Blessed are the meek

There once was a man known as John the Baptist.	choose one boy
he wore a robe made of camel hair, and a leather belt	wool vest, leather belt
he ate locusts and wild honey	eats gummi worms—the word for locust in Chinese includes the word worm, so we said these were "close enough"-- & a spoonful of honey
A lot of people recognized that he was a prophet of God, and were very curious about him, so they went out to the wilderness to see him and hear him preach.
Sometimes they would be there until night & it would get cold, so some people would bring extra clothing	one child puts on two extra garments
Other people would bring food	one child gets sack with snacks.
and they would follow John as we went about preaching	all children follow Si around room
John taught the people to repent and obey the law of loving your neighbor as yourself. His preaching was very practical; you didn't have to do real big things. For example, he might say:
It is awfully cold today. I see some people are wearing extra clothes. They should share them with people who didn't bring a coat.	child wearing two shirts gives one to another child.
And people who brought food, you should share it with those around you who are hungry.	child with snacks passes them out
He spoke so well & helped people understand God's word, so many people wanted to be baptized and become his disciples.	Si "baptizes" children by pouring shredded blue crepe paper over their heads.
Today, who is coming to be baptized? Jesus!	adult with white vest.
After Jesus is baptized, a voice spoke from heaven…	have another adult read: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."
Wow! This man was even more amazing than John! So a lot of people quit following John and followed Jesus instead, wanting to learn more about Him.	all but one or two children leave Si & follow "Jesus"
Do you think John was very happy about that?	(ask all)
His own disciples said to him, this is not very fair! Aren't you terribly disappointed? How do you think John answered?	(ask all)
He answered, "Of course I'm not disappointed! In fact, I am delighted! It was a privilege to teach people about God's law, but when God's own Son comes, of course people ought to follow Him!
As for Jesus, although he accepted everyone who wanted to follow him instead of John, what did he say about John?	"Jesus" hugs all the kids who have followed him.
He said, "…no one has arisen who is greater than"—whom?	show verse with John's name left out, one child sticks it in place.
You know, in Jesus' time, there were a lot of people who liked to teach the law and get a lot of glory for it. But nobody remembers any of their names any more!
The one we remember is John the Baptist, who was humble enough to be willing to let Jesus be greater than himself.	shake Si's hand, give him gold star.
Jesus spoke truly:	(read out beatitude 3 together)

 

Game: humble task: throwing away the garbage

Craft: humble task: shining shoes

Bible study: Matthew 5:5

 

The highlight of this lesson for me was when I fed the gummi worm to "John the Baptist". He is an older, more intelligent boy who was very troublesome when he first began coming—didn't want to cooperate with the activities, would hit other kids who bumped him, etc. Then once sort of by accident, Kevin and I ended up inviting him and his mother out for tea. That was a major turning point for this boy, a-Wai. I think it was because he began to understand that we really cared about him. The look on his face this Sunday when I held up this "worm" was priceless—like I had totally gone out of my mind! But everyone encouraged him to try it, assured him it really did taste good—and he finally ate it (and liked it). Obviously his trust has come a long way. His extremely timid mother is also starting to come out of her shell the tiniest bit. God is working!

Blessed are they that mourn

This week, Mr. Lei led the story, which I prepared for him. Which seems like "cheating" on the training process, but not really. When I first taught Sunday School, I had a manual to teach from. The only difference is that this manual is currently being written a week at a time!

And this week, because it was expressly written for Mr. Lei to lead, it was written in Chinese instead of English:

