Hi, I'm Parker Ranger Bailey, Daryl Bailey for Service for Christ. As we get into our Bethel Crossroads Baptist Church Vacation Bible School that took place back June the 10th, 2023, the 21st of Salvan, 5783 of the Hebrew calendar. As we start off, our Vacation Bible School this year deals with Proclamation Safari Park. that takes us on a new adventure to discover the truths of God's Word concerning the Rescuer. You know, every one of us, as we go through life, will begin to realize some of the benefits of knowing a Rescuer. Jesus Christ is the greatest rescue that ever came to all of our needs when he went to the cross on our behalf. And so we learn these important events in the life of our rescuer, Jesus Christ. Our adventure begins in Bethlehem as we study the events surrounding the birth of our rescuer. And so each and every one of us, as we learn to express joy because of his miraculous birth, will travel to Jesus's hometown in Nazareth and to the temple in Jerusalem to learn about his early life, learning from the example that's set by Jesus as a young boy. and will discover the obedience to God's word. It's satisfying. It makes for a happy life. And so we'll also go over to the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus calls fishermen to follow him throughout his ministry and to carry on the work after he returns to heaven. And so we're going to be challenged to accept Jesus as our rescuer and follow him in our lives. And so kids, each and every one of you, I want to challenge you to learn that the only way to achieve true peace is being rescued by Jesus Christ. Having him a part of your life and the power of Jesus is the key component of everything that our life as we look at the rescuer and all of the rescues powerful demonstrations. We're also going to get over into Capernaum where Jesus raised a young girl from the dead. Knowing our rescuers are powerful gives us a life of hope and finally the adventure takes us to the final act of our rescuers life on earth. At Calvary Jesus gave his life to pay our sin debt and he freely made the ultimate sacrifice for every one of us and so we'll see the love of Jesus and how that we can learn about his death, his burial, and his resurrection. On behalf of Pastor Keith Dipsy and all of the wonderful congregation of Bethel Crossroads, we're so thankful as we get into the first of our Vacation Bible School of Proclamation Safari Park, dealing with our elephant encounter. Now, we're going to have ages 10 and 11, grades 5 and 6 as we get into our lesson. And so our lesson one, our elephant encounter, as we look and we begin to realize that Jesus came to rescue. It dealt with the birth of Jesus Christ in Luke chapter 2, verses 1 through 20. Look at all of our kids that we had this time. What a blessing that it was on behalf of our church at Bethel Crossroads to be able to enjoy the encounter that we had with all of these beautiful children. And now the benefit of this PowerPoint is to help the many children that were not able to go to a vacation Bible school for some other reason that we're trying to bring that vacation Bible school to you. You missed out on a tremendous blessing, especially all of the ones at Bethel Crossroad that built an entire jungle out of cardboard and put natives in it and went into some great details to make the adventure of Safari Proclamation Safari Park a great adventure. Not only the mentioned the ice cone truck that was at the very end. Now, every word that we start out on, we've got a focus word. And our focus word is joy. Okay, joy is our first focus of lesson one. And I just made up some words to do an acronym of it, that Jesus is our Yahweh. You know, there's no greater joy than serving Jesus Christ. Before we do anything else, one of the things that you always do a vacation Bible school is you take a pledge. Now I'll probably do this and on this one, and I won't do it on all the other four. But first of all, maybe you don't have a flag or whatever, but maybe you can, as you watch this PowerPoint, that you can cross your heart and stand in front of it and make a pledge, especially today being the 4th of July, that you can make a pledge to the American flag. Will you join me? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. There's three pledges that we normally make in Vacation Bible School. The second one that we normally make is to the Christian flag. Now, again, it's not the United States flag, but As we make this pledge, may we keep our respect that we would have for the United States flag, for our Christian flag as well, that we would cross our heart and make that pledge to the Christian flag. I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag and to the Savior for whose kingdom it stands. One brotherhood uniting all Christians in service and love. And then lastly, the last one, our pledge is to the Bible, the word of God. And so, as we make that pledge, as we cross our heart, and we look at the screen for the Bible, I pledge allegiance to the Bible, God's holy word, and will make it a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and hide its words in my heart, that I may not sin against God. And so, with proclamation, Safari Park, that is underway. You know what's so powerful about a Safari Park? You have to be in a vehicle. You have to be in a vehicle to drive through a safari park because it's not one that you're supposed to walk through. You drive through it. So we get in our jeeps and we get ready to go and All of a sudden, we're taking off. Here we go. On our way to the Proclamation Safari Park. And we're underway. Hallelujah. All