Christmas

Last Christmas we'd acted out the nativity story; the year before we'd done the three wise men. The first year, we'd used flannelgraph, but I've been trying to get away from that more to keep the kids moving. But I didn't want to act out the story just like last year. So I took the flannel figures & Xeroxed them onto stiff cardboard.

Oh, but talking about keeping kids moving—ha! To help make the connection between the Genesis stories we've been learning and the birth of Christ, we went extremely quickly through the genealogy in Matthew 1—Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat Judah, etc. etc. With each new name the next person in the circle had to stand up & the previous sit down. It got everybody a bit giggly, but that was okay!

So, with the cutout figures, we had various kids hold them as we talked about their roles. When Mary & Joseph had to take the long trip to Bethlehem, they were passed around the circle twice. Then their "holders" knocked on all the doors leading out of the room, with no one letting them in to spend the night. Finally, they found the stable—a wicker cat carrier! It really looked authentic, I thought!

For our game we did use the flannelgraph, covered with a sheet of clear plastic. Kids and adults were blindfolded in turn and given a paper baby figure to try and stick in/on the manger. Lots of floating babies, lots of fun.

Craft time was making Christmas cards for whoever they might like to make them for. We used some of the extra material to make cards for a couple of our regulars who weren't able to make it.

Afterwards we had a potluck. Always popular! There were also gifts for the kids. Something really neat was that one mom who has always been very timid, very passive, and has been accused by some of only coming for what freebies she might get, brought gifts for all the kids too!

Her son had been making some progress in behavior, but the last few weeks has developed the unpleasant habit of playing with his saliva. This week he had a cold and was also wiping his nose on any available surface—ugh. We're not talking little kid, or even clueless kid here. He does know better. I don't like it when other parents rag at him for losing his temper, which I can understand he can't control (and only gets aggravated by being yelled at), but I agreed with him being scolded for wiping his nose on the arm of the chair!

The Family Reunited

I know I'm supposed to be writing these stories so they're reproducible in the future. But I got carried away and wrote in stuff that requires our particular facility as well as some of our particular attendees!

The story starts early in the famine years predicted in Pharaoh's dream. Joseph has been in Egypt a long time & always speaks Egyptian now, not Hebrew. So Bruce played Joseph in our story because of his ability to speak a "foreign language"—English. First we had a couple of Egyptians come to him to buy grain, doing the bent-elbow "Egyptian walk." Then it was time for Jacob back in Canaan to send ten of his sons to Egypt to buy grain. They exited out the door to the balcony & came back into the living room (where we hold our main meeting) via one of the side bedrooms. When they had to go back to Canaan, they reversed this route. They had to go back and forth three times, so we got our exercise!

During the whole first visit, Joseph, not wanting to be recognized by his brothers, spoke English & I, as his servant, translated. And translated back to him when the brothers spoke.

Joseph was supposed to grab one of the brothers and say that he was going to have to stay behind in prison. He grabbed the nearest person, who happened to be the mother of two girls. The younger girl started to cry when they had to leave their mom behind all tied up & go back to Canaan! Poor kid. She didn't want to participate in the rest of the story, but finally we convinced her that she needed to go back to "Egypt" to rescue her mom. :-)

We had been using small ziplock bags filled with rice to hand out when people were buying grain. Joseph's small china cup (the only silver one we had was way too big) was put into Benjamin's bag. We used this combo for our game. Divided into two teams; each team had one full bag of rice & one small china cup. Relay style, each child had to scoop out some rice with the cup & then run up to the front of the room & pour the contents into a tall glass. The winning team was not only the faster team, but had a fuller glass; they didn't spill as much. Clear winner!

The story went extra long with all the traveling the brothers had to do. By contrast, the craft was very quick and easy. We cut out preprinted (by hand) templates on sandpaper and made pyramids!

Joseph, part two

Our Joseph from last week didn't come back this Sunday. But we still had ten kids! The story was long—first the scene with Potiphar's wife, then in prison with the baker and cupbearer, then interpreting Pharaoh's dreams. The leader chose the most impatient & hyperactive kid in the bunch to play Joseph. We had to chase him down quite a few times (hey, where's Joseph, he's supposed to be interpreting this dream…). He drives me a bit batty, but he is never, ever either mean or destructive. So I remind myself of this significant virtue and grab his little face and kiss it instead of grabbing his little neck and wringing it. Smile. I probably drive him nuts too (why is she always bugging me when I want to go and get another drink of water…)

I just happen two have two identical warm-up jackets, one gray and one red. They were perfect for our game. The red one represented happy times & the grey one depressing times. Joseph flipped back and forth quite a bit between these two circumstances in our story. So for the game, each pair (mainly mother & child) started by each wearing one of the jackets, and then exchanging them. The catch was, only one arm out of the four could be exposed at any one time. Try it!

