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!

4. Using your skills and your understanding of how people commit to memory, explore one of the following Scripture adventures:
a. Scripture Adventure: God Ruins the Bullies’ Evil Trick
i. Read aloud the story from Daniel 6: 1-23.
ii. Using your own words, prepare a brief introduction to the main story. Please refer to Daniel 6:1-13.
iii. Learn by heart the main part of story in Daniel 6:13-23.
b. Scripture Adventure: The ‘Ghost’ on the Water
i. Read aloud the story from Matthew 14:13-33.
ii. Using your own words, prepare a brief introduction to the main story. Please refer to Matthew 14:13-21.
iii. Learn by heart the main part of story in Matthew 14:22-33.

For this honor we have given a choice of just two Bible adventures. If your leaders have not nominated one of them, feel free to choose one.

Note that each adventure has the same three parts:

1. . Read the story to get a grasp of the story.
2. . Prepare an introduction so as to set the scene.
3. . Learn by heart the key verses of scripture.

Bible Translation(s) to use

Because of the diversity of our Pathfinder folk, we do not specify a specific translation of the Scriptures for application to this honor. The only stipulation is that it must be ‘true’ to God’s word. Of course, Pathfinders must be able to understand and identify with it.

The translation used in these notes is the New Living Translation (NLT) second edition. Other translations can be accessed at Bible Gateway.

If English is your Pathfinders’ second language, learning the adventure in their mother tongue would be great. In the South Pacific Division, the World Changers Bible is the New Living Translation and the Pacific usually uses New King James Version (NKJV).

The Pathfinder Bible in the North American Division is the New King James Version (NKJV).

Hints for Preparing Scripture Adventure Pages

• Divide the adventure which is to be learned into manageable, logical sections.
• Start each verse, or phrase, on a new line to make it easy to see and remember.
• Use a size 12 font to make it easy to see and remember.
• If it takes two pages, use both sides of the page.

Hints for learning the Scripture Adventure

We will use the God Ruins the Bullies’ Evil Trick Adventure as an example.

• Always pray together first!
• Continue to establish the honor as a doing experience by doing the fun warm up together. Stay standing while exploring the Bible adventure.
• Divide Pathfinders into groups of six or more. If you have twelve or fewer in the class, consider keeping all the creativity together in one group.
• Each group sets the story out in their corner. For example ‘the bullies’ hideout is there’, ‘the palace is there’, ‘Daniel’s house is there’, ‘the lions’ den is there’.
• Everyone in the group reads their first verse eight times out loud together, while walking, experimenting with what movement (or two) to use to explain that verse. It’s even quicker if you listen to the verse from a person or video and copy that, instead of reading.
• Then the group decides together which movements to keep for that verse. Please only offer help when needed; observe and encourage.
• Someone can be Daniel, the king, or the stone. Use your imagination. Everyone still tells the story with voice and movement while that person carries out their action.
• The group could decide to have parts of the adventure told by one person. However, each Pathfinder must still learn all the verses for their solo sharing.
• Move from ‘place’ to ‘place’ with the action. Point to the action. Or carry out a movement in unison which explains the action. The group might split into sections and have the sections interact with words and movements. Keep experimenting until something special happens – it always does! Stay prayerful!

By now, everyone has definitely put their pages down. The group practices the verse, all together, at the same time, out loud, without their pages, at least eight times, until it’s fun, rhythmical and full of action. Listen to each other; pause between phrases, start together.

Doing just the movements without words shows where the weak parts are!

Then go to the next verse similarly. Take 20 to 30 minutes to learn the three verses that make up one section of the adventure. There are four sections in each adventure.

Decide on an anchor phrase for each verse – ‘the bullies’, ‘when the king’, ‘in the evening’. Say these together at the beginning of the section.

If you have four groups, they can simultaneously learn a different section each, and have the whole passage ready to tell, one group after the other, after the first half hour! Every half hour (preferably on a different day), they learn a different section, and come together to tell the adventure through.

Each Pathfinder must be part of sharing the adventure twice; one telling must be solo.

Doing Alive Bible together outdoors encourages creativity. It’s great for camp weekends.

If appropriate, show parents (or guardian etc) the why and how of the honor, so home can be central in helping learn the adventure and in integrating the spiritual value of Alive Bible into life in the home. See Appendix C Parents’ Page.

