AY Honors/Alive Bible/Answer Key

1. What is meant by the term ‘Alive Bible’?

An Alive Bible is a friend of Jesus with His Words learned and living in their heart. Some Pathfinders have described it nicely as:

• “A Bible with a warm heart; someone who’s faithful to God”.
• “Bible told alive through people exploring it in actions”.
• “Telling God’s story through my heart”.
• “Being a Bible that can talk and has an aim in life”.
• “Bible stories being alive in me”.
• “Bringing my Bible to life”.
• “A friend of Jesus’ with His Words learned and living in their heart”.

2. Understand four shortcuts to learning by heart.

These twelve shortcuts are like tools in a memory toolkit.

Shortcut 1: Pray

Always pray first. Jesus really wants His Words inside you and He’s totally keen to help!

Shortcut 2: Warm up with the ‘Sparky Brain’ Warm Up

Get both sides of your brain firing with top power for seeing, hearing and doing. Movements across the middle of your body (your midline) connect the right and left sides of your brain. You then have more than double the learning and remembering capacity.

Shortcut 3: Prepare the words

• Print or write them out in large letters.
• Use a new line for each verse.
• Divide the adventure into logical, manageable sections, with a heading for each section.

Shortcut 4: Have fun learning in a group. Practice in rhythm together.

Put everyone’s ideas together to plan the places in the story and the movements to use. You learn the verses very quickly doing the movements in rhythm with your group. When you practice the verses at home, you remember what your group looked like doing it all together.

Shortcut 5: Muscle Memory.

Muscle memory works with seeing memory and hearing memory. Read the verse out loud 8 times as you help your group choose a movement or gesture for each phrase or sentence. Once you know the adventure quite well, practice it through with movements and no words.

Shortcut 6: See, Hear and Do

• See the words clearly. See the picture of the action clearly in the space around you.
• Hear the words, the intentions, the meanings and the emotions with your voice.
• Do. Move each phrase or sentence, even if it is the slightest explanation. Move the adventure through the space around you.

Shortcut 7: Add feelings

Adding the feelings completes the explanation. As in a good movie, people don’t have to explain their feelings. The feelings are right there in their faces and their bodies.

In your Bible verses, always be on the lookout for your own heart reactions to feelings both positive and negative. Go through your verses and write down one or two feelings for each phrase. Put the feeling in your voice, face, and body. Your movement might change a little or a lot once you’ve added the feeling.

Shortcut 8: Learn in sections - three verses at a time.

Say the last part of the previous verse to connect it with the verse you are learning next. Decide on an anchor (summary) word for each verse and say them before you practice the section through. “The bullies”, “when the king”, “in the evening”.

Shortcut 9: Walk

Do NOT learn by heart while standing still. If unable to walk, move some part of your body.

Shortcut 10: Out loud

Always learn out loud.

Shortcut 11: Give to others

Having Jesus’ Words inside you is very special. Giving them to other people blesses them too, and makes you doubly blessed! People will be amazed and want to know how to do it for themselves.

Shortcut 12: Review

Saying & doing the adventure EVERY DAY FOR 8 WEEKS gets it into your Long Term Memory.

3. Demonstrate a clever way to ‘warm up’ your brain. (i.e. the ‘Sparky’ method).

When we move our arms and legs across the middle of our body (draw a line with your hand from your nose to your belly button) our brain electricity sends ‘sparks’ across to the other side. This makes our brain use both sides. It makes us more alert, ready to be clever and remember quickly. The Sparky Brain Warm Up puts our brain into top gear.

Make sure all the movements cross the middle of your body. Do the Sparky Brain Warm Up every time you start learning your Bible adventure by heart. Use the following instructions as a guide. Allow 2 minutes. Everybody on their feet with plenty of room to swing arms and legs!

1. WINDMILLS

• 5 right arm windmills in front of you - go! 5 in the other direction - go!
• 5 left arm windmills in front of you - go! 5 in the other direction - go!

2. ARM CHOPS

• 5 swinging right arm chops in front of your left leg – go!
• 5 swinging left arm chops in front of your right leg – go!

3. STIR THE POT

For leg movements, hold onto the back of a chair if you need to.

• Right big toe, draw the biggest pot in front of your left* foot. Now stir it 5 times – go!
• Five in the opposite direction – go!
• Left big toe, draw the biggest pot in front of your right foot. Now stir it 5 times – go!
• Five in the opposite direction – go!

4. SOCCER KICKS

• Right foot, do the biggest soccer kick way over past your left* foot, five of them - go!
• Left foot, do the biggest soccer kick way over past your right foot, five of them - go!
• Right foot, do the biggest soccer kick way over behind your left foot, five of them - go!
• Left foot, do the biggest soccer kick way over behind your right foot, five of them - go!

5. SIAMESE TWINS

• Join up with someone else at the wrist or shoulder or little finger.
• Go walking together and find another set of twins to bump into gently, and say Thank You!
• Go walking and find another set to bump into gently, and say Thank You!
• Join twins into foursomes and bump another foursome, and say Thank You!
• Say goodbye to your twins.

6. SHAKE and JUMP

• Shake a leg, shake the other leg, shake what you sit on; jump up and down five times.
• Fantastic!