Craft time was matching shapes of "skinny cow" and "withered grain" stickers (not really stickers; they had to use glue sticks) & "swallowing up" the correspondingly shaped fat cows & plump ears on their worksheets. Not real difficult, but everyone liked it.

 

Joseph and his brothers

I can't remember anything real unique about the way we did this first story about Joseph. I've been too busy writing the next one!

What stands out most in my mind right now is that we had a "new" boy; a returnee who had come twice before, months ago. He is quite a bit smarter than the other kids. He cooperates quite well during the main program time. We assigned him to be Joseph because he was the one boy we could count on to be willing to stay in the "pit" (a large storage bin) until the Midianite traders came by to buy him. (He did NOT like having his hands tied and being led off by said traders, however!)

But during the free play time, he was harder to cope with. We now have two computers for the kids to use during free play, which may or may not be a good idea, but so be it. Anyway, one reason we have two is that Ka Hei has staked out one as "his" and he gets upset if he can't use it. The new guy didn't want to use the new one, he wanted to fight with Ka Hei over the use of the old one. Then when he got persuaded away from that he worked hard to see who else he could pick a fight with. Not violent, thankfully, just likes to get a rise out of people. I need to "pray up" so he doesn't get a rise out of me!

For our game we "boasted" like Joseph. People didn't get super serious about what they said they or their kids were good at (one kid was good at eating, for example), but it was better than the stammers we got when we first tried this. People aren't used to praising their kids!

Craft time was drawing on T-shirts with oil pastel crayons. I checked first—they didn't wash out of a sample I tried at home, though it would certainly fade with time. But it was still better than using the fabric paint we tried three years ago. The kids didn't get the idea of only squeezing hard enough to get a thin stream for writing or drawing. We had a lot of shirts with blobs on them! This time we had some pretty ones! I'll post pictures later…

All those babies!

I'm afraid I didn't do the best possible job of writing the story for last Sunday. I thought it was so simple that whoever led it would yawn all the way through it. Wrong. Jacob goes to Paddan-Aram, and sees Rachel at the well. I had "embellished" the story to point out that Abraham's servant had asked God to let whoever gave him and his camels a drink be the chosen wife for Isaac. But that Jacob didn't require such a high standard—when he saw how beautiful Rachel was, he ran and gave her and her sheep a drink! It came out all garbled, though; the reader said emphasized that Jacob hadn't stopped and prayed like Abraham's servant. Implying that if he had, he wouldn't have made such a foolish choice. Not sure I agree with that!

We did have some fun with getting Jacob married off. First there was the agreement with Laban to work seven years for Rachel. We wrote up a "contract" for Laban and Jacob to sign. Then Rachel insisted that she wanted to sign too. Sure, why not—women's lib lives! (smile) After "seven years," though, we had Laban shush everyone while he put this veil on not Rachel but Leah, and married her off to Jacob.

Finally he did get to marry Rachel as well (I meant to write in that wedding, oops—I thought it would be fun to have Jacob peek under the veil and see if it was really her). Then they started having all those babies. The reader just had to say the names, and introduce the various "surrogate mothers" as they got roped in. I had all the "babies" already prepared (paper towel rolls with faces and name labels) & handed them to the proper mothers to hang onto until the final count. So why was it so hard? I guess the reader just had a hard time keeping track of where she was with all these gobbled-gooky names (which don't sound at all like proper Chinese names). Sigh.

For game time we had the "Leah" team and the "other" team line up and, in relay fashion, run up and take one of "their" children out of the basket at the front of the room. The idea was supposed to be to see which team finished the fastest & then double-check if they had all their babies right (the teams were each given a list of names). I forgot about the little problem that if one team chose a wrong baby or two, then the faster/smarter team still couldn't "win". I suppose ideally I should have had two separate sets for them to have to sort through, but I didn't have enough extra towel rolls!!

At least the craft was popular. We made our own little "babies" out of pipe cleaners and some wooden beads that I was able to buy in Hong Kong while we were on vacation (good timing)! Though I think these could also be done nicely using colored drinking straws, cut up, instead of the hard-to-find beads.

We've lost a couple of our former attenders for various reasons, and have added another neurotypical 7-year-old whose mother wanted to come & volunteer with us. So it is getting a little harder to plan the games so that they are fair for the autistic kids yet not too blah for the "smart" kids. It would be great if we could do something special with the three neurotypical girls during the free time, but the logistics need some more prayer first. They like the free play time, of course. Plus we haven't got an excess of volunteers. Nor do I feel ready to take on preparing a parallel curriculum, however abbreviated. Like I said, needs more prayer.

