The Road to Jerusalem

Oh dear; behind again. Too busy getting ready for this week's third anniversary celebration. Glad I was already a week ahead in planning the stories etc, or I would have really been in trouble this week.

Before starting today's story (written in Chinese again, which is going to be true more & more often…) we handed out silver coins to each person. One person was also given a copy of a newspaper with a special headline taped on the inside…then, when Paul & Silas were introduced as our main characters (again), Paul was given a bathrobe-style belt to wear.

上個星期的兩個男主角叫甚麼名字﹖	問大家。介紹保羅和西拉。 保羅戴腰帶
他們繼續在亞洲區行下﹐傳耶穌的福音。	他們行一個圈
他們就聽不好的消息	有人派報子給他們﹔內部寫著﹕耶路撒冷區經歷飢荒
所以他們週圍去所建立的教會﹐籌款為賙濟耶路撒冷的教會	他們把錢囊﹐求每一個人入銀子
他們和兩個亞洲的信徒一齊出發往耶路撒冷去	保羅﹐西拉﹐和另外兩個男子搖船
他們先到特羅亞市。那裏的信徒請保羅分享他的經歷。很多人想聽﹗房子坐滿人﹔一個年青人要坐在窗口。	開梳化後面的窗口﹔叫最細粒的坐那裏
保羅說得很長氣﹐甚至到那個青年人睡著了。	保羅扮長氣說話。青年人睡攪
突然﹐那個青年人在窗口跌三層﹗	有人在平臺幫他向後出來
個個都以為他死了﹐但保羅幫他起身﹐沒有事喇﹗	開平臺門﹐幾個人去看青年人在地﹔保羅幫他起身
第二天﹐保羅和他的朋友繼續往耶路撒冷去	那四個人再搖船﹐
現在到以色列國﹐凱撒利亞市。那裏的信徒又歡歡喜喜的接待他們。	比此握手。
但一個人有心痛﹐叫其他人安靜	一個人﹐起身﹐叫人安靜
他把保羅的腰帶﹐捆上自己的手腳﹐對保羅說﹐聖靈說﹐這腰帶的主人﹐在耶路撒冷會如此被捆綁﹐被交給爭恨他的人。	那個人把保羅的帶﹐捆上自己手腳
所有信徒苦勸保羅不去耶路撒冷。	除了保羅﹐大家歸低﹐求保羅不要去
但保羅說﹐不好叫我灰心喇﹗ 無論要經歷甚麼 苦楚﹐我都要去。	保羅拉幾個人起身﹐說﹕我要去﹗
就要去喇。	四個朋友拍著肩﹐一齊行開
下個星期才學﹐在耶路撒冷發生甚麼事。

So, Paul & Silas were going around preaching when the "newsboy" came up with his paper and showed Paul and Silas the headline that told of a famine in Jerusalem. So they went around to "the churches they'd planted" and collected all the silver coins, to bring to Jerusalem to help the church there. (I'm really not clear from the Bible account just why it was so important for Paul to go to Jerusalem in spite of all the warnings he was getting. I know he was collecting money for the Jerusalem church, so I used this as an explanation.)

This story included Paul's long speech at Troas when Eutychus fell asleep in the window. Once again, our facility proved ideal for our purpose. We sat our volunteer Eutychus in the window leading from our main room to the balcony. While Mrs. Chu was talking about how long-winded Paul was getting, I hurried out through the bedrooms to approach the balcony that way. When Mrs. Chu said, "suddenly, he fell down three stories to the ground!" I (invisibly—these are coated windows) yanked Eutychus backward out of the window and laid "him" (her—a nice lightweight girl!) on the ground. From inside it looked pretty true to life! Such fun! The hapless Eutychus was then raised to life by Paul, who did so by yanking her arm nearly out of her socket…

The story also included Agabus' prophecy of Paul's belt being used to tie Paul's hands and feet. So for our game we did a relay. Each person had to put on a belt and run to "Jerusalem," where the belt was removed by helpers and used to tie his/her hands and feet. Then they had to jump or hobble back to their team and get the belt off & around the waist of the next person. Good fun.

It was hard to come up with a craft for this story. So what we did was tie it into the adult Bible study. We asked, with all these people warning Paul not to go to Jerusalem, what gave him the courage to press on? The Bible study passage was Philippians 4:11b-13—he could do (or endure) all things through the strength that Christ gives. So with the theme of "strength," we made barbells out of paper-towel rolls and balloons.

A-Si had another bad day—he tried to grab the plastic bag of balloons away to rip it apart (he has a thing about ripping up plastic bags), and thoughtlessly I snapped at him to stop it. Something in him snapped at that & he started screaming, hitting himself, biting himself, and managed to elbow his grandmother in the mouth in the process. Finally he calmed down (I gave him the bag to rip after it was empty), and he enjoyed the craft time and indeed the rest of the morning, but his poor grandmother was in tears. He has been getting more volatile and she had already quit taking him to his swimming or basketball activities because of trouble he's caused there. We prayed specially for/with Grandma, and urged her to ask Jesus for His strength, but she was inconsolable. My heart just aches for her!! If anyone is reading this, please pray for Grandma Si!