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!