Aaron and the Golden Calf

We used this story to illustrate the truth that God is Spirit—not a golden idol.

We first introduced Moses, and said that at the time of our story, he had climbed Mount Sinai to meet with God.  Our Moses made climbing motions all the way to a chair and that sat down for the time being.  So he has been gone a while now, and the people are starting to get nervous.  They remembered how God had led them around with a pillar of cloud by day (everyone follows a leader holding up a pillar of cloud) and a pillar of fire by night (another round of the room, following the pillar of fire).  But now, no cloud, no fire, and no Moses!  But Moses’ brother is here, let’s ask him what to do.

Ah yes—before the story began, we passed out “jewelry”—necklaces, bracelets and rings—made of shiny gold twisty-ties.  So now Aaron collects everyone’s jewelry in a bag.  Then he gets out a stool, puts some “firewood” on it, and orange scraps for fire, and finally a large pot.  He dumps the jewelry into the pot and stirs it for a while.  Then he reaches into the pot, behind the piece of aluminum foil that is lining part of the pot, and pulls out a shiny gold cow.  He announces that this hereby represents the god who brought them out of Egypt.  He sticks it on the wall, then goes and gets a bottle of wine and pretends to share it with everyone.  Then Moses shows up, clutching a styrofoam tablet bearing the ten commandments.  He is furious, and tries very hard to break the tablet over someone’s head but the tablet is too strong.  He is, however, able to take the cow off the wall and rip that to pieces!  He demands that everyone apologize to God for representing Him as a cow, so everyone pulls their ears and says sorry.  End of story.

Aaron had gone around collecting people’s gold jewelry, so our game was going around collecting gold things that had been hidden (not too carefully) in the side bedrooms: lemons!

Then for the craft, we talked about how, in the real Bible story (as opposed to the tweaked-for-the-skit story), Moses had ground up the golden calf, sprinkled it over water, and made the people drink it.  First we ground up some not-gold things: everyone got plastic cups full of sugar cubes and a little bottle to smash them up with.  We needed a full cup of sugar, so there was lots of pounding.  I was afraid the kids might get bored with this but everyone stayed on task and asked for more cubes when theirs got ground down—cool!  Finally we turned our attention to the gold things.  Well over a year, someone had given me a gift of an electric juicer.  Well, here at home, if I need to squeeze one or two lemons, I am certainly not going to drag out an electric juicer!  So I’d never used it.  But for having kids help squeeze a dozen lemons, it was wonderful!  Everyone enjoyed this too.  Then we mixed the lemon juice & the sugar with water & enjoyed our lemonade!  Very popular craft!

Our God is Real!

This past Sunday was a huge event; our little group of 20 hosted 40+ visitors from a parents-of-special-needs-kids Sunday School class from Hong Kong.  I had hoped that it would give me an opportunity to learn something of how they run the concurrent special-needs Sunday School class, but somehow during the planning that slipped through the cracks and I ended up leading our usual Sunday activities, just with a much bigger crowd. (=Stressful!) We had to borrow a larger place, that was barely big enough for this crowd.

We did the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal.  Ended up having all our actors be from among the visitors, since they were sitting nearer the front.  We introduced Elijah, and then since even with this large a crowd we couldn’t come up with 450 volunteers, we chose three and hung signs with “150” around each of their necks.  Elijah introduces his challenge, and the people all agree it’s a great idea.  So it starts around 9 in the morning, and we had someone come up and set the paper clock to reflect this.  The prophets of Baal got to go first—took a stool, placed firewood on it, then took a paper cow, tore off its head, and put both parts on top of the firewood.  Then they had to chant: Baal, Baal, come down!  But by 12:00 (by the reset clock), nothing had happened.  So they took (paper) knives and slashed at themselves, hoping to get Baal’s attention that way.  No results.  By 3:00, Elijah was laughing at them (he had this great giggle on cue, I loved it), and asking if Baal had gone to the bathroom or something.  Finally at 6:00 (is that the time of the “evening sacrifice”?  I’m not actually sure), it was Elijah’s turn.  His first move was to build an altar with twelve stones to represent the twelve tribes of Israel.  I already had an altar drawn on a posterboard attached to another stool; we just had to have someone count to make sure there were twelve (there were).  Elijah also put on firewood and a torn cow, but then he went one better—he had someone come with a watering can and soak everything with invisible water. 

