100 Bible Stories For Children With Interviews and Activities

Welcome. I’m glad you’re here!

This book isn’t just for reading - it’s for having fun, being part of a team, and discovering some useful things to help you be successful.

Before we start there’s something you need to know – GI stands for God Investigators. Can you remember that? Otherwise you might wonder what it’s all about when you come across I Spy GI.

We’re going to spy on some of the people in the Bible. What can we find out about God? Does it have anything to do with us today?

Check out the evidence. You might be surprised what God investigators find out!

Some of you may have heard these stories lots of times, for others, they’ll be quite new. There’s always something different and new to learn.

Meet some God investigators

Gramps: Gramps is a very wise man. That’s partly because he is nearly seventy (actually by the time you read this he might be seventy or more!). Gramps loves Jesus too – he used to be a church pastor. He has some challenges for you and our team of investigators.

EyeSpy01: EyeSpy01 is a special investigator friend of Gramps. EyeSpy01 is his code name. He’s probably just a bit older than you are. He’s quite clever and he loves Jesus. Gramps has asked him to help us with the I Spy GI Life Apps.

Other God investigators: As part of our investigations, some God investigators will be doing an I Spy GI interview. You can look at a sample interview on Photobucket. They’re using their code names. Read on to find out more about that.

You: We need more help with our investigations. We’re hoping you’ll become one of our investigators too. Will you join the team? We need you. Maybe you’d like to choose a code name to use when you’re doing your investigations.

What exciting things are coming up? I can’t wait to find out!

Some useful things for investigators to know

The Evidence

You can’t have an investigation without examining the evidence. This is where you find out all you need to know. What’s the story?

I Spy GI Interview

We pretend to step back in time, to when the evidence took place, to look for an eye witness. You’ll find an interview with someone who might have been there - and we ask them to tell us what happened. All good investigators should look for eye witnesses, don’t you agree? You might like to act out the interview with someone. You could even video it if you want to. Be a video star.

I Spy GI Life Apps

Gramps: Apps are things we use to help us. Sometimes life is easy, sometimes it’s hard. Did you know that in his Word, the Bible, God gives us lots of clues about how to be happy and successful?

I Spy GI Life Apps will help us uncover those clues. After each piece of evidence, I ask special investigator EyeSpy01 to report to me on the things he thinks we can learn from this. I hope it will help you.

Think about the evidence yourself. You can probably come up with your own good ideas as well. There’s a lot to learn!

Activ8

Activ8 is a fun activity for you. Sometimes you can do it by yourself, but other times you’ll need some friends or family to do it with. It’s much more fun with friends. See who you can find.

BTG

BTG is our code name for Bible To Go. If we can get God’s word into our mind, we can take it wherever we go. As spies we need to get the advantage over the enemy. BTG will help you do just that. Be like Jesus, he used God’s Word, the Bible, to defeat the enemy. A little training now will last you a lifetime.

Usually the same Bible verse is used in all the stories in a book (eg 4 times in the book Help!). So if you are going through a book you will know the verse well by the fourth story.

This is another time it would be good to have family or friends to train with.

Bible To Go. Don’t miss it, it’s fun too!

Worksheets

At the end of each book (4 stories) you’ll find some worksheets you can print.

Printing Work sheets

I have found that EPUB files can be printed from Adobe Digital Editions.

Both Windows and Mac versions are available free. It can be downloaded from:

http://www.adobe.com/au/products/digital-editions/download.html.

However, I had to actually place an ebook in the ADE library to be able to print it (File, Add to Library). If I only opened the book file in ADE the print function was greyed out.

I Spy GI Challenge

Do you like a challenge? Gramps has some challenges for you and the team.

Gramps: OK everyone, are you ready?

Act out the I Spy GI Interview

Find someone who’ll act out the I Spy GI Interview with you. It might be a friend, or a brother or sister, or even your mum or dad. You can be the reporter, or the character being interviewed. You can do it, it’s fun!

Make a video clip

The real fun bit, for those who like this sort of thing, is to get someone to make a video clip of you acting out a script.

You can record the clip using a camera, video recorder, webcam, iPod, iPad, tablet or phone – anything that can make video clips.

Some of the stories have a link to a sample video clip on Photobucket. Take a look at some other investigators acting it out. You can do it too.

I Spy GI Case Report

At the end of each case you might like to report on what you discovered. Did you learn anything new? Were you reminded of something? Did you enjoy an activity? All good investigators report in with their findings. If you join the I Spy GI club online (see link below) you can report your findings.

I Spy GI Club

Join the club with others from around the world.

Find us online at:

I Spy GI Club

Start your own club

Do you have some family or friends you can get together to have fun with?

You could start an I Spy GI Club of your own. Get your friends or family together.

Read the evidence. Enjoy the activities.

All the ideas you need are supplied in each book. But let’s get on with the evidence!

Back to Contents

I Spy GI Case 1: God said

I Spy GI Case 2: Bad choice

I Spy GI Case 3: Build a what?

I Spy GI Case 4: Rainbow promise

I Spy GI Case 1

God said

Think spot

What’s your favourite animal? If you could invent an animal, what would it be like?