right. Let's all get into the vehicle. And let's get ready to go on our way as we begin to look at the first lesson of Elephant Encounter. Hallelujah. And so, our theme verse for all of this is, I'm the way. Are you saying it with me? You better say it with me. The truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, okay, come on with me now, but by me, John 14, 6. I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto me, unto the Father, but by me. And so that is our theme verse. And so we meet the animals. Eloise, Coco, Ethan, Gordon, and Lionel. Here is Eloise, the elephant, We see Coco the Koala, then we see Ethan the Flying Eagle, we see Gordon the Gorilla, and we see Lionel the Lion. And so, each and of these animals we'll be talking about this coming week. Each of the participants, Park Ranger Rachel Iwi is her nickname. And so, Deer Forest is Roscoe, Torrey is Bird, Curlin is Pup and then of course we look and you know what I'm sorry I got it covered up and I didn't mean to but Lord I'm going to tell you as I look at that and begin to realize that we're talking about Beckett And so I'm sorry that I messed that up and hid that from you with my face being there. But anyway, the Elephant Encounter, the lesson one, the birth of Jesus, Jesus came to rescue. And so, believe it or not, when we look and we begin to realize that every one of us, we know that the Lord is doing a great work in our life because The aim is for every one of us to learn, as the shepherds did, that God provided a savior, a rescuer for everyone when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And I need every one of you to accept that Jesus is our rescuer, he's our savior, he's our shepherd, and he's our friend. The animal population has been on decline for over a century, and elephants need help before they become extinct. Elephants need to be rescued. People need to be rescued from their sin. Jesus came to rescue us. We have to accept Jesus' gift of salvation to be rescued. And so each and every one of us, as we look and we begin to realize that how gifted that we are, Jesus, the Son of God, the Savior of the world and Messiah, he's the second person of the Trinity. He is God, just like God the Father. He has eternally existed. And so, as we look and realize that all the way back in the book of Genesis, let us make man in our image after our likeness. God, the Holy Spirit was the other person. The account of Jesus does not begin in a stable in Bethlehem. Listen to me, kids. Creation took place long before his human birth. Jesus said that he beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven in Luke chapter 10, verse 18. And just after God created Adam and Eve, He told them that they were free to eat of any tree in the Garden of Eden but one. He said in Genesis chapter 2 verses 16 and 17, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Satan lied to Eve. and tempted her to eat. And she succumbed to his, believe it or not, his deception. And when Adam saw that Eve had eaten of the tree of knowledge, he also ate. And their eyes were opened and they saw everything themselves for whom and what they were. They were sinners. They tried to hide from God, but to no avail. And from that day forward, there was a great gap between them and all people in God. And they now needed a Savior and an intercessor to talk to God for them. Jesus was and still is that Savior today. The birth of Jesus had been prophesied for thousands of years. The prophecy of the Savior is found in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed and it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. Other prophecies of his birth are found throughout The first to hear the birth of Jesus was the shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. In Luke chapter 2 verse 8, these men were just ordinary shepherds. They were not wealthy. They were not highly educated. They were not special in any way. They were just ordinary shepherds. And they too, like other people before, since were sinners. And the scripture states, the angel of the Lord came upon them. And I pause to exercise the excitement of this because the angel said, under you is born a savior. You see, the shepherd's greatest problem was not finding food and not finding water to sell or for their sheep It was not finding a good market to sell their sheep for the best price. The problem was not the heavy taxes levied by the government or the nights that they had spent out on the field away from their families with those smelly sheep. The good news of that day and of our day is unto you is born a Savior which is Christ the Lord. Can you imagine being in a field with a bunch of sheep And an angel appeared to you. And the angel didn't just appear to the shepherds, but he told them the news for which men had been waiting for generations. It must have been more exciting than anything any man had ever experienced. And the shepherds immediately went into Bethlehem to see the things that the angel had told them. These shepherds told many others the good news, and they then returned to their fields glorifying and praising God. And they went about their lives praising God. Hallelujah. Jesus did not come to be only the Savior of shepherds and of those who lived at that time. He didn't come to be just the Savior of the wealthy and the famous. Listen, He didn't come just to be the Savior of the extremely good people of the world. He came to be the Savior to all of us. And so John 3.16 said, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And so, you know what? Every one of us, Adam and Eve were sinners and they needed a Savior. And