Adventures in Jerusalem

This Sunday we celebrated our third anniversary at Merciful Love Family Fellowship. We were sad that some people who said they would come didn't—but delighted to have two new families join us! One mom with two mentally handicapped girls (a teen and a young adult, both very sweet-natured), and another with a mentally handicapped daughter and her younger, neurotypical sister. We do hope we see them all again!!

Here's our Chinese story, which was led very well by Mr. Lei. Both he and Mrs. Chu seem to have found the groove. Yea!

上次我們見人勸保羅不好去耶路撒冷。 為甚麼呢﹖他有沒有聽他們的意見﹖	問大家
保羅和幾個朋友一齊行去耶路撒冷。	2-3個人帶書包﹐行一個圈
第一件要作的事就是探耶路撒冷的教會﹐為了把所籌的款交給他們。	每個書包裡有銀子﹐要交給教會的領袖
領袖對保羅說﹐這裡的猶太人爭恨你﹐因為以為你教虔成的猶太人不要守律法。是不是﹖	保羅作[No,No!]
我們有辦法來證明你自己尊重神的律法。這兩個年青人已經起了誓﹐明天要去聖殿﹐ 要剃頭﹐要獻祭。不如你和他們一齊去﹐你為他們出錢。這樣證明你不教人不守律法。	介紹那兩個人。 保羅袋著錢﹐三個人行下 (問大家﹐好不好意見﹖要看一看...)
他們到聖殿。祭司幫他們剃頭。	祭司(戴特帶) 剃頭
保羅就買兩隻羊為獻感恩祭。	另外一個人收他的錢﹐交兩隻羊(兩個女子戴羊毛帽)
突然﹐有人指著保羅說﹐喂﹐就是那反叛律法的保羅﹗你看﹐他帶外邦人入來﹐污穢聖殿﹗	一個人指著他﹐說﹕污穢聖殿﹗
原來﹐保羅有沒有帶外邦人入來﹖	(問大家)
但週圍的人跑來﹐拿著保羅﹐拉他想打死他	多人要拉保羅出去與他打交
但一個羅馬百夫長見到就跑來救保羅。對猶太人說﹕這個人若犯了錯﹐你要在法庭告他﹗ 為了保護他﹐就叫他在監裡過夜。	一個人有頭盔﹐劍﹐盾牌﹐跑來拿著保羅。說﹕要告他先﹗就拉他坐監。
有一班猶太人還想見他死。他們說﹐不如叫監獄官帶他去法庭﹐當是想正式告他。但我們在這裡埋伏﹐經過就起來打死他﹗Yea!	幾個人一齊圍個圈當商量﹐然後堆手﹐唉[Yea!]
但保羅的外甥聽他們。他到監去給保羅知。保羅叫他去給千夫長知。	外甥先向保羅說﹕[有人埋伏] ﹐就向軍兵這樣說
第二天﹐不去法庭。反而很多軍兵送保羅會凱撒利亞去﹐見羅馬巡撫。(可以解釋﹐那時以色列屬羅馬﹐與澳門以前屬葡國一樣)	幾個人大劍和盾牌﹐與保羅一齊行一個圈﹐去到一個戴葉環的人
但巡撫聽見保羅的情況﹐不知怎樣處理。他不犯羅馬法律﹐但以式列人想告他。	巡撫作[我不知] 的手語
保羅自己說--我要見皇帝凱撒﹗	保羅唉﹕[我要見皇帝]
巡撫說﹐好﹐你要去羅馬﹐見皇帝。8月30日就去喇﹗	巡撫唉﹕[去羅馬]

Story highlights: Paul accepted the Jerusalem church leaders' suggestion to take the young men to the temple and pay their expenses for having their heads shaved and making a sacfrice. For the head-shaving, we were very un-first-century—used an electric razor (with the safety cover firmly attached!). So at least we had a sound, since we weren't going to have a good visual representation of shaved heads!

We did have visual "shaved" heads for our game. Another relay race, with a row of cardboard faces for each time, to which had been attached long yarn ponytails. Each team member was supposed to run up & cut through the whole tail (between the ribbon and the head, where the "hair" was closer together and required more effort to cut) and bring it back to his/her team. Simple, but fun.

I couldn't come up with a craft idea to go with the story, at all. So instead we had one to go with the fact that it was our third anniversary. We made a dessert for the potluck: chocolate pudding, with either marshmallows or peanuts as add-ins. I found some cute little cheap pudding dishes at a local shop that made it extra special.

I had been busy making a "craft" of my own to present to each long-term family, a personalized booklet with pictures of each child displaying almost all the craft stuff we've done for this unit on Acts, with captions as reminders of the stories they represented. Everyone seemed to really like them. Thanks, Sharlene, for the great idea! I'm trying to put together a compilation of them all to use to show other families I might like to invite, and then to have for home assignment too, of course!

Bible study was on I Peter 2:19-20, talking about how Paul was unjustly accused of persuading Jews to abandon the law, and bringing Gentiles into the temple. How it is better to suffer unjustly than to do something deserving of punishment (whether you suffer for it or not). That God rewards those who suffer unjustly.

Bruce and I will be taking a brief vacation next weekend, to celebrate our 24^th wedding anniversary. At MLFF they will just have a "free day" with some volunteers coming to supervise the kids, and the parents just having a chance to talk with each other. Then on the 30^th we will finish up our stories in the book of Acts.

Then, we have "permission" from the parents to start our curriculum over in Genesis, beginning the first Sunday in September! Since I will be working from existing materials, this should make my life considerably easier than it's been for a while. Though I will also be taking the chance to polish or change things that didn't go over as well, mainly games or crafts. And getting everything into Chinese, for future users' readability.

We're also going to try not having separate Bible study passages, instead trying to just discuss the story. So that our unbelievers don't feel as overwhelmed as they sometimes have. We will need to prepare some "leading" discussion questions, however, or could lose the evangelistic applications we hope to make.