Blessed are the Persecuted

I'm cheating and using Chinese again since I had to get it all written out for Mrs. Lei to lead. We did the story of Peter & John healing the lame man ("Silver and Gold have I none…") and being thrown into jail for it.

耶穌復活和升天之後﹐他的門徒在耶路撒冷傳福音。兩個叫彼得和約翰。	兩個男子大十字架
有一天﹐他們去聖典﹐同時有一個瘸腿的人被人抬來﹐為求賙濟。	兩個大人抬一個男子﹐放在地。他有杯﹐向彼得和約翰求賙濟
彼得叫他望著他們。	要望著
彼得說﹕金﹐銀﹐我都沒有﹐只把我所有的給你。我奉耶穌基督的名﹐叫你你起來行走﹗	拉他起身
那個人歡喜到又行走﹐又跳躍	行走﹐跳躍
週圍的人很出奇﹐想知道怎樣發生。他們解識是藉著耶穌的名。	大家問他們怎能得﹐要答 [耶穌]
跟住有些猶太祭司出來	兩個或三個男子戴太
祭司不喜歡聽他們用耶穌的名﹐所以拉他們坐監。	叫另外一個男子帶槍﹐拉彼得和約翰﹐坐兩張檯後邊
他們坐監就辛苦。監裏有老鼠﹗他們要過一夜。	扔兩隻老鼠子入監
第二天﹐要去祭司面前。祭司問他們﹐要不要改你答案﹖你們用甚麼能力作這事呢﹖	要答 [耶穌]
祭司覺得很出奇﹔這些無學問的人敢同祭司駁嘴。 叫帶槍那個人看著他們﹐就一齊商量	帶槍的人拉彼得和約翰企側邊
他們說﹕我們怎樣辦﹖很想因為他們說開耶穌的名就殺死他們。但他們很明顯作了很大的神職。很怕我們殺死他們﹐百姓就殺死我們﹗後來決定了...	祭司拍著肩為商量﹔決定了就叫彼得和約翰回來
向他們說﹕今次我們讓你走﹐但從今以後﹐你們不准奉耶穌的名教訓人。但他們回答說﹕我們要聽神的話才聽你的話吧。	說完﹐彼得和約翰去接近大家
彼得和約翰現有甚麼感受﹖懼怕﹖	問大家
反而幾開心﹗他們說﹕要想念著耶穌為我們受很多苦﹔我們若可以為了尊重他受些少苦楚就很榮幸﹗
所有信徒一齊讚美神﹐說﹕主耶穌﹐多謝你保祐我們。求你幫我們將來也可以大膽﹐不怕他們的逼迫	大家一齊起身﹐舉高手
阿門

 

Game: "leaping and praising God" (on bouncy horse)

Craft: Peter & John in prison—craft sticks on paper

B. Study: Matthew 5:10-11

Nothing really unusual or exciting to report this week. We did have a very good adult Bible study on choosing to do what is right ( be it believing in Jesus or saying no to drugs or whatever), pointing out among other things that whatever you do, somebody's not going to like it, so you need to decide yourself what you think is right. And Bruce brought up an example of Jesus being hated for healing someone on the Sabbath, which led to some interesting parallels between 1^st-century Sabbath taboos and traditional Chinese New Year taboos such as not washing your hair on the first day of the New Year (don't want to wash your luck away). I think it helped make the "foreign" concept of Sabbath laws more understandable.

Blessed are the Peacemakers

Our story:

We have been talking a lot about Israel's history…originally Israel was a person. God gave him the name Israel, which means, "He strives with God." But his birth name was Jacob, which means "grabber." Neither one sounds like the name of a peacemaker, does it?!

Jacob was actually one of twins. He was the younger of the two, & his older brother was named Esau. (choose smaller boy as Jacob, bigger boy as Esau) The two boys did not get along very well. One reason was that Jacob was always tricking Esau! (two boys sit with bowls of food. Jacob points, Esau looks, Jacob steals food.) Jacob made him so mad that Esau wanted to kill him! So he ran away to his ancestral country. (Jacob runs away) While he was away, Jacob got married. He wanted to marry Rachel (choose one girl), but because of custom, he ended up having to marry her older sister as well (choose older girl or woman). And then, they didn't have children as fast as they would have liked, so he ended up taking two concubines as well. (two more girls) Well, they needn't have worried! Jacob ended up with twelve sons! (distribute 11 dolls to each girl according to number; explain that Rachel only has one so far at this point in story)*

Jacob was a shepherd. He had a lot of sheep and goats (have kids help post pictures of flocks of sheep & goats on walls). (Ask all): So, do you suppose Jacob was pretty content? Actually, he missed his home and wanted to go back. But he was still kind of afraid of his older brother. So when he planned to go home, he sent a servant ahead to let his brother know he was coming. (choose boy to go tell Esau) Esau responds: Okay, if he is coming back, then my friends and I are going to meet him! (Esau chooses two more boys/men & all three take swords)(servant reports back)

Jacob is really afraid now! So he prays (kneels down, clasps hands) and God gives him an idea (gets up). First, he chooses some servants and puts them in charge of part of his flocks (one picture of sheep, one picture of goats, to each of two boys) Next, he says, if Esau is really determined to harm me, I hope he will harm me first and not my family. So he lines them all up for the trip: the concubines with their children first, then Leah with her children, and finally Rachel and her son. (line girls up accordingly) He puts himself in front of them. But he sends his servants on ahead to give the flocks to Esau as a present. (servants bring pictures to Esau) Esau is very impressed. Here this brother who used to always steal from him is now giving him presents! Wow, God must have really changed his heart. Maybe we can really be friends like brothers should be from now on! (Esau & men throw down their swords)

So when they meet, instead of attacking Jacob, Esau hugs Jacob. (they hug) After that they were not enemies any more.

