Babel Babble

Ten kids again this week! One of them a first-timer. We're getting a bit crowded, but I like that better than rattling around.

The story of the tower of Babel is pretty short in the Bible, and was pretty short as a skit. I tried the same thing as three years ago—having them start taping paper "bricks" to the wall, and then see what happens when suddenly God confuses language and no one is allowed to talk to anyone else. Too many smart kids this time around; they knew what they were doing and having to be silent didn't stop them from working at the building. Sigh. I think it might have gone at least a little better (in other words, more properly worse!) if I had had one of the kids handing out the little bits of masking tape, instead of myself. Or something.

Charades were fun though! I was paired with one of our newer girls, who in her shyness was noisily reluctant to participate in just about anything in the first weeks. But she feels comfortable now, and did a great job following my lead to act out "taking a shower" for the others to guess.

We did wordless books as a craft—since people couldn't use words to communicate with each other right after Babel!

Bible study was a bit of an eye-opener. I said, some people might accuse God of being like an unhealthy parent who doesn't want His children to grow up and become independent. In trying to explain the difference, I hypothesized: imagine your children saying, "Okay, I am going to be an independent adult now. I will move away, and will never again make any contact, by letter or by phone, and most certainly will never, ever come to visit." How would you feel about that? I couldn't believe it when TWO people immediately responded with the same answer: "Well, as long as they sent money…"!! Different culture!!!

A little awkwardness during the share/prayer time. One mom asked prayer that her daughter wouldn't have noisy tantrums when there were no seats available on the city bus. The new mom, whose son is much higher functioning than any of the other non-neurotypical kids, responded with a confident statement that if mom were just consistently firm with her, she would behave just fine. I see this kind of thing happening frequently among other groups of parents who don't seem to "get" that kids have different levels of potential. It's quite discouraging for the moms of the more difficult kids, especially since many of them have also bought into the idea that it's not the kid, it's they themselves. Ouch. Had to work at tactfully cutting off the flow of advice and emphasizing that this was worth praying about!

My new believer-mom hasn't been able to come for Bible study lately because her father-in-law is in the hospital and she has to bring him special food every morning. But the extremely timid mom (a believer of sorts) that I'd been trying to invite to join us, DID come! That was exciting. But I quickly realized that her level of education is far lower than any of the others', and even the relatively simple follow-up materials I'd prepared & used successfully in the past, were overwhelmingly difficult for her. I hope she will come again. It's all too possible that she is much more accustomed to feeling overwhelmed than to feeling personally cared about, so I'm hoping that will tip the balance. I would so love to see her blossom in Jesus!