Next Elijah was instructed to raise his hands toward heaven and cry out, “Yahweh!”  He raised his hands and shouted, “Yahweh, how are you?” :-)  Yahweh responded by sending an angel to sprinkle fire over the sacrifice.  Everyone cheered and agreed that He was the true God and that He alone should be worshipped.  So Elijah grabbed a sword and chased the “450” prophets away.

After this we split up; the parents got to hear what was apparently a very moving testimony and meaningful discussion, but of course I was up with the kids and missed it.  Somehow I had thought they had said they were bringing 9 kids; in fact they had 15(or was it 16?) on top of our 8.  The room we used was almost completely filled with eight tables pushed together; great for craft but a little squished for the game, which was a kind of “musical chairs” or  “cakewalk” kind of thing.  Elijah chose the right God and got—barbequed beef!  So when the music stopped and everyone sat down, whoever was in the right seat (as determined by a number drawn from a hat) got a snack-sized piece of barbequed beef.  We didn’t have room to take away chairs and have people standing around, so the way we worked it was that whoever got their beef turned their chair in toward the tables (all the other chairs were facing out) while the rest continued to play.  Toward the end it seemed to be taking a lot of time, so the last four or five kids didn’t have to march any more, just wait until their number was called.

In fact, I had planned to do the craft first, so that we could stretch out this game as long as we needed to (not knowing how long-winded the adults might get!), but forgot since game-first is our usual pattern.  Sigh.  Fortunately I had had the foresight to prepare some coloring pages and sets of crayons to fill in the leftover time in case there was some, because there was, after finishing our little “altars” made out of two tissue packets taped together and “stone” stickers added (a lot more than twelve!  I wouldn’t have had enough were it not for the convenient fact that most of the kids didn’t put their stickers on in a close-fitting pattern.  Whew.)

     (no photo right now--my browser just doesn't want to add it.  maybe later)

Only one new family came for this big event, which was on the one hand disappointing, but on the other had just as well as we really didn’t have enough room for any more kids!  We need to be more careful in our planning if there’s a next time!

Saul's Sad End

The first time through this unit, we included a story about David and Jonathan, where David hides in the field and Jonathan sends him a “coded message” via the arrows he has his servant boy retrieve for him.  We skipped that this time in order to be ready to switch units starting with a special meeting next Sunday.  So, lots to roll into one story today!

So, we began by reminding everyone how David had killed Goliath in our last story.  Was Saul happy about this?  Surely!  We had a “mouthless” king face and had one of the boys draw in a smile.  Yes, Saul was so happy that he brought David back with him and made him the leader of his army.  And because God was with him, David had great success.  Everyone loved him, and the girls would dance and sing songs about him:  Two girls got “tambourines” (foil pie plates with bells tied around the edges) and together we all chanted: Soulòh saatséi CHÌN CHÌN; Daaihwàih saatséi MAAHN MAAHN.  I.e., Saul has killed thousands, thousands, David has killed ten thousands, ten thousands—it’s got great rhythm in Cantonese!

But did this make Saul happy?  Hardly!  So we had someone try and draw a frown on another king face.  That was harder; I think they learn smiley faces in school but not frowny faces! Anyway, Saul was so unhappy that it affected his mind.  He would get depressed and nothing could help him but David playing the harp for him.  (Saul sits on fancy desk chair, David sits in front of him on stool playing his harp.)  But sometimes, even this wasn’t enough.  At least once when David was trying to soothe him with music, Saul tried to spear him! (Saul grabs spear and chases David away.)  So David stays away, and now Saul is more miserable than ever.

And the Philistines are still making war with Israel.  What’s Saul supposed to do?  In the “good old days,” Samuel gave him advice.  (Introduce Samuel, in prophet’s mantle).  But Samuel is dead. (Push Samuel back down into chair.)  Also back in the “good old days,” when Saul was trying to please God instead of himself, he had banished all the mediums and sorcerers from Israel.  But now he’s so messed up he wants to consult one himself!  His servant tells him there is one in the town of Endor.  So Saul takes off his crown, puts on an ordinary robe, and goes in disguise to see the medium. 

 

 She waves her hands over her crystal ball (she really got into the role!) and says, “I see an old man—he is very angry!  He says, who has dared to bother me?  That person is so wicked, he is sure to die by tomorrow!”  Whoa, Saul hears that and he’s half dead from fright already.  He leaves.

