Christmas 2011

A full house today! Including Mr. Poon from downstairs (see the October 2009 post "from Noah to Abraham") who came for the whole morning, a first! He was chosen by popular demand to be our Joseph. Okay, it’s very possible that Joseph was quite a bit older than Mary! (Maybe not THIS much older though!) So we introduced Joseph and his fiancée Mary. Then a friend comes to Joseph and whispers, “Hey, did you know that your fiancée is already pregnant?” Mr. Poon, who had never heard the whole Christmas story before, had a huge reaction. “What am I supposed to say to that??!” But then of course an angel comes to him and tells him not to be ashamed to marry Mary, because the child was conceived of the Holy Spirit and would be the Savior of the world. So they have the wedding.

Then, when Mary is big with child (pillow under the dress), they have to go to Bethlehem to register for the census. They walk there but can’t get a room at the inn (folded table with “full” sign), so they have to go to the stable(folded table with picture of ox & ass in stall). The baby is born (out with the pillow, turn around with baby doll in arms), and to avoid putting the baby on the dirty floor, they put it to sleep in the manger. At this point Mary, a bit embarrassed by the proceedings, holds the doll by one leg and dumps him from about waist height into the grass-filled box on the floor. Poor baby Jesus! We all sing “Away in a Manger.”

Next there are some shepherds in towel headdresses keeping watch over their picture of a flock of sheep. Angels appear to them and tell them the good news of the birth of the Savior (here we were supposed to sing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, but the leader missed it). The shepherds decide they better go see for themselves. We sing “O Come All Ye Faithful.” They find the stable and kneel down to worship the baby (or at least the two shepherds that are capable of kneeling do so). We all sing “Joy to the World.”

12-year-old Melissa Chu led the game, and she did a wonderful job of explaining how it was ironic that the child born King of the Universe would be born in a stable, when he should have had the red carpet rolled out to welcome Him. That we would walk the red carpet in his honor. Of course just walking down a red carpet hardly qualifies as a game, so we made it more fun by making a hoop out of the “carpet” & each person had to keep moving the hoop along in order to keep walking on the carpet. Originally I thought I could do it with just red fabric, but I found it was not real practical. I ended up pasting it along a long stretch of cardboard pieces—had to stretch the material to make it long enough for a decent hoop & kept praying that the glue wouldn’t come loose under the pressure. Duh, I could have just done this with red cardboard and saved myself a lot of hassle. But the shiny red velveteen certainly was prettier.

We had a visiting American friend who couldn’t understand the Chinese explanation & no one translated for her. She wondered WHAT was going on when, after watching the Christmas story, suddenly everyone was taking turns walking in this big hamster wheel…

Craft time was simple; everyone was given various figures to make up a crèche scene which they were to glue on to a large sheet of paper to match the example. (At least it would have been simple if I hadn’t misplaced half the glue sticks…)!

The Great Banquet

Originally we were going to tell this story a week ago. But that day there were too many other activities going on in Macau & when it came time to start we only had two kids; our “policy” is that we have three before we trot out the whole program. So instead we all went out for tea. One other family (with two girls) made it in time for tea, another (with one boy) came so late that we were done already! Need to think of changing our name again to “Latecomers’ Family Fellowship” (only one syllable’s difference in the Chinese phrases). Sigh. I kind of appreciate the break myself; this puts me an extra week ahead in preparation. But I feel bad for our helpers from Hong Kong who were going to lead the story for the first time.

So this week, we had some other volunteers from a different Hong Kong church. We didn’t have them lead anything as they don’t know our kids & had no prep time either, but I was very happy to have them help out during the game & craft & then the free time.

