It’s great fun!

Bible in Schools was fun, there was singing,a bible story, games and an activity. Palm Sunday was coming up.The “palm branches” made out of crepe paper and cardboard were handed out to the children ,who were aged about five years old. When the music started they were start waving the palm branches and singing “hosanna to the king”. Well, that was the plan. But as soon as the palm branches were handed out to the children they began hitting each other over the head with them. The internet was becoming popular and one child said to another “We’re going on to Saturn” “You can’t go on to Saturn”said another child “He’s the bad guy!”
Numerous people were watching my church’s Easter Drama on Good Friday. When the man who was playing the role of Jesus was on” the cross” one little boy aged four said his older brother who was all of six “Will they leave him there all weekend?” The older brother replied “No. They’ll have to let him down to go to the toilet” Kids think of these practicalities.
The Christmas pageant had it’s moments. Each year we have to decide on the arrangements for the donkey. One year underneath the front half of the donkey costume was a six foot tall teenager,and the back half was played by one of the children from the Sunday School. Some years we have opted for a hobby horse type of donkey. One year we scrapped having a donkey all together. Mary and Joseph traveled on a motorbike. Shepherds can make life interesting so I have found.One year one of the shepherds, a young child, would not appear without his teddybear.That was okay. One girl did not want to be an angel. “I want to be a shepherd!” she declared. These we would have no problem with that,but alas, back then we were not ready for female shepherds yet.Another year another little girl said that she didn’t want to be an angel again. “I’m an angel every year!” she complained. I thought to myself that I hadn’t noticed. She was a far from angelic child. Angels. Well we were having all age presentations of the Christmas story and the youth worker,Tuari, joined in. He was a very down-to-earth Maori guy who got on brilliantly with the local youth.He,his wife, his daughter and the daughter’s friend would be angels and he agreed to play his guitar. One day at rehearsals was a very hot summer’s day.So Tuari removed his shirt, revealing large tattoos on his arms! What about the actual day?The evening of Christmas Eve.One year we started off with five shepherds,but some other little boys thought it would be cool to join in and we ended up with fifteen shepherds.Another year ,a six year old shepherd ran towards a busy road and a kidzstuff leader (Sunday school teacher)grabbed him quickly before any harm could come to him. The year the lad taking the role of Herod wore bright red socks as part of his costume will not soon be forgotten.Another year,the assistants of another Herod were told not to fan him too fervently in order to avoid sending the star of Bethlehem whizzing across the stage at speed. One year,one little boy was placed among the shepherds and an older person was instructed to watch him.There were no problems, he was as good as gold.
There was that time that a weta crept into the church hall where we would be having kidzstuff(Sunday School). Most Kidzstuff leaders could only look at it in horror. Wetas are not a pretty sight and should you catch them at the wrong moment they can give a nasty bite! One kidzstuff leader picked it up and took it outside.That was that.
Raewyn,who was and still is, in charge of Kidzstuff at my church has a real genius for object lessons and activities which make a point. All sorts of things happen at kidzstuff- everything from Bird’s nests to paper mache and an awful lot in between. She has had people bouncing out with a ball-“In-the-be-gin-ning- God -cre-ate-ed-the heav-ens- and- the- earth-Gen-e-sis 1-verse-1 Or she would tap into children’s taste for the gross “As a dog return’s to it’s vomit,so a fool returns to his folly”.Arranging words into the right order. Each person( same number of people as words plus one person holding up the reference) holds up a piece of cardboard and everyone takes part in getting the sentence into the right order.
Don’t let people tell you,never work with children and animals. It”s brilliant!
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