Simon Magus

It was raining buckets this Sunday, so we weren't sure how many were going to show up. But we ended up with four kids, eventually (the 4^th came during the game time). We set an arbitrary limit of three kids before we do the regular program, and so we had the three to start with.

My non-charismatic leanings show in this story. I kind of like the way I ended up explained the evidence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the new believers, though!

Last time we saw how Stephen was killed. The people who stoned him gave their coats to a young man to watch for them.	give stack of jackets to one boy
This young man's name was Saul. Is this the same person as King Saul?	put crown on head, ask all.
This Saul really wanted to see more Christians killed like Stephen. So starting from that day, he started to help the Jewish leaders hunt out Christians to haul them off for trial.	Have Saul ask various if they believe. When one says yes, grabs & hauls off.
And so a lot of believers got out of Jerusalem, hoping that Saul would not track them down.	All kids (except Saul) get up & run around room.
One of these believers was named Philip. He went to the city of Samaria.	Show Samaria on map
Even though Samaria was part of Israel, many of the people in this area had strayed from their traditional faith. They would believe almost anything; they had a lot of superstitions.
For example, in that city there was a magician named Simon. He used all sorts of magic tricks to gain a following.	Introduce Simon, with hat & wand. He does two "magic tricks"
But after Philip came, not so many people listened to him.	Ask: is he happy?
Philip was preaching the gospel of Jesus, and he was also healing many people in the name of Jesus.	feels some foreheads, lifts them up
A lot of people wanted to follow someone with that kind of power, and so they were baptized. Even Simon was baptized.	Philip "baptizes" several, incl. Simon (they don't kneel)
Well, when the leaders in Jerusalem heard about this, they were amazed! Samaritans becoming Christians??!! So they sent Peter & John up to Samaria to check it out.	Choose two, cross pendants, walk around & meet up with Philip, who introduces them to various believers
They congratulate Philip on his good work, but soon they became aware that many of the people, although they had been baptized, didn't fully understand the truth. They were believing in Jesus because of the miracles they saw, but they didn't realize their need to repent and have their sins forgiven. As Peter and John prayed with them, the Holy Spirit fell upon them.	Leaders have various ones kneel, lay hands on heads, they stand up, high five
After that, there was a huge change in their lives! Simon saw this and thought to himself: now, doctors can often heal sickness, but I'd never heard of anyone being able to change someone's heart!
So he took some money and tried to give it to Peter, saying, I want to have this power to change people's hearts too! How much money do you want to sell me this power?	Simon goes to leaders with money bag.
Peter says, shame on you! You'd better change your own heart first! You just want to get glory from people, instead of wanting to give glory to God. If you don't repent, God will surely punish you!	Peter grabs money bag & throws it on floor.
Simon says—I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please ask God to forgive me!	Simon begs forgiveness (pulls ears); Peter puts his arm around him.

I was gratified that everyone knew that this Saul was not the same as King Saul.

For the first of our two "magic tricks," I had put a false bottom into our magician's hat & he pulled a flower out of it. Then we had him put a girl in one of the side bedrooms and wave his magic wand and say the magic words (Monny Monny Ho! That's what they say here instead of Abracadabra). Then we looked into the room and she had "disappeared"—suddenly there was a knock at the balcony door and we let the girl in from over there. Yes, we all know there is a connecting door, but we all pretended we didn't!

Many thanks to Sharlene Ortlund for helping me draw all the pictures for the game—pictures/symbols of things that money can & can't buy. Kids had to pick a card off a board, and then determine whether or not you could buy it with money. If so, they would pay one of the "silver coins" (courtesy of Chippewa EFC—we use them lots!). The "winner" was the one who had the most coins left at the end.

