Sunday School: Calling the 12 Apostles

It's Sunday, so time for Bible class again! Today we were talking about Jesus calling the apostles. We played a matching game (pelmanism) with the 12 apostles as our activity today. We also enjoyed singing some of our favourite songs.  The one song that is requested every week (so now I just start with it) is My God is So Big (so strong and so mighty...).

We also practiced some new-to-us songs that we've been learning: the Sea of Galilee song (they love trying to keep up with all the hand movements) and I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N. We also sang a song about Jesus calling the disciples, but it was set to the tune of Jesus Loves Me, so it was really easy to learn. 

I've mentioned before that I've been using the Mission Bible Class curriculum the last couple of years, although rather loosely these days as the kids in my Bible class are all twelve years old now, and we rarely have younger visitors, so we've started reading the stories directly from the Bible instead of me telling them as a story, and discussing the Bible discovery-bible-study style. One thing I really like about Mission Bible Class is that they have videos of people teaching a lot of different children's songs, so it's easy to teach new songs. 

Here is the curriculum: 

https://missionbibleclass.org/

Here are the videos:

https://youtube.com/c/MissionBibleClass

Bowling in Bible Class!

Another fun day in Bible class!  As we continue our study of the kings of Israel and Judah, we had a little bowling game today as we talked about knocking down idols to other gods.  

 

Sunday at the School

Today was our first Sunday together at the school after our long Corona break.  The triplets and my student helpers were happy to have our Bible class together again.  After I finished Bible class, I went back to the library, which was busy today with many kids studying, reading and catching up with each other.  It's so good to see the library full of life again! 

(Above) Jackline and Edina, two of our form 3 students.  Below, Athuman, a form 2 student whose hobby is disturbing me and generally being underfoot in the library, is trying to look cool in a photo with me.  

(Below) Stephanie and Doreen, two of our form 2 students, took a quick selfie on my phone. 

In the evening, I went out to Kisongo to get some groceries.  It was a cloudy evening, a bit unusual for this time of year, and I got a photo of the strange light while driving back towards Monduli Mountain. 

 

Elijah and the Ravens

Another fun day in Sunday school!  Today, we talked about the story of Elijah being fed by the ravens at the Brook of Kerith from 1 Kings 17.  Elijah is one of my favorite Bible characters, so I'm really excited about the next few weeks.  (Edit: everything closed for the virus three days later, so this was the last class for a few months).  

The story itself is fairly short, so we had time for two activities today.  First, we had a little game of hide and seek to find Elijah, who was hiding.  (I had taped a picture I drew under a chair in the lobby of the administration building, where we meet, before class.) 

After that, we had a craft project (always popular).  We made paper ravens!  I had precut heads, bodies, feet, beaks, tails and eyes.  The kids traced their hands and cut them out for the wings, and then we just had to assemble and decorate them.  

I also had a coloring sheet for them to do, to keep anyone who finished early or who was waiting their turn for glue something to do. We didn't have electricity this morning, so I couldn't print or copy a coloring page, so I just drew a simple design and then drew it again ten more times.  (I know it looked like I was doodling during the sermon, but I can listen and draw at the same time, I promise!) 

Here are some of our masterpieces: 

Learning about King Solomon

Today in Bible class, we are learning about King Solomon. Last week, we learned about him becoming king and asking God for wisdom. This week, we are talking about the building of the temple in Jerusalem. Fortunately, I have a model of the temple that another missionary that was moving back to the US gave me. I keep it on the shelf in the library, and it finally came in handy. The kids enjoyed seeing it in 3D. 

After the lesson, we watched a cartoon of the life of Solomon (I've been sick all week, so I'm not really up for anything too physical; I save video watching for occasions like this) while colouring and doing a word search. Another fun day in Bible class!

Becoming a King in Bible Class

We had another fun day in Bible class this morning! We have finally finished our study of the Parable of Jesus, and now we're starting a new study on the King of Israel.  Today, we talked about Saul being chosen as the first King of Israel.  We made crowns to imagine what it would be like to be chosen as a king or queen.  We had fun with glue, scissors, crayons and colored paper decorating our crowns.  

We had a big class today as we had visitors; Tammy's brother, David, is visiting along with his two oldest children.  

Everyone's busy!

Our class is held in the conference room in the administration building.

I wish I had thought to get a group picture of everyone in their crowns before the triplets left, but at least I got this crowd! 

Beth texted me later that evening and told me that Jackson refused to take off his crown until well after he got home, and that included while going out for lunch in town.  

I made a crown, too, when we had an extra, and I had it with me in the library after class.  A few of the students tried it on.  Here's Omega modelling it: 

JOY!