The Evidence

You can read this evidence in a Bible. It starts in Genesis chapter 1 and goes up to chapter 2 verse 3.

We can’t really imagine what it must have been like before the world was made, at least I can’t. Did you know that before there were any animals, or any people or any of the plants and trees we see around us, and before there was any sea or land, or any sun or moon or stars or sky, - God was there!

Do you know what the very first words in the whole Bible are? In my Bible it starts off In the beginning, God ….

Have a good look around you. How many things can you see? I’ll bet there are hundreds of things. Some of those things were made by people. But what were they made out of? They were all made out of things that God made in the first place. So whether the things you can see were made by people, or whether they were made by God himself, they all come from God.

So how did God make the world? And what about people like you and me? How did God make us?

If you were going to write a story, would you just take thousands and thousands of letters of the alphabet and toss them up in the air and hope that when they came down, they would be in the right order? Of course not, you would carefully put them all in the right places. And that’s just what God did. Here’s how it happened.

In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. The earth didn’t have any shape at all, and it was quite empty, and darkness covered the deep water. Hmm, I don’t like the dark much, do you? But the Spirit of God (the Holy Spirit) was there. The Spirit of God was over the water.

Then God said something special. God said Let there be light. Did you know that whenever God says something, it happens just how he says? So when God said Let there be light, guess what happened? Light was there. God saw that the light was good. Whenever God makes things, they’re good, and he likes them. Do you like the things you make?

Next God separated the light from the darkness. God named the light day, and can you guess what he named the darkness? Did you guess night? You’re right if you did. So that was the very first day there ever was.

On the second day God, got to work again. God said Let the waters be separated, and let there be sky in the space between the waters. And it was just as God said. The waters separated and the sky came in between. God called the sky heaven.

The next day God, spoke again. This time God said that the waters under the heaven should be gathered together into one place, and dry land would appear. And that’s just what happened! God called the dry land earth, and he called the waters seas. God saw that it was good. He liked it.

Then God said that the earth should have grass, and herbs and trees. The grass and herbs would have seeds so they could grow more grass and herbs, and the trees would have fruit. God made the fruit special. Each different sort would have seeds in it, so it could produce more fruit. I think that was a very clever idea, don’t you? So each apple would grow more apples, and each mango would grow more mangoes, and so on. God saw that it was good. He liked it.

Do you remember what day we’re up to next? Day 4. Day 1 was when the light came and day and night started. Day 2 was when the sky was made. Day 3 was when the dry land and the seas were made, and the plants and trees were made too. What do you think might have happened on day 4? Any guesses? Actually I think day 4 is a bit surprising. On day 4 God spoke again. He said there should be lights in the sky to divide the day from the night, and to be signs for seasons and days and years. God made two big lights. The biggest one was the sun, and the smaller one was the moon. God also made the stars. The sun was to rule the day and the moon would rule the night. God put them all in place in the heavens. The reason I think it was a surprising day is that there was light and darkness before there was the sun and the moon. But God knows how to do things, and he saw that it was good.

The morning of day 5 arrived. God said the water should have lots and lots of creatures in it, and the sky should have lots and lots of birds to fly above the earth in the open space of heaven. So God created great whales and every living creature that swims in the sea. Each creature would be able to have babies of the same kind as they were. God blessed them and he told them to multiply and fill the waters in the seas. He blessed the birds and told them to multiply too. Can you imagine all the different types of birds and sea creatures that had just been made because God said so? Stop for a minute and count up how many different birds and fish and sea creatures you can think of. God looked at it all, and he saw that it was good. He liked it.

On day 6 God said that the earth should have lots of animals on it. Every living creature would be able to have babies just like them. God made every different type of beast there is, and cattle and creeping things. I think that must have been a very busy day, don’t you? God saw that it was good. He liked it.

So now we have day and night, we have the heaven, we have the sea and the land, we have the sun, moon and stars, we have all sorts of birds and fish and things that live in the sea, and all sorts of animals and creatures great and small. Do you think God made dinosaurs too? He sure did. There are all these good things, but there’s still one thing missing, do you know what it is?

Have you noticed how God works? God speaks, and it happens. This time God said Let’s make man in the same pattern as us.

Now why did God say "us"? That’s because there was God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit there in the beginning. We already heard about God being there, and you might remember that back at the beginning it said that the Holy Spirit was there. Later in the Bible it tells us that nothing was made without Jesus, so all three of them were there together. God said he wanted people to be made just like them! How amazing is that! You and I are made just like God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

So God created us and he blessed us, and he told us to multiply and take over the land and be responsible for it. God said he’d give us every herb and every fruit tree so we’d have plenty to eat, and the animals could eat the herbs too. God also said people should rule over all the other creatures – the ones in the sea, the ones that fly, and the ones on the land.

God saw everything that he had made. God liked it all a lot! He said that it was very good. And that was the end of the 6th day.

Now the heavens and the earth were all finished, and all the living things were finished too. On the 7th day, God had ended his work, so he rested. And God blessed the 7th day and he made it a special holy day because it was the day he rested from all his work of creating and making the whole world.