We made magicians' hats for craft time. That's where our trouble started. It was a good craft; everyone enjoyed it except our oldest boy who was getting very frustrated because his tape wouldn't hold while he was reaching for another piece. He got angry when I suggested his mom help him by holding the hat in place while he was getting more tape. He wanted to do it himself! Another caregiver near him had the brilliant idea of ripping off several pieces of tape and placing on the edge of the table within easy reach, so he could get them with one hand. Disaster was temporarily averted. But then when we were all done, he wanted to attach a top to his hat. None of the other kids had done this (too difficult so I hadn't included it as part of the project), but he knew that the hat we'd used for the story had a top. I suggested he could work on putting the top on during free time which was coming up. Well, then I think what happened was that in taking down the tables his hat & the crown piece got mixed up with some of the others and that infuriated him. He started hitting himself in anger. Before too long he did calm down & was willing to do math workbook stuff which is how he usually likes to spend the free time. But then when he got restless and wanted to go, his temper was already too close to the surface. When mom wasn't ready to go immediately, he began hitting himself in the face & on the legs.

This is where we had a little conflict of cultures—my modus operandi was to try and calm him down, say, hey, sorry, it won't be that long. But the Chinese way of some of the other adults was to yell at him and threaten various consequences for such behavior (not being able to return, calling the police and having them take him to the pysch hospital where he has spent time in the past, etc.). To me, it was natural that this increased his frustration rather than stop his behavior. When he tried to kick one of his "tormentors," I DID yell at him sharply (ONCE) to stop that: but I did also sort of sympathize with him! Sigh. We need to discuss this at our core group meeting this coming Sunday. I think our other parents are worried about their kids' safety, but I'm not so sure expulsion is called for. Nor any help for poor mom. May we know the leading of the Holy Spirit!!

Bible study was from Matthew 23: 1-5a, 11-12, on not doing religious things for your own glory.

Stephen the Martyr

Just preparing for each week's activities is becoming so energy-consuming that it's hard for me to get around to posting. Especially when I have to do it in Chinese, as was true this past week (tomorrow's is in phonetic spelling, since I'm leading it myself. Easier to prepare but then I need to "translate" in order to post…sigh.)

Anyway, here is the story as given to Mr. Lei to lead:

	先叫每一個孩子穿外袍
上次我們看七個人被揀選負責管理派食物給有需要的人。雖然很重要的事奉﹐但那些人也可以照自己的恩賜作其它事工。
例如﹐其中一個﹐叫司提反﹐特別會傳福音	介紹司提反
有些未信的人憎恨他。他們想叫人不聽他而信耶穌。	介紹兩個人
他們就發風聲﹐敗壞他的名聲﹕ [司提反違背摩西的律法] [司提反不尊重神的聖殿]	那兩個人寫兩句壞話﹐落在地﹐其他人拾起為讀。
現在很多人埋怨司提反﹔拉他去見猶太教的領袖	幾個人拉他﹐去到一個戴大星的人面前
領袖問他﹕這些事果然有嗎﹖	給他看那兩句話
司提反不值接答他﹐反而開始說故事﹕
你們記得﹐我們的祖先在埃及很痛苦的時候﹐需要神的拯救。那時﹐埃及王要殺死所有男孩。	派幾個孩子為撕裂
有一個女人想救她的兒子	介紹女子﹐抱公仔
她把他放在籃子﹐就放在河邊的蘆荻裏	把公仔放在籃子﹐就放在藍紙上
埃及王的女兒看他﹐就收養他	一個女人﹐戴冠冕﹐拾公仔
他長大就好人﹐關心自己的同包	介紹摩西
有一天﹐他見一個埃及人鞭打一個以色列人﹐就生氣到打死那位埃及人﹐藏在沙土裏	一個用繩打第二個﹔摩西打第一個﹐仆低﹐鋪床單在上
第二天﹐就見兩個以色列人打交﹐他想叫他們和睦	兩個人打交﹐摩西叫他們分開
那兩個人鬧他﹐說﹐誰立你作我們的審判官呢﹖你會不會殺死我們﹐好似你殺死那位埃及人一樣﹖	他們推摩西走
週圍的人喜歡聽這故事。他繼續說﹕	問大家﹕好聽﹖
你們知道﹐他們所棄絕的人﹐40年後回來﹐救以色列出埃及。棄絕他是不是愚蠢﹖	問大家
你們比他們更愚蠢﹗﹗神派自己的兒子來拯救我們﹐但你們棄絕他﹗	問大家﹕這的說話好聽﹖
聽他的人非常不開心﹗要殺死他﹗他們除外袍﹐叫一個人看著﹐就把石頭﹐打死司提反。	除外袍﹐叫一個男子看著﹐扔紙石向 司提反。司提反仆低。
有些信徒抬起他﹐帶他出去埋葬	兩個人抬他走

