Commandment Nine

Well, we more than made up for our low attendance of the past couple of weeks! "Just" eight kids, but three visitors from Hong Kong, who come once a month as volunteers, and six American visitors from our home church in Rapid City, South Dakota, here to teach at an English day camp.

Our story was about Naboth and his vineyard. (A plate of grapes Naboth stood over with his watering can.) The one that King Ahab wanted for himself but couldn't have because he at least did know last week's commandment about not stealing! So he went home and pouted. His wife Jezebel had no such conscience concerning God's commands, so she arranged for him to be hauled before the judge (visitors beware—you WILL be recruited!) and have some people accuse him of blaspheming God and the king. Then we all "stoned him to death" with wadded newspapers. When Jezebel told her husband it was all taken care of, he knew better than to ask too many questions. He just went & dumped out Naboth's grapes, put in his own bunch of broccoli (the Bible says he wanted it for a vegetable garden) and stood over it with his watering can. End of story.

For game time, we had a bunch of true or false statements stuck face down to the blackboard for the kids to take turns choosing. If it was true and they knew it, they got an M&M. If it was false and they knew it, they could win their candy if they corrected the statement. With enough coaching, everybody won. Even the boy who kept insisting that the statement "big sister Mary is a boy" was true. We used a lot of statements that had to be verified on the spot. Things that I didn't know for sure would be true or false when I wrote them, such as, "Ka Hei is wearing a red shirt," or "Sally is wearing earrings today." I was pretty much positive that I was not a boy though!

Thanks to Pauline Yeung for the craft idea. We said, Jezebel had those worthless fellows in the story tell lies about Naboth on purpose. But a lot of times, when we bear false witness about others, it's because we have not taken the time to look carefully at what the truth really is. You need to see things clearly before you talk about others—in other words, you need to have your glasses on!

Normally when we have visiting volunteers, we have them watch the kids in the side bedrooms while the adults have their Bible study in the living room. But we had too many visitors to squeeze them all into those rooms with the kids. Having the Americans join the Bible study would be too overwhelming, though, with the translation that would be needed. So, the perfect solution: the Hong Kong volunteers got to join the Bible study, while the Americans and I took the kids to a nearby park and bought them all something to drink. It was HOT, but that was okay.

While we were out there we also got all the kids to sign Kevin's birthday card, which we presented to him when we got back.