I Spy GI Interview 1

Gramps: There aren’t many people to interview yet, are there?

Reporter: Hello everyone. Today I’m interviewing that first man that God made. The Bible calls him Adam. Are you there, Adam?

Adam: Yes, here I am. What can I do for you?

Reporter: I’m doing a special interview, and we have some questions for you, if you don’t mind.

Adam: That’s fine by me, what can I help you with?

Reporter: We understand that you were the first man God created. That’s pretty special. What was the world like back then?

Adam: It was awesome. It was so beautiful, you wouldn’t believe it.

Reporter: Have you got any photos you can show us?

Adam: I don’t know what you mean. What are photos?

Reporter: Sorry, I forgot for a minute that you wouldn’t have anything like that!

What was the place like where you lived?

Adam: It was the most wonderful garden you’ve ever seen. Everything was green. The sun shone warm in the daytime, and the moon gave us a bit of light at night. The stars in the sky were spectacular. So many stars! There were lots of beautiful trees for shade, and bubbling streams of cool water to play in.

Reporter: What did you eat? Who fed you? Did you have to cook?

Adam: God supplied hundreds of beautiful fruit trees. The fruit was delicious. You could eat as much as you wanted. It was yummy.

Reporter: Can you tell us some of the things you did in the garden?

Adam: Well, first up God asked me to name all the animals. That was fun. They all came to me one by one, and I chose names for them all. Some of them were enormous, and some were so tiny you could hardly see them.

Reporter: Didn’t the animals scare you, and didn’t they fight?

Adam: No, they were quite tame in those days. They had plenty of green grass and stuff to eat. They were very friendly. God asked us to look after them, and that’s just what we did.

Reporter: Did you actually see God then?

Adam: Every evening, God would come and walk in the garden. That was something to look forward to. It was special. God was very pleased with the things he’d made, and it was special that people were made like God.

Reporter: Do you still live in that beautiful garden with everything supplied for you?

Adam: I’m afraid not. Some bad choices were made, with serious consequences. But that’s another story.

Reporter: Thanks Adam. It’s been interesting. We hope to hear more soon.

Adam: It’s been a pleasure, thank you.

I Spy GI Life App

Gramps: EyeSpy01, if you were God (which of course you’re not!), what would you hope we’d learn from this evidence?

EyeSpy01: God made us a wonderful world to live in and he wants us to take care of it all. I don’t think we’re doing a good job sometimes. We need to think seriously about what we can do to look after it.

Gramps: What can you do today to look after this world the way God intended it? It might be something as simple as picking up some rubbish that someone has carelessly thrown down. Any ideas? I think God would be pleased you’re looking after his creation.

Look at the Book

Look up the evidence in your Bible. Why not read the very first verse in the Bible. You’ll find it in Genesis chapter 1 verse 1.

Activ8

Name: Create an animal

Take some play dough, or some plasticine or modelling clay. If you don’t have any, ask someone to make some play dough for you. See the Useful box for a recipe.

Create a new animal. What does it look like, is it big or small? When the animals are made, each person can describe their animal – what does it like to eat? Is it wild or is it tame? What sort of a noise does it make? What is the best thing that this new animal can do? Use your imagination. After each person describes their animal, ask everyone to suggest a name for the animal. Which name is the most popular? How many different new animals have you created all together?

BTG

Romans chapter 3 verse 23

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

God made a wonderful world and in the next I Spy Case we’ll find out why it isn’t so perfect any more.

The word sinned that the Bible uses actually means to miss the mark. It’s the same word you might use if you are playing darts, or shooting, and don’t hit the bullseye.

God is perfect, and we aren’t. We miss the mark because we have all sinned. We fall short.

Have the BTG verse written on a sheet of paper for each person, or get them to write it themselves. Repeat the BTG verse out loud until you can remember it.

Next use the BTG verse papers to make a paper plane each. (If you don’t know how to make them, try looking on the internet).

Make a target – I suggest using a big piece of paper or cardboard with a hole in it just big enough for a paper plane to fly through if it was a perfect shot.

Have everyone line up. In turn say the BTG verse, and then throw your paper plane at the target. How many turns does it take to get it to fly straight through the hole? Give the next person a turn after three tries. Say the BTG verse every time you throw.

Back to Contents

I Spy GI Case 2

Bad choice

Think spot

If you had to choose, what would be your favourite fruit?

The Evidence

You can read this evidence in a Bible in Genesis chapter 2 and chapter 3.

If you read the interview in I Spy Case 1, you will know that Adam doesn’t live in that beautiful garden any more. It’s because of a bad choice. Here’s what happened.

This story is what the Bible tells us happened in the beginning. When God made the heavens and the earth, there was no one to look after it all.

Did you know that God hadn’t made it rain yet? A mist came up from the ground and watered everything.

The Bible tells us that God formed man from the dust of the ground and he breathed into his nostrils (his nose) the breath of life, and the man came alive.

The Lord planted a garden in Eden and he put the man Adam there. God made every tree grow in that garden. The trees looked wonderful, but they were also very good for food. Yummy, I like food, do you? If you grow fruit in your garden, you will know that it tastes really good. Adam would have thought so too.

