Fifth Anniversary

I haven’t posted for months because we’ve been in the US for months. Still in the US, but we enjoyed a video Skype call with Merciful Love last Sunday for their 5^th anniversary. So good to see all their faces! Things have been going well. Grace Tung has added some “Praise Aerobics” to the roster of activities. She’s also begun a weekly Bible study with two moms (one a believer, one not yet) on Thursday mornings. The second mom also brings her 30-something daughter who is not actually mentally handicapped, but has some issues that make her fit in well. The daughter has professed faith in Christ and from what we hear she has shown great improvements in her ability to interact with others. We heard that her brother—whom we’ve never met—attended the 5^th anniversary Sunday! I can only imagine that is because he has been impressed by the changes in Kam Ip’s life. That is so exciting! I can hardly wait to get back (two more months yet)!

Grace sent some pictures from the Bible story, though she apologized for forgetting to take a group photo. She suggests waiting to take the official 5^th-year photo until we return—what a nice idea!

Easter Sunday 2011

In tidying up the storeroom in anticipation of our home assignment, I was glad to come across this "resurrection dial" I'd made our first year. It was nice not to have to make it over again. Here are the cover and underside of the dial:
But we started our story with the picture of the crucified Christ still hanging on the wall. Then we had "Joseph of Arimathea" go and ask Pilate for the body of Jesus, so that he could bury it in his own grave. It struck me as I was writing this story—I wonder if crucified criminals of that time were generally just dumped in common graves, not given any kind of proper burial? So it was rather important that Joseph did this; otherwise where would be an empty tomb? Anyway, Joseph took the crucifixion picture off the wall and put up the "resurrection dial" on our blackboard/easel with it set on day one, and the door open so all could see the wrapped body inside (which is a bit blurry in the diagram). Then he got a friend to help him push the "heavy stone" over the opening. Then some soldiers came with Pilate's permission and put a seal (sticker) across the edge of the door.

That was the first day. The second day was the Sabbath: we had someone come up and turn the handle so the number 2 was showing on the dial. What do you do on the Sabbath? Nothing, you rest. So nothing happened that day.

Then it was day three, and we had someone move the dial to number 3. That day, several women got up very early to go and see the grave. But on the way there, suddenly there was a great earthquake—I shook the easel while standing in front of it, and pulled the door open on the dial. So the women get there, and they can look inside, and they see that Jesus' body is not there! But then an angel in a halo appears and says, "Why are you looking in a tomb for someone who is alive? Jesus is risen!" The women are excited and run back to where the other disciples are. They tell them that Jesus has risen. Mostly they are not believed, but Peter and John go look for themselves. The women come with them. They look in, and John is convinced and shouts, "Jesus is risen!" But Peter says, "I'm not so sure." They and two of the women go back and sit down, but one woman stays behind, crying.

Suddenly there is a man behind her, wearing a jacket that covers his head so she can't see his face. He asks her what is the matter. She says she doesn't know what has happened to the body of Jesus. He says, "my dear daughter," (I decided not to use the name as we've had too many Mary's to keep track of already), and takes off his hood. Mary sees it is Jesus and she is overjoyed. She hugs him and then runs back to tell the disciples she has seen him herself. Once again, they don't believe her. But "that evening" (about five seconds later), Jesus himself enters the room and they see that he is indeed alive. Everyone greets him with delight, hugging and high-fiving.

We talked about how the woman did not recognize Jesus when His face was hidden by His cloak. How about us? Would we recognize our moms if their faces (and bodies) were hidden behind a sheet? We had all the moms line up behind a sheet help up by two volunteers, shifting positions between each child's turn. The child would feel through the sheet and try to guess which one was their mom. Most got it right, but not all! I love it that Mrs. Chu crouched down so she seemed to be the shortest (instead of one of the tallest), and her intelligent daughter was fooled!

Easter and butterflies always go together, so we made these butterflies with their clothespin feet.

Pilate’s Dilemma

I'm back in the US now, finally with a little breathing room to get caught up on some of the "backblog". On April 17^th, we did the story of Jesus' sentencing by Pilate. We introduced Jesus and talked about how everyone liked him but the religious leaders. Introduced the priests, who talked about how they hated being told that they were sinners when they didn't think they were, and how if everyone followed Jesus they would quit paying the priests to intercede for them with God, and they would lose out. So they were looking for a way to arrest him. Along comes Judas, one of Jesus' disciples who accepts a bagful of money to lead them to Jesus.

Jesus prays in Gethsemane while Judas and the priests plot His downfall in the background.

Judas and a couple of armed soldiers come up to Jesus. Judas kisses Him (that was the stage direction, anyway. We got just cheek-to-cheek) & the soldiers drag Him away. Judas then has a change of heart and wants to repent & give the money back, but it's too late. He throws the bag down and disappears into a side room & the people are told he kills himself.