Some highlights of the story: The way we had people "spread rumors about Stephen" was by having a couple of kids copy out some statements on slips of paper and drop them to be picked up & read. We greatly abbreviated Stephen's speech, focusing on the similarity between Moses and Jesus. So as he "preached" we had some other kids re-enact a few key scenes from Moses' life.

For our game, since everyone laid their coats at Saul's feet, they would have to reclaim them, right? We had everyone (kids plus enough adults to make two teams of four; we had eight jackets on hand) write their name on a label which we stuck to the coats we piled at one adult's feet. They were supposed to find "their" jackets in a relay race. Unfortunately, the labels did not stick well to the jackets, which made for major frustration and confusion! Sigh.

Craft: why didn't I think of some kind of paperweight? Oh well, what we did make were pretty: we used "stones" (small black beads) to make something nice rather than to hurt someone. Strung them together & then glued them onto a pattern like so:

It was not brilliant of me not to double the thread; the needles kept slipping off & a lot of us don't thread needles as easily as we used to, ha! One of our boys pricked himself slightly (didn't draw blood); then he didn't want to keep stringing his beads for fear of hurting himself. But with some coaxing (I'll string one, then you string one…), he got back into it, which was really good for him. He didn't finish enough for a whole picture—he and one other boy ended up "sharing" one—but that worked okay.

For Bible study, I couldn't think of just one good passage to communicate how assurance of forgiveness helps us to forgive others as Stephen did those who were stoning him. So I chose several verses and we did some jumping around in the Bible to look them up. I usually try to avoid this, and I will continue to try and avoid it in the future! Everyone seemed to really enjoy finding their way around the Bible BUT I don't think they paid much attention to what the verses they looked up were trying to illustrate. Sigh!

Structuring for Harmony—Acts 6

We had a rather wild and crazy Sunday. It started out well—more people came on time than usual, for on thing. We've been joking about changing our name from 慈愛家庭聚會(Chi Ngoi Ga Tihng Jeuih Wuih) to 遲到家庭聚會(Chi Dou Ga Ting Jeuih Wuih: that is, from Merciful Love Family Fellowship to Latecomers' Family Fellowship. (Love those Chinese puns)

I thought Mrs. Chan had said they couldn't come this week, but they did. Poor Suk Wah was not having a good day. First she decided she needed to take her underpants off (she is around 13 and starting to develop); but then she put her pants back on, so, okay. But then shortly afterward she erupted at her mom again; took two other women to hold her back from hitting at mom, and one of them got her hair pulled, none too gently, in the process. Then she curled up in a corner and cried for quite a while. She finally calmed down toward the end of the morning.

Not a happy thing, and yet it just affirmed for me: this is why we have MLFF. Where else could mom go to hear about Jesus, if she needs to bring her daughter with her?

Everyone else was pretty good. A-Si did rip the wireless doorbell off the wall as they were leaving, It took us a while to find the battery, but we did, and it still works fine, so no harm done!

