When Jesus was on earth he told stories to help people understand what God is like. These stories are called ‘parables’. In this session we are going to hear Jesus’ parable about a sheep that wandered off and got lost. Let’s watch the video to see what happened:
Story Video
Video by : https://saddleback.com/
Time to Think and Pray
Questions 
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Have you ever lost something that was important to you?
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Did you find it again?
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How many sheep did the man in our story own?
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How did he feel when he realised one was missing?
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What did he do?
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How did he feel when he found his lost sheep?
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Have you ever had a party to celebrate something?
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Why do you think the man wanted to have a celebration?
Jesus told this story to show us how much God loves us and wants us to stay close to him. The shepherd in our story loved his sheep so much that when one silly sheep wandered off and got into trouble, he left the others behind and went to search for it to bring it home. God is like that shepherd. No matter what bad choices we make or what wrong things we do, God loves us so much and wants to bring us back to himself, where we will be safe and happy. It brings God great joy, and the angels in heaven celebrate whenever someone decides to follow Jesus!
Prayer:
Dear Lord, Thank you that you love me so much and want me to stay close to you. Please help me to follow you all my life and not wander away like a lost sheep. Amen
This Week's Song: Great Big God
Colouring Sheet
This Week's Crafts: Finger Puppets; Standing Sheep; and Sheep Family
Finger Puppet Sheep
You will need: Colouring pens or pencils; scissors (a pair of nail scissors may also be useful for cutting out the finger holes); and a copy of the printable template.
This template will work best if printed on thicker paper. If this isn’t possible you could glue your sheep to a second piece of paper, or to the back of a cereal packet. Colour and cut out your sheep. An adult will need to help cut out the finger holes. If you have small fingers the holes will need to be cut a bit smaller to fit your hands.
Standing Sheep
You will need: Cotton wool (or whatever you have available to decorate your sheep – cereal like Rice Krispies or Cheerios would work well too!); scissors; glue; an empty cereal packet; and a copy of the double sided cotton ball sheep template from kidzactivities.net.
Print your template and stick it to the back of a cereal packet so that it is strong enough to stand up. Cut it out. Cover thinly with glue and stick wisps of cotton wool, or cereal etc to cover both sides.
Image by: http://kidzactivities.net/
Sheep Family (for older children)
You will need: Colouring pens or pencils; scissors; a glue stick; and a copy of the Sheep Family Template from www.easy-crafts-for-kids.com (see the very bottom of link page). Colour and cut out your sheep pieces. Assemble and stick them together. If you want to mount them on sticks you will need lolly sticks or straws to do this. Alternatively you could use the pieces to make a picture or a card.
Image by: https://www.easy-crafts-for-kids.com/
