Peter rescued from prison

Hurray, we had a new visitor this Sunday! A very well-behaved 11-year old who jumped up to help every time someone started putting things away. I like this kid! (True, I like them all…)

Our story:

First, introduce King Herod	Boy with crown
Several years ago, he had a part in letting Jesus be sentenced to death. Now he is quite against the believers, and is happy to have them killed as well. He's already put one of the leaders, named James, to death.	King takes one boy, kills with sword.
A lot of the Jewish leaders were pleased by that, so now he arrests the most prominent leader of all, named:	(ask all: Peter) King takes Peter.
But right now it's just before a holiday, so he decides to keep Peter in prison until after the holiday, & kill him then.	Sit in upside-down wooden table.
He is guarded in his cell by two soldiers	Two boys with swords. Tie wrists to soldiers' wrists.
There are two more soldiers standing guard out at the main prison gate.	Two more boys with swords, in front of "fence" of upside-down stools
Okay, now the holidays are over, and Herod is going to take Peter out and kill him tomorrow. What do you suppose the believers are doing?	Ask all: praying
And Peter?	Ask all
He's sleeping! He is really experiencing the kind of peace that Jesus gives!	Give him pillow to lean on
Suddenly, a light shines in the cell	Turn on flashlight or lamp
And an angel appears.	Angel with halo.
He wakes Peter up	Shakes Peter awake
He tells him to get up & put on his cloak.	Angel cuts "chains," Peter puts on shoes and jacket or shawl
The guards stay fast asleep!	Guards snore
The angel brings Peter out through the front gate of the prison. The gate opens by itself—and the guards there are also sleeping soundly.	Fence of stools opens up. (guards snore)
Peter and the angel walk a few blocks, and then the angel leaves him.	They walk around & then angel sits down.
Up to now, Peter thought maybe he was just dreaming. But now he realizes, he really is out of prison! Quickly, he goes to the gathering place of the believers, and knocks on the door.	Have helper bring him out to bedroom & keep him there knocking on door.
Everyone inside is busy praying, so a young servant girl goes to see who is at the door. She is a little scared—is it soldiers coming to arrest them? So she doesn't open the door but asks who is there.	Girl goes to door and asks who it is. Peter answers, Peter.
Peter! Wow—they were just praying for his release, and here he is! She is so excited, she forgets to open the door & just runs & tells everyone that Peter has come.	She runs and tells the others Peter is at the door.
The believers think she's crazy.	They laugh at her
If it's really Peter, then where is he? Oops! She'd better let him in!	Rhoda runs back and opens the door & lets Peter in.
Everyone celebrates.	Everyone celebrates, hugs, high-fives.
But then Peter needs to get out of the city, because Herod will certainly be searching for him. So we won't hear from Peter again for a while.	Peter shakes everyone's hand & then leaves.

Everything went pretty well except that one of our prison guards got too into his role (ha) and was kicking the prisoner. So we had to make a substitution. We run a humane prison here! (smile) Trying to keep Peter knocking at the door & not just walking in was hard too. Our helper had to make like a door chain & keep it from opening far enough to let him through.

Our game was about "escaping" from entanglement—a game where everyone makes a tight circle and joins hands with any two different people somewhere in the circle. Lots of criss-crossing of hands. Then everyone has to cooperate by weaving over & under until we become one big open circle. I don't know what you call this game, but it's fun.

Craft: we said that very possibly the prison was in the dungeon of Herod's castle, so we did these castle pictures I found in a craft book. Except the craft book called for making the "bricks" with Chex cereal. I can't get Chex here but I could get Life. Unfortunately, this was a little too big for the diagram in the book, so it didn't look right. Plus, it was hugely messy to keep dipping the cereal in the glue. Our kids would be wanting to wash their hands every few seconds! So instead I issued them all with grey color-crayoned square labels of almost the right size (a little too small, but better than too big). They looked nice—I'll have to add a photo later.

For adult Bible study, we talked about how God can do great things even when our faith is as tiny as a mustard seed (or a sesame seed—Bruce passed around a sesame-seed bun and had everyone take a seed as a visual focus)

May God do great things at Merciful Love even when my faith gets overwhelmed by the seemingly hard hearts!!