 

*I didn't want to buy eleven dolls for this occasion. I have been saving paper towel rolls in case we need them for a craft in the future, so each "son" was a cardboard tube with a face attached. It worked fine, and was cheap!

 

We had a little extra fun with this story because we ended up choosing a Jacob who was genuinely afraid of the designated Esau. He played the "I'm nervous about what my brother might do to me" scenes VERY convincingly! Getting them to hug was impossible. Jacob blew Esau a kiss from a safe distance! Finally they were persuaded to shake hands.

 

For our game, we had the Jacob team and the Esau team racing to meet each other in the middle as they rolled velcro-hook balls along velcro-loop tracks. Turned out almost too easy, but everyone seemed to like it. Craft was doves of peace from a children's craft website.

 

It was NOT a super "peaceful" morning though. Many little glitches; the main one being that while Grandma Si was out of her chair, Si Wa Hon got hold of her reading glasses and broke them deliberately into pieces before we realized what he was doing. Grandma said that is the third pair he has broken already. He also has a thing about cutting buttons and collars off family members' clothing if he gets his hands on a pair of scissors. If you're reading this, please pray for God's mercy on this situation!!

 

In the meantime, a relatively new mom, Mrs. Sam, is asking some really good questions about what it means to live as a Christian. That's exciting. It's also another one of these frustrating situations where she works fulltime and then has the family to take care of when she's home. Not a lot of time to do personal work with her. Pray for her too! Thank you!

 

Blessed are the Pure in Heart

Our story:

Last week we looked at Israel's first king, Saul. Now we're going to jump ahead several hundred years, to a time when God is about to punish the entire nation for how much they have sinned. He spoke through a prophet named Jeremiah (boy in prophet's mantle). Now, Israel had promised God that when they heard His commands, they would say, "Yes, Sir!" (a line from one of our songs). (ask all): Is it important to keep promises? (ask all): Did Israel keep their promise? They did not! But they kept fooling themselves, saying that God loved them, so He would never punish them. So, one day, God's word came to Jeremiah. (girl with halo "flies" in): "Go to the descendants of Rechab and invite them to come to the temple with you. There invite them to drink wine." (angel flies away. J. chooses three to be Rechabites and brings them to table. Sets out three cups. Holds up wine bottle.) J. invites them to drink wine, but they refuse. They explain, "Over 200 years ago, our ancestor Jonadab son of Rechab vowed that his descendants would not drink wine. So, sorry, but we can't drink this." J. says, "Oh, don't be so polite, come on, have a drink." But the Rechabites refuse again and leave. (they leave) J. says to God, "What was that all about? I invited them like you said, but they refused, very politely too. Did I do something wrong?" (angel reappears): "Actually I wanted to show you what a good example they are for the Israelites. Here their ancestor says one time, over 200 years ago, that his descendants wouldn't drink wine, and they have been obedient to this day. They are truly loyal and pure in heart. But my people Israel in general? I have told them over and over to obey my commandments, and they don't listen!" (ask J.): Do they deserve to be punished? (ask all): Should they be punished? "They definitely will be punished. Some will die, some will be carried away as exiles to other countries. But the descendants of Rechab? I will bless them, because they have shown their hearts are pure. (angel leaves. J. finds the 3 Rechabites and shakes hands.)

As usual, I've taken some liberties with the story! There's no angel in the Biblical account, for example, but it gave one more child a chance to participate in the story, and also made for more visualization & less just talking.

That "over 200 years"? Recently in my devotions in II Kings I noticed that the name of a man who fought alongside King Jehu of Judah was Jehonadab son of Rechab. My assumption is that this is the same person as is cited in Jeremiah 35.

For a game, we searched for "pure (milk chocolate) hearts" under moving teacups—like the shell game. Funny how well the boys concentrate when there's chocolate involved! For a craft, what's purer than snow, right? So we made snow globes, which were VERY simple (thanks to the florist's clay I finally tracked down on Home Assignment in anticipation of this craft) but fun.

A friend from Hong Kong, a special ed teacher, gave a brief devotional during the regular Bible study time, on how the innocence of their children illustrates the kind of purity of heart God blesses. Then she gave time for questions as well as praying for the parents. Her talk was very well received.

Blessed are the Merciful

We had a great time at our second anniversary celebration this past Sunday! To illustrate this beatitude, we used the story of David cutting off a piece of Saul's robe in the cave (I Chronicles 24). Wa Hon is not only the biggest kid in our group, he also loves to dress up, so he was a natural to play Saul in his fancy robe (made of wrapping paper). The "X" on his breast is to show he was not a good king. ("David" got a gold star for being a good guy.)