This parable was lots of fun! The king announces he is preparing a wedding banquet for his son. So first a servant helps him set a table with a white tablecloth, candlesticks, and bowls & chopsticks. Then the king sends out the servant to tell the invited guests that things are ready. The first person shows him a deed for land and says, sorry, have to go look at my new property. The second says, oh but I just bought an ox and I have to try him out with the plow! So we put our cow horns on another kid and the apologetic guest puts a harness around him and leads him off to go plowing. The third says, but I just got married, so I can’t come! She put on a tissue wedding veil and her ”husband” (mine!), a huge paper bowtie. (The Hong Kong volunteers were taking pictures; I sure hope they send us some!!) So the servant goes back to the king and says, nobody wants to come. The king says okay, then, we’ll invite the poor, the lame and the blind! First a couple of “poor” were dressed up in ripped clothing, and escorted to the table. Next, one using crutches and another a cane, and another one ended up being carried (under some protest) to the table. Finally, the last two kids were decked out in black-paper-covered glasses and led to the table.

Next, the servant explains, you are very welcome at the king’s table but he wants you to dress up in special garments to honor his son. Our “wedding garments” were party hats. I was half counting on at least one kid refusing to wear a hat, but they were all very cooperative—however, we were actually one hat short. Fortunately the one left without a hat is intelligent enough to respond to a whisper that we know she is not rebellious, we just need her to act the part. Otherwise she might have gotten her feelings hurt when the king comes in to personally distribute cookies in everyone’s food bowl but the one without a party hat is scolded for her lack of respect and thrown out of the party without any food!

The poor girl—she was also the very last to get a cookie in our game time, which was kind of like musical chairs. There were enough chairs for each person, so when the music stopped they first all sat down, but then had to get up and check whether their stool had a “wedding garment” (this time, a small paper bowtie) stuck to the bottom of it. Only one did. That person got a cookie and then he/she & one “undressed” stool were taken out of the game. We kept playing until everyone got a cookie. Everyone liked this game just fine! One girl kept trying to sit on two stools at once though, to double her chances. Turned out she was second to the last to win!

Because we had the volunteers here, the parents were able to have their longer Bible study starting right after the story. It worked out well that they were gone during craft time; the project was to make invitations not to a banquet, but to a Christmas Eve Open House we’ll be holding this Saturday at our home. So when the parents finished, they were presented with the completed invitations! I had written out the details earlier & copied then onto parchment paper; we glued these onto a red card and made a lacy border. They were pretty and the moms were surprised!

Parable of the Net

I confess, I chose this parable for this week because of the ease in thinking up the game and craft part! Planning the story was a little harder, and it did turn out pretty short.

First, everyone in the room got stickers, mostly fish, but a few crabs and lobsters. Originally four of the “fish” were to become “fishermen” but we had a smaller crowd than usual so went with two fishermen. They got on stools and started to “row” out to deep water. In the deep water, all sorts of sea creatures (everyone with a sticker—i.e. everyone) were swimming around. So they fishermen got out their big net (a bedsheet with strings safety-pinned to each corner) and draped it over all the sea creatures. Then they had to haul them to shore. One of them was supposed to hang on the the net strings while the other rowed, but somehow that got missed. So the story was even shorter, ha. Once they got to “shore,” the fishermen’s job was to sort out the crabs & lobsters, which were “unclean,” and go dump them back in the ocean. Only then could the fish be put into baskets (sit on the sofas). To finish the story, to make it clear that this wasn’t just a “fish tale,” the narrator was to finish by saying, this is how it will be at the end of the age, when the angels separate out the unclean from the righteous, and only then can the children of God enter the kingdom of heaven. But we could just imagine how this would get missed in the general noise & hubbub that is always part of our morning. So, as she was saying this, another volunteer held up a large poster of an ear, prefacing her remarks with, and Jesus said, let him who has ears, listen! It helped!

Like I said, the game was easy. I just brought in my little magnetic fishing pole & plastic fish. Simple, but everyone enjoys it.

For craft we made fish, starting by covering a marble with a small piece of clay & then pulling out fins, tail & fish lips. Add small googly eyes and glitter for “fish scales” and there you have it. Fun and cute!

