A Snake in the Garden

This Sunday's lesson was on the fall of man. We used Barbie dolls again, because it's an important part of the story that they were naked, and there's only so far you want to go in role play! But rather than manipulating the dolls myself like I did a year ago, we had volunteers doing that. (Adam did a lot of pacing around the garden! smile) When they were supposed to eat the fruit, the volunteers ate it.

When we did this three years ago, we only had three kids that Sunday, which worked extremely well for craft time. Each one strung a bunch of fabric leaves which then became Adam's one-piece and Eve's two-piece cover-ups. This time we had six kids. Instead of just stringing the leaves together, I had them sew them to a ribbon, so that the fabric leaves (did I do a lot of cutting last week!!) would end up side-by-side instead of face-to-face. My idea was to tie the ends of the ribbon together and wrap them sort of sari-style. It didn't work super well. I'd welcome any suggestions if someone out there is more craft-wise than I am.

Our game, called "the path of sin" consisted of throwing our large foam die and taking the corresponding amount of steps on the rubber alphabet tiles laid out in line. At intervals there were different tiles (with the alphabet letters missing) & these were "sin" tiles. The idea being, life would be just dandy without sin, but if you land on one of those you have to go back to square one. One of our boys threw a number which would land him on one of these tiles. With a mischievous grin on his face, he picked up the die and made another throw—same number—and another. One of the other moms started scolding him for not playing according to the rules. I didn't want to discourage him, though. I thought he was showing great initiative, and not being crabby about "losing" but having fun with trying to get around the game. Hey, he just doesn't want to sin, I said! I can't remember now whether he ended up starting over or not. But he didn't lose his temper, that I do know, which for this boy is true progress.

In the afternoon Bruce & I went to a concert of the Macau Youth Orchestra. One of our newest kids, 10-year-old Ming Yan, was playing violin. (She's neurotypical, her 11-year-old sister is not). We enjoyed that very much. They were very good.

During this past week we had two birthdays in our core group happen to fall on the same day—Mrs. Lei's according to the Chinese calendar, and Chu Wing Tung's (my profile buddy) according to the modern calendar. So we invited both families out to dinner all together. It was really nice to get together without any core group business to think about, just enjoying each other's company. It would be nice to do more of this kind of thing.

Creation, the 5th & 6th days

An exciting week!! One of our newcomers married into a Christian family. Has considered herself a Christian because they don't worship idols at her home, but she really knew NOTHING of what she was supposed to believe. Last week I had asked her if she would be interested in getting together for some Bible study with just two or three of us, during the week, and she said yes. (I wouldn't have felt I had the time to do this if we hadn't started over!) I also invited another mom who's been coming for over a year; I think she would like to come but will have trouble coming regularly. We shall see.

But Mrs. Wong came Thursday morning and she prayed to receive Christ as Savior! WOOHOO!! Am I excited or what?!!

This Sunday, then, we finished up the creation story. I need to get away from using as much flannelgraph as I did three years ago, but this time it still seemed to be the best way to introduce all those animals. Having the kids name them and put them up on the board twice—once when they were created and once when Adam had to name them—was good.

We played our Animal Farm again. I hadn't come up with enough animals for everyone to imitate—we had ten kids and eleven adults this week! But we got around that problem by having a lot of the kids team up with mom, which probably worked better anyway. Lots of laughter for this game!!

We hadn't had a craft the first time around, but this time we did. We made octopi out of bananas, and people faces with tomatoes. Not original ideas; they came from a "Lovely Vegetables" e-mail forward I received quite a while back. Thank you, Sico! Bruce has the camera with him, he's on his way to a conference in the Philippines, so I can't add any pictures right now…

Starting Over

September 6^th, we started the curriculum over from the beginning. Just some minor changes from the first Sunday, on the first 4 days of creation. We added a game this time, which we didn't have the first time around. We talked about how some scientists claim that the world "just happened," so we experimented with trying to just happen to make the world as beautiful as God made it. Each child got to try throwing cardboard cutouts of a tree, a bush, a couple of flowers, the sun, and a cloud onto a grass & sky scene laid on the floor. Guess what—nobody's looked anywhere near as good as the model picture!