Isaac’s wife & children

We were gone on vacation over Sunday the 8^th. Mrs. Chu was scheduled to lead the story, about Abraham's servant going and getting a wife for Isaac. But that morning she was unexpectedly called in to work. She gave the material to 10-year-old Wing Tung to lead. Wing Tung has led the game and craft a couple of times, and does fairly well. But, not surprisingly, leading the story was too big a job for her. She could probably tell it fine, but trying to tell it and at the same time get various kids to play their various parts, and keep track of props, etc…we heard it was rather confusing for all. Oh well, live and learn. I didn't hear how the game (blowing bubble "prayers" to the ceiling) and craft {gold bead bracelets) went.

Sunday the 15^th, then, was the story of Jacob & Esau, mainly focusing on Jacob's manipulations to get the birthright & the blessing. We disguised Jacob, one of the girls, by wrapping wooly scarves around her neck & arms. After she finished getting the blessing & sat back down, we had Esau show up and start hunting him to vent his wrath. So Jacob was supposed to flee. I looked for our Jacob to get her going, but her disguise was too good! I didn't recognize her! (I'd remembered she'd worn pink, but it was all covered up by the dark scarves. Smile.)

For a game we had ten small objects in a bag for the kids to feel for according to which photo they drew. A nice quiet game for a change, and it went well. For craft time we made microwave chili, ("that red stuff" as Esau/Edom would say) each child adding some different ingredient to the pot. When we did this three years ago, a couple of our adults wouldn't eat it because as Buddhists they eschew eating beef. So we made it with ground pork this time (turkey hamburger isn't available here). Guess what—chili tastes kind of weird made with ground pork!

Bible study was another one of those eye-openers. That's good; it means we're having genuine discussion. Still, hard to draw my application and conclusion when most people (including the believers) seemed to feel that a certain amount of bending the rules to get some extra benefits is just the way the world works. I wasn't able to convince anyone otherwise in the time we had. Will have to just pray for the Holy Spirit to use the truth in their hearts.

Abraham’s test of faith

Today was our mother church's annual outdoor service/picnic, so that's where most of our people went. I decided to stay around just in case some new folks or returnees who didn't know about the event might show. One of our regular families was actually planning to come, since the picnic lasted too long for their schedule. But I guess they decided to take the morning off as well. So there was just myself and this new "volunteer" mom with her neurotypical daughter.

We did the program anyway. Usually we set three kids as the minimum. But since I had decided to do this story with flannelgraph, we didn't need a lot of bodies. And since I had gone to all the trouble to prepare it, I figured we might as well do it!

It worked out rather well chronologically that this story happened on the low-attendance day (God keeps doing things like this!), since it is one that is kind of hard to teach to unbelievers. Although, thinking the Ng family was going to be there, I had done a lot of extra studying as to how to help mom digest it, and learned a few helpful things myself!

Like, because of what Abraham went through, none of us has to go through the same thing. Because now we KNOW God wouldn't really require us to sacrifice our children to Him. It's sort of "too late" for Him to test anyone else on that score. I'm glad of that!

Promise Fulfilled

The births of Ishmael and Isaac; another one of those stories that is hard not to have some fun with. We had just two boys (& six girls), so we picked the older boy to be Abraham. We let him pick out his wife—that was fun, he really gave it a lot of thought. Then when Sarah had her brilliant idea about Hagar, we let her pick who would be her maidservant. Everyone had a good laugh when Abraham and Hagar walked to the end of the room and came back with a baby. Wing Tung as Hagar gave a stellar performance of being "uppity" toward her mistress after having her baby. Even when Sarah finally drove her away (by beating her over the head with a balloon), she was sticking her tongue out at Sarah over her shoulder. Little ham. (A girl after my own heart—she's the one sharing my profile photo.)

When we did this three years ago, we had Abraham pass out red-colored hard-boiled eggs after Isaac was born, imitating a Chinese custom. However, our stand-in Abraham from downstairs has given us a couple of dozen red eggs twice in recent weeks for reasons only he fully understands. I didn't think anybody wanted any more eggs!

Wing Tung led the game; a variation of Simon Says ("God says"), to illustrate the point that we're supposed to wait and do things God's way rather than listen to just any old "good advice."

For our craft we did these pretty wall hangings (modeled by our pretty Wong sisters) which I found on a Bible Crafts for Kids website. It was very popular, especially sticking all the extra little stars around the larger 神是信實("God is Faithful") stars.

We had new visitors this week, a woman from our mother church and her neurotypical 7-year-old daughter. Mom wants to become a regular volunteer with us; the daughter is a little nervous yet around the other kids. (Veteran Wing Tung, on the other hand, was reported by her teacher to be speaking up in defense of mentally handicapped children at her school, saying they are nothing to be afraid of, they just think differently. Love this kid.) Anyway, part of the problem with ManMan's discomfort came from the fact that "Abraham," who had chosen her as his wife, was quite taken with her and followed her around staring at her during the free time. He used to do this with Wing Tung and finally learned mom wouldn't tolerate it. Now it seems we need to start over with ManMan. Something else to pray about!

