God is Eternal

Many times when Jesus was out preaching, there were people who argued with him and insulted him.	Introduce Jesus—in white vest
Your mother got pregnant before she got married. You don't even know for sure who your father was. As for us, we are all good Jews, directly descended from our forefather Abraham.	Have one adult say this
Jesus said to them, if you really were good descendants of Abraham, you would listen to me. Abraham knew the truth when he heard it.	(narrator)
They said, oh, you're crazy, if Abraham were here today, he would say so too!	Second adult
Jesus said, well, but I happen to know Abraham quite well, and he was glad when he knew I was coming to Israel.	(narrator)
What, you've seen Abraham? Are you nuts? You're not even 50 years old yet, and Abraham died more than a thousand years ago!	third adult
Ah, but I existed even before Abraham was born.	(narrator)
What! That's the same as saying you are GOD! That's sick! Get out of here!!	All throw stones at him.
Now, it's getting close to the time when Jesus is going to die, and he knows it. It hurts to be around all these insults all the time. So he takes his three best friends and says, let's get away together.	Introduces three friends: Peter, James & John (name tags)
They go for a hike, up a tall mountain.	act like they are climbing
Suddenly, Jesus starts changing before their eyes! His face and his clothes get very bright, so bright his friends can hardly look at him without hurting their eyes!	three friends don sunglasses
Suddenly, out of nowhere, there are two other men with Jesus. Jesus is very happy and runs and gives them both hugs	two more boys; Jesus hugs them, says, great to see you!
He introduces them to Peter, James and John. Guys, do you know who these are? These are my great friends, Moses and Elijah! The same Moses who gave us the 10 commandments, and the same Elijah who called down God's fire on the altar!	have Jesus put on name tags as narrator introduces them
Jesus, Moses and Elijah start talking about Jesus' coming death & they encourage him to be strong	they "huddle"
Wow! Jesus three friends didn't know what to say! You know how sometimes when you don't know what to say, you end up saying something stupid?	(ask all)
Peter says, um, Jesus, I have this great idea. It's near the festival of booths; why don't I build booths for you and Moses and Elijah?	goes & taps Jesus' arm
All of a sudden a cloud covered the mountain, and they heard a voice from heaven saying, This is my Son; You should listen to HIM.	drape large sheet over all
Then when the cloud lifted, they saw Jesus by himself, looking like he always did.	take M & E away along with sheet
P, J & J are feeling pretty scared still. Jesus comforts them, but tells them not to tell anyone what they have seen until after he has risen from the dead, otherwise no one would believe it.	Jesus pats them all on back They all walk back down the mountain

I had a hard time coming up with a story for this theme. In fact, I didn't come up with one at all—this one came from my husband! He came up with the game idea, too, which was much appreciated. That's the second time he's come up with a game recently (and he helped me think up one for this coming Sunday on "God is unchanging" too. Might have to start putting him in the rotation to plan & lead games! I don't think of him as a "game" type of person—but then, I never was either. God works in mysterious ways!

What we did for the game was to say, eternity is a long time; who can do XXX the longest. (Stand on one foot, do toe-touches, sit perfectly still, etc.) For a craft, I collected twigs in the park, and florist foam to stick them in, and we all built "booths".

Adult Bible study was on Psalm 90:1-2.

Our kid that had the meltdown last week was not one of the boys who were supposed to wear sunglasses in the story, but one boy refused his, so I offered them to Chun Lai & they were a hit for sure. He was very good the whole rest of the morning. Check him out in his cool shades (thanks for the loan, Joy)!

God is Spirit

	pass out bracelets, necklaces, earrings (made of gold paper)
Introduce Moses the Lawgiver	Man with plaster law tablet (none of the kids would stay up on the ladder long enough, for sure)
during this story, he's up on the mountain with God, way up in the clouds	goes to top of ladder, waits under sheet
He has been gone a long time. The people are getting nervous. How do we know he's coming back? Are we left on our own?
remember when God led us out of Egypt? During the day, he appeared like a big cloud to show us the way	show pillar of cloud, everyone follows it
and at night, like a big pillar of fire	everyone follows pillar of fire
But now, we don't have anything. Moses isn't even here! So they go talk to Moses' brother, Aaron.	one boy as Aaron
Aaron, we need a god we can SEE!
So Aaron says, give me all your gold jewelry, and let's see what we can do.	they give him their jewelry. He collects it in a bag. They help him make a fire. He puts the jewelry in a big pot over a fire & stirs it with a big stick, then takes out big calf picture (also from gold paper) from pot.
Look at this! The people say, hey, that's great! Cows are strong, they provide meat and milk and clothing, and help pull our plows…they're great!	stick calf up on wall
So they all say, from now on, THIS is the god who brought us out of Egypt	everyone cheers, pretend to pour wine, clink glasses
Everybody is very happy! But who is NOT happy? GOD is not happy!	(ask all)
Remember where Moses is?	(ask all)
He's up there on the mountain talking to God. And God says to him, Moses, do you know what the people are doing down there? They are worshipping a COW! Get down there and tell them to STOP IT RIGHT NOW!	Moses comes down,
Are you guys crazy? Could a COW do miracles? Could a COW bring us up from Egypt? Don't you know that the real God could destroy you for making this cow?!	beats them with law that breaks. Tears the cow into pieces.
Everybody is very ashamed of themselves	Pull ears, say sorry

 

Game: collecting gold things—lemons, hidden treasure-hunt style

 

Craft: grinding things & making them drink—juicing lemons, mashing sugar cubes, mixing with water to make lemonade

 

Bible study: Isaiah 40:25-26

 

I thought the lemon game was going to be too easy, but it turned out to be hard. I know the kids knew what the clues were saying about "the dish cabinet" or "the refrigerator," but they just didn't seem to be able to grasp that they were supposed to look for something specific in those places, even after quite a pile of lemons had been collected. And then one of the boys had a meltdown in the process. It was finally arrested when someone suggested he be given a piece of candy. Not sure what gave them that idea & I'm sure glad we happened to have some around, because it did the trick.

