Junior and/or Earliteen Sabbath School June 28, 2008

Information on following slides adapted from Adventist Mission Youth and Adult Magazine and the SDA Encyclopedia. This Quarter the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering is going to the Inter-American Division

This quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help: build worship halls at the University of the Southern Caribbean in Trinidad build worship halls at the University of the Southern Caribbean in Trinidad build churches for existing congregations in central Mexico build churches for existing congregations in central Mexico upgrade campgrounds for lay evangelism training in Mexico upgrade campgrounds for lay evangelism training in Mexico How is the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering going to be used?

The division is made up of many countries, starting from Mexico through Central America to northern South America and including all of the Caribbean Islands.

The earliest record of missionary work by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Mexico dates back to 1891, when an Italian- American tailor went to Mexico City to sell the English edition of The Great Controversy. In 1893 a group of missionaries opened a medical mission and school, the first attempt by Adventists in the line of medical missionary work outside of the United States. Adventist Work in Mexico

In 1905 medicine ordered by Aurelio Jiménez as a “sure cure” for alcoholism (and which he hoped would benefit his parents) came wrapped in a 2-year-old copy of El Mensajero de la Verdad (The Messenger of the Truth). He subscribed to the paper, accepted its teachings, and was baptized. Jiménez later became a denominational worker and was instrumental in spreading the Adventist message in the mountains of Chiapas and in the plains of Tabasco, where the densest population of Seventh-day Adventists is now found.

One-fifth of the population of Mexico, more than 22 million people, lives in and around Mexico City. About 22,000 Adventists live in this region—a ratio of one Adventist believer for every 1,000 people. In the heart of Mexico City is an area plagued by drugs and demon possession. Seventh-day Adventist churches in Mexico City serve as lighthouses to a people in desperate need of a Savior. Pray that God will use the believers to reach out to their neighbors, coworkers, and family members for Christ.

The Inter-Oceanic Mexican Union will receive part of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering. The Union covers most of the territory south of Mexico City (the states of Guerrero, Hidalgo, Mexico, Morelos, Oaxaca, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, and the southeast portion of Tabasco). Except for a couple of large cities, such as Veracruz and Puebla, the area has mostly smaller cities, farming, and light industry. A large portion of it (south from Puebla to Oaxaca) is desert and semi-desert and rolling hills. People eke out a living there, but not a good one. Catemaco Lake

The church tends to grow fastest among the poorer people who have little hope for a better life on this earth. But these people can least afford to build a house of worship. For this reason, part of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help construct 28 churches in the Inter-Oceanic Mexican Union. This congregation meets in the shelter of this PVC pipe and tarp “church.”

Church members in the Inter-American Division want to spread the good news of Christ’s love and soon coming to everyone. With persevering prayer and a generous Thirteenth Sabbath Offering, we can help provide the encouragement and resources needed by our brothers and sisters.

Collect Offering

Exploring God’s World In this section we study one of the countries in the division where our Thirteenth Sabbath offering is going.

Today we are going to learn about Mexico.

Where is Mexico

Time for the Mission Story We are taking the good news to the entire world. Use the Thirteenth Sabbath materials on pages 28, 29 and 30 of the Second Quarter Adventist Mission Youth and Adult Magazine

Special Thirteenth Sabbath Program

Lesson Study Time

Readiness Activity The class members will each need paper and a pencil. They should write the numbers 1 – 9 on the paper.

Write down the telephone numbers (or names) of: 1. The number you ring the most. 2. Your best friend. 3. Someone who would help if you were in trouble.

4. Someone you would talk to if you were afraid. 5. Someone who could help you with your homework. 6. Someone with whom you would like to plan a fun activity.

7. Your parents. 8. The emergency number. 9. Your pastor or Sabbath School teacher.

So, was it hard to think of someone to fill all the categories? Did any of the names come up more than once? How important is that person (or those people) in your life?

Our close friends are people we talk to all the time. In our lesson today we are going to learn about the best friendship we can ever have.

Read with me about: THE CONNECTION

Have you ever really wanted to be kind and generous?

Were you able to make yourself?

Have you ever wondered how you were ever going to be “good”?

Jesus told His disciples the secret to living a positive Christian life just before He was led away to be crucified.

We will imagine that a boy named Benjamin overheard what He told them.

P O W E R T E X T John 15:5, NIV

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

P O W E R P O I N T Only through a close friendship with Jesus can we have loving friendships with others.

Benjamin was out doing the last check on the animals before going to bed. It was a lovely night, calm and peaceful.

As he stood there the sound of voices came from the road. Who could be out at this time? he wondered.