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!

From Noah to Abraham

It's pretty hard to do the story of Noah and his ark without having fun! Mrs. Chu led the story time. When I first gave her the notes last week, she noticed she was supposed to open an umbrella when it started to rain. She said, hey, should I bring my plant spritzer? Great idea!

Of course before it rained we had to build the ark. We put different members of Noah's family to work pantomiming chopping down trees, sawing boards, pounding nails, and painting it all with pitch.

We pushed together the twin beds in one of the dorm rooms to serve as the completed ark. Mr. Lei kindly transported my set of nesting wooden steps over from the daycare center where I work, on his motorcycle. So when it was time for all the animals to board, they were able to climb the steps while imitating all the different animals we'd imitated during the "animal farm" game for week two. There were more animals than people, so some had to hop off and re-board…all good fun.

After our long rainstorm, when the ark landed, one of our moms was the bird who flew out, coming back empty-beaked, then with a branch in her teeth, then not at all. Sigh, I'm just never quick enough with the camera!

Instead of imitating animal actions, for our game this time we first practiced the sounds of various animals. Then kids (and one parent, to make up an even number) drew cards with animal pictures on them. Two names were drawn out of a bag & those two had to come up & make "their" noises. If they made a pair (to go 2 by 2 into the ark, of course), they "won" & got their treat of (of course) animal crackers. If they didn't, they sat back down & their names were put back into the bag. This continued until all the pairs had been matched. (When it started getting a little long, our clever leader started peeking into the bag to find names whose animals would match.)

For our craft we made very pretty rainbows by gluing together concentric circles in rainbow colors, then folding them in half. Very pretty!

That was last Sunday. I never got around to posting last week because of scrambling to get ready for this week. I'd been staying a week ahead BUT because of a Special Olympics event today, we knew a lot of our kids weren't going to be coming. So we decided to hold off on the tower of Babel story, which is much more fun with a bigger crowd, and this week take a peek ahead, and introduce Abraham.

An older gentlemen who lives on the ground floor of our building has taken an interest in our little group, and has provided treats for us a couple of times. This morning he came up with some more snacks and a box full of toys—it was a bit of an interruption, as we'd already started our program, but he paid for that! We convinced him to stay and take part in our Bible story, since we were all girls this morning, and we needed someone to play the 75-year-old male lead. Mr. Poon stroked his snow-white goatee and agreed he was perfect for the part!

It was a swift introduction. Abraham & his wife & nephew & servants pulled their luggage cart around the room, passed through the promised land and got all the way down to Egypt, where Pharoah wanted to take Sarah as his own wife. But the angel of God started beating him over the head with a balloon, so he gave her back! They all toddled back to Canaan, where Abraham & Lot agreed to separate. Then when God appeared to him the third time to tell him he was going to become a great nation, we paraphrased his reply as: "But my wife and I are so old, and we have no children, and now even my nephew has left!" But God said to trust Him, and once again Abraham believed Him, so they shook hands on it.

We'll see how God ends up fulfilling this promise, after we go back and review the Babel story…

Our game today was called "Abraham's journey." We all went out to the stairwell & up one flight of steps. Drew numbered plastic bowling pins out of a bag to determine how many steps to take. Some were forward, some were backward. The plan of the game was that if you didn't end up directly on the landing in front of our door, you were progressing down to the next landing, which was "Egypt," and you'd have to work your way back. But all of our kids were more efficient than Abraham and got to the promised land without detouring so much as a step down toward Egypt.

When they arrived at the final destination, they got a treat of raisins, a product of the promised land!

For craft time we made little covered wagons like Abraham might have used to transport his goods! Both the game and the craft were supposed to be led this time by Mrs. Chu, but instead she "bribed" her ten-year-old daughter Wing Tung to finish her homework quickly (more quickly than she EVER does) by saying that if there was enough time, she would teach her how to be the leader for this morning. So Wing Tung led and did very well at it. She looked happier than she'd been since school started last month. That was neat to see. We'll see how much more we can have her do in the future.

Cain and Abel, round 2

One thing I forgot to do this week was to tape some cardboard over the on-demand water heater in the bathroom. One of our boys is big-time into tearing off electrical switches, and he tried a couple of times last Sunday to wrench the temperature gauge off. When I heard his grandmother scream, I thought she'd been injured! But absolutely no harm done. I will cover this up tomorrow morning before anyone gets there. Even if he remembers & wants to get at the switch, this will slow him down a little. I hope!