We skipped all the back and forth between Pilate and Herod as being too complicated, and not adding anything to the point of the story. They went straight to Pilate and stayed there. This was a series on New Testament women, though, so we did introduce Pilate's wife, who sent for Pilate right in the middle of the trial & told him not to harm Jesus, because she'd had a dream about Him & He was innocent. So Pilate doesn't know what to do. He doesn't think Jesus is guilty either, but the crowd is getting ugly. Aha! There's that custom of releasing a prisoner at Passover. He picked the nastiest guy in the prison to have the crowd choose between him & Jesus, figuring they would surely release Jesus.

Actually, our Jesus (in the "trademark" white vest) looks meaner than our backwards-capped Barabbas…

But they don't choose the way Pilate hopes. He's still too afraid to go against the crowd, so he tries to at least shift all the blame onto them by having a basin of water brought, and washing his hands before everyone. Then the soldiers haul Jesus away, and we just put up a flannelgraph picture of Jesus on the cross to show that He was indeed crucified.

For our game, we talked about how Pilate's wife remembered who she had seen in her dream, even though we don't always remember our dream. The game then was to look briefly at a picture of a person ( Xeroxed from the flannelgraph set), and then see if they could find that figure among the many blu-tacked along the walls. For some of the kids, we let them take the picture along to match; we made the smarter kids work their memories a little harder.

For craft time we made these pretty crosses out of ribbon and dismantled clothespins.

April 10th

Yes, I know, I am way behind here. Actually the topic of April 10th is the main reason for this!

Our regular once-a-month volunteers from Hong Kong kindly watched the kids while all of the adults went out to a nearby park for uninterrupted conversation. The plan was to go to a little café in the park, but there were no seats available, so we just found a little nook where there was enough room for all of us.

Topic under discussion: the fact that Bruce and I leave for a six month home assignment on May 2^nd. (Which is why I'm so behind. Getting ready for home assignment presentations plus writing/translating/gathering materials for at least the first couple of months has been extremely intense--and it's not over yet!)

We do have a pastoral worker coming from Hong Kong, and she already has her Macau work visa (That was fast! That was God!), but is still raising support and will not arrive before we leave. We expected some anxious comments about how this was going to work, but everyone seemed really laid back about the whole thing. I think maybe nobody realizes how MUCH work I put into the preparations each week—ha! Still, we were just as happy to have them expecting things to go on as usual, than for them to assume things were going to fall apart.

I sure love these people!!!

The volunteers taught the kids some origami while we were out…

A Beautiful Gift for Jesus

First, for a brief review, we saw how last week Jesus (sitting on nice chair) was asked by the mother of James and John to give them seats at His right and left hand in His coming kingdom (one child sits on either side of Jesus). We reminded everyone that they didn't understand what Jesus was trying to tell them about His coming death. But that today's story highlights someone who did understand.

Jesus and several of His disciples are once again seated at a table for dinner. This time, a servant did wash their feet for them. Mrs. Chu took an (empty) basin and (dry) towel and started wiping everyone's feet. At least two of the kids thought that meant they had to take their shoes off. So to our servant added the additional task of tying shoelaces.

But the woman highlighted in the story wanted to do something special for Jesus too. So she "ran home" and came back with a pretty jar, empty but purportedly filled with an expensive perfume. When she "poured it out" over Jesus' head, we gave a good spray of air freshener into the room, to emphasize that the scent of the perfume filled the house. It worked—some latecomers arrived just then and mom's first comment was, what's that fragrance?

We had our Jesus really enjoying the anointing experience—smoothing his hair & smiling. But then one of the disciples complains that the woman was wasteful; that if she didn't want the perfume she could have sold it and given the money to the poor. The woman looked embarrassed. But Jesus said, "Don't criticize her! I appreciate what she has done for me. You can give all the gifts you want to the poor after I am gone, but I will not always be here to give gifts to. And this gift is extra special. When other people are anointed with this beautiful perfume, they are already dead and being prepared for their burial, so they don't even know what is happening. This dear woman has anointed me for my burial early enough so that I can appreciate it! Thank you so much, daughter. It means a lot to me." He gave her a little kiss and that was the end of our brief story.

As soon as the people in our story smelled the perfume, they knew what it was. Are we also able to recognize smells right away? That was the question to be answered during our game! We had prepared 11 baby-food-sized jars with a range of "fragrances," (chocolate, peanut butter, alcohol, garlic, lemon juice, peppermint, catsup, coconut, vinegar, soy sauce, & plain water), and due to a Chinese holiday we had only a total of 11 adults and children besides myself. So each one got to draw the name of one of the fragrances and then come & smell different jars until they found it. Decided to make it a little easier by only giving each person three jars at a time from which to choose theirs. Fun.