There were two special trees in the garden. One was the tree of life and the other was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That’s a strange name for a tree, don’t you think? But we’re about to find out why it was called that.

God asked the man (Adam) to look after the garden. There was only one rule. God commanded the man not to eat anything from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told him You may eat the fruit from any other tree in the garden, but if you eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will die for sure.

God knew it wasn’t good for the man to be alone, so he decided to make him a helper, just like him. The Bible tells us that God made Adam go into a deep sleep. While he was sleeping, God took out one of his ribs. God closed up Adam’s side, and with the rib he had taken out, God made a woman. We know her name, it was Eve.

So Adam and Eve lived in the beautiful garden. I’m sure they were very happy. Every evening, God came for a walk in the garden. I’ll bet they looked forward to that! Everything was wonderful. They ate all the fruit in the garden, it tasted delicious, and they looked after everything very well.

But what about that bad choice? Do you remember the one rule God had given? This is the sad story of what happened.

In the garden was the serpent (snake). He was very sneaky. He came to the woman and asked her Did God say you must never eat the fruit of every tree in the garden?

Oh no said Eve. We can eat the fruit from any tree in the garden except the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God said we mustn’t even touch it, or we’ll die for sure.

You won’t die! said the serpent. God knows that if you eat that fruit, you’ll be like God, you’ll know all about good and evil.

Eve looked at the tree. It was good food, and it sure looked delicious. She thought it would be good to be wise like God. She took some fruit and ate it.

Bad choice! She deliberately disobeyed God. Do you think God would tell you not to do something just to spoil things for you?

Eve gave some of the fruit to her husband, and he ate it too.

As soon as they ate the fruit, they knew the difference between good and evil. Now they knew they were naked, they had no clothes on. They were embarrassed. They quickly sewed some fig leaves together to cover themselves.

When you were a baby, you didn’t care if you had no clothes on, but once you grew up a bit, you learned that wasn’t good. It was like that for Adam and Eve.

Then they realised something else. It was time for God to come to the garden. What would they do? They heard him coming. Quick, they’d have to hide!

God was sad. He called Adam and Eve. Usually they ran to meet him. Adam told him they heard his voice and ran away to hide - they were afraid because they were naked.

How did you know you were naked? asked God. Have you eaten from the tree I told you not to eat from? (God knew all along what they’d done. He knows what we do too.)

Guess what Adam did? He blamed Eve. He said she’d given him the fruit. Now you don’t ever blame others when you do something wrong do you?

Guess what Eve did? She blamed the serpent. We’re all a bit like that sometimes, I think. We don’t like to get into trouble.

Do you know that when we do wrong things, there are consequences? This bad choice had serious consequences.

First consequence was for the serpent. God said it would crawl on its belly and eat dust for ever. Not only that, it would be the enemy of the woman and her children, and her children’s children.

The second lot of consequences was for the woman. God said she would have pain and sorrow having children. She would want a husband, but he would rule over her.

The consequences for the man came because he listened to his wife instead of obeying God. From now on, the ground would be cursed because of his bad choice. Man would have to get his food the hard way, planting and digging and weeding and harvesting; sweating in the fields from daylight to dark. There would be thorns and thistles, and he would have to work hard now to grow food until the day he died.

Yes, he would die. God said that man had come from the dust when he made him, and he would return to the dust.

But God did something for Adam and his wife Eve. God made clothes of skin for them to wear. He still wanted to look after them.

There was one final consequence. Do you remember the other special tree in the garden? Now that man knew the difference between good and evil, God had to put him out of the garden in case he ate from the tree of life, and lived forever. That wouldn’t be good.

So God expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.

God placed cherubim (angels) at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the tree of life.

I Spy GI Interview 2

Gramps: That evidence didn’t have a very happy ending, did it? I wonder who we should interview. There’s still not a lot of choice really. Maybe a rabbit saw what was going on. Let’s find out!

Reporter: Hello rabbit. Did you happen to know Adam and Eve?

Rabbit: I sure did. They were very kind to me. I used to see them every day. Eve used to give me a little cuddle sometimes. She was nice.

Reporter: Do you still see them?

Rabbit: Yes, I live out in the fields now. I see Adam working hard out there.

Reporter: It was a rather unhappy choice that they made, back there in the Garden of Eden. Were you there then?

Rabbit: Mmm. It was a bad choice. That old serpent was very sneaky. It’s a shame Eve fell for it.

Reporter: God didn’t say they couldn’t eat the fruit in the garden - it was only that one tree, wasn’t it?

Rabbit: They had lots and lots of different kinds of fruit they could eat, and they could have as much as they liked. It was only the one tree they weren’t to touch.

Reporter: Why did they do it then?

Rabbit: That sneaky serpent made it sound so good.

Reporter: And God punished him for it. Didn’t serpents always crawl on their bellies then?

Rabbit: No, that was their punishment. They used to be quite good looking and harmless until then.

Reporter: I’m sorry Adam and Eve had to leave the beautiful garden. Did they find it very hard once they were out?

