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.