Parable of the Lost Coin

Yikes, falling behind again! On Sunday November 27^th, we did the parable of the Lost Coin. Of course in the text it is very brief, so we had to go some to make our morning skit out of it:

So there was this woman who was saving up silver coins for some unknown reason (probably it was her dowry, but, ssh, don’t tell!). She had to do all sorts of different things to earn the money, such as walking a neighbor’s dog (Lai Wun didn’t want to keep the mask on her face, but hey, around the neck worked), or delivering newspapers (passing one out to everyone in the room), or watering flowers for another neighbor (I liked this one best—the “volunteers” squatted holding their flowers, then when the “woman” held her watering can over them, they stood up/grew). Finally, on her birthday, an elderly relative (my gray-haired husband) gave her the last coin she needed.

As she earned different amounts of coins for these different jobs, they were crossed off on a picture of 10 coins put up on the board. This was so we could keep the treasure box with only eight coins in it, untouched in its niche until we needed it. She goes to put in the last coin and then counts the total—what? Only nine coins? What happened to the 10^th? So she gets the broom and starts sweeping under furniture to see where it might have fallen. I had thrown a couple pieces of candy under one sofa, so she did find some “treasure” but not her coin. So she has to ask some of her friends to help her move the sofa and look behind it. While they are doing this, I make a little “adjustment” and then sat in the recliner & put my feet up—and waited for someone to notice that the “lost coin” was stuck to the bottom of my shoe! (I can’t remember which website I found that fun idea on. I really should give more credit to different sites. Okay, starting as soon as I remember.)

Finding lost coins was the obvious game theme. The kids were taken out of the room one at a time; while they were out a chocolate coin was hidden in not-too-hard-to-find places. When the kids came back in, the rest of the group had to give them verbal instructions like, behind you, to the right, look higher, etc. They all followed the directions very well. After all, there was chocolate at stake!

For craft we made these little “brooms” out of pencils and bristles cut from a small whisk broom. One of the few crafts the kids have ever taken home, I was very pleased with the reception it got!

The Unforgiving Servant

I was afraid the meaning of the parable got a bit lost in the shuffle last week. So this week we helped drive it home a little by “bookending” it with Jesus’ conversation with Peter. Peter, who knows that love is an important commandment, and has probably heard some people think three times is already going the second (third!) mile of forgiveness, asks Jesus if they should forgive others as many as seven times. Jesus answers, not just 7 but 70x7. We had someone do the math for that on the blackboard. Then Jesus and Peter sat down while we reported the parable he told to illustrate what he’d just told Peter.

Our king, in his crown, sat on his throne reading his accounts ledger and noticed that this one servant owed him an enormous amount of money. He writes $10,000,000 on the blackboard. He calls the servant before him and tells him it’s high time he pays back the money. He says he can’t yet. The king tells him to go get his wife & children & come back, so the servant has to go choose someone to be his wife and children. They come before the king & he says, since you can’t pay, I am going to sell all of you as slaves so at least I’ll get a little money out of you. The servant kneels and begs the king to give him time and he will pay it all back. The king knows this is impossible, but he takes pity on the man and decides to forgive his whole debt. The family goes home very happy.

And yet the very next day, this fellow meets another servant who owes him $100 (writes that on the board). He demands repayment, and the fellow servant says he hasn’t got the money. Servant #1 says, pay it or I’ll have you thrown into prison. Servant #2 kneels and begs for more time. Servant #1 says, forget it! And two “soldiers” armed with swords come to drag him (her) off. At this point servant #2 bursts into tears at being so roughly handled. I was a bit callous, perhaps; this girl has been very volatile lately and it’s hard to take her tears real seriously. So I went right on with the story, saying, obviously, servant #2 is very unhappy about this, so some other servants go and tell the kind what happened. Immediately the older sister of the crying girl appoints herself one of them; she marches up to the king and starts shaking her fist at him and yelling at him in her non-verbal but vociferous style. (Hey, this isn’t the king’s fault! He’s on your side! smile) The king calls servant #1 back before him and says, I had mercy on you, shouldn’t you have had mercy on others? For that, you are going to jail for the rest of your life! And the soldiers haul him off.