The First Gentiles

It was a disappointing turnout this morning; just three families. Barely enough to tell our story; we had to recruit every single person!

Last week we saw Peter in Joppa.	Introduce Peter. Have him locate Joppa on map.
In a little while we will see what he is doing there, but first we will go to another city, called Caesarea, and meet another person named Cornelius.	Peter can sit down. Introduce Cornelius. Have him locate Caesarea on map.
Even though Cornelius was a Gentile, that is, not an Israelite, in his heart he believed in Yahweh the God of Israel, and worshipped and prayed to him alone.	Kneels down.
One day, while he was praying, an angel appeared to him.	Angel with halo comes & stands in front of him.
He was very frightened, but the angel reassured him, saying, God has heard your prayers and seen your good deeds, and He wants to bless you!	Angel "gunghei's" (congratulates) him.
The angel told him to send some servants to the house of Simon the tanner in Joppa, and look for a man staying there, called Peter. They should bring Peter back with them, and he would tell Cornelius how to receive God's blessing.	Cornelius chooses 2-3 to go. They put on backpacks. (we had to pare this down to one servant)
They had to travel for two days.	They walk one round of room, then take towels out of packs, "sleep"; get up, start walking again
The second day, as they were just about to arrive…let's see what Peter is doing.	Travelers can sit down. Set up table in front of storeroom transom; helper gets in position in storeroom with sheet , then bring Peter up.

 

What time was it?	Show clock set at 12:00 & ask
It's time for lunch, but lunch isn't ready yet. Peter is getting hungry! He decides to use the time while he is waiting, to pray.	Peter rubs his tummy, then kneels down (facing table in front of transom).
As he was praying, he saw a strange vision. Something like a big sheet was coming down from heaven!	Sheet starts lowering onto table
When it opened up, inside were all sorts of animals.	Sheet opens up, narrator picks up each animal & asks different kids what they are.
Every animal in the sheet was one that was considered "unclean" according to the law of Israel. Peter thought it was a disgusting sight! But then he heard a loud voice:	Helper on ladder says: "Beidak! Heiloih! Joi la, sihk la!" (Peter, get up, kill, and eat!)
Peter said, no way! Never in my life have I eaten unclean food!	Peter does "no, no"!
But the voice said:	"Sahn jihgei soh gitjihng ge yeh, neih mjeun donghaih batgitjihng ge." (If God cleanses something, you are not to say it is unclean)
While Peter is scratching his head and wondering what this was supposed to mean, the whole vision repeated itself.	Peter scratches head. Sheet closes up, then opens again, repeat highlighted section
And again a third time!	Repeat highlighted section
Finally, the sheet was taken back up into heaven.	Sheet is hauled back up. Peter can get up.

 

Now Cornelius' servants arrive. Because they are Gentiles, they know they might not be welcome in the house, so they stand on the street and yell: Is Peter there?	Servants stand several feet away from Peter. They all yell: Beidak haimhaidouh?
Peter hears the Holy Spirit in his heart saying, I myself have commanded these men to come, so whatever they ask you to do, do it.	Peter looks up to heaven and does "Yes, Sir!"
The servangs tell him that an angel has told them to bring Peter to see Cornelius in Caesarea. So he goes with them.	Peter puts on backpack and goes with them. (I skipped having them stay overnight. Also skipped Peter's companions—not enough people—or backpacks!)
Again, it took them two days.	All take out their towels and "sleep" again.
On the second day, they came to Cornelius' home. While he was waiting, he had invited friends and relatives over so they could hear what Peter was going to tell him.	Cornelius picks 2-3 & all stand up together.
Peter says to them, now you know that usually Israelites don't visit the homes of Gentiles. But God recently told me that I shouldn't automatically consider any person unclean, so I came when asked. So what is it you want from me?
Cornelius describes how the angel had told him that Peter had an important message of blessing from God for him.
Peter thought this was amazing. It was the first time he had thought that God might want the Gentiles to be able to hear the gospel of Jesus! So, he started to tell them about how Jesus had died for sinners, and rose on the third day…
Suddenly, the Holy Spirit came down on all the Gentiles who were listening to him, just like He had come on the birthday of the church!	Sprinkle orange/yellow paper scraps on Gentiles' heads
They all started praising God in different languages!	Have different Gentiles repeat "Jesus is Lord" in Cantonese, Mandarin, English, and Spanish
When Peter heard this, he praised God. How great is God's mercy, that He wants the whole world, not just Israel, to be saved! God's love is truly infinite! So he welcomed all to receive baptism and become part of the new, international church!	Baptizes the Gentiles with blue scraps. Everyone shakes hands with everyone else, then gather & sing "Hingdaih jimuih" (Brothers & sisters)

