Everyone was so good today! What fun. We did the story of Saul's conversion, as follows:
The last time we saw Saul, he was in Jerusalem dragging believers off to jail. | asks if people believe, if yes, hauls them off |
So a lot of believers left Jerusalem; some even left Israel! | everyone runs around room |
One large foreign city that a lot of people fled to was called Damascus. | find on map |
Saul went to the High Priest to get official permission to go to Damascus and bring the believers there back for trial. | produces letter saying high priest authorizes him to arrest Christians. Priest chops it, puts in envelope, seals. |
He & a few others went together. | Saul + 2 others don backpacks & start walking around room |
Suddenly a bright light from heaven shone around Saul, making his eyes hurt so bad that he fell to the ground. He couldn't see a thing! | Shine flashlight in Saul's face. He covers his eyes & falls. Put on sleep mask. |
A voice came from nowhere: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? | recorded voice? |
The people traveling with Saul were terrified, because they heard a voice but couldn't see anyone. Saul couldn't see anyone anyway! So he asked, who are you? | Saul looks around, asks, who are you |
The voice replied: I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up, and go to Damascus and wait for my messenger to come and tell you what you must do. | |
Saul got up, still unable to see. His friends had to take him by the hand and lead him into the city. | His two companions lead him by hands to sit in chair. |
He waited three days, fasting and praying, wondering what Jesus would do to him after all he had done. | folds hands |
At that time there was a believer in Damascus called Ananias. While Saul was praying, an angel appeared to Ananias. | introduce Ananias. Angel with halo confronts him. |
The angel said: you must go to the house of Judas on Straight Street. There is a man named Saul there who is waiting for you to come and have you lay your hands on him and restore his sight. | angel shows map with Straight Street & Judas' house marked |
Ananias was very afraid! He knows that Saul's purpose in coming to Damascus was to haul believers off to jail in Jerusalem! | Ananias shakes his head |
But the angel says, don't worry, he already knows he has been wrong. And I have chosen him to be my servant to take the gospel to the Gentiles. | pats A. on shoulder, pushes him to go |
Ananias thought this was really strange! If there was anyone Saul hated as much as he hated believers, it would have to be Gentiles! But he obeyed the angel and went. | A. shakes his head again, but goes knocks on table, someone lets him in and introduces him to Saul |
Ananias introduces himself & says that Jesus has sent him to heal his blindness. | Saul kneels down. A. places hands on head & says: yehsou yihou neih! |
Immediately Saul could see again. He has Ananias baptize him right away, and from that day onward, he served the Lord Jesus. | A. baptizes him with blue scraps, hugs him. |
Notes: we didn't use a recorded voice because our tape recorder doesn't work anymore. Oh well. "Chopping" a letter means to put a stamp on it, like an official seal. No official correspondence here is complete without a "chop." A-Si came in that morning with his eyes closed—he often does this; I don't know why. But that made me decide to choose him as Saul—he might not object to not being able to see. And he didn't! I couldn't find a sleep mask, so I just covered an old pair of glasses with black paper. It was neat that he was willing to keep them on.
We did craft time ahead of game time this week. For our craft, we said, when God had a message to give to Saul, he made light shine from heaven, and sent an angel and another believer. When we want to get messages to people, we usually use some other methods. Such as "air mail!" Each child had to write "Saul, Saul!" on a sheet of paper & then follow instructions for folding it into a paper airplane. I found a great one on "Alex's Paper Airplanes" website, called "Nick's plane," I think it was. Flies great. Especially since I had brought the instructions to work with me one morning and was trying them out while waiting for my first appointment of the day. When she got there, I was ready to try flying it, so I did. It flew well but veered off to the left. My client's mom said, "Open the wing more on the right and press the one on the left down a little & then try again." It worked! How nice to have encountered a paper airplane expert on that particular day!
For our game, then, we put a picture of Saul up on a wall and "sent him our messages." Not sure who enjoyed this more, our kids or a couple of the parents!
Bible study was from I Timothy 1:15-16, emphasizing that anybody (including our parents) can become a Christian, no matter how unlikely it seems.
The kids have their free/supervised playtime during the adult Bible study. A-Wai, the boy who had been so difficult two weeks before, likes to spend this time working through 1st-2nd grade math workbooks. Mostly he does this on his own, but occasionally he asks me for some help. He had already asked me once, but then I was out of the room when he got stuck again. Mrs. Lei couldn't believe it when she saw him ask A-Si, who was sitting at the same table coloring, for help! A-Si responded by starting to do the math himself, but then A-Wai indicated he wanted the book back, and A-Si gave it to him. And the examples were enough to get A-Wai going. It's so rare to see two of our kids independently seeking, and succeeding at, interaction with each other! And these are our two kids most prone to violent outbursts, even! God is working!!!
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