This time around we are radically changing our adult Bible study time. That is the one section of the morning where the adults get to explore the Bible more deeply—the one section that one would expect to have the highest potential for yielding spiritual fruit. And since we haven't had any adult conversions since November 2006, and she had been learning about Jesus for ten years (!!), we figured we needed to change this part!

So now it's going to be mainly just a review of the story rather than a study of a related passage. Though we plan to have a few key verses to look up at the END of the study. I was in with the kids, so I can't say firsthand how it went. Except I do know there was a tangential discussion about whether God could fix global warming. It sounds like Bruce handled it well.

We're thrilled that our two new families look like they're settling in for the long haul! It's neat that they get to start from the beginning now with us.

On to Rome

Our last Sunday in the "old" curriculum! It was a good way to wind up, with our two new families returning, and great participation by all in all the activities. Which were:

Our story:

Today we're going to take Paul to Rome. He has a centurion with him to guard him.	Introduce Paul, centurion (with sword & shield)
They need to go by ship. Here is the ship's captain, and the crew of sailors. This boat doesn't require rowing; it goes under sail.	Introduce ship's captain and crew (captain: blue hat; crew: sailor hats) Crew are all remaining kids. One adult holds sail (white cloth on stick)
The weather is less than ideal. They make some headway, but then the wind changes and they're blown back…	They all walk forward following the sail, then all walk backward. Repeat 2-3 times.
This really wastes a lot of time! They're not even halfway there yet, but they need to stop and take on some more provisions.	Everyone gets a grocery bag full of crumpled newspaper. Captain's bag includes packet of wafer cookies
Paul considers the weather and says, we've wasted so much time already, shouldn't we spend the winter here?	Paul says: Spend the winter here.
But the captain thinks he's just a bother. He says, we must keep going!	Captain says: keep going!
So they set out. And they go forward, and they go back…	Another round of forward and backward
Suddenly, the wind picks up! It's really getting dangerous!	Have sail and everyone weave around in all directions—up, down, side-to-side.
Try putting out the sea anchor!	Captain ties anchor rope to mast, throws cardboard anchor to adult on sidelines.
But they continue rolling up & down at the mercy of the waves. It's been more than ten days already! They've about lost all hope.	They continue weaving around.
But that night, an angel appears to Paul and says, don't be afraid. God has promised that He will protect not only your life, but the life of everyone else in the ship.	Angel with halo says: don't be afraid, you'll be safe.
The next day Paul tells the captain not to be afraid, because the God he serves has promised to rescue them all. He suggests they all eat something to keep their strength up.	Paul says: don't be afraid. God will rescue us. Eat something! Captain passes out cookies to all.
After they have eaten, they throw the rest of the food overboard to lighten the ship.	Everyone throws their grocery bags away from the group.
Suddenly—they see an island in the distance!	Everyone shades their eyes and points
Let's see if they can make it there--,arggh, no! We've hit a huge rock! The boat is starting to break up! Everyone needs to swim for the island!	Everyone stops dead. Sail falls down. They jump out and swim around.
The people of the island welcomed them kindly. But they were all wet and cold, so they needed to start a fire. They start gathering firewood.	Everyone shakes hands with all the adults. Start gathering sticks (tightly rolled newspaper) for fire.
Paul thinks this is a stick—but it's a snake! It bites him. The people think it must be God's judgment on him—that since he didn't drown God had to kill him this way. But then he just shook it off and was fine. The people were amazed. Paul was able to tell them about the God he worshipped who took care of him.	Paul gets one stick with snake head and masking-tape fangs which attach to his hand. He shakes it off. Everyone points to him. Then Oohs and Aahs.
They spent the winter on this island, and then another ship came along going to Rome, so they all got on that ship.	Adult picks up sail again, everybody lines up, they go in one smooth trip around room
When they get to Rome, Paul doesn't have to be in prison; he can rent his own house and just have a soldier guarding him all the time.	Paul sits in recliner, soldier stands beside him
So a lot of people came and visited him at his home, and he was able to tell them about Jesus.	Several come & sit on stools in front of him, he holds up picture of cross
The Bible doesn't tell us what happened when he finally saw the emperor after two years under house arrest. The history books of the Bible end with him still there. Then most of the rest of the Bible is made up of letters that Paul wrote to the churches he started. So next week, we are going to start over again and look at the historical stories, starting back from the creation of the world.