We had nine kids, which is exciting! But one drawback is that we can't necessarily come up with parts for everyone in the Bible story, so then some of the kids get bored. Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, God…still leaves out 4 kids.

Oh well, this coming Sunday we'll need EVERYONE for Noah's Ark!

We played balloon volleyball for our game. Said that normally volleyball is competitive; you want to "smash" the other team (like Cain smashed Abel). But just as Cain should have been able to cooperate with his brother instead of seeing worship as a competitive sport, we would play cooperatively and see how long we could keep the balloon going.

Even this game, in our small space, left some of the kids out when they got too far back. One neurotypical girl was especially unhappy. But we have two now and they are both the same age! They enjoyed goofing around together during the free play time. Thank You, Lord.

For the craft we did the same as three years ago; pasting cotton balls on sheep drawings to represent the good fat sheep Abel offered to the Lord. One of the moms remembered that once we pasted cotton balls on jars to make 3-D sheep. Yes, and we'll probably do that again too, but we'd start with this easier one.

I'm starting to get each week's story, game and craft instructions written up in Chinese characters, with illustrations where necessary, to eventually print up and have on CD for people to use when we've moved on. It's hard work! The stories at least are written phonetically already and "translating" them is not too big a job. But I never wrote up the game or craft instructions, either just did them myself or showed them to someone else to lead. This calls for much more complicated Chinese than I'm used to composing—yikes! (I don't think I would have managed to blog this week without the extra time provided by two public holidays (China National Day and the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival)

A Snake in the Garden

This Sunday's lesson was on the fall of man. We used Barbie dolls again, because it's an important part of the story that they were naked, and there's only so far you want to go in role play! But rather than manipulating the dolls myself like I did a year ago, we had volunteers doing that. (Adam did a lot of pacing around the garden! smile) When they were supposed to eat the fruit, the volunteers ate it.

When we did this three years ago, we only had three kids that Sunday, which worked extremely well for craft time. Each one strung a bunch of fabric leaves which then became Adam's one-piece and Eve's two-piece cover-ups. This time we had six kids. Instead of just stringing the leaves together, I had them sew them to a ribbon, so that the fabric leaves (did I do a lot of cutting last week!!) would end up side-by-side instead of face-to-face. My idea was to tie the ends of the ribbon together and wrap them sort of sari-style. It didn't work super well. I'd welcome any suggestions if someone out there is more craft-wise than I am.

Our game, called "the path of sin" consisted of throwing our large foam die and taking the corresponding amount of steps on the rubber alphabet tiles laid out in line. At intervals there were different tiles (with the alphabet letters missing) & these were "sin" tiles. The idea being, life would be just dandy without sin, but if you land on one of those you have to go back to square one. One of our boys threw a number which would land him on one of these tiles. With a mischievous grin on his face, he picked up the die and made another throw—same number—and another. One of the other moms started scolding him for not playing according to the rules. I didn't want to discourage him, though. I thought he was showing great initiative, and not being crabby about "losing" but having fun with trying to get around the game. Hey, he just doesn't want to sin, I said! I can't remember now whether he ended up starting over or not. But he didn't lose his temper, that I do know, which for this boy is true progress.

In the afternoon Bruce & I went to a concert of the Macau Youth Orchestra. One of our newest kids, 10-year-old Ming Yan, was playing violin. (She's neurotypical, her 11-year-old sister is not). We enjoyed that very much. They were very good.

During this past week we had two birthdays in our core group happen to fall on the same day—Mrs. Lei's according to the Chinese calendar, and Chu Wing Tung's (my profile buddy) according to the modern calendar. So we invited both families out to dinner all together. It was really nice to get together without any core group business to think about, just enjoying each other's company. It would be nice to do more of this kind of thing.

Creation, the 5th & 6th days

An exciting week!! One of our newcomers married into a Christian family. Has considered herself a Christian because they don't worship idols at her home, but she really knew NOTHING of what she was supposed to believe. Last week I had asked her if she would be interested in getting together for some Bible study with just two or three of us, during the week, and she said yes. (I wouldn't have felt I had the time to do this if we hadn't started over!) I also invited another mom who's been coming for over a year; I think she would like to come but will have trouble coming regularly. We shall see.

But Mrs. Wong came Thursday morning and she prayed to receive Christ as Savior! WOOHOO!! Am I excited or what?!!

This Sunday, then, we finished up the creation story. I need to get away from using as much flannelgraph as I did three years ago, but this time it still seemed to be the best way to introduce all those animals. Having the kids name them and put them up on the board twice—once when they were created and once when Adam had to name them—was good.

We played our Animal Farm again. I hadn't come up with enough animals for everyone to imitate—we had ten kids and eleven adults this week! But we got around that problem by having a lot of the kids team up with mom, which probably worked better anyway. Lots of laughter for this game!!