Jesus and Peter stand up again & Jesus says to Peter, this is why we must keep forgiving others; otherwise your sins will not be forgiven either.

For our game, we offered a shining example of forgiveness: a bop-bag, whatever you call those things, the ones that keep “forgiving you” (popping right back up for more) no matter how many times you punch them in the nose. Each child got to punch it while counting out seven times. Our crying servant was still a bit sulky and not wanting to do it; her sister worked very hard to persuade her. Finally she was willing to try it when someone turned it around so she wasn’t hitting something that had a face on it. She can be sweet!

For craft time, we talked about how a life with a heart full of forgiveness is very beautiful, like a flower is beautiful. But—and we showed a sample picture—a flower with only one petal isn’t very pretty, is it? Even forgiving seven times—a flower with only seven petals isn’t that pretty either. So we encouraged them to stick on as many petals as they could.

I got to lead the Bible study time this week. We started by discussing the parable and at first no one was managing to apply it to anything but money & they were all saying, eventually you just give it up and it’s not that a big deal. How about other things that are not money? They couldn’t think of anything bad enough to be hard to forgive. What? Am I the only one who ever struggles with this? Too hard to believe! So I brought up the example of a husband walking out and taking up with another woman. Whoa, now that got the discussion going! Hard to harness it and get back to the Bible and the application! Which was NOT “so go out and forgive whoever you’re mad at” which is how I’ve always tended to read this. But it had struck me while I was preparing, that (duh), the real point of Jesus parable was to compare the huge debt we owe the “king” to the relatively limited ways others sin against us. Application being, when it’s hard to forgive, remember how much you need God’s forgiveness. We closed with I John 1:8-10.

Back in the Saddle

It’s wonderful to be back at Merciful Love after our six-month home assignment. Attendance and enthusiasm are high! Now if I can just scrape off a little rust here.

When we were gone three years ago, Kevin led a series on the parables of Jesus. Unfortunately, the notes he left behind weren’t easily reproducible, so Grace hasn’t been doing any parables beyond a first one, on the Sower, during the two months since finishing the Acts curriculum I left behind. She’s been so busy doing some fantastic pastoral work with individuals, that on Sundays she has used whatever materials she could find with help from others. I am thankful that she is okay with my taking over the Sunday planning again as I would really like to get the whole package updated and user-ready for—(? don’t ask!). Which means I will eventually have to go back and write some filler stuff, but for right now I’m just managing week by week. With the Lord’s help!!

Anyway, enough of this. Our first Sunday back was just a welcome party, but this past Sunday we plunged into the parable of the laborers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16). We introduced a couple of new characters at the beginning of the parable; besides the owner, we assigned two adult “foremen” who would be in charge of keeping the hired laborers on task. Task being, pick grapes one by one off of some bunches at one end of a long table, wash each grape in a basin in the middle of the table, and then put it in the proper red- or green-grape box at the other end. We made a paper clock that one of the girls happily set to the different times—6:00, 9:00, 12:00. 3:00 and 5:00—when the owner went out among the group to choose one or two more kids as laborers, agreeing with them for one silver coin each (show coin, get a handshake). Then a bell rang at 6:00 and everyone had to line up from the most recent hire to the all-day ones. Each got their silver coin & then the first two hired were encouraged to whine about not getting more. (Encouraging whining! Oh dear!) :-) Finally wound up with a short dialogue emphasizing that this was in fact not unfair.

I’m not sure anyone understood the meaning of the parable, especially since the Bible study time was a “special” one where the parents watched a testimony video & discussed it while the kids were doing their game and craft. This is a new thing we’re trying once a month when a team of three usually comes from Hong Kong to help out. Only one came this week though!

Anyway. Our game consisted in each child drawing a card assigning them a different simple task, but each one getting the same reward. Then for craft time we made clocks “like the one used in the story.” Well, sort of!

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.