A small group of men walked slowly along the road toward him. One seemed to be doing most of the talking while the others listened and asked questions.

Suddenly the group stopped right by his gate. Benjamin hardly dared breathe. Surely they couldn’t have seen him.

Benjamin struggled to listen, when he suddenly recognized the voice. It was Jesus. He was talking about the old vine across the road.

“I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener,” began Jesus. “He cuts off every branch that does not bear fruit,

while the branches that bear fruit he prunes so they will give more fruit. I am the vine and you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.”

Slowly the group began to move on. Benjamin knew that they were on their way to Gethsemane. Jesus often went there with his disciples to pray.

Benjamin longed to follow and hear more, but knew that this was a time for Jesus to be with His special friends.

He stood and thought about what he had just heard. Why did Jesus say He was like a vine?

Why not a sweet-smelling cedar or an awesome oak? Either would have been better.

Then Benjamin looked across at the old vine. The vine couldn’t stand up by itself. It needed something to wrap its tendrils around. But Jesus didn’t need any support, or did He?

No, Jesus didn’t need earthly support, but He did need support from His Father in heaven.

The idea of being a branch was not a new one to Benjamin. From childhood he had heard the Scriptures read in the synagogue and the priests and scribes referring to Israel as a vine.

Suddenly it made sense. Jesus said He was the true vine. He had come to fulfill all the prophecies about the Messiah.

Everyone could see that Jesus had a close relationship with His Father in heaven. But how could the disciples be branches? What did Jesus mean?

Benjamin remembered how his grandfather had shown him how to care for their vines. It was a job that took skill.

There were branches that never had any fruit, just lots of leaves. They looked nice but were useless; they were cut away and burned.

Those branches were like the people who looked good, but never did anything, like some of the scribes and Pharisees who were always trying to get Jesus into trouble.

At the end of each season the healthy branches were pruned, so they would give more fruit the following season.

If they weren’t pruned, then they grew wild and eventually stopped producing fruit.

Could it be that the everyday things that happened were God’s way of pruning His special friends?

That through difficulties and good times, each person grew and developed?

What was the fruit of a life with Jesus? Being truthful, honest, kind, helpful. Yes, that made sense.

Benjamin remembered how he sometimes grafted a new branch to the vine.

How both the vine and the branch were cut and the new branch inserted into the trunk of the vine.

Then they were bound together very tightly. They began to grow together, and after a while you would never know that they had not always grown together. The branches got their nourishment from the vine.

Benjamin realized what Jesus was telling His disciples. They needed to stay connected to Him—keeping Him with them in Spirit in all they did.

They needed to talk to Him about everything in prayer. That way they would be abiding in Him.

It would be as if He hadn’t left them. They would grow to be just like Him, as the branch was like the vine.

Loving one another would not be something they had to work at. His love would flow through them to others, like the sap in the grapevine.

Benjamin looked down the road. He wanted to run after Jesus and tell Him that He had heard and understood the lesson about the old vine.

Instead he told Jesus’ Father. His father too.

Important Information PowerPoints® art copyrighted © 2003 by the Review and Herald® Publishing Association. Text and illustrations from Adventist Mission Youth and Adult Magazine is copyright © by the General Conference Corporation of Seventh-day Adventists. Scriptures quoted from NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright © 1973, 1980, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. ClickArt Infinity by Broderbund, © 1999 TLC Multimedia Inc.

Determine how you will integrate the 13 th Sabbath materials into the mission section of the PowerPoint Sabbath School program. You can find the 13 th Sabbath materials on pages 28, 29 and 30 of the Second Quarter Adventist Mission Youth and Adult Magazine. You can go to the website and find the link titled “Publications” to download the Adventist Mission Youth and Adult Magazine. Determine how you will integrate the 13 th Sabbath materials into the mission section of the PowerPoint Sabbath School program. You can find the 13 th Sabbath materials on pages 28, 29 and 30 of the Second Quarter Adventist Mission Youth and Adult Magazine. You can go to the website and find the link titled “Publications” to download the Adventist Mission Youth and Adult Magazine. Notes to Teachers You will also want to have paper and pencils for the Readiness Activity before the lesson.

Copyright Grants Pass Seventh-day Adventist School Art and graphics copyrighted by the General Conference and the Review and Herald® are included on slides 34, 45-47, 49, 50, 53, 55, 57, 59, 60, 62, 63, 68, 70 and 72. Images and artwork are copyrighted by the Pacific Press Publishing Assoc., Review and Herald Publishing Assoc., It Is Written and others. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Copyright Notices