God wants people of all races and colors to be able to go to heaven! So each child received a different color of balloon to blow up and then kick soccer-style into a cardboard "heaven's door"

For our craft, we made paper-chain snakes.

Bible study was mainly from Ephesians 2:12-14, about how Christ broke down the wall of hostility between Israel and the Gentiles, and how the kind of humility it takes to admit your sins and receive Christ can also help break down walls in other kinds of relationships.

Raising of Dorcas

I got a new computer last Monday and it took me a significant chunk of time to get all my stuff up and running. Which meant I was behind in preparations for Sunday, which meant posting to the blog was not high priority! So now I'm behind, so once again I won't bother with translating our story, which went like this:

我們上次見到以前逼迫信徒的掃羅子己都信耶穌	介紹掃羅
但很多人懷疑他的改善﹐怕是詭詐的。不想接受他和他們一齊崇拜。	掃羅向大家行﹐大家走去第二道﹔掃羅跟他們﹐大家又走開
後來有一個信徒﹐叫巴拿巴﹐	介紹巴拿巴
去找他﹐領他見信徒領袖﹐解釋他怎樣認識耶穌。他們就接受他﹐知道不要怕。	巴拿巴與掃羅握手﹐一齊去見大家﹐掃羅與大家握手。
所有信徒開心﹗但哪些人不開心呢﹖	問大家
猶太教的領袖想殺死他﹐如同殺死耶穌和施提反一樣﹐所以信徒領他到該撒利亞海口﹐叫他上船﹐回自己家鄉大數﹐等到過了危險。	幾個人與掃羅行一個圈﹐叫掃羅坐凳子﹐ [搖櫓] 。大家向他 [bye-bye]

 

所以﹐我們暫時不知道掃羅作甚麼﹐就會看看彼得的經歷。	介紹彼得 (就可以坐低)
在以色列的約帕城﹐有一位女信徒﹐叫多加。 她很好人﹐很有愛心﹐作很多善事。	介紹多加
但她患病了﹐就死了。	她仆低
其他信徒抬她上去樓上﹐	兩個男子抬起多加﹐放在快板上 (先放板在兩張凳上)
幾位姐妹把屍體洗淨。	幾位女人用毛巾子抹她身
當時有信徒去找彼得﹐叫他來安慰多加的朋友	那兩位男子帶彼得來
彼得來看多加﹐週圍的女人一面哭﹐一面說開多加所作的善事﹐給他看多加為窮人造的衣服	女人一面哭﹐一面將幾件衣服給彼得看
彼得心痛﹐叫女人出方。就關門﹐歸低﹐禱告。	女人行開﹐彼得歸低
禱告之後﹐向多加說﹕多加﹐起來﹗	彼得起身﹐對著多加說﹕多加﹐起來
多加真是打開眼睛﹐見到彼得就坐起身﹗	多加坐起身
彼得申手扶她起身﹐就叫她的朋友回來	那幾位女人來見她﹐擁抱她
這件事情很快傳遍約帕城﹐許多人所以信主

You may note the story was in two sections. In order to explain why we were jumping from Saul's conversion to a story about Peter, we first did a little blurb about how at first the believers didn't trust Saul, until Barnabas took his part, but then he was being hunted by the authorities & so his new friends shipped him off to Tarsus until things calmed down. So in the meantime we would see what Peter was up to.