Today's Sunday School lesson was the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, from Luke 18.  We had our usual students (Jackson, Deborah, Glory, Grace and Gladness) as well as two student helpers, Stephanie and Paulina.  We talked about the way the two men prayed and how we talk to God. 

When talking about prayer, we talked about JOY as a model for prayer;

J: Jesus

We talked about thanking God (Jesus) for all he has done for us and for our blessings. God is great!

O: Others

We talked about praying for others that we know are sick, sad, lonely, or in trouble.  We can also pray prayers of thanksgiving for our friends and family that have good things happening in their lives!

Y: Yourself

We talked about praying for the things we need in our lives. 

For each letter, I had glued a big, colorful letter to pieces of paper, and we wrote things we could pray about in each category on them.

After talking about prayer, we went around the table and all the children prayed.  I thought they would all be too shy to pray aloud, but everyone participated enthusiastically and we had a really nice prayer.

We finished off Bible class with words searches and coloring pages, which the kids always enjoy.

After Bible class, I went back to the library for a while to get a little work done.  Some of the boys (high school students) were hanging around, and they saw our JOY letters and decided they needed to be permanent decorations in the library, for some reason, and taped them up at the top of the blackboard.  I think they mostly just wanted to excuse to climb on chairs, but it does look nice up there. 

The internet was working pretty well (well, for here) today, so I let the boys watch the football (soccer) highlights of the week.  They're all big fans of not only Tanzanian teams, but also the English league and La Liga, the Spanish league.  They really miss not always being able to get the scores every week while they are at school, so this quickly drew quite a crowd!  Of course, little Jackson was right in the middle of it.  At six years old, he's already a huge soccer fan! 

Scavenger Hunt in Bible Class

This week in Bible class we continued our study of the parables of Jesus.  Today we talked about the Parables of a Hidden Treasure and a Lost Pearl from Matthew 13.  I've been using a website called Mission Bible Study that has been really helpful.  There are some good ideas, though of course I also add in my own for some lessons. 

Since we were talking about treasure, of course I had to organize a treasure hunt!  I had some chocolate coins I found in Kenya that I had been waiting for the right opportunity to use, so I put some in a wooden box with brass trimming that I bought in Zanzibar (which made a perfect little treasure chest) and hid it.  Then I taped various Bible verses around campus.  Each Bible verse mentioned a place in it, which was a hint to where to go next.  One mentioned a gate, one mentioned a banner being flown (which led us to this picture, at the flagpole), one mentioned a store (the school shop), etc. 

The clues led us to the teacher's lounge where we found...oh wait.  We found nothing.  The box was not where I had left it.  I had thought it a safe place; it was up on top of the school nurse's cabinet and it wasn't an area students should be in on a Sunday without teachers there anyhow.  But it was definitely not there now. 

It was a bit of an anticlimactic scavenger hunt, but we went back to class and shared the rest of the chocolate coins which were still in my purse. 

Later, it came out that Shuaka, one of the form 2 students who is the Health Prefect (and therefore the holder of the keys to the nurse's cabinet when she is not on duty), had come in to get something out of the cabinet.  He saw the pretty box and assumed someone would try to steal it.  So he took it and locked it in the cabinet. 

I was pretty annoyed with him, as I had even announced at the end of the church service that I was doing something with the kids so if the students saw strange things (like the taped up Bible verses) around not to bother them, but he never seemed to grasp that he had been anything but helpful in protecting my property.  Lewis says it's a cultural thing; in this culture he did the right thing, but as an American I felt not touching something that had nothing to do with you would have been better.  Oh well; it was found in the end and the kids enjoyed the chocolate and had fun running around campus looking for clues.  

New Children's Bible Class

On July 14th, I started a new project: a Sunday School class for the kids!  We have a worship service for the students every Sunday morning, and there's a Bible class after, but it's geared towards the high school students.  I started noticing last term that we've got several elementary-school-aged kids around now (mostly children and grandchildren of staff).  Several of them participated in the high school class, but would really enjoy something just for them.  And so here we are!

We started today with seven kids (Beth's son Jackson, Lewis and Tammy's daughter Deborah, the headmaster's triplet daughters Glory, Grace and Gladness, and the granddaughters of the girls' dorm mother, Irene and Brightness) and two high school students (Prisca and Glory) as helpers.  We are studying the parables of Jesus over the next several weeks, so it should be fun! First on the list is the story of the wise and foolish builders, so I taught them the song today. 

It's been a few years since I taught kids this age (and it was in Italian when I did); I'm trying to remember all the songs I once knew.  They already know the Hippo song, at least, but not Blue Skies and Rainbows.  I'm sure it'll all come back to me soon!