Elementary Level, Block 10—Apostles / Paul
Week 95
Saul of Tarsus—Taking the Opportunity to Learn
Point to Emphasize: We must take the opportunity and spend time to learn.
Reference Reading: Acts 22:3; 26:4-5
Memory Verse: The plans of the diligent lead only to plentifulness… (Proverbs 21:5a)
Story Sample
Today our story is about a man named Saul, who lived in an important city, Tarsus. While Saul was growing up, he learned a few languages. He learned Hebrew since that was probably what his family spoke. He learned to read and to write in Hebrew. He was able to read and study the Old Testament in Hebrew. The situation in Tarsus was different than most Jewish communities, so he also had the opportunity to learn to speak, read, and write Greek—this was the language used by the Greek people. He was probably taught Greek at school in Tarsus.
Some of you may already speak two or even more languages. You speak English at school, but at home you may speak Chinese, Korean, Spanish or Vietnamese with your family. This is just like Saul who studied Greek in school and spoke Hebrew at home. But Saul didn’t just speak his language. He was diligent to study the Hebrew and Greek languages, learning to read it, write it, and speak it. How many of us can both read and write in our “home” language? [Ask 1 or 2 of the children.] Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could learn to read, write, and speak in our home language as well as English?
For many in the United States the “home” language is English. But when we were in school, many of us had the opportunity to learn another language. If we were not too diligent, perhaps now we can only remember a little bit of the other language that we began to learn. But if we would have been very diligent to study and to practice reading, writing, and speaking other languages when we were children, maybe now we could speak to you in your “home” language also. It would be so wonderful to sing children’s songs in different languages and to speak with people from all over the world in their “home” language! [Storyteller, give your example of success or failure at learning another language.]
While you are young and learning to read and write, you still have time to learn more than one language. You even have time to learn several other languages! While you are young, it is the best time to learn another language, because your brain is learning how to communicate with others all the time. It would be wonderful if you all grew up to speak more than one language. You could take care of so many different people. As we grow up, we should have a goal to speak, read, and write in at least two languages. We need to be diligent to read and write in more than one language like Saul did. He probably learned Hebrew and Greek by practicing every day. We can do that also! If we practice learning another language every day, we too will eventually be able to speak another language. That would be wonderful!
[Use the remaining time to talk about making a Language Journal. They could call someone who speaks another language and ask them how to say something in that language – e.g. “May I have a snack?”, “Can you play with me?”, etc. Write it in the journal. Then you will practice using that sentence every day].