I couldn't get hold of a big enough inner tube for two people, so for our game, we just used a large hula hoop and said to pretend it was a life preserver. Kids were paired according to approximate sizes. Each pair got inside the hoop facing away from each other. They had been shipwrecked and needed to swim to shore. Each kid was supposed to try and head for the "shore" (masking tape line on floor) that he/she was facing. It was pretty hilarious. We had a couple of really strong and determined pullers, and at least one who cooperatively turned around and followed his partner to her shore.

For our craft, we made "3-D" pictures of sailing boats, stacking the layers with prepared "dots" of blu-tack.

Bible study was from Philippians 1:12-14, and 2 Cor. 1:3-4, about how if we trust God, He can use even our bad situations to bring blessing to others.

Adventures in Jerusalem

This Sunday we celebrated our third anniversary at Merciful Love Family Fellowship. We were sad that some people who said they would come didn't—but delighted to have two new families join us! One mom with two mentally handicapped girls (a teen and a young adult, both very sweet-natured), and another with a mentally handicapped daughter and her younger, neurotypical sister. We do hope we see them all again!!

Here's our Chinese story, which was led very well by Mr. Lei. Both he and Mrs. Chu seem to have found the groove. Yea!

上次我們見人勸保羅不好去耶路撒冷。 為甚麼呢﹖他有沒有聽他們的意見﹖	問大家
保羅和幾個朋友一齊行去耶路撒冷。	2-3個人帶書包﹐行一個圈
第一件要作的事就是探耶路撒冷的教會﹐為了把所籌的款交給他們。	每個書包裡有銀子﹐要交給教會的領袖
領袖對保羅說﹐這裡的猶太人爭恨你﹐因為以為你教虔成的猶太人不要守律法。是不是﹖	保羅作[No,No!]
我們有辦法來證明你自己尊重神的律法。這兩個年青人已經起了誓﹐明天要去聖殿﹐ 要剃頭﹐要獻祭。不如你和他們一齊去﹐你為他們出錢。這樣證明你不教人不守律法。	介紹那兩個人。 保羅袋著錢﹐三個人行下 (問大家﹐好不好意見﹖要看一看...)
他們到聖殿。祭司幫他們剃頭。	祭司(戴特帶) 剃頭
保羅就買兩隻羊為獻感恩祭。	另外一個人收他的錢﹐交兩隻羊(兩個女子戴羊毛帽)
突然﹐有人指著保羅說﹐喂﹐就是那反叛律法的保羅﹗你看﹐他帶外邦人入來﹐污穢聖殿﹗	一個人指著他﹐說﹕污穢聖殿﹗
原來﹐保羅有沒有帶外邦人入來﹖	(問大家)
但週圍的人跑來﹐拿著保羅﹐拉他想打死他	多人要拉保羅出去與他打交
但一個羅馬百夫長見到就跑來救保羅。對猶太人說﹕這個人若犯了錯﹐你要在法庭告他﹗ 為了保護他﹐就叫他在監裡過夜。	一個人有頭盔﹐劍﹐盾牌﹐跑來拿著保羅。說﹕要告他先﹗就拉他坐監。
有一班猶太人還想見他死。他們說﹐不如叫監獄官帶他去法庭﹐當是想正式告他。但我們在這裡埋伏﹐經過就起來打死他﹗Yea!	幾個人一齊圍個圈當商量﹐然後堆手﹐唉[Yea!]
但保羅的外甥聽他們。他到監去給保羅知。保羅叫他去給千夫長知。	外甥先向保羅說﹕[有人埋伏] ﹐就向軍兵這樣說
第二天﹐不去法庭。反而很多軍兵送保羅會凱撒利亞去﹐見羅馬巡撫。(可以解釋﹐那時以色列屬羅馬﹐與澳門以前屬葡國一樣)	幾個人大劍和盾牌﹐與保羅一齊行一個圈﹐去到一個戴葉環的人
但巡撫聽見保羅的情況﹐不知怎樣處理。他不犯羅馬法律﹐但以式列人想告他。	巡撫作[我不知] 的手語
保羅自己說--我要見皇帝凱撒﹗	保羅唉﹕[我要見皇帝]
巡撫說﹐好﹐你要去羅馬﹐見皇帝。8月30日就去喇﹗	巡撫唉﹕[去羅馬]