We hadn't had a craft the first time around, but this time we did. We made octopi out of bananas, and people faces with tomatoes. Not original ideas; they came from a "Lovely Vegetables" e-mail forward I received quite a while back. Thank you, Sico! Bruce has the camera with him, he's on his way to a conference in the Philippines, so I can't add any pictures right now…

Starting Over

September 6^th, we started the curriculum over from the beginning. Just some minor changes from the first Sunday, on the first 4 days of creation. We added a game this time, which we didn't have the first time around. We talked about how some scientists claim that the world "just happened," so we experimented with trying to just happen to make the world as beautiful as God made it. Each child got to try throwing cardboard cutouts of a tree, a bush, a couple of flowers, the sun, and a cloud onto a grass & sky scene laid on the floor. Guess what—nobody's looked anywhere near as good as the model picture!

This time around we are radically changing our adult Bible study time. That is the one section of the morning where the adults get to explore the Bible more deeply—the one section that one would expect to have the highest potential for yielding spiritual fruit. And since we haven't had any adult conversions since November 2006, and she had been learning about Jesus for ten years (!!), we figured we needed to change this part!

So now it's going to be mainly just a review of the story rather than a study of a related passage. Though we plan to have a few key verses to look up at the END of the study. I was in with the kids, so I can't say firsthand how it went. Except I do know there was a tangential discussion about whether God could fix global warming. It sounds like Bruce handled it well.

We're thrilled that our two new families look like they're settling in for the long haul! It's neat that they get to start from the beginning now with us.

On to Rome

Our last Sunday in the "old" curriculum! It was a good way to wind up, with our two new families returning, and great participation by all in all the activities. Which were:

Our story:

Today we're going to take Paul to Rome. He has a centurion with him to guard him.	Introduce Paul, centurion (with sword & shield)
They need to go by ship. Here is the ship's captain, and the crew of sailors. This boat doesn't require rowing; it goes under sail.	Introduce ship's captain and crew (captain: blue hat; crew: sailor hats) Crew are all remaining kids. One adult holds sail (white cloth on stick)
The weather is less than ideal. They make some headway, but then the wind changes and they're blown back…	They all walk forward following the sail, then all walk backward. Repeat 2-3 times.
This really wastes a lot of time! They're not even halfway there yet, but they need to stop and take on some more provisions.	Everyone gets a grocery bag full of crumpled newspaper. Captain's bag includes packet of wafer cookies
Paul considers the weather and says, we've wasted so much time already, shouldn't we spend the winter here?	Paul says: Spend the winter here.
But the captain thinks he's just a bother. He says, we must keep going!	Captain says: keep going!
So they set out. And they go forward, and they go back…	Another round of forward and backward
Suddenly, the wind picks up! It's really getting dangerous!	Have sail and everyone weave around in all directions—up, down, side-to-side.
Try putting out the sea anchor!	Captain ties anchor rope to mast, throws cardboard anchor to adult on sidelines.
But they continue rolling up & down at the mercy of the waves. It's been more than ten days already! They've about lost all hope.	They continue weaving around.
But that night, an angel appears to Paul and says, don't be afraid. God has promised that He will protect not only your life, but the life of everyone else in the ship.	Angel with halo says: don't be afraid, you'll be safe.
The next day Paul tells the captain not to be afraid, because the God he serves has promised to rescue them all. He suggests they all eat something to keep their strength up.	Paul says: don't be afraid. God will rescue us. Eat something! Captain passes out cookies to all.
After they have eaten, they throw the rest of the food overboard to lighten the ship.	Everyone throws their grocery bags away from the group.
Suddenly—they see an island in the distance!	Everyone shades their eyes and points
Let's see if they can make it there--,arggh, no! We've hit a huge rock! The boat is starting to break up! Everyone needs to swim for the island!	Everyone stops dead. Sail falls down. They jump out and swim around.
The people of the island welcomed them kindly. But they were all wet and cold, so they needed to start a fire. They start gathering firewood.	Everyone shakes hands with all the adults. Start gathering sticks (tightly rolled newspaper) for fire.
Paul thinks this is a stick—but it's a snake! It bites him. The people think it must be God's judgment on him—that since he didn't drown God had to kill him this way. But then he just shook it off and was fine. The people were amazed. Paul was able to tell them about the God he worshipped who took care of him.	Paul gets one stick with snake head and masking-tape fangs which attach to his hand. He shakes it off. Everyone points to him. Then Oohs and Aahs.
They spent the winter on this island, and then another ship came along going to Rome, so they all got on that ship.	Adult picks up sail again, everybody lines up, they go in one smooth trip around room
When they get to Rome, Paul doesn't have to be in prison; he can rent his own house and just have a soldier guarding him all the time.	Paul sits in recliner, soldier stands beside him
So a lot of people came and visited him at his home, and he was able to tell them about Jesus.	Several come & sit on stools in front of him, he holds up picture of cross
The Bible doesn't tell us what happened when he finally saw the emperor after two years under house arrest. The history books of the Bible end with him still there. Then most of the rest of the Bible is made up of letters that Paul wrote to the churches he started. So next week, we are going to start over again and look at the historical stories, starting back from the creation of the world.