Prepare an Introduction

Now that a Bible adventure has been chosen and the story has been read from the Scriptures, it’s time to prepare the introduction. Teachers, it’s well worthwhile giving a big-picture introduction to give your honor-participants an appreciation of where the adventure fits into history and why it is important to learn God’s word. Feel free to use your own words.

The big-picture

Away back in time, the devil was one of God’s angels who had a very important position in heaven but he was jealous of God and wanted to be God. There was war in heaven and the devil was cast out of heaven with his angel-followers to this earth. The devil wants all humans to be on his side. See Isaiah 14: 13, 14 and Revelation 12:7-9. Jesus is the Leader of everyone who wants God’s Light and forgiveness and love and power. But we are born into this world where the devil claims we all belong on his Dark Side. We don’t have to stay under the devil’s influence because Jesus has paid the ransom price. All we have to do is ask Jesus to ransom us and He takes us away from the devil’s team. The Bible is full of reports of people who want to be on Jesus’ side, how hard He works to get them there, and how big the war between Dark and God’s Light really is. Learning the Bible adventures by heart makes us strong to stay true to Jesus.

Introduction to God Ruins the Bullies’ Evil Trick

Daniel grew up in a family who were on Jesus’ side. His country was meant to be on God’s side too, but they started giving themselves to idols as well, so God had to follow through on His promise to take His protection away if they took their loyalty away. Daniel was captured by an enemy king. He chose to stay on Jesus’ side no matter how hard it got. In this life-threatening adventure, the men on the Devils’ team try to kill Daniel, and he has to decide if he is willing to die for praying in the open.

Introduction to The ‘Ghost’ on the Water

Jesus’ disciple friends have gone with Him to hide up in the mountains to have time to be sad about Jesus’ God-sent cousin John the Baptist having been murdered by terrible King Herod. Many people want Jesus to heal them so their helpers searched the lakeside mountains to find Jesus. His heart moves with compassion for them and He works all day to give them a miracle each! As the crowds were hungry and there was no food available, Jesus met their physical needs by making a feast from a few small fish and loaves of bread. After this the crowd were keen for Jesus to become their king and fight off the cruel Romans. Jesus knows this wouldn’t help them be His true Forever Friends, so ….

5. a. As an Alive Bible, share your Scripture adventure at least twice. One sharing must be done by yourself. Include your introduction and ‘Bring to life’ the main part of the story. Hint: If you wish, be creative and use modern technology, such as video etc.
b. Fill in your Alive Bible Sharing Log, which requires an ‘adult’ listener’s signature.

There are two stipulations for presenting the Scripture adventure; just the honor participant by themselves, and by the honor participant accompanied by others. The ‘others’ can consist of just one person or any number of people. Trainers, please use your judgment as too large a group is ineffective. Also, it may be an advantage to do the group presentation before the solo effort.

As stated in the requirement, there’s plenty of scope for the presentations. Think of the modern technology that is available. As a word of caution, before ‘broadcasting to the world’, assess the implications of privacy, photo-taking of children etc.

In the SPD, use the Alive Bible 1 Honor’s Workbook to fulfill part b of this requirement.

6. List three possible effects of a young Christian learning God's Word by heart and becoming an Alive Bible.

Jesus’ friends have noticed that when they have God’s Words alive inside them they:

• Think about Jesus more often. Jesus becomes more important. They become more like Jesus!
• They are more certain of how much God loves them. They are a more confident Christian.
• They are a stronger follower of Jesus and see themselves as His full-time disciple.
• They use God’s Words inside them when making decisions. They rely on God’s Words like Jesus did.
• They face the devil’s temptations confidently, as Jesus did, with God’s Words as awesome ‘weapons of divine power to vanquish the enemy’! Vanquish means to totally win the battle.
• They share about Jesus more naturally with other people.
• They get thirsty for more of God’s Words inside them to give them more of God’s love and power.
• They have fun learning the exciting and dangerous adventures of people in the Bible.
• They follow their Bible heroes to grow a strong Christian character.

Your group may well think of other effects.

7. Share some experiences of what doing this honor has meant to you:
a. What was the hardest thing about doing this honor? Please explain why?
b. What part/s of the adventure talked to your heart the most? Please explain why.
c. How did this honor help you to become a ‘Forever Friend’ of Jesus?

Incorporate these questions into your group debrief. Make this honor a faith transmission experience! See Appendix C for those Pathfinders who know their parents would like to help.