I was quite pleased with our "troublemaker" (I'm going to have to quit calling him that!) a-Wai. He had picked up a magazine and was browsing, when I asked him to play the part of Barnabas. He said no, but then I said, but we need you, because the only other boy we can ask is a-Si, and "Saul" is afraid of him! So he put down his magazine and did his part. Yay!

Wing Tung is a little ham and did a great job of dramatically dying.

Dorcas had been praised in the story for the garments she made for the poor. So our game incorporated garments. We had a relay in which each child drew a number tile & matched it to a picture of a t-shirt. He/she then had to go to the pile of shirts, find the right one, put it on, & run back to the team.

Going with the garment theme, our "craft" time consisted of learning (or reviewing) how to neatly fold the t-shirts.

Bible study was from Philippians 1:21-25, trying to bring out that while God does not always protect Christians from death, dying is not a thing we need to fear.

An Unlikely Convert

Everyone was so good today! What fun. We did the story of Saul's conversion, as follows:

The last time we saw Saul, he was in Jerusalem dragging believers off to jail.	asks if people believe, if yes, hauls them off
So a lot of believers left Jerusalem; some even left Israel!	everyone runs around room
One large foreign city that a lot of people fled to was called Damascus.	find on map
Saul went to the High Priest to get official permission to go to Damascus and bring the believers there back for trial.	produces letter saying high priest authorizes him to arrest Christians. Priest chops it, puts in envelope, seals.
He & a few others went together.	Saul + 2 others don backpacks & start walking around room
Suddenly a bright light from heaven shone around Saul, making his eyes hurt so bad that he fell to the ground. He couldn't see a thing!	Shine flashlight in Saul's face. He covers his eyes & falls. Put on sleep mask.
A voice came from nowhere: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?	recorded voice?
The people traveling with Saul were terrified, because they heard a voice but couldn't see anyone. Saul couldn't see anyone anyway! So he asked, who are you?	Saul looks around, asks, who are you
The voice replied: I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up, and go to Damascus and wait for my messenger to come and tell you what you must do.
Saul got up, still unable to see. His friends had to take him by the hand and lead him into the city.	His two companions lead him by hands to sit in chair.
He waited three days, fasting and praying, wondering what Jesus would do to him after all he had done.	folds hands
At that time there was a believer in Damascus called Ananias. While Saul was praying, an angel appeared to Ananias.	introduce Ananias. Angel with halo confronts him.
The angel said: you must go to the house of Judas on Straight Street. There is a man named Saul there who is waiting for you to come and have you lay your hands on him and restore his sight.	angel shows map with Straight Street & Judas' house marked
Ananias was very afraid! He knows that Saul's purpose in coming to Damascus was to haul believers off to jail in Jerusalem!	Ananias shakes his head
But the angel says, don't worry, he already knows he has been wrong. And I have chosen him to be my servant to take the gospel to the Gentiles.	pats A. on shoulder, pushes him to go
Ananias thought this was really strange! If there was anyone Saul hated as much as he hated believers, it would have to be Gentiles! But he obeyed the angel and went.	A. shakes his head again, but goes knocks on table, someone lets him in and introduces him to Saul
Ananias introduces himself & says that Jesus has sent him to heal his blindness.	Saul kneels down. A. places hands on head & says: yehsou yihou neih!
Immediately Saul could see again. He has Ananias baptize him right away, and from that day onward, he served the Lord Jesus.	A. baptizes him with blue scraps, hugs him.

Notes: we didn't use a recorded voice because our tape recorder doesn't work anymore. Oh well. "Chopping" a letter means to put a stamp on it, like an official seal. No official correspondence here is complete without a "chop." A-Si came in that morning with his eyes closed—he often does this; I don't know why. But that made me decide to choose him as Saul—he might not object to not being able to see. And he didn't! I couldn't find a sleep mask, so I just covered an old pair of glasses with black paper. It was neat that he was willing to keep them on.

