Joseph Day 4: Famine and Provision
- Materials:
- Bible (I like the NirV)
- blue paper, brown paper (I didn’t have brown paper, so I just used a black table for the ground)
- empty spray bottle
- Activity #1: toy food, bag to collect toy food in
- Activity #2: bread or rolls (can cut bread in a cross shape or arrange rolls in cross shape)
Day 4: Lesson and Activities
- For a long time, it did not rain.
- Hold up blue paper high (sky) – There are no clouds!
- Try to spray water from water bottle (coming from sky) – There is no rain!
- Hold brown paper low (dirt/ground) – There are no plants! There is no food. Rub your tummy and say, “I’m hungry” with a sad face.
- Repeat several times.
- I let Katelyn hold the spray bottle. She was intrigued that there was no water, and she spread her hands out touching the dry table. This activity really got her attention.
I taped the cloudless “sky” to the wall 
No rain??? 
The ground is dry! No plants! No food!
- Open Bible to Genesis 41:57. Ask if child wants to touch God’s Word. Touch gently. Then, “read” story. God had told Joseph ahead of time that there would be no rain. Joseph had saved up lots and lots of food! Joseph shared his food with lots of people. Read Genesis 41:57.
Activity #1: Dump toy food on the floor. Gather it up in a bag. Sing/talk about sharing it.
(Tune: The Itsy Bitsy Spider) God told Joseph in a dream, “There will be no rain.” God told Joseph in a dream, “There will be no food.” So Joseph gathered up some food. He saved it all away. Then Joseph shared his food – yes, he gave it all away!
- We repeated this activity quite a few times. Katelyn also enjoyed pretending to eat the food!
- I started to move on to the next Bible reading, but Katelyn was still busy and distracted with the food. So we paused the lesson so she could continue playing with the food for a while.
- Open Bible again to John 3:16. Touch and read the verse. Just like Joseph went away from his daddy, Jesus left His Father God in heaven and came to earth. Just like Joseph satisfied the hunger of people with the food he saved, Jesus is called the Bread of Life because He satisfies our deepest needs.
Activity #2:
- Prep: Place rolls on a plate. I put them in the shape of a cross.
- Rub tummy and say, “I’m hungry.”
- Sing while bringing out a plate of bread or rolls. I arranged 6 rolls in the shape of a cross. Katelyn was excited about the bread, and I let her dig in and enjoy!
- (Tune: London Bridge) Jesus is the Bread of Life, Bread of Life, Bread of Life. Jesus is the Bread of Life, He gives all we need.
- Ephesians 5:20 says, Always give thanks to God. We can give thanks that God meets all our needs!
Closing: Ephesians 5:20 says, Always give thanks to God. We can give thanks that God meets all our needs!