Sunday Sharing: Sunday School Lesson on Hypocrisy

Today our lesson was on having integrity and not being a hypocrite.  The scripture the lesson was based on was Acts 4:32-5:11 about how when the church first started in its early days, the believers would share everything they had with each other and even would sell their homes and land and give the proceeds to the church to distribute to those in need.

Joseph a/k/a Barnabas because he was an encourager was one who sold some land and gave all the money from the sale to the church.  Peter was the one who collected the money for distribution.  Another couple in the church, Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, also had some land that they sold, but decided to only give part to the church and keep part for themselves.  This would have been okay IF they hadn't led people to believe they were giving the entire amount.

Were they really believers?  Were they possibly pharisees in disguise just wanting to look good?  Were they really believers but wanted the praise of men?  The Bible doesn't really say for sure, but we do know they lied about the amount they got for their land and both fell over dead on the spot, were carried out and buried next to each other.

I seriously doubt if any lying was done in that church for a long time after that!  Today, at least our church, does not really practice sharing everything we have with all the other members of the church; however, we do have a food pantry where people can get free food items that others have donated for those in need.  We often have mission projects that people give money to support.  I do believe everything I have comes from God and am willing to use it for His glory. 

After we read through the story, I let the kids (and my husband helped too) use finger puppets to review the story.  They did a great job moving the puppets around, coming up at the right time and having the puppets face the one they were talking to.  Unfortunately, they didn't speak up loud enough for the sound to be good on the video so I had to do quite a bit of editing to it and added titles and text.  The edited version is above. 

Another interesting part of the class was showing an excerpt from a Brain Games DVD about lying.  It showed four little kids in a room alone for 15 min. with a chocolate cake sitting in front of them and they were told not to eat any of it.  (They were taped with a hidden camera during that time.)  An interrogator came in to see if he could get a confession from any of them.  All said they didn't eat any of it, but three actually did.  

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I Got To Sunday School by Abby Dabby Doo

The boys (and girls too) enjoyed my visit to their Sunday School class last week.  The lesson was about trusting God in hopeless situations and my mom shared about how when I was attacked a couple years ago and was near death, mom prayed for God to make me better.  The vet did not think I was going to survive, but God came through for us and I did get better.   The kids got to see pictures of how bad my injuries were and watch this video that my vet made.



The kids were interested and very impressed with my story.  They were especially happy to meet me and see that I made a full recovery.   Of course I performed for them and I got some treats.  Several of them were excited to give them to me.  The one boy made me feel good when he said he wished he could give me an award for being the most beautiful dog!  It was fun going to Sunday School!  Woof!  Woof!

For the whole story, see:  Our Sweet Dog, Abby, Is Fighting For Her Life and On The Road To Recovery by Abby

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Blind Guest Speaker is a Hit

Yesterday our Sunday School lesson was about Jesus healing blind Bartimaeus because he believed.  I invited Sue, a blind lady who attends our church regularly with her husband, daughter and her guide dog, Ty.  She is an attorney, has taught classes on the college level and is looking forward to being a professor at Ursuline College.  This woman is amazing!  She has no bitterness toward God for her blindness and shared with the boys openly and easily.

She even let them take turns using her cane to go through an obstacle course of
chairs with their eyes closed.  She emphasized that is is very important to be able to trust the person (or dog) leading her.  Although she didn't have her dog with her, she said she'd stop by again next week with him and bring along some Braille cards the boys can try to read.  She has a Braille writer and a computer that talks to her which is a help.

She said when she was a kid, she got childhood arthritis which led to her becoming blind at an early age.  She said the kids were nice to her and her friends were helpful and stuck up for her if anyone did pick on her.  She says she has a good life, but of course would prefer to be able to see. 

She also shared a little about how scary it was to adjust to having a guide dog lead her along when she first got one.  She shared how the dogs go through extensive training and only about half the dogs pass the test.  Many of the shepherds don't pass, but then are trained to be drug sniffers instead.  One of the boys seemed especially interested in hearing about her dog because they were learning about guide dogs in school.  He was excited to be able to actually speak with a blind person and looks forward to meeting her dog next week.