Special highlights included David demonstrating his loyalty to Saul by an "apocryphal" scene of presenting to the king the booty from one of his successful battles. David (Ka Hei) was told to kneel down in front of the king. Instead, he sat on the floor. No, kneel! Okay, he knelt. Facing the wrong way. No, turn around! So he turned around. He was very tolerant of all this—he's come a long way! So then we told him to present this bag of "silver coins" to Saul. He opened the bag and gave him one coin. No, give him all the coins! So he started pulling them out very reluctantly one by one. So much for loyalty! Ha!

Our facility lends itself well to these little dramas. When David and his cronies were to hide in the cave, we sent them to the bathroom which opens at the front end of the "sanctuary" (and makes for some rather unworshipful moments at times…). They hid in the bathtub behind the shower curtain. Later, after Saul & his army ran around unable to find David, Saul went into the cave to sit on the toilet. (My understanding is that that is what the Bible really means!) So then the parents sitting back in the main room just saw David's hand coming out from behind the shower curtain and cutting off a corner of the paper robe.

For the game, we recycled the one from the story of the hemorrhaging woman in unit 4B. Rather than take a piece off of Saul's robe, the object of this game was for each child to remove a piece of candy that had been attached loosely to an adult volunteer's "robe." Unlike Saul, Mr. Lei was instructed to keep moving to make the game more of a challenge. When it came to Wa Hon's turn, he didn't quite get the rules. He just sprang up and started "dancing" with Mr. Lei!

For craft time, we had made up some simple tunic-style garments out of an old tablecloth. Each one had a tear ("like Saul's robe") that had to be sewn up. This one turned out to be hard for the moms to let the kids do. I was really pleased when one mom finally decided to make her son at least pull the needle through the cloth each time she started it through. Ka Ho is our most hyperactive kid right now & tends to shun craft time as being too restrictive. But he needs to learn to settle down, so I hope this is the start of a trend.

We ended up our morning with a potluck. Grandma Si made the most wonderful fried sticky-rice! Yum!

Hungering and Thirsting after Righteousness

After Jesus had already died, risen, and returned to heaven, His disciples when around to different cities and countries to preach the gospel.
Two who went together were Paul and Silas	Two boys with cross pendants walk around
They went to a Greek city called Thessalonica, and stayed at the home of someone named Jason.	boys knock on "door", another boy as Jason welcomes them & pours them tea
The next day, they went to the Jewish house of worship	have boys & girls sit on separate sides of the room as in a traditional synagogue
They used the Old Testament, which is the original Bible of the Jews, to explain the truth about Jesus to them.	hold up Bible
"Every year you celebrate the Passover, when God forced the king of Egypt to let His people leave.	"Silas" displays flannel scene of house, pyramids in background
They had to kill a lamb and offer in to God, then take some of its blood and put it on the doorposts. When God came to punish Egypt, the Israelites didn't have to be afraid, because of the lamb's blood..	"Paul" adds lamb on altar, blood on doorposts
So Passover shows us how the lamb's blood made them not have to fear dying..
Now Jesus' blood, in the same way, protects us from God's punishment so that we don't have to be afraid of our souls dying."	"Silas" switches to blank flannel scene; "Paul" puts up Jesus on cross
What do you suppose was the response of the people?	(ask all)
A few people believed	1-2 get up and join P & S at front of room
But most of the people said, no way, we are already God's people. Those people who worship idols are sinners, but we don't need God to forgive us!	laugh at Paul & Silas, tell them to go away They & "new believers" leave & go into side room.
After they left, some people said, it isn't enough to turn them out of the synagogue; we should chase them out of town too!	everybody gets up and starts running around looking for P & S. Can't find them.
Finally someone says, well, this Jason invited them in. We can punish him at least! So they grabbed him and dragged him in front of the judge..	grab "Jason" and drag him to the judge (tall boy in black baptismal robe)
The judge fined Jason but let him go.	Jason gives money to judge
The new believers told Paul & Silas they'd better go. So they went on to Berea.	"new believers" push P & S away, they walk around room.
Once again they went to the synagogue first.	separate men & women again
And again they used the OT to explain the gospel	(repeat flannelgraph story)
What response do you suppose they had?	(ask all)
They said, wow, if this is really true, it's wonderful! We wouldn't have to fear God's judgment any more, we could have his righteousness! But of course just because it sounds good doesn't mean it's true. Let's check it out for ourselves to see if what they're saying really is in the Bible.	Pass out Bibles to everyone. Whoever is first to find Isaiah 53:5, reads it aloud
Yes! Everything they're saying is really according to God's word! We can enjoy God's reghteiousness and not fear his punishment! Yahoo!!	everyone jumps up & down & celebrates with P & S

Game: Racing to "hungrily" eat bowls of pistachios—which are translated "happy nuts" in Cantonese!

Craft: fridges filled with "righteous" food (veggie stickers)—thanks, Dave K., for the great idea! It worked very well!

Bible study: Matthew 5:6