We did craft time ahead of game time this week. For our craft, we said, when God had a message to give to Saul, he made light shine from heaven, and sent an angel and another believer. When we want to get messages to people, we usually use some other methods. Such as "air mail!" Each child had to write "Saul, Saul!" on a sheet of paper & then follow instructions for folding it into a paper airplane. I found a great one on "Alex's Paper Airplanes" website, called "Nick's plane," I think it was. Flies great. Especially since I had brought the instructions to work with me one morning and was trying them out while waiting for my first appointment of the day. When she got there, I was ready to try flying it, so I did. It flew well but veered off to the left. My client's mom said, "Open the wing more on the right and press the one on the left down a little & then try again." It worked! How nice to have encountered a paper airplane expert on that particular day!

For our game, then, we put a picture of Saul up on a wall and "sent him our messages." Not sure who enjoyed this more, our kids or a couple of the parents!

Bible study was from I Timothy 1:15-16, emphasizing that anybody (including our parents) can become a Christian, no matter how unlikely it seems.

The kids have their free/supervised playtime during the adult Bible study. A-Wai, the boy who had been so difficult two weeks before, likes to spend this time working through 1^st-2^nd grade math workbooks. Mostly he does this on his own, but occasionally he asks me for some help. He had already asked me once, but then I was out of the room when he got stuck again. Mrs. Lei couldn't believe it when she saw him ask A-Si, who was sitting at the same table coloring, for help! A-Si responded by starting to do the math himself, but then A-Wai indicated he wanted the book back, and A-Si gave it to him. And the examples were enough to get A-Wai going. It's so rare to see two of our kids independently seeking, and succeeding at, interaction with each other! And these are our two kids most prone to violent outbursts, even! God is working!!!

Philip and the Ethiopian

I wrote this in Chinese & am just too lazy to rewrite the whole thing, but I need to at least hit the highlights for any English-speaking readers.

Our chariot was a large cardboard façade leaning on two stools in the rear and a lower stool in the front. We were short on kids this week so recruited two moms to be the chariot horses. They wore horse masks and were supposed to keep jogging in place whenever the chariot was supposed to be moving, which was during most of the story. Philip also had to jog in place next to the chariot until he was invited in. He was supposed to ask if the Ethiopian understood what he was reading. Once again, that was a hard one for Philip to grasp. Instruction to Philip: "Ask him, do you understand?" Philip's response: "I understand." No, no, repeat after me: "Do you understand?" Philip: "I understand." It took a few more tries, but he finally got it right!

After Philip got into the chariot, the two boys putting their heads together to earnestly study the scroll was very cute. I couldn't get pictures, though, as I was too busy chasing down our hyperactive chariot driver, who kept dropping the reins and dashing off to another part of the room!

Here's the whole thing in its original form:

	介紹腓利
記著﹕上次腓利在撒馬利亞傳教	在地圖找撒馬利亞
現在神的天使叫他往迦薩區去	一個戴光環﹐在地圖指出迦薩給腓利看
腓利去﹐前頭看見一個衣索匹亞的人坐車﹐最近在耶路撒冷敬拜神﹐現在回衣索匹亞去	預備﹕一塊板代表車﹐後面兩張凳﹐前面一張﹔一個非洲人坐後面﹐一個坐前面﹐抓條繩--那條繩圍著兩個因大馬的面具﹐在處跑 (不停跑)
神就叫腓利追車。	天使推腓利。他去車道﹐在處跑
他看見那位衣索匹亞人讀先知以賽亞的書﹐就問他﹕[你所念的﹐你明白嗎﹖]他回答說﹕[沒有人指教﹐怎能明白呢﹖]	坐車後那個開書卷
腓利說﹐自己明白﹔衣索匹亞的人叫他上車	腓利坐在他旁邊
衣索匹亞人就問﹕[在這裡﹐以賽亞指著誰﹖是指著自己呢﹐或指著別人呢﹖	腓利看看衣索匹亞的人指出的經文
腓利先解釋﹐原來﹐是預言﹐指著耶穌基督。就從這幾節起﹐就向他傳耶穌的福音。
那位衣索匹亞很高興﹐說﹐我這才明白聖經的內容﹗我很想接耶穌為我的救主﹗喂﹐前面有河水--不如給我施洗﹗	放條藍色的毛巾在地上
他就叫車停。	兩隻馬可以停。
腓利和衣索匹亞的人落車﹐去河水處﹐衣索匹亞的人受洗。	腓利辦用水給他施洗
神的天使現在叫腓利往亞鎖都去	天使在地圖指出亞鎖都﹔腓利走。
衣索匹亞的人開開心心的回家	上車﹐叫馬繼續在處跑