 

This same boy was happy as a clam during craft time, which he normally doesn't seem to like. Banging on the sugar cubes was something he really enjoyed, for some reason. Most of the other boys had them crushed rather coarsely, but Chun Lai's were practically powdered sugar by the time he was done!

 

We had a great Bible study time, talking about the difference between God and a cow (rather obvious) but then also the difference between God and a man (which are what most Chinese "gods" are). It seemed to click with at least one mom. That's exciting!

Beginning Unit 7—God Is

Sorry, I'm doing this in Chinese yet again. But I have to write it out that way for Mr. Lei & I'm just too lazy to write it twice. We're starting a series on The Existence and Attributes of God, which, granted, sounds awfully abstract and highfalutin' for our group. But I was uncomfortable with doing just Bible stories as history just now; a couple of our moms seem to be really groping after the truth & I really wanted to focus on God & who He is. I'm having a hard time coming up with story ideas for each attribute on my list, but I trust the Lord will give insight as He has for the past two years.

For our first story, for the topic, "God is…real," we used Elijah & the prophets of Baal:

很多年前﹐在以色列國﹐有一位先知叫 以利亞。	一個男子穿紅色外衣
他非常不開心﹐因為百姓離開了神﹐敬拜一位假神叫巴力。 他叫所有事奉巴力的先知跟他和以色列眾人一齊上加密山。	三個男子﹐帶牌代表150先知 (因為一共有450事奉巴力的先知)
以利亞對百姓說﹕你們不好再分心。若耶和華是真神﹐就要敬拜他﹔若巴力是真神﹐就要敬拜他。	(眾人不回答)
他對巴力的先知說﹕你們450人﹐我得一個。不等於你們的神大過耶和華﹗我的挑戰就是如此。你們把一隻牛﹔我也把一隻。你們劏那隻﹐放在柴上﹐但不點火。我也會這樣。跟住你們求告你的神﹐我會求告耶和華。那顯應﹐降火的神﹐就是真神。	眾人拍掌贊成。 派兩隻紙牛。
以利亞請巴力的先知試試先。	把一張凳﹐放上柴﹐裂了牛頭﹐放頭與身在柴上。
他們一早開始﹐求告巴力	看鐘9﹕00三個先知嗌幾次 [喂﹗巴力﹗]
現在到12﹕00	轉鐘到12﹕00
發生甚麼事﹖	問大家
以利亞開始笑他們﹐說﹕有甚麼問題﹖巴力為甚麼未降火﹖是不是去了旅行﹖睡覺﹖喂﹗可能去了廁所﹗	以利亞這樣嗌
巴力的先知商量說﹐我們疙自己﹐留些血﹐或者要叫巴力聽我們﹗	用刀子彼此疙手臂
現在到下午3﹕00	轉鐘
發生甚麼事﹖	問大家
後來到以利亞試試。他先要將些石頭﹐ 起好耶和華的祭壇。	貼12塊灰色子在一張凳。
又放上柴﹐又劏牛﹐又放在柴上。	照樣作
他就叫人把些水﹐整濕牛和柴。叫他作三次。	用茶壺當倒水
倒完﹐以利亞就望天說﹕耶和華﹗求你證明你是真神﹐叫你的百姓不再敬拜假神﹗	嗌﹕[耶和華]
發生甚麼事﹖	問大家
耶和華降下火來﹐燒盡牛﹐柴﹐祭壇﹐和水	天使飛來﹐把火色碎紙倒在祭壇上
以色列百姓很謙卑嗌﹕耶和華真是神﹗耶和華真是神﹗	大家一齊嗌
以利亞說﹕現在我們只會敬拜耶和華真神。你們事奉巴力的假先知--走啦﹗走啦﹗	以利亞把搶﹐趕他們走

The story is familiar enough that you can probably imagine how it went. Our main "innovation" was when the fire needed to come down on Elijah's sacrifice. We had our "angel" appear and sprinkle shredded orange & yellow crepe paper over the altar.

The intro to the game worked like a charm: I said, what happened when Elijah called on God? One mom said, "It burned up" which is the same word as used for "barbecued". So I asked, "burned up/barbecued—what?" and a dad answered with the generic word for either cow or beef. And our game was not about "burned up cows" but about "barbecued beef"—ha. We did a variation on a cakewalk, where the kids had to try and find/sit on a specifically numbered chair & the winner (who sat on the right chair, like calling on the right God) got a snack-sized piece of barbecue-flavored dried beef (a favorite Macau tourist product).

For a craft we made little altars of two tissue packets taped together. The kids had to stick gray colored labels on in "brick" or "stone" fashion, then add a tuft of orange tissue paper for fire. They turned out well!

Bible study was on Deuteronomy 4:32-35. Discussion on why people don't believe God is real even when He proves Himself with a miracle. (Because we tend to care about the miracles/blessings more than Who is behind them).

I was so glad Si Wa Hon and his grandma were back this week. And Wa Hon was very well-behaved, too!