For craft time each one received a glass bottle with different designs drawn on them in permanent marker—flowers, butterflies, hearts, whatever. They painted them as desired with tempera paints. Pictures when I go back and take them…

An Ambitious Woman

As Jesus nears the end of His life, He tries to explain to His disciples more than once what lies ahead. The first time, we had Jesus say he was going to be beaten (he picks up a rope and demonstrates) and crucified (he takes a disciple's hands and pretends to pound nails in) and would die (he pushes the disciple back down onto his chair). The disciples don't understand. They all keep walking, (walk one round of room), until now they're really close to Jerusalem. Jesus so wants them to understand and feel with Him. He tries to explain again. He says he is going to be beaten, do they understand? One child who says yes is chosen to demonstrate with the rope. He is going to be crucified, do they understand? Another child is chosen to show his understanding by stretching out Jesus' hands and pretending to nail them. He is going to die, do they understand? Another child mimics dying. But on the third day, He will rise again, do they understand? This time, no one understands. Finally someone says, must be a parable, and they all nod their heads. So Jesus is left without anyone to truly understand and sympathize with Him.

Then, who comes to greet them but the mother of two of the disciples. She takes Jesus aside and says she has something to ask Him. She says, when you come into your kingdom (she seats him on a nice chair and puts a crown on His head), may my two sons sit at your right and left hand? (she chooses two disciples and seats them at His right and left)

Jesus says, you don't know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup I must drink? They say yes. Jesus says, you will drink, but in fact I can't choose who is going to sit at my right and left hands; only the Father can say that.

The other disciples realize what is going on and they all get jealous & start giving James & John a hard time. Jesus says, you still don't understand. He asks, who really wants to be great in the kingdom? He takes one child who raises her hand and says, if you really want to be great in God's kingdom (seats her on the nice chair), then you need to become the servant of all (gives her a towel & has her go polish the shoes of all the seated adults).

For our game, we had a competition to see who qualified to sit at Jesus' (Kevin's) right and left hand, by drinking cups of juice the fastest. First by twos, and each pair was assigned to either right (faster) or left (slower). Then each of those groups drank all at once & the winner of each group got to take the honored seats.

Since our story talked about people at the right or the left hand, we then made for a craft, people from the right or left hand: i.e., surgical gloves. Simple, but fun. Not everyone quite got the idea that the thumb was supposed to be a nose though, so we had a couple of rather off-center faces!

Two sisters, two choices

The way we do this story, Martha is busy making up a bed in the guest room while Mary is in the kitchen chopping up vegetables. Jesus and His disciples arrive and Mary lets them in & serves them all some water. She never makes it back to the kitchen because she gets too interested in listening to Jesus.

When we did this before, we only had one girl, which worked well enough because then we could choose a mom, who would know how to unfold & make up the cot, to be Martha. This time we had plenty of girls, even though our two neurotypical regulars were absent. So I chose a new visiting volunteer (I love throwing the new volunteers in at the deep end—ha). Well, then the only girl willing to play Mary was Lai Wun, who is the big sister in her family, not the younger sister. There was no way she was going to let herself be demoted to little sister! There was also no way she was going to be able to handle that cot by herself. So we enlisted her mom as a "servant." Whatever it takes! Our Mary was a good sport, handing out empty teacups all around and letting me tease her about not remembering to do so with both hands.

So then Martha finishes the bed and comes down to the kitchen and, where's Mary? Look at this, the vegetables haven't been finished, the meat (some slabs of clay in a plastic bag) hasn't been put in the marinade, the fire (a candle) hasn't been lit—what HAS she done? So then Martha is supposed to try and get Mary's attention by whispering & waving. Mary played her part well; i.e. didn't pay any attention to her but kept looking at Jesus. Then Martha is supposed to come out and tell Jesus to make Mary help. Our Martha apparently didn't want to bother Jesus. She just grabbed Mary by the arm and tried determinedly to drag her bodily back to the kitchen. She was so noisily insistent that most of the adults missed Jesus' statement about Mary choosing the better part. We wound up by saying that the Bible doesn't say how Martha responded to Jesus. We asked what people thought she might have done: flounced back to the kitchen in a huff, apologized and sat down with her sister, or dragged the table out and finished her preparations while listening to Jesus. We all thought she should have chosen #3.

The game was originally a table-setting race, but there were too many kids to do this well, so we just had kids come up one at a time, overlapping as each one finished drawing all the components (plate, cup, napkin, knife, fork, spoon, and bud vase) out of a box and setting up a placemat to match our model. Still a worthwhile & interesting game for all.

Martha of course would have wanted to set a pretty table, with perhaps nicely folded napkins, right? I had planned on two different napkin folding projects, one very simple and one taking a little more concentration. But we were running a bit late so ended up only doing the simple one.

Later I taught the second one to one of the boys (the only one vaguely interested) during the free time.