Junior and/or Earliteen Sabbath School August 30, 2008

This Quarter the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering is going to the North American Division Information adapted from Adventist Mission, Youth and Adult Magazine and the SDA Encyclopedia.

This quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help:  Place rebroadcast radio stations in communities across Canada  Expand the reach and effectiveness of Life Talk Radio across the United States How is the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering going to be used?

The division is made up of two of the world’s largest countries—the United States and Canada— and the island nation of Bermuda.

Every year, one million people from countries around the world come to live in North America.

Thousands of Adventists serve as missionaries in countries around the world. North America has frontlines of mission too. “Project Hope for Montreal,” part of the worldwide “Hope for Big Cities” initiative, plans to plant two new congregations in the metropolis by Bible workers are reaching out through health and family seminars, in addition to conventional Discover Bible Courses.

While the Adventist Church started in North America, nine out of ten Adventists live outside North America. In fact, five of the church’s 13 world divisions have larger memberships than North America.

As of June 2007, church membership in the division is 1,030,361. That’s less than 8 percent of the Seventh-day Adventist church’s 15 million members worldwide.

Millions of people living in North America have never heard the Adventist message. North America is a mission field with many who need to feel Jesus’ loving embrace.

According to world church president Jan Paulsen, “It's up to individual church members to shape how the Adventist Church is perceived. Our faith finds its most compelling expression in the everyday words and actions of Christians in their communities."

Whether you are a student, or become a gardener, a teacher, a store clerk, a nurse, or a doctor. Whatever you do, do it to honor God, and you will be God’s missionary. Another way we can be a missionary is to bring our mission offerings every week. And on Thirteenth Sabbath, we can bring an extra large offering to spread God’s love via radio waves to millions of people in North America.

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 Oregon.

Where is Oregon

Country Flag United States State Flag Oregon

Time for the Mission Story We are taking the good news to the entire world. Read the Mission Story on pages 20 and 21 of the Third Quarter Adventist Mission Youth and Adult Magazine while slowly progressing through the next 3 slides.

The names of the people in the story are “Anne and Jeff.”

This story is from the United States.

The title of the story is “A New Beginning.”

Lesson Study Time

Today we’ll study about being: At Home in My Church Photo by Neva MacPhee

Do you like organizing things and people? It’s a gift to be able to do that. Photo by Bill Z.

The disciples had their hands full after Pentecost with people losing homes and jobs because of their faith.

Photo by Neva MacPhee But they pulled together and everyone had food, clothing, and a place to live. Let’s listen in on some conversations that might have occurred within the fellowship of believers.

Galatians 6:10, NIV P O W E R T E X T

“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” Photo by Neva MacPhee

Our church is a family of believers who take care of one another. P O W E R P O I N T Photo by Neva MacPhee

After Pentecost the number of believers continued to grow. Everyone was in awe of the miracles that the disciples performed.

They listened eagerly to their teaching. They spent hours together praying, praising, and studying.

Since they were together most of the day, they shared their meals in one another’s homes. Those who were able sold their possessions and gave to people in need.

For a while even nonbelievers were excited about the changes made in their friends and family members. The believers were a popular group of people.

Then the priests, elders, and other religious leaders started getting nervous. They thought the new believers would get tired of their meetings and prayer services.

But instead temple attendance and offerings were down. Quietly the priests began to spread rumors about the believers.

Suddenly there were splits in families between believers and nonbelievers. Following Christ was becoming more difficult. The disciples decided it was time to do something.

“Peter, we’ve got a problem,” James said as the disciples met for their daily planning time. “We have so many people following Jesus...”

“That’s wonderful!” Peter interrupted. “Yes, it is,” agreed James, “but we still have a problem.”

“Many of the new believers are being thrown out of their homes by their families. They have no place to go.”

“James is right,” John interjected. “And often the father has lost his job. So they have nothing to live on.”

“We have to find some way to help them,” Peter said. “Does anyone have any ideas?”

“Why don’t we put out a general announcement?” Matthias suggested.

“We can have everyone contribute what they can to help those who don’t have food, clothing, or a place to stay.” Photo by Neva MacPhee

“Andrew, will you and Matthew organize this right away?” Peter asked. “We’ll need a list of what is turned in so we know what we have to distribute.”

In just a few days Andrew and Matthew made contacts with other believers.

They had plenty of things for people, but now they needed help distributing them.

They decided to ask for people’s time as well as their supplies. Within a short time the volunteers were ready to start working.

Some were willing to help because they wanted to work in return for the food and shelter they would be given.

Others helped because they loved God and His people. Someone had even donated a room in their house for the volunteers to work in. Daily they began to process the donations that came in.

After finishing distributions each day Andrew and Matthew met with the volunteers to talk about how things were going. Photo by Neva MacPhee

“I have a concern,” said one of the volunteers. “I know there are people we are missing. Some just aren’t coming to get the things they need.”

“Why do you think that is?” asked Andrew. “Some are too old to come and carry the things home,” he replied. “Others are embarrassed to come and get the things for nothing.”

“It sounds as though we need to make some deliveries,” Matthew make some deliveries,” Matthew said. “We can assign some of said. “We can assign some of you to do that.” you to do that.”

Gathering the small group around him, Andrew said, “As you go out to deliver the food, I want you to be aware if there are still others we are missing.”

“Also, if you see something a family needs that we don’t have, let us know,” added Matthew. “We’ll try to get it for them.”

Soon everyone connected with the followers of Christ had everything they needed: food, shelter, clothing. Photo by Neva MacPhee

With these needs taken care of, the new believers were free to share the good news of the gospel with others. Photo by Bill Z

One morning Andrew and Matthew reported that some of the believers had sold property and donated the money to the community of believers.

Several others were also planning to contribute in the same way. One man, Barnabas, from another country, sold his land and journeyed to Jerusalem to give the money he received for it to the apostles.

“I now see why Jesus commanded us to care about our neighbors as much as we care about ourselves,” Matthew said.

The apostles and the other believers were happy and grateful for the outpouring of love.

It made them want to love and serve God—and one another— even more.

We’re going to throw some Bible texts up on the screen. As we look at each text, take your pen or pencil and paper, and write the message of the text in your own words (paraphrase). Please share the meaning you found in each text with the class.

1 Thessalonians 5:11, NIV Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. How would you put it? Write it down, and share with the class.

Galatians 6:10, NIV Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Ephesians 4:32, NIV Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Romans 12:13, NIV Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Why do you think it’s important to be extra kind to other believers?

What are some examples in the Bible of persons who treated another believer in God with kindness? See if you can identify the stories in the pictures on the following slides and discuss how kindness was used.

Our church is a family of believers who take care of one another.

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.

You will want to have a hard copy of the Mission Story ready to read during the Mission Story section. You can find the story on pages 20 and 21 of the Third Quarter Adventist Mission Youth and Adult Magazine. The title of the story is “A New Beginning.” You can go to the website and find the link titled “Publications” to download the Adventist Mission Youth and Adult Magazine. You will want to have a hard copy of the Mission Story ready to read during the Mission Story section. You can find the story on pages 20 and 21 of the Third Quarter Adventist Mission Youth and Adult Magazine. The title of the story is “A New Beginning.” You can go to the website and find the link titled “Publications” to download the Adventist Mission Youth and Adult Magazine. Notes to Teachers

Copyright Grants Pass Seventh-day Adventist School Art and graphics copyrighted by the General Conference and the Review and Herald® are included on slides 45, 47-50, 59, 62, 64-68, 71 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