Story highlights: Paul accepted the Jerusalem church leaders' suggestion to take the young men to the temple and pay their expenses for having their heads shaved and making a sacfrice. For the head-shaving, we were very un-first-century—used an electric razor (with the safety cover firmly attached!). So at least we had a sound, since we weren't going to have a good visual representation of shaved heads!

We did have visual "shaved" heads for our game. Another relay race, with a row of cardboard faces for each time, to which had been attached long yarn ponytails. Each team member was supposed to run up & cut through the whole tail (between the ribbon and the head, where the "hair" was closer together and required more effort to cut) and bring it back to his/her team. Simple, but fun.

I couldn't come up with a craft idea to go with the story, at all. So instead we had one to go with the fact that it was our third anniversary. We made a dessert for the potluck: chocolate pudding, with either marshmallows or peanuts as add-ins. I found some cute little cheap pudding dishes at a local shop that made it extra special.

I had been busy making a "craft" of my own to present to each long-term family, a personalized booklet with pictures of each child displaying almost all the craft stuff we've done for this unit on Acts, with captions as reminders of the stories they represented. Everyone seemed to really like them. Thanks, Sharlene, for the great idea! I'm trying to put together a compilation of them all to use to show other families I might like to invite, and then to have for home assignment too, of course!

Bible study was on I Peter 2:19-20, talking about how Paul was unjustly accused of persuading Jews to abandon the law, and bringing Gentiles into the temple. How it is better to suffer unjustly than to do something deserving of punishment (whether you suffer for it or not). That God rewards those who suffer unjustly.

Bruce and I will be taking a brief vacation next weekend, to celebrate our 24^th wedding anniversary. At MLFF they will just have a "free day" with some volunteers coming to supervise the kids, and the parents just having a chance to talk with each other. Then on the 30^th we will finish up our stories in the book of Acts.

Then, we have "permission" from the parents to start our curriculum over in Genesis, beginning the first Sunday in September! Since I will be working from existing materials, this should make my life considerably easier than it's been for a while. Though I will also be taking the chance to polish or change things that didn't go over as well, mainly games or crafts. And getting everything into Chinese, for future users' readability.

We're also going to try not having separate Bible study passages, instead trying to just discuss the story. So that our unbelievers don't feel as overwhelmed as they sometimes have. We will need to prepare some "leading" discussion questions, however, or could lose the evangelistic applications we hope to make.

 

The Road to Jerusalem

Oh dear; behind again. Too busy getting ready for this week's third anniversary celebration. Glad I was already a week ahead in planning the stories etc, or I would have really been in trouble this week.

Before starting today's story (written in Chinese again, which is going to be true more & more often…) we handed out silver coins to each person. One person was also given a copy of a newspaper with a special headline taped on the inside…then, when Paul & Silas were introduced as our main characters (again), Paul was given a bathrobe-style belt to wear.

