Transcript Elijah stood very still

Junior and/or Earliteen
Sabbath School
January 24, 2009
This Quarter the Thirteenth Sabbath
Offering is going to the
Southern Asia-Pacific Division
Information adapted
from Adventist
Mission, Youth and
Adult Magazine and
the SDA
Encyclopedia.
The Thirteenth Sabbath Offering
will be used to help:
•Build a junior college classroom
block for Palawan Adventist Academy
in northern Philippines
•Build a classroom block for a
secondary school in Dumaguete,
central Philippines
•Complete a secondary school in
Zamboanga, in southern Philippines.
The Philippines
On any given week,
more than 555,000
Adventists could
greet you with
“Maligayang Sabado”
[mah-lee-GAIyahng SAH-bah-doh]
Happy Sabbath! in
Pilipino (Tagalog),
the official language
of the Philippines.
Picture by Rick McEdward
The Adventist Church was first introduced in the
Philippines in 1905.
Aerial view of Southern AsiaPacific Division headquarters,
Philippines
In its 100 years of work in the Philippines, the Seventh-day Adventist
Church has established more than 4200 churches, seven hospitals,
hundreds of schools, including two universities, making it the largest
Protestant educational system in the Philippines.
Source: Adventist News Network
The Philippines is a nation made up of more
than 7,000 islands. Most of the people live on
the 11 largest islands.
Much of the land is mountainous, and some of
the mountains are volcanoes. Several of these
volcanoes have erupted in recent years,
destroying villages and farmland and even killing
people who did not leave the area in time.
The island of
Palawan [pahLAO-wahn] is a
long, narrow
strip of land to
the west of the
main islands that
make up the
Philippines. Two
hours south of
Puerto Princesa
stands the
Palawan
Adventist
Academy (PAA).
To travel to PAA, you might travel in a jeepney, the
most popular means of public transportation in the
Philippines. Originally made from left over US military
jeeps, they sport eye-catching decoration and usually
very crowded seating.
Photo by Rick McEdward
Palawan Students
For more than 50
years Palawan
Adventist Academy
(PAA) has taught
God’s love while
training young
people for Christian
service.
Children in the Philippines attend primary school for six
years and secondary school for four years. So many are as
young as 15 when they complete secondary school.
There is no Adventist college or university on the island of
Palawan where these young people can study, so they must
choose between studying in a government university and
leaving their home island to study in one of several Adventist
colleges throughout the Philippines.
Part of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will
help build a junior-college-level school at Palawan
Adventist Academy so local students as well as Adventist
students from throughout the island can study courses
such as computer science, auto mechanics, and take
basic college courses in an Adventist institution close to
home. Adding a block of classrooms to accommodate
these additional classes will expand the outreach of this
school and its mission to the community.
PAA cafeteria
PAA New Boys’ Dorm
In 1999 part of the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering went to replace
the dormitories at PAA. The old boys’ dormitory will be used
for an auto mechanics class in the new vocational-technical
school to be built with this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath
Offering. Please give generously.
Old Boys’ Dorm at PAA—to be Remodeled into
an Auto Mechanics Classroom
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 Palau.
Where is Palau
Palau’s Flag
Time for the Mission Story
We are taking the good news to
the entire world.
Read the Mission Story on pages 10 and 11 of the First Quarter Adventist Mission Youth and Adult Magazine
while slowly progressing through the next 3 slides.
The name of
the person
in the story
is “Brian.”
This story is from the Philippines.
The title of the story is “Lessons I’ve Learned.”
Lesson Study
Time
The title of our lesson is:
Let’s Get Organized!
POWER POINT
God teaches us to serve
Him in an organized way.
Photo by Neva MacPhee
Power Text
1 Corinthians 14:40, NIV
“But everything should
be done in a fitting and
orderly way.”
Photo by Neva MacPhee
Have you ever felt that a task
facing you was overwhelming?
Photo by Neva MacPhee
Have you ever felt stressed?
God wants to teach us to
approach our lives, and
our service
for Him, in
an organized
way that will
help relieve
stress.
Photo by Neva MacPhee
And He will teach us how to
do that, just as He did
Moses.
Photo by Neva MacPhee
Jethro looked out of his tent
at his daughter, Zipporah,
who was laughing with her
two sons, Gershom and
Eliezer.
He thought about the day his
son-in-law Moses, Zipporah,
and the two boys had set off
for Egypt.
God had spoken to Moses in
a burning bush and told him to
go and lead His people, Israel,
away from Egypt and back to
their home, the land of Canaan.
Moses had
been
nervous
about going,
but was
trying to
trust God.
On the way, Moses had been
worried about what might
be ahead for Zipporah and the
two boys in Egypt. So they
had come back to Grandpa
Jethro.
Here they were living the life
they were used to, but
without their father, Moses.
Now Jethro had news of
Moses. He called out to
Zipporah and his grandsons.
“Come,” he said. “I have
news for you.”
Jethro told them what he had
heard about the Red Sea,
the water from a rock, the
manna--
all the things that God was doing
for Moses’ people, who were now
safely out of Egypt.