I am ashamed to admit that until I wanted to ask Sue to come and speak to my class, I didn't even know her name, yet I knew her dog's name. 

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4 Friday Fragments: TV, Exercise, Dog, Question

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post. I have a few this week:

TV Day

When I was home sick on Monday I had a TV day with my cat and discovered an interesting show I never saw before:  "Sell This House." 

Exercise

I learned this week that there are even treadmills for dogs. Check out Amazing Girl Gets Shelter Dogs Moving to see a doggie treadmill.  I am so tired of waiting for warmer weather to go walking that I started walking around all of our 8 floors before work to get a half your walk in.  Not too many are there when I arrive so I can even sprint down some of the hallways! 

Houdini Dog

I put a jacket on Abby, our dog, when the temperature is below 20, but this week, she managed to get it off while on her walk. I have no idea how she did that because I had it under her harness!  She came back with the harness in place but no jacket. Guess she decided it wasn't necessary.

Which Fish?

For Sunday School this week, our lesson is on Jesus saying He is the "Bread of Life" after feeding the crowd of over 5,000 with just 5 loaves and 2 fish. Since the boys like to eat, I thought I'd bring some bread and fish. Should I bring tuna or sardines? I'm thinking the sardines look more like the fish the boy had.  UPDATED 3/9:  I used some rolls and sardines.  Half the boys actually liked sardines and ate them!  I only had six there when we split up the food among us.  Caleb said, "You should teach at my school because you have such creative ideas and there would be more kids." 



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A Good Object Lesson: Resurrection Buns

Our 5th and 6th grade Sunday School classes liked making resurrection buns last Sunday. They were easy, fun to make and tasted yummy! After washing their hands, each got one or two chunks of the frozen ready-made dough (Pillsbury brand Grands Biscuits) and made resurrection buns.

Here are the instructions:

Flatten dough out to 5" diameter circle.

Brush some melted butter on it, sprinkle on some cinnamon, (the butter & cinnamon represented the spices for Jesus' burial)

Wrap a marshmallow up in it and pinch close completely.

Brush or poor on some melted butter for the outside and sprinkle some cinnamon on the outside;

Place on cookie sheet face down to help prevent them from opening.

Bake for 13 minutes.

When done, the marshmallow disappeared just like Jesus' body disappeared from the tomb when he rose from the dead! The boys were surprised the marshmallow was gone!

Surprises From Some Super Boys That Made My Day!

Sunday was the last week with this particular group of 5th grade boys in my Sunday School class. Every year, promotion is bitter sweet. It thrills my soul to see my classes make some spiritual progress during the year and I always enjoy teaching Sunday School.  I usually get attached to my classes and wish I could keep them another year. This year was no exception.

I began teaching Sunday School when I graduated from high school in 1971 and taught for something like 35 years--with only a few years off along the way.  My first class was a fun group of 3rd grade boys who gave me the teaching bug!  I have taught grades 3-12 in Sunday School over the years and up until now, always liked the Jr. High classes best  However, This last class of 5th grade boys was the best I ever had and that's saying a lot because I have had many good classes. They were a very special group in that most were regular attenders, they all got along great, they were very open and eager to participate, willing to accept challenges, eager to learn; therefore, a pleasure to teach.   Over half completed the Dare To Be A Daniel evangelism course geared to Jr. Highers during the summer.  I am so proud of them!

We had some fun socials but Sunday, I was blown away when I received gifts and thank you notes from several of the boys. This was a first for me!

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A Day At Virginia Kendall Park Sure Beats Work!

Yesterday I took off work to join in the mystery outing with the boys in my Sunday School class. We went to Virginia Kendall park in search of the icebox cave but also played some games, had hot dogs, found a little snake, a chipmunk, a mouse, and had a great time hiking in the woods in between some huge rock formations.