The next day, he is out with the army, fighting the Philistines.  (Saul & several others fight with swords.)  Saul is badly injured and afraid that the enemy will prolong his death with torture, so he “falls on his sword” (which our Saul flat out refused to do, but he was willing to “stab himself,” at least). 

So now with no king, Israel is worse off than ever.  Finally someone says, we really should install David as king!  So they go and get David, crown him, and everyone applauds.

I’d really wanted Saul to fall on his sword because the game was about tossing plastic rings to have them “fall on a sword” tied to a stool.  The game was fun anyway!

We made copies of David’s little harp for a craft.

 

Introducing David

We introduced our hero of the day, David, the shortest kid in the room (our one four-year-old didn’t come today; too bad!)  It was his job to watch his father’s sheep (two girls in sheep headbands).  Some days that was easy, and David could sit playing his harp while watching them.  But sometimes it was quite dangerous, like when a ferocious, mangy-looking lion would try to drag off one of the sheep! 

David had killed at least one lion with his bare hands.  (Sharp rap on his arm from our enthusiastic David)

One day, David’s father sends him out to bring some provisions in a basket to his older brothers, serving in the army.  What does he see when he gets there?  He sees the Israelites, including King Saul in his crown, all lined up along one side of the room, and the Philistines lined up along the other.  In the middle was a huge man (standing on a stool) with an oversized sword, shield and spear.  

 

He was taunting Israel, saying: why should we all have to fight?  Just send one man against me, and whoever wins, we’ll say their whole army is the victor!  All the Israelites are afraid, including the King.  All, that is, except our hero David.  He goes to Saul and asks to be allowed to fight the Philistine.  Saul is skeptical, but for lack of an alternative, agrees; only he suggests that David wear some armor.

 

But the armor was too awkward for him, he wasn’t used to it, so he took it back off.  Instead, he took five smooth stones from a brook (five round marshmallows from a bowlful of blue paper scraps) and put them in a bag.  He went out to face Goliath, and Goliath laughed at him & roared insults at him.  But David pelted him with marshmallows until he “fell” off the stool and landed in a heap on the floor, whereupon David pulled the giant’s own sword from its sheath and cut off his head with it.

 

Everyone was thrilled and Saul invited David to come and live and serve with him at his palace.

The game was a flop again, two weeks in a row! :-(  We had cardboard “giants” set up for the kids to shoot down with peashooters.  I had checked the blog from three years ago & it had been almost too easy for everyone.  Plus, I’m thinking, at least they get to blow this time instead of suck through their straws!  But most of them kept dropping the peas right through the straws before they managed to get them to their mouths.  And then those that not only managed to blow but to hit the targets, didn’t knock them down…apparently I had made the little stands too sturdy!  So partway through we took the giants off their stands and just bent them in the center & stood them up that way.  Live and learn.

For our craft we glued spiral macaroni around the face of a lion to make a “permed” mane.

 

Bible study was rough again…got started late, a guest was eating her lunch during it, she & someone else left early…I hope someone learned something!  For me, I had been struck during preparation at how David’s stone-and-sling method was really the best for facing a Goliath.  Someone coming out against him with a “real soldier’s” sword, Goliath could have swatted like a fly.  But it’s harder to swat a little stone flying at you!  I tried to make the application that we don’t have to do things the way a “real minister” would do them in order to be able to serve God effectively.  Sometimes God wants us to do something precisely because we are ourselves and NOT the professional minister!  I don’t know if anyone got the point though.  I am afraid too many of our people are not yet to the point of even thinking about serving God, never mind how effectively. :-(

Saul starts to go wrong

Exit humility, enter pride! Our story today told about how Saul was supposed to wipe out all the Amalekites, but decided he (or the people—I’m not sure if he was telling the truth or lying on this one) had a better idea, so he spared the best of the sheep and cattle (on paper), and the king.  Then, as if that weren’t enough, he set up a monument for himself as the victor!  (Our “stone monument,” which was blu-tacked to the wall but proved too heavy, reads: “Saul was victorious here.”)

 

Then Samuel shows up, having substituted a red tissue-paper toga for our trademark red shawl or “prophet’s mantle.”  He chides Saul for disobeying the Lord, but Saul doesn’t get it.  Hey, I obeyed the Lord, what’s the problem?  Here everyone was encouraged to make sheep and cow noises, so that Samuel could say, if you obeyed the Lord, what’s that noise?  Oh, the people saved them to sacrifice to the Lord.  What, you think sacrifice is better than obedience?  Think again!  Samuel tells him that God has rejected him as king, and begins to stalk away, before Saul finally gets it.  He grabs Samuel’s robe to keep him from leaving, and it made a wonderfully satisfying tear from top to bottom.  Samuel tells Saul that this is a sign that God is going to tear the kingdom out of his hands and give it to someone more obedient.  End of story, with the hint that we’d find out next week who that someone would be.