“Shall we go to
him?” Jethro asked
them. He needn’t
have bothered;
they were already
starting to pack.
Jethro sent word to Moses
that they were coming.
Moses met his father-in-law,
wife, and
sons at the
edge of the
camp and
led them to
his quarters.
There was so much to
talk about, so many stories
to tell about the bad times
and the good times, but
most of all, about God’s
guidance.
Jethro praised God. He led in
a sacrifice to God. Aaron and
the other elders joined him.
The next day Jethro watched
the people flock around
Moses. Moses sat in a seat
outside his tent and all the
people came
with their
complaints
and troubles.
Big troubles,
little troubles,
they all brought
them to Moses.
Jethro just watched. But that
night he asked Moses, “What
are you doing? Why do you
sit there as the only judge for
these thousands
and thousands
of people?”
“You are going
to wear yourself
out and be
unable to lead
the people all
the way to their
promised land.”
“Well,” Moses replied, “they
all look to me as having the
word of God. They have
seen the way God has sent
messages to them through
me.”
“And after I make their
judgment, I teach them God’s
ways. Actually, it feels a lot
like when I was herding
your sheep, Jethro.”
Moses laughed
at the
comparison.
“Yes, that’s a
funny picture,”
Jethro replied.
“But this is no
laughing matter,
Moses. I have
some advice for
you.”
“You are the people’s
representative before God,
and you must teach them
His ways, but you can be
organized about it.”
“Choose trustworthy men from
the people and organize them
to be in charge of groups of
thousands, hundreds, fifties,
and tens.”
“Then you can
train those men,
and they can
train the people
under them.”
“And when people have
problems with each other,
they can bring them to the
man in charge of them.
Only the most difficult cases
will come to you.”
“I believe God is the one
prompting me to give you these
instructions,” Jethro continued.
“And if you follow
them, you will be
able to stand the
strain of this
leadership
position, and
the people will
go home
satisfied.”
Moses listened carefully. The
very next day he started
choosing men. He made them
officials over
groups of
thousands,
hundreds,
fifties, and
tens.
The difficult cases they brought
to Moses, but the simple ones
they took care of themselves.
By the time Moses said
goodbye to his father-in-law,
who was headed back to his
home in Midian, the camp of
Israel was a
much more
organized
place.
Moses was a lot less stressed
and he even had some time for
Gershom, Eliezer, and Zipporah.
It was obvious that God was
a God of order, but He was
also a God who was willing to
teach His children
how best to serve
Him. God always
provided what
was needed.
What were
the benefits
of Moses’
organizing
judges to
help him in
his work?
What might have happened if Moses
had chosen to continue to do it all
by himself?
How do you think Moses felt with the
extra help and new organization?
Acts 6, NIV
Let’s read what happened
in the early church.
The Choosing of the Seven
1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews
among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were
being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve gathered all
the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the
ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers, choose seven
men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will
turn this responsibility over to them
4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word."
5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of
faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas,
and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 6They presented these men to
the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased
rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
Why was a welfare organization
needed?
What were the
benefits of this
orderly way of
doing things?
The Seventhday Adventist
Church is
structured to
bring
organization to
the needs of
our members
worldwide.
We’ll use the local church in
Grants Pass, Oregon (USA) to
illustrate how it works.
Level 1: The Local Church
A group of Seventh-day
Adventist believers living in
a community make up the
local church. There are
about 62,000 Seventh-day
Adventist churches around
the world (along with 61,000
“companies” or groups not
large enough to make up a
church).
Level 2: The Local Conference
Churches in a given state,
province, territory, or area
work together in what is
known as a conference.
Campmeetings are usually
organized by conferences
(at least in North America).
Level 3: The Union Conference
The next level of
organization is made
up of several
conferences working
together. Unions often
publish a periodical
with news and
encouragement for the
church members in
their area.
Level 4: The World Division
There are 13 world
divisions made up of
unions. Divisions
organize and oversee the
work in a certain part of
the world. They provide
training and materials in
the different languages
spoken by the church
members within their
borders.
Level 5: The General Conference
The highest level of organization, the General
Conference, oversees the work of the entire
worldwide church providing support for the divisions.
Currently there are more than 16 million Seventhday Adventists around the world.
• How is this like or unlike the way Jethro
told Moses to organize the Israelites?
• How does it feel to be a part of an
“organization”?
• What advantage can you
see to having organization?
Some advantages include:
It provides a system
for collecting tithes
and offerings to be
used around the
world.
It provides a
worldwide
school system.
It provides a system for
sending missionaries to
places where they are
needed.
God teaches us to serve
Him in an organized
way.
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.
Notes to Teachers
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 10
and 11 of the First Quarter
Adventist Mission Youth and Adult
Magazine. The title of the story is
“Lessons I’ve Learned.” You can
go to the website
http://www.adventistmission.org/ and
find the link titled “Publications” to
download the Adventist Mission
Youth and Adult Magazine.
Copyright Notices
Art and graphics copyrighted by the General Conference and
the Review and Herald® are included on slides 42-46, 48, 51,
56-58, 60-63 and 69-71.
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 Grants Pass Seventh-day Adventist School