so every one of us as sinners need a Savior. You and I need a Savior. Jesus is that Savior. That little baby born in the stable in Bethlehem. the one whom the angels praised God about so long ago, the one whom the shepherds saw and told others about. He can be your savior too. And so we follow these verses commonly known as the Romans road to salvation that I'm going to show later on in our presentations. But as we continue on, we realize that Jesus came to rescue. And we learn as the shepherds did that God provided a savior, a rescue for everyone when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And so, you know what? He's our rescuer, our savior, our shepherd. He's our friend. Here are the elephant, king of the jungle. Most lions do not live in jungles. They live in grasslands. and plains. But you know what? Elephants, they live out in the fields. Jesus the King lived on earth where he became victorious over Satan, sin, and death. And now he lives in heaven and he will one day return victorious for all of us and his church. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Born in Bethlehem, oh man, ain't that good. Boy, I tell you, you imagine, I believe even the animals knew something was going on. I believe the sheep knew something was going on because the creator was being born. What a marvelous thing that was transpiring. What was taking place had never happened ever before. And so as we look and we begin to realize that out of all the things We know that the birth of Jesus, how that we look and realize that all of us humans are born with a need for which God has provided a savior. Because of sin, mankind is separated from God. God sent his only begotten son to earth to die for our sins. Man may provide a way for the elephants to be rescued, but God provides a way for our souls to be saved from sin. That way is Jesus. He's the Savior promised to Israel for hundreds of years. Every one of us, that's what happened the night that Jesus was born. And so each and every one of us, when we look and we begin to realize that as the elephants that are out there that have a great need to be rescued, that we see, you know, we know that there's somebody out there that needs to be rescued as well. Maybe it's someone that's never asked Jesus Christ to be their savior, the keeper of their soul. Again, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord. Luke chapter two, verse 11. Now listen, somebody, hey, can you do that while you're standing on one foot rubbing your head? For unto you, is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Luke chapter 2 verse 11. You know what? It ain't easy to do. I'll be honest with you, though. I wouldn't stand on one leg. I know when I was in the class, I did good to rub my head and say it at the same time. I thank God. I was in Bethlehem in 2008. These are actual pictures that I Right here is the location of Bethlehem. This is the picture that I took when I was there with John Hagee. This is a picture of a sheepfold where the shepherd would put the sheep to watch them overnight to protect them from the raven wolves and enemies that would come against them. When we look at the picture of the shepherds that night, the angels, that we're having a tremendous blessing. Right here is Bethlehem. And so as we look and realize the scriptures that it talked about, I'm not going to read all the scriptures, but it was the time of the taxing when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. But let's go ahead because all you've got to do is watch this thing. and follow along with me. And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made with Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed, everyone, unto his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, under the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary as a spouse, wife, being great with child. And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered, expecting a kid. And she brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. He was laid in an animal trough, because that's all that they had. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in a field, keeping watch over them. They're flocked by night, and lo, the angel of the Lord came unto them, and the glory of the Lord showed around about them. They were so afraid, and the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy to all people. And under you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign, and you shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. And it came to pass as the angels were gone away from them into heaven. And the shepherds said one to another, let us now go even into Bethlehem and let's see this thing which comes to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, They made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. I tell you what, as I look at that and begin to realize that God is so good, we know that Jesus was born to die. And as we had our class One of the main things that we begin to talk about with this during our class, and I had 13 kids in my class. I was so blessed. Every one of them was so inquisitive. So many questions as I look at all of this. And even at the end where the shepherds returned glorified, praising God for all the things that they had seen and was told unto them. Man, you know what? As the shepherds of the countryside of Bethlehem took good care of their sheep every day, they moved them from place to place, ensure that there was plenty of grass to feed them. Every night they should watch over them. And as far as the shepherds were concerned, there was nothing unusual about the