一個王叫希西家	戴冠冕
是好的王	大家拍掌歡呼
作王29年就死了	坐
他的兒子瑪拿西作王	戴冠冕
他很惡	大家表示憎惡
他父親所拆毀的邱檀﹐他重新建築	整好"[邱檀] 紙﹐貼在牆
又教平民這樣作	大家又整又貼
他選擇敬拜最惡的假神	貼大 [惡] 字在牆
他將自己的兒子作燒祭	帶男子到[惡] 字前﹐加黃色紙
神派很多先知叫他不要作惡	幾個男子來拉他手
但他不聽神的話	趕他們走
所以神要懲罰他
亞述王的章帥來拉他到亞述國	男子帶槍﹐用鐵鉤鉤他﹐拉他走
瑪拿西在亞述國很辛苦
他在那裡有兩個選擇
他可以埋怨神的懲罰	表示向神生氣
或可以埋怨自己的罪	表示向神道歉
他怎樣選擇﹖	(問大家)
神有甚麼反應﹖	(問大家)
神憐憫他﹐讓他歸回耶路撒冷﹐仍坐國位	人幫他拆鐵鉤﹐帶他回來﹐戴冠冕
是不是公平﹖	(問大家)
原來神是個好憐憫的神。聖經說﹕
神啊﹐憂傷痛悔的心﹐你必不輕看	瑪拿西拆大[惡] 字﹔貼詩篇51:17
哀慟的人有福了﹐因為他們必得安慰。	一齊讀馬太福音5:4

 

Questions, anyone?

 

Our story was about how the wicked King Manasseh was punished with exile, but when he repented of his sins and cried out to God, he was comforted and restored to his kingdom. The little boy who played Manasseh didn't really want to wear his crown, and then when the manacles (made from pipe cleaners) were put on, he started crying quietly. He didn't actually understand the story, but was a perfect "repentant Manasseh" nonetheless!

For our game for this week, we said that when you mourn you cry so much you have to wring out your hankie. We put a big bucket of water in the center; each child was supposed to dip his/her washcloth into the bucket and wring it out into his/her small ice cream tub. First one to fill it up was the winner. Not all the kids quite grasped the idea, but they all love playing with water, especially when it's 90 degrees outside, so it was an acceptable game. Yik San, our little Manasseh, got completely over the misery of his exile and was as happy as could be splashing around!

 

For our craft, we mended broken hearts—puzzles made from craft foam. Bible study—again, just on the beatitude itself.

 

I did tell each family to wear or bring leather shoes for next week. We shall see if they remember.

 

 

 

 

Starting the Beatitudes (unit 6)

It's so good to be back at Merciful Love again! I missed the kids, I missed the moms, I missed the fun! Yesterday we launched a new unit on the Beatitudes. For #1, Blessed are the poor in spirit, we used the story of the humbling of Nebuchadnezzar from Daniel 4. Here's how it went:

In the time of the Zhou Dynasty (hey, we're Chinese!), because the Jews had not obeyed or honored God, they were punished by God and carried off to exile in Babylon (boy with sword drags entire group, encircled by string, around room). Among them (single out one boy) was a young boy named Daniel. Daniel loved God, but because the whole country was being punished, even good people had to suffer.

At that time, the king of Babylon was called Nebuchadnezzar (boy with crown). One night while he was sleeping (N. lies on mat, snores), he had a dream. When he woke up (gets up), he was very uneasy. He really wanted to know the meaning of his dream. He said, "Last night I had a dream. I saw a big tree (child places tree on flannel board). It was beautiful! It had luscious fruit (child places fruit in tree). Animals found rest in its shade (child places animals under tree); birds built nests in its branches (child places nest & birds). But then, suddenly an angel (girl with halo) appeared and said, 'Cut down the tree, and leave it a stump ("angel" exchanges tree for stump), and wait for seven times to pass over it, (children place numbers 1-7 across flannel board) until it understands that all it has is from God.'"

N. asked, "Who can explain this to me?" (question for all: who do you suppose could explain it?) It was that young man who knew God: Daniel. (D. walks up to N.) Very nervously, Daniel said to the king, "Oh King, I hate to tell you this, but God says, that tree is you. Your power and position are going to be cut off, in order to teach you to acknowledge God and not be so proud. Oh King, I urge you, repent quickly, and perhaps God will not have to punish you like this."

(q: How do you suppose N. responded?) "Oh. Thanks, Daniel." (D. sits back down) A year later, nothing has happened, and N. has forgotten all about his dream. (q: do you think God has forgotten?) No! One day, N. was walking around on the roof of the palace, surveying his kingdom. (N. walks back and forth, making boastful gestures as appropriate). He was saying to himself, "I am really great! I have made Babylon a great kingdom. Nobody anywhere has power like mine!" Suddenly the angel from his dream appeared (girl with halo), and said: "N! Starting today, you have no power at all—you have nothing at all—until you come to understand your true position before God!"