Our boy who had been the big problem last week was the Ethiopian. We were a little nervous when we opened the door to him & his mom, wondering what might happen this time. But he was a totally different boy—cheerful, cooperative. His mom had made sure he'd taken his medicine, but even so, this was the first time ever he hadn't been at least a little bit grumpy! It had to be an answer to the prayers of those on our "prayer update" list to whom we sent an SOS. It's still a touchy issue with some of our other parents, though. We have made an appointment to visit mom Saturday afternoon to talk about it. The boy isn't always willing to take his medicine, and mom isn't always forceful enough to insist. So we need to set some ground rules: Any Sunday that he has taken his medicine, they are heartily welcome. If one day he won't take it, then we will ask that they not come that Sunday. We hope this will help solve the problem and protect our other children. But we need to keep praying for them.

I found a video on someone's blog showing an adopted Ethiopian child playing a traditional game, sort of like jacks, but with rocks. So that's what we did for a game, and lo and behold all the moms had played the same game in their own childhood! Although they usually tied little bundles of rice in cloth rather than using rocks, which might have been easier. The moms had fun reliving their childhood, but our kids just weren't coordinated enough. We tried to "dumb it down" by skipping the bit about picking up any of the rocks & letting them try just throwing the first rock up in the air and catching it. Our Ethiopian managed that okay. Philip couldn't catch his, though he tried. While our chariot driver just thought throwing rocks in the air in any direction was great fun. (Catch them? Huh?) Oh well!

We made chariots for craft time, out of paper cups & horse patterns taken off a website. I did almost all the cutting ahead of time, so it mainly just assembly, but that was okay. They looked really nice.

Bible study was from Isaiah 53:6-8, going over what it was Philip would have told the Ethiopian as to how this predicted Jesus.

All in all a very happy Sunday!

Simon Magus

It was raining buckets this Sunday, so we weren't sure how many were going to show up. But we ended up with four kids, eventually (the 4^th came during the game time). We set an arbitrary limit of three kids before we do the regular program, and so we had the three to start with.

My non-charismatic leanings show in this story. I kind of like the way I ended up explained the evidence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the new believers, though!

Last time we saw how Stephen was killed. The people who stoned him gave their coats to a young man to watch for them.	give stack of jackets to one boy
This young man's name was Saul. Is this the same person as King Saul?	put crown on head, ask all.
This Saul really wanted to see more Christians killed like Stephen. So starting from that day, he started to help the Jewish leaders hunt out Christians to haul them off for trial.	Have Saul ask various if they believe. When one says yes, grabs & hauls off.
And so a lot of believers got out of Jerusalem, hoping that Saul would not track them down.	All kids (except Saul) get up & run around room.
One of these believers was named Philip. He went to the city of Samaria.	Show Samaria on map
Even though Samaria was part of Israel, many of the people in this area had strayed from their traditional faith. They would believe almost anything; they had a lot of superstitions.
For example, in that city there was a magician named Simon. He used all sorts of magic tricks to gain a following.	Introduce Simon, with hat & wand. He does two "magic tricks"
But after Philip came, not so many people listened to him.	Ask: is he happy?
Philip was preaching the gospel of Jesus, and he was also healing many people in the name of Jesus.	feels some foreheads, lifts them up
A lot of people wanted to follow someone with that kind of power, and so they were baptized. Even Simon was baptized.	Philip "baptizes" several, incl. Simon (they don't kneel)
Well, when the leaders in Jerusalem heard about this, they were amazed! Samaritans becoming Christians??!! So they sent Peter & John up to Samaria to check it out.	Choose two, cross pendants, walk around & meet up with Philip, who introduces them to various believers
They congratulate Philip on his good work, but soon they became aware that many of the people, although they had been baptized, didn't fully understand the truth. They were believing in Jesus because of the miracles they saw, but they didn't realize their need to repent and have their sins forgiven. As Peter and John prayed with them, the Holy Spirit fell upon them.	Leaders have various ones kneel, lay hands on heads, they stand up, high five
After that, there was a huge change in their lives! Simon saw this and thought to himself: now, doctors can often heal sickness, but I'd never heard of anyone being able to change someone's heart!
So he took some money and tried to give it to Peter, saying, I want to have this power to change people's hearts too! How much money do you want to sell me this power?	Simon goes to leaders with money bag.
Peter says, shame on you! You'd better change your own heart first! You just want to get glory from people, instead of wanting to give glory to God. If you don't repent, God will surely punish you!	Peter grabs money bag & throws it on floor.
Simon says—I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please ask God to forgive me!	Simon begs forgiveness (pulls ears); Peter puts his arm around him.