It was call a "mystery" outing because the boys did not know where they were going which even adds to the fun. On the way back, we stopped at a great little country ice cream place that had about 20 different flavors. I had lemon which was very good!   Everyone had a fun time!

Did you ever go on a "mystery outing"?  

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Newsletters: Why Bother?

Builds Up The Boys And Parents Like It Too: The reason I write a newsletter is to keep in contact with the boys in my Sunday School class as well as keep the parents informed. Sometimes I’ll add a personal handwritten note too, thanking them for something specific they did or encouraging them to try to come more regularly or work on their memory passage. I always try to build them up though. What parent doesn't like to hear good things about their son? Every year parents have commented to me that they like reading my newsletter.

Reviews What We've Learned And Done: If you work with children, you might want to consider writing a newsletter for your group and mail it to them once a month like I do for my Sunday School class. I just write about what we’ve been learning, upcoming events and try to mention all their names somehow. I recap the review games we played and congratulate those with perfect attendance for the month, welcome any new ones who came, secret seat winners, and give an update on the scripture challenge standings. Then I throw in some pictures and a “Who Am I?” using clues about one of the boys. I try to keep it to just one page, but this year it’s gone to two since I started adding pictures and cumulative game review statistics.

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Make Use of That Pool Table--Have A Pool Tournament!

Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.--
Romans 12:12-13

Since I found out that the boys in my Sunday School class like to shoot pool, I decided to go ahead and have a little 8-ball tournament. I planned to get a plaque for the winner that included a picture frame so I could slide in a picture of the winner making his winning shot with the other boys watching as a nice memento of this grand occasion.

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Wonderful Weekend--Except for Sunday Football

We had a great weekend overall. Saturday, Abby had her last dog training class. It's so funny how people make such a big deal about little graduations nowadays. I always laugh when someone says their son or daughter graduated from Kindergarten! Whooppee, I think. Then I find out that at PetSmart, they actually have graduation caps for the dogs to wear after completing their 8 weeks of training. It cracks me up! They also gave us a certificate and like the proud parents we are, I can't help but post the pictures to show you. Abby wrote all about this on her blog: I Graduated!



Saturday afternoon we had a nice time at our puppet team picnic at Pam's and took Abby along too. Pam has a wooded area at the back of her property where Abby had fun exploring. This is a picture of me anjoying my annual hot dog. I also had the sweet corn which was very good that was oooked in the fire. We have a lot of young kids on our puppet team this year but still 6 or 7 adults too. It's a unique group because of the wide age range. We enjoy working together and since we have so many this fall, I am able to just help with directing behind the scenes and sort of mentor the newer members. Our director has been involved with puppets for 38 years and this will be our 12th year on the Sonshine Gang Puppet Team connected with our church.

Sunday was good too, except for the afternoon when both the Patriots and Browns lost. There was a lot of yelling going on at our house and after both games we walked the dog to calm down. Dogs are great for that! The morning though was the highlight for me. I felt so much better than I did last week and my class went very well. Last Sunday was the first week I taught after my surgery and the class really made me feel better. I had twelve 5th and 6th grade boys and had some fun things planned that would make it a bit easier on me like balloon volleyball for the discussion on friends and doing the David and Saul skit outside in the courtyard. The boys loved it and I could just relax for awhile. Gerard helped me.

Yesterday though, I did it solo and had 16 5th and 6th grade boys. We did our football review game at the end which is always fun, although this week the score was lopsided 20-0. We had a new kid who refused to come to Sunday School for a long, long time because he had a bad experience with a Sunday School teacher early on. I was thrilled to see him in my class this week and see him participate and enjoy it. He did a good job in the skit and even made an interception in the football review game. I keep taking my camera and then forget to take the pictures. Oh well. This is a picture of football review from my previous class. The 6th graders will start in their own class next week--we were waiting for another teacher so one of the boy's dads volunteered.

To read about my game coverage see: Here We Go Again--What's The End Zone?