Our story was from Acts 6:

Today we will keep learning about the experiences of the early church. As you know, all the original disciples who had followed Jesus were Jewish—like these two church leaders.	Two boys as "church leaders" with Israeli flag stickers and cross pendants
Now there are several thousand believers, and while they are all still Jewish, some have returned from other countries and speak Greek instead of Hebrew.	Greek flag stickers on at least two women/girls and 1-2 men/boys, the rest Israeli.
There were quite a few widows in the church, who received regular gifts of food because of their financial need.	Two different kids give food items to two women with Israeli flags
But sometimes, there were problems with this. Sometimes. Because the people sharing their food didn't know how to speak Greek, they didn't want to bring it to the Greek-speaking widows.	Give food to one boy but have him wait and "refuse" to bring it to a Greek-flag woman.
So sometimes those widows got completely neglected, so they didn't have enough to eat. That wasn't fair, was it?	Ask each child if it's fair for one person to have enough food and another not
They got sort of upset about this!	Encourage "widows" to argue
Finally, one of them went to the leaders to complain	comes & complains to the leaders
The leaders said, we are very sorry; this is a terrible problem. First: are you hungry? Do you know anyone else who is in need of food?	Leader gives food to girl & has her take some back to the other Greek widow
The leaders need to figure out how to solve this problem. They say, we need to appoint some people to be in charge of making sure everyone gets what they need. But we're the only ones who can teach the people all that we heard from Jesus, so we shouldn't do it ourselves.	Leaders huddle
They decide to choose several people who had lots of love for the people as well as wisdom from the Holy Spirit.	Choose 2-3 to represent the 7
The leaders say to them, from now on we need you to be responsible for making sure everyone gets their needs met. It's a very important job. Not only will everyone get fed, but it will help maintain unity and harmony among the believers, which is very important to God.	Ask each "volunteer" if he is willing to accept this responsibility.
Okay, let's ask God to bless your ministry	Volunteers kneel, leaders lay hands on their heads one by one and repeat: "God bless your work"

Game time: just as these chosen servants needed to get the food to the people efficiently, in some restaurants waiters hurry to get food to the people by wearing roller skates! Each child in turn took a "tray" and rolled down the long living room on a "skateboard" (more like a little dolly I'd brought from work—I had a skateboard too, but it was too wobbly; I was afraid somebody would fall & get hurt). The child then got a treat to put on the tray and bring back to the start.

Craft time: we made the "serving trays" out of large oval, thick paper plates—traced the proper shape for the bottom onto craft foam, cut it out & glued it on, then stuck craft foam stickers of various shapes around the edges.

Bible study was from Ephesians 4:30-5:2, on how important it is to God that we be kind to one another like He is toward us.

Ananias and Sapphira

We'd done this story before, during the ten commandments. That was nearly two years ago now, and some of the people remembered the story! Cool!

So here it is:

已經有機千人信主。有些有錢﹐有些貧窮	給他們看兩個公子﹐要說誰有錢﹐誰貧窮
但在基督教會眾全部平等的	放兩個公子在衣架﹔給大家看平等
怎能平等呢﹖是因為個個都當教會是大家庭﹔一齊分享所有。
當時有一個比較有錢的﹐叫巴拿巴	介紹巴拿巴
自己的田地﹐賣了﹐	將 [一塊田] 送給第二個﹐第二個給他一袋銀幣。
就將那些錢奉獻給教會。 (那時沒有奉獻箱﹔想奉獻就交給交會領袖彼得)	先介紹彼得(戴大的十字架)。巴拿把歸低﹐將那袋銀幣放在彼得腳前。
其他信徒欣賞他﹐讚他	個個都與巴拿巴握手
但有另外一個人﹐叫亞拿尼亞﹐和他太太 撒非喇見到多人讚巴拿巴﹐就嗑醋	介紹亞拿尼亞 和 撒非喇
但他沒有多錢。他怕賣了田地﹐就照顧不到自己的子女。	問大家--重要不重要﹖
後來他想到辦法﹕賣了田地﹐將價錢的一半奉獻給教會。只要說是田地的價錢。	問大家--好不好的意見﹖
所以他也賣了一塊田。	[一塊田] 又換一袋銀幣。
亞拿尼亞 和 撒非喇一齊數錢﹐分兩部份	一齊分兩堆﹔撒非喇將一半放自己的手袋
亞拿尼亞將一半﹐放在彼得腳前﹐說是那塊田的價錢﹐就等人的稱讚	歸低﹐將那袋銀幣放在彼得腳前。
但彼得問他﹕有沒有人逼你賣田地﹖亞拿尼亞說﹕沒有﹐是我自己的意見﹗	問亞拿尼亞﹐他作 [No, No!] ﹐又指出自己
彼得又問﹕有沒有人逼你奉獻成個價錢﹖他又答﹕沒有﹐是我自己的意見﹗	又作[No, No!] 又指出自己
最後問﹕有沒有人逼你向神說謊話﹖他又答﹕沒有﹗是我自己的 -- -- -- Uh-oh!	又作[No, No!] 又開始自出自己 --就知道自己的錯。
亞拿尼亞嚇親﹐仆低﹐要人擡他出去。	他仆低﹐兩個人擡他走
撒非喇在家裏等他回來﹐等很久	撒非喇表示不忍耐
她去見彼得﹐想問他去了哪裏。	去見彼得
彼得問她﹕這袋錢是不是你們那塊田的價錢﹖她說﹐是。	撒非喇看看那袋錢﹐就算﹐是﹐是﹗
彼得說﹕你與你的丈夫一樣想欺哄神?! 你以為神不知道嗎﹖
撒非喇又被嚇親﹐仆低﹐要人擡她出去。	她仆低﹐兩個人擡他走
嘩﹗說謊話好不好﹖	問每一個孩子

