God is Spirit

	pass out bracelets, necklaces, earrings (made of gold paper)
Introduce Moses the Lawgiver	Man with plaster law tablet (none of the kids would stay up on the ladder long enough, for sure)
during this story, he's up on the mountain with God, way up in the clouds	goes to top of ladder, waits under sheet
He has been gone a long time. The people are getting nervous. How do we know he's coming back? Are we left on our own?
remember when God led us out of Egypt? During the day, he appeared like a big cloud to show us the way	show pillar of cloud, everyone follows it
and at night, like a big pillar of fire	everyone follows pillar of fire
But now, we don't have anything. Moses isn't even here! So they go talk to Moses' brother, Aaron.	one boy as Aaron
Aaron, we need a god we can SEE!
So Aaron says, give me all your gold jewelry, and let's see what we can do.	they give him their jewelry. He collects it in a bag. They help him make a fire. He puts the jewelry in a big pot over a fire & stirs it with a big stick, then takes out big calf picture (also from gold paper) from pot.
Look at this! The people say, hey, that's great! Cows are strong, they provide meat and milk and clothing, and help pull our plows…they're great!	stick calf up on wall
So they all say, from now on, THIS is the god who brought us out of Egypt	everyone cheers, pretend to pour wine, clink glasses
Everybody is very happy! But who is NOT happy? GOD is not happy!	(ask all)
Remember where Moses is?	(ask all)
He's up there on the mountain talking to God. And God says to him, Moses, do you know what the people are doing down there? They are worshipping a COW! Get down there and tell them to STOP IT RIGHT NOW!	Moses comes down,
Are you guys crazy? Could a COW do miracles? Could a COW bring us up from Egypt? Don't you know that the real God could destroy you for making this cow?!	beats them with law that breaks. Tears the cow into pieces.
Everybody is very ashamed of themselves	Pull ears, say sorry

 

Game: collecting gold things—lemons, hidden treasure-hunt style

 

Craft: grinding things & making them drink—juicing lemons, mashing sugar cubes, mixing with water to make lemonade

 

Bible study: Isaiah 40:25-26

 

I thought the lemon game was going to be too easy, but it turned out to be hard. I know the kids knew what the clues were saying about "the dish cabinet" or "the refrigerator," but they just didn't seem to be able to grasp that they were supposed to look for something specific in those places, even after quite a pile of lemons had been collected. And then one of the boys had a meltdown in the process. It was finally arrested when someone suggested he be given a piece of candy. Not sure what gave them that idea & I'm sure glad we happened to have some around, because it did the trick.

 

This same boy was happy as a clam during craft time, which he normally doesn't seem to like. Banging on the sugar cubes was something he really enjoyed, for some reason. Most of the other boys had them crushed rather coarsely, but Chun Lai's were practically powdered sugar by the time he was done!

 

We had a great Bible study time, talking about the difference between God and a cow (rather obvious) but then also the difference between God and a man (which are what most Chinese "gods" are). It seemed to click with at least one mom. That's exciting!