Philip and the Ethiopian

I wrote this in Chinese & am just too lazy to rewrite the whole thing, but I need to at least hit the highlights for any English-speaking readers.

Our chariot was a large cardboard façade leaning on two stools in the rear and a lower stool in the front. We were short on kids this week so recruited two moms to be the chariot horses. They wore horse masks and were supposed to keep jogging in place whenever the chariot was supposed to be moving, which was during most of the story. Philip also had to jog in place next to the chariot until he was invited in. He was supposed to ask if the Ethiopian understood what he was reading. Once again, that was a hard one for Philip to grasp. Instruction to Philip: "Ask him, do you understand?" Philip's response: "I understand." No, no, repeat after me: "Do you understand?" Philip: "I understand." It took a few more tries, but he finally got it right!

After Philip got into the chariot, the two boys putting their heads together to earnestly study the scroll was very cute. I couldn't get pictures, though, as I was too busy chasing down our hyperactive chariot driver, who kept dropping the reins and dashing off to another part of the room!

Here's the whole thing in its original form:

	介紹腓利
記著﹕上次腓利在撒馬利亞傳教	在地圖找撒馬利亞
現在神的天使叫他往迦薩區去	一個戴光環﹐在地圖指出迦薩給腓利看
腓利去﹐前頭看見一個衣索匹亞的人坐車﹐最近在耶路撒冷敬拜神﹐現在回衣索匹亞去	預備﹕一塊板代表車﹐後面兩張凳﹐前面一張﹔一個非洲人坐後面﹐一個坐前面﹐抓條繩--那條繩圍著兩個因大馬的面具﹐在處跑 (不停跑)
神就叫腓利追車。	天使推腓利。他去車道﹐在處跑
他看見那位衣索匹亞人讀先知以賽亞的書﹐就問他﹕[你所念的﹐你明白嗎﹖]他回答說﹕[沒有人指教﹐怎能明白呢﹖]	坐車後那個開書卷
腓利說﹐自己明白﹔衣索匹亞的人叫他上車	腓利坐在他旁邊
衣索匹亞人就問﹕[在這裡﹐以賽亞指著誰﹖是指著自己呢﹐或指著別人呢﹖	腓利看看衣索匹亞的人指出的經文
腓利先解釋﹐原來﹐是預言﹐指著耶穌基督。就從這幾節起﹐就向他傳耶穌的福音。
那位衣索匹亞很高興﹐說﹐我這才明白聖經的內容﹗我很想接耶穌為我的救主﹗喂﹐前面有河水--不如給我施洗﹗	放條藍色的毛巾在地上
他就叫車停。	兩隻馬可以停。
腓利和衣索匹亞的人落車﹐去河水處﹐衣索匹亞的人受洗。	腓利辦用水給他施洗
神的天使現在叫腓利往亞鎖都去	天使在地圖指出亞鎖都﹔腓利走。
衣索匹亞的人開開心心的回家	上車﹐叫馬繼續在處跑

Our boy who had been the big problem last week was the Ethiopian. We were a little nervous when we opened the door to him & his mom, wondering what might happen this time. But he was a totally different boy—cheerful, cooperative. His mom had made sure he'd taken his medicine, but even so, this was the first time ever he hadn't been at least a little bit grumpy! It had to be an answer to the prayers of those on our "prayer update" list to whom we sent an SOS. It's still a touchy issue with some of our other parents, though. We have made an appointment to visit mom Saturday afternoon to talk about it. The boy isn't always willing to take his medicine, and mom isn't always forceful enough to insist. So we need to set some ground rules: Any Sunday that he has taken his medicine, they are heartily welcome. If one day he won't take it, then we will ask that they not come that Sunday. We hope this will help solve the problem and protect our other children. But we need to keep praying for them.

I found a video on someone's blog showing an adopted Ethiopian child playing a traditional game, sort of like jacks, but with rocks. So that's what we did for a game, and lo and behold all the moms had played the same game in their own childhood! Although they usually tied little bundles of rice in cloth rather than using rocks, which might have been easier. The moms had fun reliving their childhood, but our kids just weren't coordinated enough. We tried to "dumb it down" by skipping the bit about picking up any of the rocks & letting them try just throwing the first rock up in the air and catching it. Our Ethiopian managed that okay. Philip couldn't catch his, though he tried. While our chariot driver just thought throwing rocks in the air in any direction was great fun. (Catch them? Huh?) Oh well!

We made chariots for craft time, out of paper cups & horse patterns taken off a website. I did almost all the cutting ahead of time, so it mainly just assembly, but that was okay. They looked really nice.

Bible study was from Isaiah 53:6-8, going over what it was Philip would have told the Ethiopian as to how this predicted Jesus.

All in all a very happy Sunday!