We next said, Ananias & Sapphira gave the "wrong" amount of money because they were trying to trick the other believers. But sometimes, people give the wrong amount of money when they buy something just because they don't know how to count change. So our game helped us practice adding up the right change. We had a collection of small snacks with various price tags that required combinations of two or three different kinds of coins. Each child got to choose which snack they wanted but then had to choose the right coins from a pile before they could "buy" it. Our one neurotypical nine-year-old was allowed to buy two snacks so that she would have to add the prices up in her head first. This was a popular game, no surprise!

The craft didn't go very well. First, I had had a hard time thinking of one. I finally found a nice little possibility in a Bible craft book, a "no lying" symbol, sort of like a "no smoking" symbol. I was just thinking of what materials to use when suddenly I realized this was a bit of a waste of time: our kids don't know how to lie! Ha! In the end I decided to use an idea where the kids write their names in crayon on a slip of paper, and then cover it up with magic marker like we try to cover our sin. Then I collected the papers and passed them out for each child to rub with a cotton ball and reveal the name that wasn't so hidden after all. Unfortunately, I had practiced on my last sheet of slightly-glossy printer paper. The paper I had bought at a different shop absorbed the marker too completely, so it didn't rub off, even over the crayon lettering! Sigh. Glad we have tolerant parents.

For Bible study, since we didn't want to focus on not lying, we looked at the concept of members of the body having different gifts, from Romans 12:4-8. Ananias didn't have the same gift of giving that Barnabas had, and that should have been all right. We speculated a little: if Ananias had received more affirmation for whatever gift it was he had, would he have been less tempted to try and get the kind of praise Barnabas got for his giving? All of us agreed that getting more affirmation can help reduce envy and increase harmony. So then I had each one choose someone else in the room to affirm for something they saw in them. (They couldn't choose me though; I'm too "up front") They all participated well, but something I found interesting was that, even when I kept encouraging them to do so, NONE of them would look the person they were praising in the eye. They would look anywhere but at that person! I think we need more practice at this, eh?

Something special: I had JUST decided to take one family's name off the list of those I pray for regularly, as they had come only once & we hadn't seen them since. But this morning, there they were! Mom actually left for part of the time because Suk Wa was mad at her and was throwing things at her. Sure enough, she calmed down when mom left. She got back just at the very end of the Bible study time. So she hadn't heard exactly why we had this "assignment," but she was willing to take part anyway. Then at the end she asked this great question: "I can say nice things about others, but what should I do when people are saying nasty things about someone else?" Just that she would ask the question impresses me—too many people don't see this as a problem! So we threw around some ideas (it's hard, isn't it? How do you balance letting people share their hurts with not wanting to listen to bad reports?) Finally I suggested something very unChinese—that she might try asking the complainer if she had talked to the offender, because maybe that person would be horrified to realize she'd offended and would want to apologize if she knew. Mrs. Chan nodded thoughtfully and said, "That's a good idea." Wow, I do like this lady! She and her daughter are staying on my list! She said they can't come this next week, but will be back on the 17^th. Great!