Rabbit: They sure did. All those beautiful fruit trees were left behind. They had to work hard to make things grow. I try to help a bit.

Reporter: How can you help?

Rabbit: I do a bit of digging for them. Rabbits are good at digging holes you know. We do it all the time.

Reporter: That’s right. We had a rabbit once and it dug holes all over the yard. I’m not too sure it would help though.

Rabbit: Oh well, we do the best we can. Adam lets me have a carrot or some lettuce from his garden.

Reporter: Thanks for your help, Rabbit. I hope you and Adam manage to stay friends and help each other.

Rabbit: We do our best, it’s still God’s world you know.

Reporter: That’s right. Thank you for your time.

I Spy GI Life App

Gramps: Hmm. EyeSpy01, what can we learn today? Maybe our other investigators have some ideas. What do you think?

EyeSpy01: It’s easy to blame others, or to blame something else when we get into trouble. Do you think we should just say sorry, and take the consequences? That’s not easy to do.

Gramps: Let me tell you two stories to give you something to think about.

Mark had three big brothers. Mark was always getting into trouble. He was punished for this, he was punished for that. His mum and dad thought he must have been the naughtiest boy ever. If anything bad had been done in the family, it was always Mark who was to blame.

But do you know what Mark’s mum and dad found out when Mark and his brothers were all grown up? They discovered that if any of the older boys did something wrong, they would pay Mark to take the blame. He thought it was worth it to take the punishment because they paid him extra pocket money! He wasn’t such a bad boy after all!

A man named Ol’ Moses was a slave in the olden days (not the Moses in the Bible). It was Ol’ Moses’ job to cut the firewood for the family he worked for. Ol’ Moses hated cutting the firewood.

As he chopped the firewood, Ol’ Moses would say Ah hates Adam, Ah hates Adam, Ah hates Adam.

One day, his master stopped and asked him why he said that. Ol’ Moses told him that if Adam hadn’t been silly enough to make that bad choice, we wouldn’t have to work hard all the time, so it was all Adam’s fault.

The master invited him to come into the big house. He took him to a room that had everything in it that Ol’ Moses had ever dreamed of. There was a nice big cosy fire - and someone else chopped the wood for it! There was lots of food, and lots of drinks that he could help himself to anytime he wanted. There was a nice, soft, big bed to sleep on.

Ol’ Moses couldn’t believe his ears when his master said he could stay there as long as he wanted. He didn’t have to work; he didn’t have to do anything!

His master told him there was only one rule. There was a small box in the middle of the table. Whatever he did, Ol’ Moses mustn’t look in the box!

Well Ol’ Moses thought this was wonderful. He had worked hard all his life, and now he was being rewarded. He sat around all day. He enjoyed all the wonderful food. He rested on his big bed. He looked at the little box in the middle of the table. No worries, he wouldn’t touch it. But he did wonder why he wasn’t allowed to touch it. He wondered what was in it. What could it be?

The days went by. Life was wonderful. His master would come in each day to make sure he had everything he needed. It was great.

But what was in that box? Maybe he could just have a little peep in it. No-one would ever know. No, he had everything he could ever want.

But what was in that box? Why couldn’t he look? It wouldn’t do any harm.

He looked all around. No-one was in sight. They’d never know. He reached out and picked up the box. Would he look in it? Why not, it might be something that was good for him. Maybe his boss didn’t want him to have it. It might even make him rich.

Slowly Ol’ Moses opened the lid. He looked all around again, no-one was near. His heart was beating fast. There was a piece of paper in the box with writing on. Ol’ Moses held it up so he could see what it said. What do you think it was? In great big letters, so he could easily read it, his master had written: Ol’ Moses, you are no better than Adam. Get back to the wood pile!

Look at the Book

Look up the evidence in your Bible. Read Genesis chapter 3 verses 11 to 13.

Activ8

Dare

The serpent dared Eve to eat some fruit. On pieces of paper or card, write out some simple challenges (eg make someone laugh; sing a nursery rhyme; skip around the room). You will also need a dice.

Put the dares upside down in the middle. Take it in turns to roll the dice. If you roll a 6, you pick up the top dare. (You might prefer to speed it up a bit by adding other numbers eg 2, 4 & 6). You can choose to do the dare yourself, or you can dare someone else to do it. Say "I dare (name) to…." Each person can only do one dare until everyone has had a turn, so if you or someone has already had a turn, you have to choose someone else. Once everyone has had one turn, it’s open to choose anyone again. Either have a certain number of turns each or put a time limit on it.

BTG

Romans chapter 3 verse 23

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

There’s a word find in Worksheets. Print out one for each person.

Find each word from the BTG verse. Words go straight up or down or diagonally, backwards or forwards. Put a line through each word. Letters can be used more than once. The words Romans chapter three verse twentythree (one word in the puzzle) are included.

How many ‘all’ words can you find? Circle them all, including the first one and the one in ‘fall’.

If you have any letter a, or letter l’s left, check again for more ‘all’ words - don’t forget diagonal and backwards words.

The remaining letters should give us the missing words xxxxxxxx has xxxxxx.

