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--!