上個星期的兩個男主角叫甚麼名字﹖	問大家。介紹保羅和西拉。 保羅戴腰帶
他們繼續在亞洲區行下﹐傳耶穌的福音。	他們行一個圈
他們就聽不好的消息	有人派報子給他們﹔內部寫著﹕耶路撒冷區經歷飢荒
所以他們週圍去所建立的教會﹐籌款為賙濟耶路撒冷的教會	他們把錢囊﹐求每一個人入銀子
他們和兩個亞洲的信徒一齊出發往耶路撒冷去	保羅﹐西拉﹐和另外兩個男子搖船
他們先到特羅亞市。那裏的信徒請保羅分享他的經歷。很多人想聽﹗房子坐滿人﹔一個年青人要坐在窗口。	開梳化後面的窗口﹔叫最細粒的坐那裏
保羅說得很長氣﹐甚至到那個青年人睡著了。	保羅扮長氣說話。青年人睡攪
突然﹐那個青年人在窗口跌三層﹗	有人在平臺幫他向後出來
個個都以為他死了﹐但保羅幫他起身﹐沒有事喇﹗	開平臺門﹐幾個人去看青年人在地﹔保羅幫他起身
第二天﹐保羅和他的朋友繼續往耶路撒冷去	那四個人再搖船﹐
現在到以色列國﹐凱撒利亞市。那裏的信徒又歡歡喜喜的接待他們。	比此握手。
但一個人有心痛﹐叫其他人安靜	一個人﹐起身﹐叫人安靜
他把保羅的腰帶﹐捆上自己的手腳﹐對保羅說﹐聖靈說﹐這腰帶的主人﹐在耶路撒冷會如此被捆綁﹐被交給爭恨他的人。	那個人把保羅的帶﹐捆上自己手腳
所有信徒苦勸保羅不去耶路撒冷。	除了保羅﹐大家歸低﹐求保羅不要去
但保羅說﹐不好叫我灰心喇﹗ 無論要經歷甚麼 苦楚﹐我都要去。	保羅拉幾個人起身﹐說﹕我要去﹗
就要去喇。	四個朋友拍著肩﹐一齊行開
下個星期才學﹐在耶路撒冷發生甚麼事。

So, Paul & Silas were going around preaching when the "newsboy" came up with his paper and showed Paul and Silas the headline that told of a famine in Jerusalem. So they went around to "the churches they'd planted" and collected all the silver coins, to bring to Jerusalem to help the church there. (I'm really not clear from the Bible account just why it was so important for Paul to go to Jerusalem in spite of all the warnings he was getting. I know he was collecting money for the Jerusalem church, so I used this as an explanation.)

This story included Paul's long speech at Troas when Eutychus fell asleep in the window. Once again, our facility proved ideal for our purpose. We sat our volunteer Eutychus in the window leading from our main room to the balcony. While Mrs. Chu was talking about how long-winded Paul was getting, I hurried out through the bedrooms to approach the balcony that way. When Mrs. Chu said, "suddenly, he fell down three stories to the ground!" I (invisibly—these are coated windows) yanked Eutychus backward out of the window and laid "him" (her—a nice lightweight girl!) on the ground. From inside it looked pretty true to life! Such fun! The hapless Eutychus was then raised to life by Paul, who did so by yanking her arm nearly out of her socket…

The story also included Agabus' prophecy of Paul's belt being used to tie Paul's hands and feet. So for our game we did a relay. Each person had to put on a belt and run to "Jerusalem," where the belt was removed by helpers and used to tie his/her hands and feet. Then they had to jump or hobble back to their team and get the belt off & around the waist of the next person. Good fun.

It was hard to come up with a craft for this story. So what we did was tie it into the adult Bible study. We asked, with all these people warning Paul not to go to Jerusalem, what gave him the courage to press on? The Bible study passage was Philippians 4:11b-13—he could do (or endure) all things through the strength that Christ gives. So with the theme of "strength," we made barbells out of paper-towel rolls and balloons.