Back to Contents

I Spy GI Case 3

Build a what?

Think spot

Have you been on a boat? How big was it? Do you like boat rides?

The Evidence

You can read this evidence in a Bible. Look in Genesis from chapter 6 verse 5 to the end of chapter 7.

Hundreds and hundreds of years went by after the time of Adam and Eve. Actually it was more than a thousand years – a very long time! Now there were lots and lots of people all over the earth. Most of them pretty much forgot about God, or if they remembered, they didn’t care. People were becoming more and more wicked, and there was fighting and violence everywhere.

God was very unhappy about this. In fact, he was beginning to be sorry he’d made people at all.

But there was one good man. His name was Noah. He loved God and tried to live the way God wanted. He prayed to God, and listened to God too. He was kind and helpful, and he was honest and reliable.

The Bible tells us that after Noah was 500 years old, he had three sons. That’s pretty old to be having children. Can you imagine what it would be like if your dad was 500 years old? In those days people lived a lot longer than we do.

God had decided to wipe out all the wicked people and start again. He knew that Noah would be a good person to save (because he loved God), so he gave him some special instructions.

If you’ve heard this story before, you’ll know what the instructions were. But it was all a complete surprise to Noah. God told him to build a boat. Build a what?? God told Noah exactly how to do it. He gave him complete instructions.

Now this was no ordinary little boat. It was enormous. It was to be 133 meters long and 22 meters wide and 13 meters high. (If you measure in feet, that’s about 436 x 72 x 43 feet). It was to have three decks and a door in the side. God told him the materials to use, and how to make it waterproof too.

Why not stop for a minute and measure how long it would have been. That’s a lot longer than Gramps’ fishing boat!

God told Noah that he was going to send a flood to wipe out every living being, but he made an agreement with Noah. He told Noah to go into the boat with his wife and his sons and their wives. He was also to take into the boat a male and a female of every kind of animal and bird so they would not become extinct - one pair of every creature God had made. God also told Noah to take seven pairs of some special animals that were used as sacrifices, and seven pairs of every type of bird. Of course God also told Noah he’d have to pack lots of food for all those creatures to eat.

Do you know the name we give the boat? We call it Noah’s Ark. How long do you think it took Noah to build that boat? For a very long time Noah worked on the boat. When his friends and neighbours went by, they wanted to know what he was doing. He told them that God wasn’t happy with the way people were living and he was going to send a flood to wipe them out. They thought that this was a bit of a joke. I’m sure they gave Noah a hard time. You see, they had never even had any rain before this time, so they couldn’t imagine where enough water would come from to float this great, big boat.

Noah did everything that God told him to do.

One day, when everything was ready, God told Noah it was time to go into the boat. He told him that in seven days, the rains would come. Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives and all the animals and birds went into the boat. What a great procession it was! Can you imagine it? Elephants and tigers, enormous animals and tiny animals, wild animals and tame, all in pairs, went into that great big boat.

Then God shut the door behind Noah.

The rains came. It rained and poured for 40 days and 40 nights. Not only did the rain fall from the heavens, God made the water from under the earth rise up and gush out as well. There was water everywhere. Soon there was enough water for the boat to float.

Still it rained, until all the land was covered with water - even the highest mountain was under water! The water kept on rising until it was seven meters above the mountains. Only the people and creatures on the boat survived that dreadful flood.

After 40 days and 40 nights the rain stopped. Hooray! But the water didn’t start going down for 150 days.

I Spy GI Interview 3

Gramps: Let’s see if we can think of someone to interview. Any ideas? Who would you choose?

Reporter: Today we’ve decided to interview one of Noah’s neighbours. We called him Mr Ha Ha.

By the way, we had to interview him before the flood!

Mr Ha Ha: Ha, ha, ha, ha (laughing)

Reporter: What’s so funny?

Mr Ha Ha: Ha, ha, ha, I can hardly stop laughing.

Reporter: Mr Ha Ha, what’s so funny?

Mr Ha Ha: That silly neighbour of mine, that’s what.

Reporter: Do you mean Noah? What’s he done to make you laugh so much?

Mr Ha Ha: He’s the one. Do you know what he says he’s doing?

Reporter: Ah, I’ll let you tell me.

Mr Ha Ha: He says he’s building a boat, can you believe it?

Reporter: What sort of a boat?

Mr Ha Ha: It’s as big as a football field.

Reporter: That big! What’s he going to do with it?

Mr Ha Ha: Ha, ha, ha, he says he’s going to save the world. He reckons we’re all making God unhappy – just because we’re having a bit of fun.

Reporter: He’s going to save the world?

Mr Ha Ha: Yes, he says God told him there’s going to be a great big flood, but anyone who wants to change from doing bad things can come with him in the boat. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

Reporter: I don’t get it, what’s so funny about that?

Mr Ha Ha: You don’t get it? Where’s the water to float the boat?

Reporter: Ah, I don’t see any actually.

Mr Ha Ha: Ha, ha, ha, ha, now you get my point – there is no water. Ha, ha, ha.

Reporter: Well, what if there was lots of water, wouldn’t you want to be saved?