I couldn't get hold of a big enough inner tube for two people, so for our game, we just used a large hula hoop and said to pretend it was a life preserver. Kids were paired according to approximate sizes. Each pair got inside the hoop facing away from each other. They had been shipwrecked and needed to swim to shore. Each kid was supposed to try and head for the "shore" (masking tape line on floor) that he/she was facing. It was pretty hilarious. We had a couple of really strong and determined pullers, and at least one who cooperatively turned around and followed his partner to her shore.

For our craft, we made "3-D" pictures of sailing boats, stacking the layers with prepared "dots" of blu-tack.

Bible study was from Philippians 1:12-14, and 2 Cor. 1:3-4, about how if we trust God, He can use even our bad situations to bring blessing to others.

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.

 

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!

Ephesus and the Sons of Sceva

Attendance is still low—we did have one return visitor that we'd heard wasn't coming back. Unfortunately he was late & missed the singing, story and craft time. Got there just in time for the game (we did the craft before the game this time since we made things to use in the game), which he did like! But then the Bible study was kind of hard going, so I'm afraid it might have discouraged mom. Sigh.

At the end of the adult Bible study, we always have the kids come out and we pray in a circle together. Usually we don't make a-Si come out, because he is usually in the middle of coloring and if you make him leave it, it really upsets him. He has the admirable trait of wanting to finish what he starts! (smile) But the person in charge of the kids this week forgot, and insisted he come out. He came out, but in a raging temper, knocking into a few bodies on the way and then screaming and jumping up and down. We sent him back to his coloring and he was fine. But it was a bit alarming! (He is a BIG kid!)

Anyway, here's the story:

Who remembers the names of our two main characters?	Ask all, introduce Paul and Silas
After they got out of prison in Philippi, they went through Greece preaching the gospel.	They walk around room. Continue walking with them while talking…
The Greeks at that time loved to talk about new ideas, so this part of the Bible has a lot of talking. You are welcome to read it for yourself, but we won't do that much talking right now. So we will jump to when they crossed the sea back to Ephesus.	At end of this speech they "row" back to Ephesus
They were very well received there.	They shake hands with everyone
So they stayed there quite a while—around two years.	They can sit down & put their feet up.
They didn't have to go around doing as much street preaching; instead people would come to them to hear their teaching.	2-3 others pull up stools and sit in front of them
And God did a lot of miracles there through Paul. For example, if Paul used a handkerchief to wipe his sweat…	Paul uses handkerchief to wipe his forehead
And then someone took that handkerchief and broght it to a sick person…	One "listener" takes handkerchief to another who leans back in chair, washcloth on forehead, pretzel thermometer in mouth
When they would put the handkerchief on his body, he would get well!	Listener lays handkerchief on sick person, who gets up.
So there was this group of people who didn't want to accept Jesus' salvation, but they had to admit that His name carried a lot of power.	Introduce 2-3; explain there were seven in all. At "mjipsauh" they do No,No; at "yauh kyuhn," they show their muscles
One day, they met a person possessed by a demon—a very frightening and dangerous man, yet also very pitiable.	One boy with backwards ball cap, scar on face
These men wanted to help him, but they just didn't know how. So one of them said to the demon inside the man: I command you, by the name of Jesus that Paul preaches, to come out of him!	One of group points to him and says: Fuhng Boloh ge Yehsou—giu neih jau!
But the demon answered: Ha! I know who Jesus is, and I know who Paul is. But you aren't anybody! Get out of here! So this man jumped on the whole group of them and they had to run for their lives!	He repeats phrases as they are mentioned, then jumps at them all and they all run away.
As the people in the city became aware of all these things, they realized that it was not a good idea to try and mix the name of Jesus with their own religion. So a lot of them gathered their books of magic and made a huge pile of them and burned them.	Kids pile up a bunch of books, sprinkle with orange & yellow paper scraps.
Paul and Silas saw their commitment and knew that they weren't really needed there any longer. They could go on and preach in other places.	Everyone waves good-bye, Paul & Silas walk off to kitchen.