Our game did not work well at all.  I remembered it as being difficult three years ago, but I thought, with the kids being older now, it should be easier.  And we only had three kids today (big Parents’ Association event going on).  Only our neurotypical girl was able to succeed at “No sheep left behind,” which consisted of trying to move paper sheep from one bowl to another by sucking them to a straw.  The two kids blew and blew and drooled all over the sheep, but couldn’t grasp that they were supposed to suck.  We tried bringing out a glass of water and letting them suck that up through their straws, which they could both do.  Then tried to explain that they should do the same thing with the sheep.  For the girl, it didn’t seem to compute at all.  The boy did a bit better, gave a couple of sucks, but couldn’t sustain them long enough to actually move a sheep.  Finally they’d been drooled on so much that it was easy to just poke a straw through one and have them carry it to the other bowl that way, ha!

The craft worked much better.  When Saul tore Samuel’s robe, it was destructive.  But we all got pictures of Samuel needing a robe and had to tear one out for him following a shape drawn on the back of gift-wrap paper.

 

I wasn’t in the Bible study time today because of having duty with the kids.  I heard it didn’t go real well—at least one of the non-believers remained convinced that Saul’s idea really was better than all that wasteful killing. :-/

Saul's Good Beginning

So last week we saw Saul anointed as the first king of Israel.  Where do kings usually live?  We handed around a paper with pictures of a palace, a wooden house, and a tent, and asked each kid where a king would live.  Of course the answer was a palace, but here was our humble king Saul, back home on the farm with his dad.

 

Meanwhile, over in the eastern part of Israel, the folks of Jabesh-Gilead were having a hard time of it. (several folks go into the bathroom & a folding table is pulled across the door, with a sign saying Jabesh-Gilead) No one had enough to eat.  Why?  Because the Ammonites were besieging the city.  (couple of kids with swords stand in front of the table).  The elders of the city decide there’s nothing to do but surrender and become slaves to the Ammonites, so they wave a white flag.  But the Ammonites respond, you’re welcome to be our slaves as long as you let us gouge out all your right eyes.  Hm, that’s not a very tempting proposition.  They say, give us seven days to think it over.  Now, in the Biblical account they come right out and say they want to use those seven days to call for reinforcements.  I don’t really get why the Ammonites would say sure, no problem, good luck!  So one of my “tweaks” of this story was to have someone sneak out of the city (head covered with a dark scarf) to go find Saul & ask for help.  Didn’t get a photo of the girl who did this, too bad.  Recently we have started star charts for both her & one other girl who can get real whiny about participating in the activities.  Now they can gain up to three stars each week for taking active part in the story, game, and craft.  So when this girl started acting reluctant to be our spy, we reminded her about getting a star and she was ready to go!  Ready to drag Saul back to Jabesh-Gilead by main force!  But first Saul grabbed his sword and his shield (HAD to have a shield…) and a couple of other reinforcements.  Off they go to rescue the city.  The reinforcements didn’t quite get it at first and began to thrust their swords at the poor besieged folks in the bathroom.  But eventually they “killed off” the Ammonites.  The inhabitants of the city came out rejoicing and praising Saul.  Again, I tweaked the Biblical account because I didn’t want to have to backtrack and bring out how some people had not wanted Saul to be king, which we hadn’t mentioned before, and then have these folks say they should be killed, etc., etc.  So instead I just had them praise Saul and give him “lucky money” envelopes.  But our humble Saul said, hey, the real giver of victory is not I but the Lord!  So he takes the lucky money and stuffs it in the offering box.

For our game, kids threw beanbags at this face to try & knock 

out its right eye.  Since the eye fit rather loosely, everyone succeeded!  All you needed to do was hit anywhere on the target with any oomph.

For craft we did shields (which is why Saul had to be sure to carry one to battle).  Kids just had to color in the large cardboard shapes and then attach arm loops to the back.

It worked out well that our new visitor had called me the night before to reconfirm the address, so I was alerted to prepare an extra-small shield for him.  The standard size would have swallowed him whole!