The "Big Bible Challenge" BookAll the families at our 2011 Summer Holiday Club received a gift copy of the "Big Bible Challenge"
Ideally, children will do the Big Bible Challenge with an older companion 'walking' with them on their journey, letting them tell their story... and also helping them with the bits they don't understand, so that children can keep going in their search for answers.
Someone like a parent, in fact!
The church will support you - just ask someone if you have questions! It's fun sharing the challenge in this way!
For your diary...
Sunday 15 January 2012
at: 2 - 4pm
with BIG artwork - crafts - and all sorts of fun activities....
Complete Challenges 2-4 before then!
Remember there's a phone number in your pack, and people on hand at church, if you have questions or ideas...
The idea is not to launch straight in and read the stories!
A sense of anticipation, enthusiasm and action are designed into the challenges, so that children can really engage with the Bible. Each challenge has a 'Key story' (and four others), exploration questions about the Bible story, ideas for prayer, interesting activities or crafts and great pictures.
You can take the challenge with one or several children, or as a whole family. As with most family activities, a routine is key.
Information follows, for any who are unfamiliar with the territory of the Bible.
Jump to help with:
>> Navigating the Bible
>> The Stories
>> Extra Resources (online)
The 'Key story' for a challenge is the one printed in bold in the beige coloured box (located in the narrow right-hand panel on the first page of each challenge). That story is explored in detail. The other four are outlined briefly, with a picture, to encourage children to follow them up. Some children may want to read it for themselves, others will enjoy a shared story (from a childrens' version of the Bible). With very young children you might choose to miss out the extra stories - and you may need to prepare the Key story in advance, so you can retell it in your own words - perhaps in collaboration with other people in the challenge!
Background notes for parents are available from the Big Bible Challenge website:
Downloads Old Testament
Downloads New Testament
Our territory is the Bible - a set of books - a library.
Each books has a title and chapters as normal - but for convenience we also split each chapter up into verses. 'Verse numbers' are usually tiny, and we just ignore them as we read. But when we want to find our way to a particular sentence quickly - suddenly the verse numbers make sense. Instead of reading a whole chapter, we can scan through for the verse number.
Lazy? No - Efficient! Especially if we then read the rest of the section to put the verse into its correct context.
So, map readers use grid references — we use 'Bible References'.
Then all you have to do is find the starting page in your own Bible for the book in your reference. (Help below)
The format is:
Book Chapter:Verse(s)
Examples:
Genesis 2:15
2 Timothy 3:10–17
Notes:
Some books are in two volumes - so we get "1 Kings" and "2 Kings", "1 Chronicles" and "2 Chronicles" etc. These are not different chapters - they are different books!
v. can be used instead of : (colon) before the verse number(s)
eg. 2 Timothy 3 v.10–17
To locate a specific book, use your own Bible's 'contents page'.
Often the contents is split into two (Old Testament and New Testament) and listed one after the other, near the start of the Bible. So if you can't find a book immediately, be sure to check that you looked at both parts of the contents.
Your Bible's page numbering might continue straight through, or might restart from page one in the New Testament.
Our challenges often stay in the same part of the Bible, so bookmarks are practical. Just write your page number and verse on the bookmark in case it falls out!
There are different types of Books in the Bible.
How would you classify the Bible book you are exploring? History... Letters... Prophecy... Poetry or Song...?
There are other types too!
Start a habit of finding the verses in a 'child-friendly' Bible translation - as well reading them in the Big Bible Challenge book. Your child's confidence in handling the Bible will grow, and your child will develop a comfortable familiarity with its size and number of pages.
The beautiful 128 page book is the main resource for the Big Bible Challenge, but it is backed up by extra online resources and activities for children - The Official Introduction to the "Big Bible Challenge" (www.bigbiblechallenge.com)
The links available (located along the top of each page) at www.bigbiblechallenge.com are:
"Talk Together Old Testament", "Talk Together New Testament"
Each Forum will grow as more people get involved.
"Old Testament Downloads", "New Testament Downloads"
Parents' notes for each challenge.
(Hover over these links to show the dropdown menu, then click on the link for your challenge.)
Shortcut: Challenge 1 notes
The notes:
- Introduce you to this part of the Bible ("COMMENCE")
- Cover the five stories in this challenge (with explanations, storytelling help and practical illustration ideas) ("CONNECT")
- Discuss what this challenge means today ("CONSIDER")
- Address issues that may arise from this challenge ("CLARIFY")
- Help you to talk with God ("COMMUNICATE")
The "DOWNLOADS BOOK" Link is where you find extra materials for some challenges — templates, maps etc. to complement the book contents (PDF files and GIF images)
bigbiblechallenge.com welcome page
Consider the big fold-out picture for the challenge and chat about it together.
(See How does the Big Bible Challenge work? on the Big Bible Challenge website introduction page.)
You can see
the stages in the creation of the fold-out picture for Challenge 1, from first concept sketch, through line drawings and washes to the full colour 'first page proofs'.
See:
How a picture is born (gallery)
(on the Big Bible Challenge Facebook gallery)
At the download section of the Big Bible Challenge website you can print out 20 copies of the challenge record sheets (called 'evaluation sheets'). It's well worth completing in the three sections (the same each time) — they really help you to appreciate what you and your child have just achieved, and what God is saying to both of you, personally. By doing this regularly, at the end of each 5-story challenge, you create a record of your discoveries, as well as storing up and reinforcing your biblical memories.
There are 3 evaluations to make for each challenge:
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