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Snack Time
Object Lesson
by David Boyd
These four object lessons are all built around snacks, which your class can eat when you are finished. Each snack can be prepared easily using most available cooking tools whether you are indoors or outdoors.
Needed: oatmeal, cocoa, butter, salt, hot plate, saucepan, No-Bake Cookie recipe and ingredients
Below is a recipe for No-Bake Cookies. These cookies can be mixed in class and then eaten once they are made. No baking is necessary. (All that is needed is the ability to boil the chocolate mixture. A hot plate or hot pot would work well for this.)
Prepare a dish containing oatmeal, one containing cocoa, one containing butter, and one containing salt. Have the children sample each of these three ingredients separately. Ask the children about each of these items.
Are they good? Are they tasty? Separately these items don't sound like much, but each of these items is different and has a purpose.
Explain a little bit about the properties of each of these items and where they come from. Explain that like each of these various items, each of us is different too. Each of us comes from different backgrounds and has different skills. All Christians are different from one another, but together we all make up the body of Christ. Think of a church. Some people have talents to speak and teach, others to sing or play an instrument, and still others may serve in nurseries or classrooms. Together the church is strong and effective because each member has different talents and skills, which they share with the rest.
Mix the items together according to the recipe. (Including the rest of the ingredients.) Sugar is one of the ingredients that seems to link all the ingredients together. Sugar mixes with the cocoa to make chocolate.
It mixes with the butter and the salt to create the mixture, which holds the oatmeal together. The sugar unifies the rest of the ingredients into something quite good. Jesus serves as to unify all Christians. Jesus binds us to one another so that we can minister one to another.
As the kids are finishing making the cookies and as they are eating them, discuss with the kids how we are all different in how we look and act.
Discuss with the kids how, together with the help of Jesus, we fit into God's plan.
No-Bake Cookie Recipe
Makes 36 cookies
Note: This recipe contains nuts & products made from nuts.
Always check for Food Allergies before serving ANY foods to children.
2 sticks butter (or 1 cup)
4 tsp. cocoa
2 cups peanut butter
2 cups nuts, chopped
4 cups sugar
1 cup milk
5 cups quick oats
2 tsp. vanilla
Mix together peanut butter, oats, nuts, and vanilla. In a saucepan, combine butter, sugar, cocoa, and milk and heat on medium. Boil 1 minute. Remove from stove and add to the peanut butter mixture. Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper. Let cool.
Caramel Apples
Using safe butter knives, have your boys each cut open and core an apple.
Have them cut the apple into small pieces. If the boys in your class are too young, please help them. Talk about the various parts of the apple.
There are three main parts, these are the peel, the flesh, and the core. The peel is thick and tough and serves the purpose of protecting the apple from insects or disease. Without the peel the apple would quickly spoil.
Explain that the church is a place for Christians to go to be protected. It is at the church where we find help when we are going through difficulty. The friends we have at church help protect us from attacks from Satan, who wants to keep us from living for Jesus.
The flesh is the second part of the apple. The flesh is the good part to eat. It is where the nutrients are. The flesh makes us grow and become strong. Explain that the church is a lot like the flesh of the apple. When we come to church and to Royal Rangers , we grow by learning about Jesus and the Bible. It is through classes at church that we grow spiritually and become strong. Every time we go to church, we are gaining spiritual nutrients to help us live our lives for Jesus.
The last part of the apple is the core. The core is where the seeds are. The seeds are what guarantees us that there will be more apples in the future. When the seeds of the apples are planted, brand new apple trees will sprout up. Explain that the church can also be like the core of the apple. The church teaches us to go spread the seeds of Jesus to our friends everywhere. Every time we tell others about Jesus, we are spreading "gospel seeds." When we go and tell our friends about Jesus, we give them the opportunity to ask Jesus into their lives and to see their brand new Christian life sprout.
