Starting with Christmas, we left the OT for a while and did a series on the life of Jesus
Date | Bible story | Game | Craft | Bible study |
12/24/06 | Birth of Christ | Pin the baby in the manger | Christmas cards | Isaiah 9:6 |
12/31/06 | Jesus at 12 | Hide and seek | ?? | Prov. 2:1-5 |
1/7/07 | (guest speaker) | ?? | ?? | ?? |
1/14/07 | Jesus' baptism | Bobbing for plums | Paper cups | John 1:29-34 |
1/21/07 | free talk/play | -- | -- | -- |
1/28/07 | Jesus' temptation | Red light, green light | Making "bread" (micro muffins | Story + Heb. 2:15 |
2/4/07 | Jesus as teacher | Follow the leader | Teaching scrolls | Luke 15:4-7 |
2/11/07 | Sermon on the Mount | Turning somersaults | Wrapping gifts | Matt. 7:24-27 |
2/18/07 | (Chinese New Year fun) | -- | -- | -- |
2/25/07 | Calming the storm/Jesus as miracle worker | Soaking paper boats with squirt gun | Stormy waves sponge painting (total flop) | John 9:1-7 |
3/4/07 | Gadarene demonaic | Bowling | Origami pig faces | Rom. 8:38-39 |
3/11/07 | Free talk/play | -- | -- | -- |
3/18/07 | Cleansing the temple | "money exchange" flash cards | Braiding cords | True prayer— examples from various Psalms |
3/25/07 | Triumphal entry | Giant steps (winner=king) | Leaf prints on paper cups | Mark 10:42-45 |
4/1/07 | Death of Jesus | Casting lots (for treats) | Colored rice crosses | Gospel |
4/8/07 | Resurrection | Egg & spoon relay | Origami butterflies | I Cor. 15: 14:19 |
4/15/07 | Free talk/play | -- | -- | -- |
4/22/07 | Ascension & promise to return | Silly wedding shower game | Ascension picture puzzles | John 14:1-3 |
Some notes on this unit: We had a few Sundays where only one family unit showed—we wondered if our fledgling work was going to crash. We eventually did recover, but the "free talk/play" times were on the whole not planned for!
I don't seem to have a record of what I did for a craft for Jesus at 12. Any ideas?
Bobbing for plums—they're softer than apples; easier to bite into. They also sink! But that worked out well; we just put them in enough water so that the kids would get their noses & chins a little wet, but didn't have to submerge their whole faces.
Jesus as teacher was a fun Sunday. We first talked about what kind of teacher Jesus was not—for example, His disciples didn't have to sit in rows wearing school uniforms. We lined the six kids up in rows & had them each put on a (pre-tied) necktie. It was SO cute; I should have gotten a picture. We told how he did teach, by walking along with His disciples, and camping together—at one point all the kids had to take big towels out of their "packs" and spread them on the floor and go to sleep. Another missed Kodak moment!
The sermon on the mount was an absolute riot. I will try to insert my favorite picture from that morning: acting out the principle of not looking at a woman with lust in your heart. (The paper was blank, but you couldn't prove it by Ka Hei's expression!
"God-sightings" in our little venture include amazing timing of some of the units, NOT consciously planned by me. We did gift wrapping as a craft for the sermon on the mount to highlight Jesus' exhortation to anonymous giving. It just happened to be the week before Chinese New Year, so we wrapped gifts to deliver to a daycare center for children from poor families.
We did somersaults for a game that week because Jesus' teaching turned traditional thinking upside down! J
The storm paintings might have worked, but I thought I knew how to make some washable paint & I didn't. It was washable enough, it just didn't color the paper very well! Sigh. But one of the delights of working with this Merciful Love bunch, is that bombing out on occasion is not a big deal. Everyone knows all too well what it feels like to try & try & still not see results. So we laugh and try something else next time.
Finally, the Ascension was another all-time highlight. A friend (thanks again Joy!!) helped me find a shop selling helium balloons. After a brief story time, we said, yes, it's hard to imagine, so let's go picture what it was like. We went down to the alleyway in front of our building and released a balloon & watched it go. Most of the adults, never mind the kids, had never seen this done before and all were quite fascinated. As was the workman repairing a balcony just across the alley. But the real show-stopper was yet to come. Again, with un-plannable timing, that happened to be the Sunday when we had two blond missionary friends visiting. They didn't come right down to the alley with us, but quickly changed clothes. So while we were all staring up at the shrinking balloon, suddenly two blond angels appeared in white choir robes & haloes. I think the workman almost fell off his scaffolding when one of them opened her mouth and scolded the rest of us--in fluent Cantonese--for staring up into heaven, & then shooed us back upstairs!
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