn the verse and understand the impact of the message on their lives.

Write out or type this week’s Bible verse on a card and place it on a mirror the child uses each day.
Place the verse for the week in his/her lunch box.
Ask the child to recite the verse before or after grace at the dinner meal.
Practice as a family at dinner, going around the table with each one saying a word until the verse is complete.
Put the verse to music. Create your own tune for each Bible verse. Create pictures to help remember the verse.
Write it in a Bible verse notebook as many times as you can.

Bible Verses
Work with your child and your students to learn each verse. Then, discuss the meaning of the verse and how it can be applied to everyday lives. On Sundays during class, riding in the car, or at dinner, it's fun to share stories of how the children have used the verse in their lives that week.

We provide memorization verses for each week. You can add your own.

Bible verses for summer will include specific verses to help us on our travels. Whether we’re headed to camp, taking the on-line Kids’ Tour of the Holy Land, traveling with parents or family or friends these verses are great ones to pack for day in day out use.

August 2
(NCV) Psalms 32:7 You are my hiding place. You protect me from my troubles and fill me with songs of salvation.

Why is God our hiding place?
What is salvation?
What would be a song of salvation?

August 9
(The Message) Zechariah 8:5 And boys and girls will fill the public parks, laughing and playing--a good city to grow up in.

Where have you spent your summer?
Have you played happily?
What makes you happy?

August 16
(NLT) John 14:27 I am leaving you with a gift – peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn't like the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid.

Who is speaking?
What is he promising?
Why shouldn’t we ever be afraid?

August 23
(The Message) Leviticus 26:6 I'll make the country a place of peace--you'll be able to go to sleep at night without fear;

Why is it important to feel God’s presence when we go to bed?
Have you ever been afraid to go to sleep? Why or why not?
Sometimes people are afraid of the dark. How does this verse dispel that fear?
Have you ever thought of God’s angels as our babysitters?

August 30
(The Message) Psalms 25:20 Keep watch over me and keep me out of trouble; Don't let me down when I run to you.

How would you want God to keep watch over you?
How do you pray to be kept out of trouble?
What prayer of Jesus’ specifically asks God to keep us out of trouble?

Translations used:
The Message
NCV New Century Version
NLT New Living Translation
KJV King James Version

Bible Stories
The Bible Stories this month are representative of each of our stops on the Kids’ Tour of the Holy Land.

Hagar and Ishmael
Read Genesis 21: 9-21

Sodom and Gomorrah
Read Genesis 13

David and Abigail
Read 1 Sam 25:2-42

The Fall of Jericho
Read Joshua 6, A Wall Falls Down and Walls of Jericho Fell Down

David and Saul in the Cave
Read 1 Samuel 24, King David and The Shepherd Boy Becomes King

Healing of the Waters
Read II Kings 2:18-22

Blind Bartimaeus
Read Mark 10:46-52, The Blind Beggar and Jesus at Jericho

Zacchaeus
Read Luke 19: 1-10, Little Zacchaeus and The Little Man Who Climbed Into a Tree to See Jesus

ACTIVITIES

Bible Overview covers the book of Judith.

BibleWise Guest this month is Brooks Anderson, Artist

Hot Topic - Abundant Energy

Parenting with the Bible focuses on An Earnest Prayer.

We are continuing with our Kids’ Tour of the Holy Land. This is a fun introduction for students to explore the geography of their favorite Bible stories on-line. Download the passport information, questions for each tour, and this year’s itinerary for your children and SS pupils. A number of churches are using the tour for their Vacation Bible School.

This is a good time to get youngsters started on earning their God and Country badge. All denominations and all children, whether or not they are scouts, are encouraged to fulfill the badge requirements.

The tour is our summer package. Stories and games go with the tour stops. Whatever you do this summer, wherever you travel, have fun and make sure to pack your Bible!

Exercise: Ask students to keep a Journal of their Holy Land tour.
Write down what they learned. Draw pictures of what they saw. Discuss how the Bible is coming to life.