Once you are finished with your lesson bring out some hot caramel sauce that you have heated up prior to class. (You can buy caramel sauce from the ice cream section of your grocery store and microwave it, or you can melt caramels and milk in a saucepan. Most packages of caramels have the directions on them.) Have the boys put their cut up apples in a bowl and pour a little hot (warm) caramel over the apples for a nice treat.
Remind the children of the three purposes of the church: to protect us, to help us grow, and to help us to share "gospel seeds" with others.
Hot Cinnamon Donuts
(Not recommended for Rangers younger than Adventure Rangers due to cooking hazards.)
Purchase cans of country-style biscuit dough from your dairy section of your grocery store. (These are usually the cheapest of the biscuits.) To prepare biscuits have each child wash his hands thoroughly, then stick one finger through his biscuit dough to form a donut shape. Prepare a saucepan of hot cooking oil or melt butter in a frying pan. Place the donuts into the oil or butter and flip to the second side once they get brown. When both sides are brown, drop them into a paper bag that contains cinnamon sugar. Shake up the bag and you will have hot cinnamon donuts.
As you are preparing to cook the donuts, talk to the kids about the make-believe life of the donut. Imagine that donuts loved to be eaten, but they hated to be cooked. First someone sticks a big finger through the middle of them. "Ouch that must hurt!" Then the cooking period must be a rough place. First you are cooked on one side, and then you are cooked on the other. Then you are placed inside a bag and then shook up until you are dizzy. What a life. Finally the donut dough becomes a hot cinnamon donut. It is so happy because one of you boys will get to enjoy it!
It sounds like a silly story. It probably is. It may sound like donuts have to go through tough times to become a donut, but that's what a donut is.
Explain however, that in real life, we all go through tough times. Sometimes our parents move and we have to go to a new school. Sometimes we have to go to a new church. Other times someone in our family gets sick, and life begins to get really stressed and uncomfortable. Some kids live with parents who get a divorce. Other kids might have a parent pass away.
Give the kids opportunity while you are cooking donuts to talk about what can happen in their lives to make their life tough for a while. Once the kids have had an opportunity to talk about tough times, talk about the good times that often are found on the other side of difficulty. Explain that life does have ups and downs, but God will take care of us. Use this time to give testimonies of difficult times in your own life and how God brought you through them. Then eat your donuts!
Baked Apples
Baked apples are made by taking an apple and cutting out three-quarters of the core from the top down. This will create a hollow spot inside the apple. Poke the inside of the apple several times with a knife, and then fill the center with two tablespoons of cinnamon-sugar and a teaspoon of butter. Wrap the entire apple up in two layers of aluminum foil, making sure to keep the apple upright so the sugar doesn't pour out. Place the apple in an oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. (Or in a campfire. Turn it every so often. Cook for 25-35 minutes.)
Give the kids a copy of the above recipe. Have the kids make a cinnamon apple. Have one of the commanders purposely ignore the directions. Have him (or her) cut a hole all the way through the apple so the sugar falls out or butter the outside. Have him not wrap it well. Have him stick it in the fire and then declare it done only after a couple of minutes. When this commander pulls out the apple and finds it uncooked, messy, and not very desirable, talk about why his apple didn't turn out well. Explain the value of following the recipe. There was a reason the recipe said to cut the apple a certain way. There was a reason the recipe said to double-wrap the apple in foil. There was a reason for cooking the apple a certain length of time.
Talk about the value of following instructions. Then compare this to following God's instructions in the Bible. The Bible was given to us for a purpose. Second Timothy 3:16 says the Bible is God's recipe for us to help us live the Christian life.
(Note: If you are doing this object lesson at church in class and class time is short, have the kids make a baked apple, then instead of putting it in the oven, have them take it home. However, you can make apples ahead of time and pull them out of the oven so that the kids can have them as a snack. If this is the case, have your "disobedient" commander pull out another baked apple that he put in the oven earlier. Have this one really burnt because he left it in the oven too long.)
For more great children's resources, visit the BGMC
web site or contact the National Assemblies of God Children's
Ministries Agency and BGMC at (417) 862-2781 or Dboyd@ag.org.
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