Blessed are the Meek

Some frustration in planning this one, mainly because the standard Chinese Bible translation of “meek” is more like “nice” or “kind.” I preferred to go with the traditional interpretation of meekness so had to sneak in the fact that another translation does suggest this.

The hero of today’s story was John the Baptist. We introduced our John the Baptist, dressing him in a “camel’s hair garment” (a wooly jacket-liner) and leather belt. Then he was supposed to eat locusts and honey. As when we did this the first time, we explained that we didn’t have any locusts (Wòhng Chùhng in phonetic Cantonese) but we did have ordinary Chùhng (worms). Our previous John had been totally shocked when I offered him a gummi worm; had to be coaxed to eat it. This time, our John had no problem; grabbed the worm and started munching. But then we brought out the jar of honey and he was having none of it! I have no idea why he had such a big reaction. Neither did his mom, who was leading the story and who finally convinced him to dip the end of his worm in the honey. After which he turned it around and chewed only on the other end!

Many people liked to come out to the wilderness to hear John preach. Sometimes they would stay a long time & might get cold or hungry. So some people wore extra clothes (one person puts on two jackets) or brought extra food (one person with a bag of snacks). John preached the importance of repenting and living out God’s law of love. For example, people with two coats should share with those who have none (so she did), and people with extra food should share with the hungry (food-bearer passes out snacks to everyone). Lots of people wanted to be his disciples.

Then one day Jesus (in trademark white vest) comes along and is baptized by John (who sprinkles blue tissue scraps on his head). Immediately a voice from heaven announces that Jesus is God’s beloved Son. Wow! Suddenly it seems everyone wants to follow Jesus instead of John. So they all but one or two walk away from John. One asks John if he is jealous. John says, of course not! The whole purpose of my preaching is to get people ready to follow Jesus, so why should I be jealous?

Funny how there were other preachers at that time who wanted to be famous, but we don’t know their names. And here’s this John the Baptist, who wanted to give Jesus all the glory, and we have all heard of him! Even Jesus Himself had good things to say about him! We had written on the board His saying, “there is no one who has arisen who is greater than…” and one of the kids wrote in “…John.” Then Jesus stuck a gold star on John.

Our game was a meek/humble task: throwing out the garbage. Had a big piece of cardboard with a flap in it like a litter bin; everybody got to take a few tries at throwing a bag of “garbage” through the open flap.

Craft, likewise, was a meek/humble task: washing cars. Everybody got a very muddy toy car and was supposed to scrub it clean with a toothbrush.

John the Baptist was supposed to be our model of meekness for the day. So I was surprised, but not in a bad way, when someone was struck by how meek Jesus was, being without sin yet willing to be baptized by this nobody named John (who ate worms!). :-)

Blessed are They that Mourn

No pictures this week, I just keep getting too caught up in what’s going on!

For this week’s story, we first introduced King Hezekiah, a very good and godly king. (everyone applauds) But then he died and Judah ended up with Manasseh, whom no one liked. (boo, hiss) He put up the altars his father had torn down (he tapes a picture of an altar to the wall), and encouraged others to do the same (a couple more kids tape up altars). And he worshipped at the altar of the most horrible god of all of them (tapes up the word for evil (惡)over one of the altars. He even sacrificed his own son as a burnt offering to this god. (chooses “son,” leads him to the altar & dumps scraps of “fire” on his head) Finally, God punishes Manasseh and he is hauled off to prison in a far country (“soldier” with sword wraps a chain around his wrists and drags him around the room.

Manasseh now has two choices (kids hold up numbers 1 & 2). Number 1 (flip sign over): he can be upset with God, or number 2 (flip sign over): he can be upset with himself. Which one did he choose? Our Manasseh reached out without hesitation and chose number 2. Good choice! He knelt down and told God he was sorry for his sins. God had mercy on him and he was released from prison and restored to his kingship. (off with the chain, on with his crown) When he is king again, he lets everyone know that it is God’s mercy, and he quits worshipping any other gods (he & others tear down the altar pictures and tear them up).

For the game, we talked about mourning and crying until your hankie is soaked. Then everyone got a “hankie” (a small washcloth) & we put a basin of water in the middle of the floor (on a newspaper-lined shower curtain). Everyone raced to dip their hankies in the water and wring them out into cups, to see who could fill their cup the fastest.