Mr Ha Ha: And give up all the fun (bad) things I do? No way. Ha, ha, ha. But there’s no water anyway, so we just don’t believe him. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

Reporter: I hope for your sake you’re right Mr Ha Ha, but if God said so - I wouldn’t be so sure.

I Spy GI Life App

Gramps: Does that remind you of anything?

EyeSpy01: It sure does. How many people today make fun of Christians? They’re just like Mr Ha Ha - they think it’s a joke. Sometimes it’s not easy to stand up and let people know you follow Jesus and believe in God.

Gramps: Sadly, you’re right. But do you know what God says about this? It’s in Romans chapter 3 verse 23 (that’s our BTG verse for this book). God says that all of us have sinned. None of us is good enough for God. But the good news is that everyone who believes has God’s approval - because of what Jesus did. That’s what it says in the Bible. Try looking up Romans chapter 3 verses 22 to 24.

No matter what others think, I’m glad I have God’s approval because I believe in Jesus. That’s what will count in the end.

The people in Noah’s time didn’t believe God – and they were washed away.

Look at the Book

Look up part of the evidence in the Bible. Read Genesis chapter 7 verse 5. Then look up Romans chapter 3 verses 22 to 24. What’s the good news?

Activ8

Make a rain gauge

You will need a plastic bottle with straight sides (eg milk bottle, soft drink bottle). Cut off the top so it is straight up and down.

Put some stones or sand into the bottom of the bottle to hold it down.

With a ruler and a waterproof marking pen mark the sides in centimetres (or inches) or millimetres if you want to be more accurate. First mark a line on the bottle above the sand or stones and above where the straight part starts. Then do your measurements from that line up.

Fill the bottle with water to the starting line. Put the bottle outside to collect the rain.

Ha Ha game

You might like to do this as well as, or instead of, making a rain gauge.

Sit in a circle. There’s only one rule. You mustn’t smile or laugh. If you smile or laugh, you’re out. The first person says Ha. The next person to the right says Ha Ha, the next Ha Ha Ha. Continue round the circle each person adding one more Ha.

If someone smiles or laughs that person is out and you start again with one Ha. They can join in on the next round – or you might like to see who can keep going the longest without smiling or laughing, in which case they stay out until someone is the winner. Of course, the people who are out can smile and laugh as much as they like.

BTG

Romans chapter 3 verse 23

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Save your neighbour relay

Time yourselves to see how fast you can save everyone. If you have enough people, make two teams and have a race.

All the people in the team but one are at one end of the room. They are the neighbours.

The other person (at the other end) is Noah. Noah is in the ark.

Noah runs to the first neighbour and says All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. If the neighbour can reply Romans chapter 3 verse 23 the pair of them run together to the ark. The rescued person then becomes Noah and runs and saves another neighbour in the same way. Continue until everyone has been saved.

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I Spy GI Case 4

Rainbow promise

Think spot

What do you like to do best on a rainy day when you can’t go outside?

The Evidence

You can read this evidence in a Bible. Look in Genesis chapter 8 and chapter 9 verses 1 to 17.

I wonder if Noah and his family were tired of being shut up in that boat? Can you imagine the noise (not to mention the smell!) of all those creatures!

God hadn’t forgotten about Noah, his family, and all the animals with him in the boat. God caused a wind to blow, and the water started to dry up. God stopped the rain, and he stopped the water that had been flowing from under the ground.

The first thing that appeared was the mountain tops. I’m sure the people on the Ark were all very excited to see some land again, even if it was only a little bit. The boat came to rest on top of a mountain, but it was a lot longer before it was dry enough to go out of the boat.

One day, Noah opened a window and sent out one of the birds. It was a raven, and it didn’t come back. It kept flying around until all the water dried up.

Next, Noah sent out a dove to see if the water was gone. Because there was no-where to land, the dove came back again, and Noah reached out his hand and took it back into the boat.

Seven days later Noah tried again. The dove came back in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. So Noah knew that the water had gone down. He waited another seven days before he sent the dove out again, and this time it didn’t come back. This was a good sign.

Noah removed the covering from the boat and looked around. He saw that the ground was getting dry, and soon it was completely dry.

God told Noah to go out of the boat, and to take all the creatures out too so they could reproduce and fill the earth again with every living creature.

So Noah and his family went out of the boat, and all the animals and birds went out of the boat in groups of their own kind. They would have been very happy to be out of the boat and on the land again.

Do you know how long they’d been in the boat altogether? It was one year and ten days. Can you work out what the date will be in one year and ten days from now? Would you like to stay in a big boat with all the animals and birds until then? I’m sure there are other things I’d rather do!

God blessed Noah and his sons. He told them to have many children so there would again be people all over the earth.

God said that all the animals and birds and fish would be under man’s control. He also said that now people could eat animals as well as green plants. Up till now, they’d never eaten meat.

When Noah was on dry ground again, he wanted to thank God and worship him so he built an altar to make a sacrifice. He took one each of the special animals and birds and burnt them on the altar as a sacrifice. God smelt the sacrifice and it pleased him. He decided that never again would he destroy all living beings.