I was gratified that everyone knew that this Saul was not the same as King Saul.

For the first of our two "magic tricks," I had put a false bottom into our magician's hat & he pulled a flower out of it. Then we had him put a girl in one of the side bedrooms and wave his magic wand and say the magic words (Monny Monny Ho! That's what they say here instead of Abracadabra). Then we looked into the room and she had "disappeared"—suddenly there was a knock at the balcony door and we let the girl in from over there. Yes, we all know there is a connecting door, but we all pretended we didn't!

Many thanks to Sharlene Ortlund for helping me draw all the pictures for the game—pictures/symbols of things that money can & can't buy. Kids had to pick a card off a board, and then determine whether or not you could buy it with money. If so, they would pay one of the "silver coins" (courtesy of Chippewa EFC—we use them lots!). The "winner" was the one who had the most coins left at the end.

We made magicians' hats for craft time. That's where our trouble started. It was a good craft; everyone enjoyed it except our oldest boy who was getting very frustrated because his tape wouldn't hold while he was reaching for another piece. He got angry when I suggested his mom help him by holding the hat in place while he was getting more tape. He wanted to do it himself! Another caregiver near him had the brilliant idea of ripping off several pieces of tape and placing on the edge of the table within easy reach, so he could get them with one hand. Disaster was temporarily averted. But then when we were all done, he wanted to attach a top to his hat. None of the other kids had done this (too difficult so I hadn't included it as part of the project), but he knew that the hat we'd used for the story had a top. I suggested he could work on putting the top on during free time which was coming up. Well, then I think what happened was that in taking down the tables his hat & the crown piece got mixed up with some of the others and that infuriated him. He started hitting himself in anger. Before too long he did calm down & was willing to do math workbook stuff which is how he usually likes to spend the free time. But then when he got restless and wanted to go, his temper was already too close to the surface. When mom wasn't ready to go immediately, he began hitting himself in the face & on the legs.

This is where we had a little conflict of cultures—my modus operandi was to try and calm him down, say, hey, sorry, it won't be that long. But the Chinese way of some of the other adults was to yell at him and threaten various consequences for such behavior (not being able to return, calling the police and having them take him to the pysch hospital where he has spent time in the past, etc.). To me, it was natural that this increased his frustration rather than stop his behavior. When he tried to kick one of his "tormentors," I DID yell at him sharply (ONCE) to stop that: but I did also sort of sympathize with him! Sigh. We need to discuss this at our core group meeting this coming Sunday. I think our other parents are worried about their kids' safety, but I'm not so sure expulsion is called for. Nor any help for poor mom. May we know the leading of the Holy Spirit!!

Bible study was from Matthew 23: 1-5a, 11-12, on not doing religious things for your own glory.

Stephen the Martyr

Just preparing for each week's activities is becoming so energy-consuming that it's hard for me to get around to posting. Especially when I have to do it in Chinese, as was true this past week (tomorrow's is in phonetic spelling, since I'm leading it myself. Easier to prepare but then I need to "translate" in order to post…sigh.)