For craft time, each person had a paper with three hearts drawn on it, and was given a little baggie with three different-colored hearts cut up into pieces & they were supposed to mend the broken hearts, like God does. It was kind of too hard though. I should have used colored paper that was white or some other color on the back, or at least scribbled on the back sides of the hearts before I cut them up. Kids couldn’t tell which side of the pieces was “up” so then had trouble fitting them together correctly. Oops. If there’s a next time--!

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

Starting our unit on the Beatitudes. We explained that the parables we’d just finished learning were “made up” by Jesus to illustrate certain truths. But to illustrate each beatitude, we would use historical, true stories from the Bible.

The first story was about King Nebuchadnezzar, a man who needed to learn how to be poor in spirit.

We told how the Israelites had been so disobedient that God had to punish the whole nation by sending them into exile to Babylon. (“soldier” with sword drives everyone once around the room) Among them was a young man named Daniel (baseball cap) who loved God, but had to be exiled along with everyone else. The king of Babylon, a very powerful man, had a dream one night that was very troubling. He “told” the dream: He saw a huge tree (on flannel board). It bore lots of luscious fruit (kids stick flannel fruit on tree). All sorts of animals rested in its shade (kids stick on animals), and birds nested in its branches (kids stick on birds). But then an angel of the Lord appeared (child with halo) and said, cut down this tree! (Angel pulls off tree & sticks on stump). It is going to sit uncared for in the field for 7 periods of time, until it knows that God is the one in charge of the world!

Well, the king wanted to know what this dream meant, so he asked everyone. Daniel says, I know! He says, I am sorry to say this, but you are the tree, and God is going to cut you down and you will be abandoned by everyone for 7 periods of time, until you learn that God is in charge, not you. Daniel begs the king to acknowledge God now, and perhaps avoid this punishment. But the king just thanks him for his explanation.

A year goes by and nothing happens, so the king has forgotten all about the dream by now. But has God forgotten? No! So, one day the king is walking on the roof of his palace and exclaiming over how wonderful he is to have made Babylon so great. The angel appears and says, “That’s enough, King Nebuchadnezzar! You are going to be punished until you learn that God is the one who makes nations great!”

Immediately the king has something like a stroke and loses his mind. He is driven away from the palace (by the soldier), and lives out in the field. He has to eat grass like an ox (shredded seaweed). His hair (a mophead) and his nails (some great gorilla fingers I found at a dollar store not long before Halloween) grow grotesquely long.

Finally after seven years, he is restored to his right mind. Right away he acknowledges that God is indeed in control. And he is restored to his kingdom.

Our game was called, “How long until the tree falls?” We put a “tree” (some fake flowers in a vase) in the middle of a large cardboard circle laid atop about 15 building blocks. Kids took turns pulling blocks out from under the circle with a pair of tongs, trying not to be the one who made the tree fall. Played it twice.

For craft time (or “handwork”), we talked about how Nebuchadnezzar’s nails grew long because no one took care of them. But that some ladies grow theirs long on purpose, and paint them to look pretty. So the kids painted their mom’s nails.

There weren’t quite enough moms to go around, so I got my fingernails painted too. Wing Yan was convinced she was supposed to paint my FINGERS, so I helped as best I could to confine the polish to my nails. Good thing, too. I had bought a variety of tiny sample bottles, and the one she chose was full of glitter, which did not want to come off even with lavish application of polish remover. Still can see traces of it six days later!

I got to lead the Bible study again. A highlight for me was when we acknowledged that most of us are not quite so proud as King Nebuchadnezzar; by contrast we often feel stupid, useless, helpless, etc. I asked, so according to this truth that Jesus was trying to teach, do we need to overcome these things before we can enter the kingdom of heaven? One woman—one who usually doesn’t say a word—immediately spoke up and said, yes, we do. I said, a lot of people think that’s true, but what does this Bible verse say? Does it say, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, because when they overcome their poor self-esteem they can belong to the kingdom of heaven?” No! Jesus wants us to know that even though we might feel stupid and unlovely, we are still blessed, because He does love us, and welcomes us into His kingdom. Everyone got real quiet all of a sudden. “Salvation by grace” suddenly became a little more wonderful than they’d realized, I think. Precious moment!

Chinese New Year

Okay, here's the tassel fringe we did for January 22:
The following Sunday, we didn't have our regular program, just ate Chinese New Year snacks and chatted. A wonderful, needed break from preparation, for me! And without this chat time we never would have heard from dear Mrs. Ng that she had led her father to Christ before he died just a couple of months ago! Praise the Lord!