Paul’s First Missionary Journey

Here I am, way behind again. I hope I can remember our highlights! I was disappointed that our visiting boy didn't return. We had a new visitor, a six-year-old neurotypical girl who fit right in and enjoyed herself. I thought mom did too—and was sorry they didn't come back the following week, either. Sigh. It would be nice to understand exactly what we're doing wrong.

Anyway, here's the story:

Last time we saw that after Peter got out of prison, he needed to get out of Jerusalem because Herod wanted to kill him. Now, not long ago, we heard about another man who had had to get out of Israel for a time; what was his name?	(ask all)
Yes, Saul, but because he is always encountering Greeks and Romans, he has quit using his Hebrew name and goes by the name Paul.	Introduce Paul
Now, it's been quite a few years since Paul left. He is living in Antioch, where there is by now a large and mature church.	(find on map)
Under the Holy Spirit's leading, the Antioch church sends Paul and Barnabas out to preach the gospel in surrounding nations.	Introduce Barnabas; he & Paul kneel, others lay hands on them & one says: "Sahn jukfuk neih dik sihfuhng"
Barnabas is from Cyprus, so they go there first.	(find on map)
What kind of place is it? How would you get there?	(ask all)
Barnabas decides to bring along his cousin Mark	introduce smaller boy as (John)Mark
They take a boat to Cyprus	Sit on line of stools, row together
They go around the island preaching the gospel.	Boys walk around room repeating: "Yehsou sih jyu"
Finally they arrive at Paphos. There is an official there called Sergius, who invites them to come and see him.	Introduce Sergius (Paulus), wearing gold medallion.
He's quite interested in the gospel, because he has a Jewish friend named Elymas, who has told him about Israel's God Yahweh. But it fact, this Elymas is not a good person. He has taken God's word and twisted it in order to make it more pleasing to Sergius, so that he will keep listening to him.	Introduce Elymas, wearing star of David
So when he sees Paul looking at the Scriptures with Sergius, he is nervous! If he comes to understand the Scripture for himself, he will know that Elymas has been bending the truth.	Paul sits next to Sergius & they look at Bible together
So he keeps finding ways to keep Sergius from listening.	Instruct Elymas to find ways to interrupt Sergius' concentration
Paul is getting frustrated! He stands up and points to Elymas, saying, Shame on you! You, a Jew, should understand these truths about God, but you are spiritually blind! And so, in order that you will understand your spiritual blindness, you will be physically blind for a time.	Paul stands up, points at Elymas, and repeats, "Neih yiu satmihng"
Whoa! Immediately, he is blind! He needs people to lead him out of the room.	Put blacked-out glasses on Elymas, two volunteers lead him away.
Now that Sergius has no one interrupting him, he quickly understands and believes the gospel, and is baptized.	Sergius says: "Ngoh mihng!" Paul baptizes him.

You might notice I shorted the names of John Mark and Sergius Paulus. Just to make them easier to keep track of. I personally find the Chinese names hard to remember!

Our Elymas did a good job at interrupting the two looking at the Bible together. He has had experience! (smile)

Our game & craft were about blindness. I made some thick numbers, 1-6. Each player would throw our big foam die and then put one hand into our "incubator style" cardboard box and try to feel for the correct number. For most of the kids, we just slipped one or two extra numbers into a slot on the back of the box to make it a little easier. Most of them still cheated, by pulling the numbers slightly out of the slot and checking. Sigh.

Our craft was learning some Braille writing. Each child got a Braille alphabet "cheat sheet" plus a worksheet with some English words from the story (with Chinese translation; mostly they know their alphabet and I couldn't find out anything in time about Chinese Braille). They were supposed to write the Braille above each of the letters, in the boxes provided. Then at the bottom, there was a string of Braille they were supposed to "decode" into the English alphabet, which worked out to be that child's name.

Our Bible study was from I John 2:9-11, on one symptom of spiritual blindness.