Immediately, N. had something like a stroke and lost his mind. He was driven out of the palace and had to live out in the field, eating grass like an ox (boy with sword takes off N's crown & pushes him away. N. eats shredded seaweed snack). No one took care of him. (q: What happens when no one cares for him? When no one cuts his hair?) His hair grew very long, like eagle feathers. (place mop top on N's head). (q: what else would grow long?) His fingernails! (attach "long fingernails"). He was like this for seven years. (children remove numbers from board one at a time) Then his mind was restored. He cut his hair (take off mop), cut his nails (remove), and was restored to his position as king (N. recrowned, sits on chair, all rise & applaud). But from that day forward, he never forgot whose power was really the greatest! (q: and whose power is that?)

Well! Now you know what our Sunday skits look like! Some simplification, some embroidery. But I trust true to the spirit of the Word.

Our game for this was "How long will the tree stand?" A small potted tree was placed on a piece of cardboard resting on a dozen toy blocks. Each child in turn had to remove one block by reaching in with a pair of tongs. (Good pre-scissor skill!) The rules were supposed to be, whoever made it fall was out for the next round. But one boy showed up late, took his place at the table and immediately made the tree fall! I could hardly make him sit out right away. So, quick change, we had no "losers." We just played it a couple times more for the fun of it, and that was fine.

For a craft, we said, Nebuchadnezzar's fingernails growing long was not good, but sometimes ladies like to let their fingernails grow kind of long, and then they paint them. So each child had to paint their mom's fingernails! (The kids who were really fast at this ended up doing their toenails, too.) Glad I remembered to bring nail polish remover as well, ha.

For Bible study, we just discussed the meaning of being poor in spirit, and encouraged everyone to give thanks to God for blessings that we do not deserve (such as our apartment not flooding because we happened to be home when rainwater started pouring into our laundry room last week—while many people no more wicked than we have been suffering much flood damage in the US this summer).

So: do we have fun, or what?

(Nebuchadnezzar at his lowest point)

Unit 5 – Parables of Jesus

It's good to be home at last! So wonderful to see all the kids and parents this past Sunday. Kevin and the Leis were in charge. They did the last of the parables unit and then had a welcome-back potluck for us.

Here is the chart of what they did while we were gone:

date	parable	game/craft	B. study
4/6/08	sower	paper boats (Jesus spoke from one)	Mk 13:1-9 II Cor 9:6 Gal 6:7-8
4/13/08	unforgiving servant	forgiving debts game	Lk 11:4
4/20/08	Good Samaritan	binding wounds game	Mt. 5: 44-48
4/27/08	rich fool	heavenly treasure box	Mt. 6: 19-21
5/4/08	workers in vineyard	artwork— grapes	Rom 9: 14-18
5/11/08	friend at midnight	??	Lk 11: 9-13
5/18/08	tares among wheat	craft: planting good seed	Mt. 13: 37-43
5/25/08	wedding banquet	game: dressing for banquet	Lk 14: 26-33
6/1/08	10 virgins	lighting candles game	II Tim 3: 12-17
6/8/08	wicked tenants	production line fruit game	Gal. 5: 22-26
6/15/08	prodigal son	craft : folding cow heads(?)	Eph 6:1-4 Col 3:21
6/22/08	talents	digging up buried treasure	Lk 16: 10:13
6/29/08	rich man & Lazarus	craft: MLFF record books	---
7/6/08	Pharisee & tax collector	game: pairing Ph & T. C.	Mt.6:5-8

Kevin can't remember everything exactly—I know how that goes!

This past Sunday, the 6^th, was his last Sunday with us. We will all miss him! I don't know how things could have hung together while we were on home assignment without him. We wish him the very best as he goes on to study at Macau Bible Institute this fall, and continues to seek God's will for his future.

Sad things as we start our new term with MLFF is that two of our kids' paid caregivers lost their employment visas in the past month. One of them had been with her charge for the whole ten years of his life. And if it weren't bad enough that he has lost this secure presence in his life for reasons he probably doesn't understand, his new caregiver is a Filipina who speaks very little Cantonese! So communication is an issue. As it is for the other boy's new caregiver, who speaks only Mandarin. We're glad to see that both boys are still coming, and we even met their mothers for the first time this week as they are helping ease the transition. That was good.