A-Si had another bad day—he tried to grab the plastic bag of balloons away to rip it apart (he has a thing about ripping up plastic bags), and thoughtlessly I snapped at him to stop it. Something in him snapped at that & he started screaming, hitting himself, biting himself, and managed to elbow his grandmother in the mouth in the process. Finally he calmed down (I gave him the bag to rip after it was empty), and he enjoyed the craft time and indeed the rest of the morning, but his poor grandmother was in tears. He has been getting more volatile and she had already quit taking him to his swimming or basketball activities because of trouble he's caused there. We prayed specially for/with Grandma, and urged her to ask Jesus for His strength, but she was inconsolable. My heart just aches for her!! If anyone is reading this, please pray for Grandma Si!

Ephesus and the Sons of Sceva

Attendance is still low—we did have one return visitor that we'd heard wasn't coming back. Unfortunately he was late & missed the singing, story and craft time. Got there just in time for the game (we did the craft before the game this time since we made things to use in the game), which he did like! But then the Bible study was kind of hard going, so I'm afraid it might have discouraged mom. Sigh.

At the end of the adult Bible study, we always have the kids come out and we pray in a circle together. Usually we don't make a-Si come out, because he is usually in the middle of coloring and if you make him leave it, it really upsets him. He has the admirable trait of wanting to finish what he starts! (smile) But the person in charge of the kids this week forgot, and insisted he come out. He came out, but in a raging temper, knocking into a few bodies on the way and then screaming and jumping up and down. We sent him back to his coloring and he was fine. But it was a bit alarming! (He is a BIG kid!)

Anyway, here's the story:

Who remembers the names of our two main characters?	Ask all, introduce Paul and Silas
After they got out of prison in Philippi, they went through Greece preaching the gospel.	They walk around room. Continue walking with them while talking…
The Greeks at that time loved to talk about new ideas, so this part of the Bible has a lot of talking. You are welcome to read it for yourself, but we won't do that much talking right now. So we will jump to when they crossed the sea back to Ephesus.	At end of this speech they "row" back to Ephesus
They were very well received there.	They shake hands with everyone
So they stayed there quite a while—around two years.	They can sit down & put their feet up.
They didn't have to go around doing as much street preaching; instead people would come to them to hear their teaching.	2-3 others pull up stools and sit in front of them
And God did a lot of miracles there through Paul. For example, if Paul used a handkerchief to wipe his sweat…	Paul uses handkerchief to wipe his forehead
And then someone took that handkerchief and broght it to a sick person…	One "listener" takes handkerchief to another who leans back in chair, washcloth on forehead, pretzel thermometer in mouth
When they would put the handkerchief on his body, he would get well!	Listener lays handkerchief on sick person, who gets up.
So there was this group of people who didn't want to accept Jesus' salvation, but they had to admit that His name carried a lot of power.	Introduce 2-3; explain there were seven in all. At "mjipsauh" they do No,No; at "yauh kyuhn," they show their muscles
One day, they met a person possessed by a demon—a very frightening and dangerous man, yet also very pitiable.	One boy with backwards ball cap, scar on face
These men wanted to help him, but they just didn't know how. So one of them said to the demon inside the man: I command you, by the name of Jesus that Paul preaches, to come out of him!	One of group points to him and says: Fuhng Boloh ge Yehsou—giu neih jau!
But the demon answered: Ha! I know who Jesus is, and I know who Paul is. But you aren't anybody! Get out of here! So this man jumped on the whole group of them and they had to run for their lives!	He repeats phrases as they are mentioned, then jumps at them all and they all run away.
As the people in the city became aware of all these things, they realized that it was not a good idea to try and mix the name of Jesus with their own religion. So a lot of them gathered their books of magic and made a huge pile of them and burned them.	Kids pile up a bunch of books, sprinkle with orange & yellow paper scraps.
Paul and Silas saw their commitment and knew that they weren't really needed there any longer. They could go on and preach in other places.	Everyone waves good-bye, Paul & Silas walk off to kitchen.

Craft: making the "seven sons of Sceva" out of water bottles

Game: one "demon" (ball) bowling them all over

Bible study: The sons of Sceva were missing the armor of God! Ephesians 6:11, 14-17