Anyway, here is the story as given to Mr. Lei to lead:

	先叫每一個孩子穿外袍
上次我們看七個人被揀選負責管理派食物給有需要的人。雖然很重要的事奉﹐但那些人也可以照自己的恩賜作其它事工。
例如﹐其中一個﹐叫司提反﹐特別會傳福音	介紹司提反
有些未信的人憎恨他。他們想叫人不聽他而信耶穌。	介紹兩個人
他們就發風聲﹐敗壞他的名聲﹕ [司提反違背摩西的律法] [司提反不尊重神的聖殿]	那兩個人寫兩句壞話﹐落在地﹐其他人拾起為讀。
現在很多人埋怨司提反﹔拉他去見猶太教的領袖	幾個人拉他﹐去到一個戴大星的人面前
領袖問他﹕這些事果然有嗎﹖	給他看那兩句話
司提反不值接答他﹐反而開始說故事﹕
你們記得﹐我們的祖先在埃及很痛苦的時候﹐需要神的拯救。那時﹐埃及王要殺死所有男孩。	派幾個孩子為撕裂
有一個女人想救她的兒子	介紹女子﹐抱公仔
她把他放在籃子﹐就放在河邊的蘆荻裏	把公仔放在籃子﹐就放在藍紙上
埃及王的女兒看他﹐就收養他	一個女人﹐戴冠冕﹐拾公仔
他長大就好人﹐關心自己的同包	介紹摩西
有一天﹐他見一個埃及人鞭打一個以色列人﹐就生氣到打死那位埃及人﹐藏在沙土裏	一個用繩打第二個﹔摩西打第一個﹐仆低﹐鋪床單在上
第二天﹐就見兩個以色列人打交﹐他想叫他們和睦	兩個人打交﹐摩西叫他們分開
那兩個人鬧他﹐說﹐誰立你作我們的審判官呢﹖你會不會殺死我們﹐好似你殺死那位埃及人一樣﹖	他們推摩西走
週圍的人喜歡聽這故事。他繼續說﹕	問大家﹕好聽﹖
你們知道﹐他們所棄絕的人﹐40年後回來﹐救以色列出埃及。棄絕他是不是愚蠢﹖	問大家
你們比他們更愚蠢﹗﹗神派自己的兒子來拯救我們﹐但你們棄絕他﹗	問大家﹕這的說話好聽﹖
聽他的人非常不開心﹗要殺死他﹗他們除外袍﹐叫一個人看著﹐就把石頭﹐打死司提反。	除外袍﹐叫一個男子看著﹐扔紙石向 司提反。司提反仆低。
有些信徒抬起他﹐帶他出去埋葬	兩個人抬他走

Some highlights of the story: The way we had people "spread rumors about Stephen" was by having a couple of kids copy out some statements on slips of paper and drop them to be picked up & read. We greatly abbreviated Stephen's speech, focusing on the similarity between Moses and Jesus. So as he "preached" we had some other kids re-enact a few key scenes from Moses' life.

For our game, since everyone laid their coats at Saul's feet, they would have to reclaim them, right? We had everyone (kids plus enough adults to make two teams of four; we had eight jackets on hand) write their name on a label which we stuck to the coats we piled at one adult's feet. They were supposed to find "their" jackets in a relay race. Unfortunately, the labels did not stick well to the jackets, which made for major frustration and confusion! Sigh.

Craft: why didn't I think of some kind of paperweight? Oh well, what we did make were pretty: we used "stones" (small black beads) to make something nice rather than to hurt someone. Strung them together & then glued them onto a pattern like so:

It was not brilliant of me not to double the thread; the needles kept slipping off & a lot of us don't thread needles as easily as we used to, ha! One of our boys pricked himself slightly (didn't draw blood); then he didn't want to keep stringing his beads for fear of hurting himself. But with some coaxing (I'll string one, then you string one…), he got back into it, which was really good for him. He didn't finish enough for a whole picture—he and one other boy ended up "sharing" one—but that worked okay.

For Bible study, I couldn't think of just one good passage to communicate how assurance of forgiveness helps us to forgive others as Stephen did those who were stoning him. So I chose several verses and we did some jumping around in the Bible to look them up. I usually try to avoid this, and I will continue to try and avoid it in the future! Everyone seemed to really enjoy finding their way around the Bible BUT I don't think they paid much attention to what the verses they looked up were trying to illustrate. Sigh!