Well, I will get this posted, and starting this Sunday I will start giving more detail. Even if no one is reading this besides myself!

Unit 4B: NT Women

1/6/08	widow of Nain	sit-ups	maze & word-find	Luke 7: 11-17
1/13/08	woman with issue of blood	picking pockets	photo frames	Mark 5: 25-35
1/20/08	woman caught in adultery	throwing words	writing in soil (clay)	John 8: 2-11
1/27/08	anointing Jesus	pouring into jars	painting glass jars	Mark 14:1-9
2/3/08	Mary Magdalene & risen Christ	recognizing "master"	craft-stick butterflies	John 20 (various)
2/10/08	Chinese New Year free talk & play	--	--	--
2/17/08	woman at the well	drinking living water	cross bookmarks	Heb. 4: 15-16
2/24/08	Syrophoenician woman	grabbing at crumbs	t.p. roll dogs	I Pet. 5: 6-7
3/2/08	Mary & Martha	table setting race	napkin folding	Luke 10:38-42
3/9/08	mother of sons of Zebedee	servants at R. & L. hands	latex glove balloon faces	Matt. 20: 24-28
3/16/08	widow's mite	throwing gifts into treasury	treasure banks	God's grading system
3/23/08	Pilate's wife	matching "dream" pictures	ribbon & clothespin crosses	Phil. 2: 6-11
3/30/08	Damons' farewell	--	--	--

The Bible studies for the first five weeks of this unit were lifted pretty much straight from the IVP Bible study "Jesus Cares for Women," which is the best evangelistic study book I've EVER seen. Actually that was what inspired this whole unit 4A-B!

I knew our non-thrower-non-kneeler was going to have trouble doing the "find your way to Jesus" maze for the first week. He has a lot of perceptual issues. So what I did with his maze was to build up all the areas around the one correct path, with about ¼ inch of extra paper. So all he had to do was to get his pencil at the start and keep going in whatever direction he didn't bump into a wall. Eventually he did get there, but it was still hard for him! All the other kids did well. The word-find, which I found on the internet, I threw in just to see how the kids would do with them, since most of them have learned the English alphabet at school. It was too hard for some of them, though—but the parents, who had never seen such a puzzle before, were quite fascinated and more than happy to complete the puzzles for them!

For the resurrection game, we held up a large sheet and each child was supposed to find his own mother/caregiver by feeling all the adults through the sheet. But one tall boy kept cheating and pulling the sheet down to look. I guess we needed taller people to hold the sheet up!

The table setting race was a really great game. The kids would take one piece of paper at a time with the name of a place-setting on it (plate, cup, fork, spoon, knife, napkin & bud vase) & then go put it on their assigned placemat. Fun and educational at the same time!

Well…the last Sunday of March was our farewell party, and so two days later we took off for our home assignment. A young man from the mother church, Kevin Hui, who had been interning with us for the past year, has been in charge while we were gone. He has been doing a great job. Attendance is stable and even up! And he has helped our Christian parents to get more involved in leading the activities. That is truly exciting; I hope I don't cause things to go backwards after our return.

Recently Kevin sent us a list of the parables of Jesus they have been learning over these three months. As soon as I find out what the game or craft was for each session (we agreed that they could choose just one to have each week rather than both, since creating those are the most time-consuming), I will post that chart.

 

Pause unit 4 for Christmas & the New Year

12/16/07		Elizabeth and Mary		jumping for joy	origami angel ornaments	Luke 1: 76-79
12/23/07		Magi		??	Christmas stockings	Jer. 29: 11-13
12/30/07		10 Lepers (thankfulness)		race on knees	foil pie plate tambourines	Ps. 92: 1-4

We had our sixty-year-old grandmother play the part of the pregnant Elizabeth. She brought the house down! But she absolutely refused to let me take her picture; I was SO disappointed!