We had two volunteers from Taipa Chapel to watch the kids during the Bible study time again, which was a HUGE help. Bruce and Mr. Lei were both gone, so we wouldn't have had any believers in the study if Mrs. Lei and Mrs. Chu had had to watch the kids. So thankful!

Healing the lame man (Acts 3)

Our story:

Last week, besides celebrating Mr. Lei's birthday, what birthday did we celebrate?	(ask all)
But at that time, to say "there is now a church" meant something different than it does today. Nowadays, you can see that some people are Christians	stick cross labels on some kids
while others are Jews	stick Star of David labels on others
But at that time, the Christians didn't think of themselves as separate from the Jews.	stick both labels on all kids except lame-man-to-be, & stars on all adults.
The believers would go to each others' homes and pray and share together, and eat "the Lord's supper" to remember Jesus' death.	a couple of kids "visit" a couple of others, they eat some crackers, drink some juice together
But they still thought of themselves as good Jews—they just thought they understood the real meaning of their religion better. So they disciples would go to the temple just like before to worship God with the other Jews.	all kids & adults join together & sing "Isn't God Wonderful" then all sit down.
So, today two disciples, Peter and John, are going to the temple together.	choose two to be P & J, have them walk one round of room
As they got there, they encountered a man being carried to the entrance of the temple. This 40-something man had been lame since birth. So every day he sat by the entrance of the temple begging for charity.	two larger kids (or adults) carry smaller child, carrying tin cup, & sit him on pillow on floor.
When he saw Peter & John, he hoped they would give him money.	holds out cup to P & J
But they didn't have any money. The man was very disappointed.	ask them if they have money, have them check their pockets
But Peter got his attention and said, look, I don't have any money, but what I have is even better: In the name of Jesus Christ, I say to you, get up and walk!	he looks at P & J. They grab his hands & have him stand up.
Was he happy? Boy, was he happy!	ask all
He went walking around, and jumping, and dancing—Peter and John danced along with him for the joy of it!	he jumps around, all three dance
Together they went into the temple. A lot of people recognized the man, and were amazed. They knew that Jesus had miraculously healed people, but Jesus was gone now. They asked Peter & John, did YOU heal this man?	they ask P & J
They said no, it wasn't really us. We're nobodies. We just trust in Jesus; it's in His name that this man was healed. So do you think the people were happy to hear that?	ask all
Actually they were a bit scared! If Jesus' power is so great that He could heal this man when He wasn't even there, would He use it to punish the people who hadn't believed in Him? But Peter & John said, don't worry! As soon as you admit your sin, it is completely fortiven and you are right with God. Oh! Now that made the people happy!	after speech, all look happy
That day, many people confessed their sin and trusted Jesus as their Savior. Can you remember how many people believed in last week's story?	ask all
Today, it's up to…	write 5000 on board & ask one to read

As I introduced this story, I'd forgotten that last Sunday evening most of us had gone to an evening feast for the 15^th anniversary of the mother church. So when I asked what birthday we'd celebrated (I'm thinking Pentecost), they said: "The Gospel Center"! Well, yes, that too!

We'd already done different "jumping for joy" games on different occasions, and I wanted something new. Finally came up with Tiddlywinks, which I made by cutting plastic circles out of an ice-cream carton. None of the adults or kids had played with them before, so that was fun.

For our craft, we made paper men with springy legs made from folding two long strips of paper together.

Bible study was on Mark 2:1-12, trying to bring out how this was another instance of the person wanting one thing, but getting something even better.