Craft: making the "seven sons of Sceva" out of water bottles

Game: one "demon" (ball) bowling them all over

Bible study: The sons of Sceva were missing the armor of God! Ephesians 6:11, 14-17

 

At Philippi—attempts 1 & 2

On the 19^th of July, we had a #3 typhoon signal up. Those who managed to come anyway were so late that we decided to dispense with the regular program. We did play the game, though, and everyone seemed to really enjoy that. Since we were talking about Paul & Silas in prison, we played a game called "escape from prison." Passed around a "bomb" (a covered plastic bowl with a digital timer inside, set & reset for 30 seconds); whoever had the bomb when it went off had just blasted himself/herself an escape tunnel. That person (kids and adults all participated) had to crawl under a table & then at the other side, climb on a stool to reach a paper key that matched his/her "cell number" (label pasted on shirt). Played until everyone was out of prison.

Because we had so much time just sitting around waiting for people to show up, I was able to share a simple gospel presentation one-on-one with a-Wai. I asked him if he had received Christ as his Savior and he grunted. I had to ask, sorry, I don't know if that meant yes or no! So he grunted again, but with a tiny nod at the same time. Well then, I said, let's give thanks to the Lord! I meant we should pray and give thanks. But instead he jumped up with a big smile on his face and gave me a "secret handshake" (I asked mom about it and she said it meant we were good friends. Way cool.)

So, it was Sunday the 26^th before we got around to the story of Paul & Silas in Philippi. Here it is in Chinese:

最近我們跟哪兩個主角﹖	(問大家) 介紹保羅和巴拿巴
有一天﹐保羅對巴拿巴說﹐我們不如回去我們建立教會的地方﹐知道他們如何。巴拿巴說﹐好﹐又想叫他的表弟與他們一齊去。	巴拿巴揀選一個作表弟
但保羅不同意。他說﹐這位馬可﹐上次不夠負責﹐我不信任他。	保羅推馬可﹐想叫他走
但巴拿巴很想給馬可多機會。所以﹐保羅和巴拿巴要分開。巴拿巴帶馬可回去塞浦路斯﹔	巴拿巴和馬可坐凳子搖船﹐就可以坐低
保羅揀選西拉﹐他們一齊出發	保羅和西拉又坐船
他們先回去已經去過的地方。但坐那裏﹐有一晚:	他們鋪毛巾而睡覺
保羅夢見一個人顯然﹐對他說﹕請你到馬其頓來幫助我們。	一個人起身﹐對他們這樣說
第二天﹐他們一早出去馬其頓	又坐船
他們去到一個城市叫腓立比。在那裏有一個被鬼附的使女。她用法術﹐叫他的主人多得錢。	介紹一個女子﹐戴特帽
保羅和西拉傳道的時候﹐她跟他們﹐大聲說﹐[這兩位是至高神的僕人﹐教人怎能得救]	保羅和西拉行一個圈﹐女子跟他們這樣說。
好不好的事﹖	(問大家)
其實不是太好﹔她真是騷擾他們﹐直至到人想聽怎能得救就聽不見﹗保羅心中厭煩﹐對那鬼說﹕我奉耶穌基督的名吩咐你在她身上出來喇﹗	保羅指著女子﹐說﹕要出來﹗
鬼真是出了去。現在﹐女子不繼續騷擾他們﹐但一樣作不到法術﹔她的主人不再得益﹗他們怎樣呢﹖	(問大家)
他們拉保羅和西拉﹐用木棍打他們	用毛巾棍來打他們
就要他們坐監﹐看監的人的腳上了木狗。	他們要坐在[內監] ﹐一個男子叫他 們戴木狗
他們非常辛苦﹗他們坐在監裏﹐知不知作甚麼﹖	(問大家)
他們討論今天見到神的大能﹐又得榮幸為主受苦﹐就唱詩歌讚美神﹗	他們一齊唱 [主你的慈愛]
未唱完﹐突然有大的地震﹗所有監門自己開﹔木狗又開。	一個人大聲打鼓。要打開木狗。
看監的人見到監門全開﹐就拔刀要自殺	看監的遞高刀檢
但保羅說﹐不好害自己喇﹗我們沒有走﹗	保羅說﹕不要死﹗我們沒有走﹗
看監的很感動﹐欣賞保羅和西拉的態度。他先把水洗他們的傷口﹐然後求他們用水給他受洗禮。	看監的把毛巾子抹保羅和西拉的背 --保羅就把藍色紙倒在他頭上
第二天早上﹐差人來說﹐他們可以出監	男子戴證章拉他們起身推他們走

A definite highlight of the story was having the boys put in stocks:

We did the repeat of the prison escape game, and it went just as well the second time around.

For a craft, we chose a Chinese character meaning "joy," and drew it large but lightly on pieces of red card stock. Each child got a length of yarn, a pair of scissors, a small dish of glue, and a Q-tip, to create the character in yellow yarn on the red paper. Very pretty.

Bible study was from Philippians 4:1-9, on three secrets for enjoying peace and joy.