Finishing up with the Ascension

In preparation for the visual aid at the end of the story, I had placed our cardboard Jesus doll on the wall under the transom window (with the string strategically covered by an extra cloud…I know, I should have a picture but forgot the camera that day…). So as we began, I asked, okay, so we know that Jesus died, and rose from the dead, and where is he now? Lai Wun yelped and pointed at the doll on the wall! I was impressed; I wouldn't have guessed she would remember the association from seeing this doll used as Jesus only once, three weeks previously!

I mixed in a lot of Jesus' upper room discourse as His farewell speech, since we hadn't touched on it before and we needed more material anyway! We talked about how having the Holy Spirit was even better than having Jesus with us if we're supposed to go around preaching the gospel to the whole world. Just like a glass of water in "Jerusalem" wouldn't help quench your thirst if you were at "the ends of the earth" (the other side of the room), but if you drank it, as our volunteer did, and then went to the ends of the earth, it would still be inside you! (Only, of course, the Holy Spirit lasts longer than a glass of water.)

Sure, they'd have the Holy Spirit, but they would still miss Jesus! Would they ever see Him again? Oh yes, He was going to prepare a place for each of them in His Father's heavenly home. We put up this picture of a "golden city" and had the kids find their places behind the various windows. They really liked that!!

When our Jesus was supposed to ascend, we had him disappear into the storeroom and pull the string attached to the Jesus doll so that it rose into the "clouds." But then we also enjoyed the extra visualization of going out to the street and watching a helium balloon ascend to the skies.

Kevin led the game, which I had originally described as just a "silly wedding shower type game," relating to the truth of Jesus coming back for us like a bridegroom coming for His bride. But Kevin took it further—the paper plates we balanced on our heads were to help the bride walk elegantly tall, while the oranges between our knees were to practice taking tiny steps for the narrow skirt of a traditional red wedding gown. Thanks, Kevin, that was so great!!

He also led the craft, which was ascension pictures—the little Jesus figures were on a piece of string that could pull them up behind a cloud that was attached to the paper with thick double-sided tape so that there was space behind it. Oops; should have taken a picture of those too but at least they are still at the church so I can do a make-up later…

Good little Bible study time with the girls. During the prayer time, one girl asked that Jesus would help her behave better. Once again, I was impressed; most of our adults are still thinking in terms of asking God to change their problem situations more than to change them personally. Another girl asked prayer for her upcoming ordeal of being tested on the recorder when she still hadn't figured out how to play some of the notes in the required song. Well, I've been playing recorder since I was just her age (that is, a loooong time!), so I ended up going over for a visit that evening and working on the song with her. Thank You, Jesus for a quick and enjoyable answer to that prayer!