night Jesus was born. That is, until an angel appeared out of them and a great light shone upon them. And imagine how surprised the shepherds were when they heard an angel of the Lord speak to them. I want to pause there for a minute. I brought an olive carving from Abraham. that I passed around in the room, and it showed a picture of David when he was a young shepherd boy, and he had a little lamb thrown around his neck, toting it. Aren't you glad that that's how much the Savior loves us, that he'll leave the nine and nine to find a little lost sheep? And it goes on, it says, imagine how surprised the shepherds were when they heard an angel of the Lord speak to them. This angel said, I don't know how an angel speaks, but it's got to be powerful. Behold, I bring you good tidings, great joy, which shall be to all people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord, in parentheses. Notice Luke chapters, verses 10 and 11. And so since time began, men had looked for the Savior. They knew that he would come, but probably The shepherds did not expect him that particular night. The angel told the shepherds how that they would know the baby. He would be wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And the shepherds found the Savior that night, just as the angel told them. Everything was true. The good news was for all people. The Savior came into the world and not just for a select few. He came just as much for the people of today as he did for those shepherds long ago. He's the Savior. of all who believe and trust in him. And so Jesus came to rescue you and I. And with our encounter of Eloise, we begin to realize that as Jesus, we do our activity pages because we've got all of these words that are going to go into our crossword puzzle. First of all, peace will go in, P-E-A. Let's mark that one out. Our next one that we're gonna spell is God. Oh, here he is. Let's mark him out. Okay. The next one that we're gonna try to do, shepherds that goes across through here. Oh, let's mark it out. Okay. All right, gotcha. OK, let's do our next one, then, that we do. And let's see. Sign. Oh, that's pretty good right there. OK, we got more. OK. Oh, look, we're making pretty good progress in this here thing. Oh, man, look out. OK, now what's our next one? Jesus. OK. Wow, OK. Savior. Wow, OK. OK. OK. Oh. OK, what we got next? Angel, wow. OK. Angel, where you at? OK. All right, let's see. Host, OK. Mark you out, OK. Okay, what did I do here? Let's see. What's our next one? Angel. Okay. Host is out. Glory. Wow. Okay. Okay. Mm-hmm. Stable, huh? Mm-hmm. Okay. All right. Wow, we're making some pretty good progress here. Mm-hmm. Okay. All right. Well, I'm sorry I went too fast, didn't I? Sorry. All right, let's see what else we can do here. Oops, salvation. Mm-hmm. Salvation is found only through Jesus. What it is, some of the letters appear in circles. Write the circled letters that appear in your answers in the space provided, and unscramble the letters to form a word. Okay? So, let's see. We'll do the unscramble after we find the words. So we've got salvation. We've got what? Everlasting. Oh, OK. Let's see. What else do we get? We are justified through the blood of Jesus. Jesus also everlasting life. We are justified through the blood of Jesus. Wow. Justify. OK, I see. What's our next one here? Oh, the shepherds were given a sign so that they would know the baby Jesus. Wow. Okay, here we go. Ooh, hey, I colored on myself. Better look out here. Gee, I didn't know I could do that. And then the angel said, behold, I bring you. Ooh, there we go. Okay, so if we unscramble, what are we gonna find? Because we're dealing with this, this, this, this, this. What do we got going on here? The scrambled and the unscrambled. Oh, S-E-J-S-U. Now, that's the scrambled. That's how it came into order. Okay. Then, unscramble that thing. Oh, it's pretty easy, isn't it? Who is it? It's Jesus. All right. Yeah. And so, here, what we're supposed to do is color in the thing. We color them in. This is a little coloring exercise. And then we do our Jesus. I'm not going to be doing that good a job of it, but we did a good job when we was in the class when we did our exercises. Okay. And so, yep. Okay. Yep. Of course you see it. But what is really good is to be able to color this in And you can take your PowerPoint and color and do all the little gadgets. Oh, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. Look at that sun come out right there. Oh, wow. Okay. Then over here we got words making up the memory verse that are arranged randomly in the circles below. Write the words in order as they appear in the verse. Now, what are we talking about? This is our memory verse that we did earlier, remember? Don't worry, it's going to come back to you as we do it. Because, BING! For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Now, how do we do that? BOOM! FOR! Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Whoa, that went pretty good. Hey, we want to do that again. I like that. Wow, looky here. Hey, I'm doing me some painting over here now. Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, oh man. Hey, that ain't bad at all. I think I did a pretty good job. How about y'all, huh? Okay, now here we go. Now, Place a star beside the verse below that tells us all men are sinners. Underline the verse below that tells us salvation is the free gift of God. Put a checkmark to the right of the verse that tells us we deserve to go to hell. Ooh, that's sad. And circle the verse that tells us Jesus paid the price for our sins. Draw an arrow pointing to the verse that tells us salvation is through Jesus. And last but not least, draw a smiley face to the left of the verse that tells us salvation is a simple act of faith. You ready? Let's give it a try. Let's see. Can we do it? I think we can. Oh, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, Romans 3.23. Place a star beside the verse below that tells us all men are sinners. Uh-oh, here's an underline. Underline the verse below that tells us salvation is the free gift of God. Okay. A checkmark. Put a checkmark to the right of the verse that tells us that we deserve to go to hell. Hmm. Wow. Okay. For the wages of sin and death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Circle the verse that tells us Jesus paid the price for us all. For God committed his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We draw an arrow pointing to the verse that tells us salvation is through Jesus. O man, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Romans 10, 9. And then what does it tell us to do? A smiley face. Draw a smiley face to the left of the verse that tells us salvation is a simple act of faith. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, these are very personal. You may put your things on there. I'm going to put my personal profile on there. When I grow up, I want to be a soldier. Maybe you might want to be a preacher. Maybe you want to be a sailor. Maybe you want to be an engineer. Maybe you want to be a truck driver. Maybe you want to be just like your dad. Maybe you just want to be just like your mama when you grow up. Whatever that personal thing is. I want to drive a pickup truck. I love a pickup truck. I ain't got one right now. but I've always had a pickup truck all my life until these past few years. I wanna live in the country. I'm a country boy. Hey, what'd they say? Country boy can't survive? Sure can. Hey, I'm gonna tell you, even no matter what. But the most important person I can know is Jesus. Oh, Jesus. Hallelujah. And he is the most important person. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which Christ the Lord. And so our elephants, man, African elephants, 1800 pounds, 10 feet, average man, the six foot, 13 feet, the largest elephant ever recorded, 2400 pounds, 50 gallons of water. Oh, my goodness, that they can hold 220 pounds of food. Wow. 70,000 calories every day. Wow, look down in them ribs. Here we see the tusks that are great giant teeth, the enamel, the pulp cavity, the dentin. They can grow six feet, those big old tusks. A wildlife official set fire to ivory to combat the growing threat of poaching where people kill elephants just for their ivory. How sad it is. African elephants are not in danger. Now they're really, they are getting to be. but the one that's really endangered is the Asian elephant. The Asian cousins, they have been endangered for a long time. And so, as we look at how they stand on their toes, they're very intelligent creatures as well. They can do the mark test. The elephant can recognize the mark shouldn't be there and tries to fix it in their reflection. That's how smart elephants are. They're as smart as a horse. and they're the only living animals with long trunks. Wow, can you imagine? Boy, that's something else. Now I'm gonna tell you, as we get ready to go our separate ways, this is the first encounter that Jesus is my rescue in Proclamation Safari Park. We're fixing to get out of our Jeeps and get ready to go to the house. Here at Bethel Crossroads, we've done had another marvelous time in the Lord, and we close out Later on, I will give you the Romans road, but not right now, that this is our first encounter. And I hope and pray that you got something out of it. There are about four more lessons to come. Eventually we'll get them on there. But this is for my kids that I've known from people's Valley and all of the wonderful family of God there that we send this out to you with love. And for the many that didn't get to make it to Bethel crossroads, This is sent out to all of you. Admit to God that you're a sinner and need him, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Believe that Jesus died for your sins and rose from the dead. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Acts 16 31. Call on Jesus the Savior for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, not might be, could be, shall be saved. Romans 10 13. Father, Thank you for this encounter on this safari. Lord, I asked you to touch the many young lives that have taken in this lesson very quickly to relay it to their hearts, their young hearts. They are the future of the church. And Lord, if we're not treating it so, we need to fix it. If we haven't started back a children's church, we need to do so. If we're not doing vacation Bible school, We need to do so. Father, for all those pastors that are overwhelmed. Maybe they were not able to have the time to do vacation Bible school this time. Maybe there was some kids that they were on vacation and for whatever reasons they were busy and their schedule did not permit them. I send this out to all of those families. On behalf of our pastor, Keith Dempsey, Bethel Crossroads in Taylorsville, Georgia, Thank you, Father. And thank you for all the wonderful people that planted seeds at Bethel Crossroads for all of those kids that came. All of the singing that we did. What a marvelous time that we had in the Lord, in Jesus's marvelous mighty name. Save them, Father. Save them before it's too late. May we reach them while they're young. and let them make a decision for themselves to step out on faith and take you at your word in Jesus's marvelous mighty name. Amen. Thank you.