God made a promise to Noah, and he said it was for us too. God promised that never again would all living beings be destroyed by a flood, never again would a flood destroy whole earth.

God gave us a special sign to show the agreement he was making with all people. It was an agreement that would last for ever. He put his rainbow up in the sky. God said that every time he covered the sky with clouds and a rainbow appeared, he would remember the promise he’d made. It helps us remember it too.

Rainbows are very beautiful things. Have you seen a really good one? Next time you see a rainbow, thank God for his promise to us.

I Spy GI Interview 4

Gramps: Alright all you investigators, how about an interview? Who would you choose if you were going to talk to someone?

Reporter: Today we’ve decided to interview Noah’s grandson. He has rather a long name, so we’re calling him Arp.

Arp: Hi everyone, I’m Arp.

Reporter: Arp, I believe you are Noah’s grandson, is that right?

Arp: Sure is. My father is Shem, and Grandpa Noah is his dad.

Reporter: So your dad and your grandpa were some of the people on the boat?

Arp: That’s right. There was my grandpa and grandma, my dad and mum, and two uncles and two aunts on the boat.

Reporter: But you weren’t on the boat, were you?

Arp: No, I was born two years after the big flood.

Reporter: Have your dad and grandpa told you much about what happened?

Arp: Oh yes, they love to tell all us children about the wonderful way God saved them. Everyone else drowned you know.

Reporter: We did hear that. They were on that boat for a very long time. I’ll bet they were glad to finally get off it!

Arp: They had a real celebration. They said it was just so good to be able to go for a long walk again. But the first thing they did was to build an altar and thank God.

Reporter: Have you ever seen the boat?

Arp: Yes, I have. We went on a very special trip into the mountains so we grandchildren could see it, it was amazing.

Reporter: What about all those animals, have you seen them too?

Arp: They’ve mostly wandered off to find the places they like best to live in, but there are still plenty of them around. Grandpa Noah said they were all very well behaved on the boat, but it was a bit smelly at times.

Reporter: And what about your Grandpa Noah. What does he do these days?

Arp: Grandpa Noah is a farmer now. He planted a vineyard and grows grapes.

Reporter: One last question, have you seen the rainbow?

Arp: We’ve all seen the rainbow. It’s beautiful. It’s so bright and there are so many colours in it. It’s wonderful to think that God has made that promise to us all.

Reporter: Thank you for your time Arp. Say hello from us to your father and to Grandpa Noah, we’re glad God saved them.

Arp: So am I - or I wouldn’t be here, and neither would you!

I Spy GI Life App

Gramps: God used the big boat to save the people.

EyeSpy01: And God uses Jesus to save us today. I noticed that the first thing Noah did was to worship and thank God for saving them. We should do that too. God was pleased with them, and he loves us to praise him and thank him too.

Gramps: It’s always good to thank and praise God and worship him. There’s a Bible verse that says God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only son. Anyone who believes in him will not die, but will live for ever and ever. Let’s be like Noah and stop and give God thanks, especially when we see that rainbow of promise in the sky.

Look at the Book

Find the evidence in your Bible. Why not read Genesis chapter 9 verses 14 to 17.

Activ8

Make a rainbow

Do you know how to make your own rainbow? We usually see them in the sky, don’t we, but you can make a rainbow on a piece of paper.

You will need a sunny day. The best place to do it is just inside a window in the sunlight if you can find a spot. You’ll need a glass that’s about three quarters full of water. Be careful not to spill it. Hold the glass in the sun and hold a big piece of white paper beneath the glass. Try holding the glass of water at different heights and angles. You will see a rainbow on the paper.

Make a God’s promise rainbow

You can do this activity as well as, or instead of, making a rainbow. You will need half a paper plate each, seven strips of paper and some cottonwool. You will also need coloured pencils or felt tipped pens, some glue and a cord of some sort if you want to hang it up.

Rule up some strips on a piece of paper and colour each strip one of the rainbow colours, then cut out the strips. You might prefer to cut strips of coloured paper instead of colouring them. With the cut edge of the half paper plate at the bottom, write God’s promise in big letters in the middle of the flat section.

Paste the top of each coloured strip to the bottom of the paper plate so they hang down below the plate. Spread out the cottonwool and glue puffy clouds round the edges of the paper plate, so you have the rainbow hanging from the clouds. Finally put the cord or wool or string through a hole in the top or tape it to the back so you can hang up your God’s promise rainbow. Every time you look at it you can remember to give God thanks.

BTG

Romans chapter 3 verse 23

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Write parts of the BTG verse on seven brightly coloured balloons with a felt tipped pen. (Romans chapter 3; verse 23; All have; sinned and; fall short of; the glory; of God.)

See how quickly the balloons can be put into the correct order. Say it through a few times then pop one balloon at a time and continue to say the verse. Who would like to say the verse when the balloons are all popped?

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Useful Box

On the next page you will find work sheets and game sheets for you to print.

Other items for this book: play dough, plasticine or modelling clay; large sheet of paper or cardboard; small pieces of paper or cardboard with dares written on