The game that week was planned by our intern, Kevin--it was a little confusing to me as to how it was played, so I'm leaving this space blank. Game ideas always welcome

I found some cute pre-printed origami angels on Tammy Yee's website, but instead of adding her angel heads, I had prepared pictures of everyone (everyone's heads)—I took digital photos of our newcomers as soon as they arrived, and got them printed out during the game time. So each person got to attach his/her own head & then a halo, to the angel body. Then we put them all up on a large green poster-paper Christmas tree! Our kids almost never take their crafts home anyway. And they loved having them up on the tree.

For the game the week we talked about being thankful for the past year, I had embroidered the ten lepers' story a bit to say that the one thankful leper "ran to Jesus and fell on his knees." So for our game, we reversed that and ran on our knees to "Jesus" & then got up "healed" & ran back to the team. But running on your knees can be uncomfortable, so I basted thick foam pads on two pairs of legwarmers. Each runner then had to take them off at the end of his/her turn and the next person on the team had to put them on. Much hilarity!

I mentioned in the last post that one of our boys didn't know how to throw or to cut with scissors. We found out when he was playing one of the Magi that he didn't know how to kneel down either! Oops! In trying to help him get down, I ended up dropping him flat on his face. Some physical therapist I am, ha! I really wish I could have time with this boy outside of Sunday mornings to do more stuff one-on-one with him. (By the way, we let him WALK with the legwarmers on the next week!)

We JUST learned a couple of days ago that this boy, Man Chun, lost his excellent paid caregiver last week due to visa problems. Now he has a new "auntie" who doesn't speak Cantonese! Which means she cannot communicate with him verbally. What a setback for the poor kid. Just in time for summer vacation, too.

Doubly disappointing is the fact that the former auntie had said she wanted to become a believer, but was hesitating for fear of not being able to take the pressure from family to continue worshipping the ancestral gods. Now she will be away from any known Christian influence. So we are sad for her as well as for Man Chun.

We return to Macau on the 4^th of July—just three more weeks! I am so looking forward to seeing everyone again. We've been hearing great reports about how well things have been going. But maybe more about that AFTER I catch up the backlog here. Just one more unit to go!

Unit 4A: OT women

9/23/07	Rahab & the fall of Jericho	Wall-bashing	Trumpets (or lanterns)	I Tim 1: 12-15
9/30/07	Ruth	Gleaning rice (chopsticks)	Ruth & Naomi coloring page	Isaiah 54:4-6
10/7/07	Deborah	ping-pong ball war	palm tree	Gal. 3: 26-29
10/14/07	Hannah	eating until provoked	"Samuel's" shirt (gift for Melissa)	Luke 18:1-7
10/21/07	Melissa's farewell (Acts 20)	capturing Melissa (London bridge)	farewell card	--
10/28/07	Abigail	filling baskets (throwing fruit)	sheep shearing	I Pet. 2: 18-23
11/4/07	Elisha & the widow's oil	confetti relay	oil jars	Jn. 6: 5-13
11/11/07	Elisha & the Shunamite woman	prophet in the corner pocket	craft houses	Gal. 6: 9-10
11/18/07	Esther (guest leader)	??	??	??
11/25/07	GC outdoor service/picnic	--	--	--
12/2/07	Athaliah, Jehoshebeath, & Joash	hide & seek with baby doll	crowns	II Chr. 24:1-2, 15-18
12/9/07	Proverbs 31 woman	loaded tray relay	yarn pictures	Rom 3: 19-24

The sheep shearing for Abigail's craft was one of my all-time favorites. Took me ages to make enough hairy sheep.

That was the week we discovered that one of our boys could neither throw (he's since learned! Way to go!) or use scissors. I'm very careful now about crafts that require cutting. I try to keep it to short, straight cuts that are easy to help him with.

Obviously our curriculum can't be replicated 100% because future groups will not have a volunteer leader happening to end her term of service right when we needed to make "a shirt for Samuel." And the way the timing worked out so we could switch to NT at Christmas—two years in a row now—was dictated at least as much by outside factors (e.g. poor attendance) as careful planning. I'm hoping that after we get more believers who begin to invite their friends, we can start the curriculum over with those parents doing most of the work using the materials available, while I work on new stuff for a different population such as multiply handicapped kids rather than our physically active autistic boys. I don't know how the dates will work out a second time through! God, it's up to You!