Rebecca S. Ramsey's Blog, page 31

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Blessed Are the Cheerleaders (with or without the Pom Poms)

I have to admit that I haven’t always been crazy about  cheerleaders. It’s probably because the only attention I’ve ever gotten in a gym is when I was passing through on my way to the library and a random volleyball hit me in the head.

But I’ve known and loved several cheerleaders in my life– some with pom poms and lots without. And last week, when I took 45 8-11 year olds to camp, I must say that the height and breadth and determination and volume of their cheerleading nearly brought me to tears. (The good kind of cheers and tears! Not the kind where people shake their fingers and yell U-G-L-Y! They ain’t got no alibi! They’re ugly! Hey, hey they’re ugly! )

Nope, their kind of cheering made this children’s minister’s heart grow three sizes those days!

I’ll give you an example.

Take this dear child of mine standing on a telephone pole. This act of bravery and craziness at Bonclarken Conference Center in Flat Rock, North Carolina, is called The Leap of Faith. It used to be called The Pamper Pole, probably because jumping off of it might make you wish you’d worn Pampers, but someone thought it should have a name that you don’t have to explain to children when they ask you 45 times, so they came up with a new one. (So now the kids use both names and get to have a good laugh about wearing diapers.) The Leap of Faith is a perfect name because once you climb to the top of the pole (all safely harnessed in, don’t you worry!) you must manage to stand up on a tiny platform, gather up your courage and leap into the sky for the trapeze bar hanging just out of reach.

Every year we have lines of kids who think they want to climb this pole and jump off.

(Not me. I have no need or want or slightest inclination to do this EVER EVER EVER my whole life long.)

But then the children take their turns, and once they’re halfway up and past the point of being allowed to climb back down, they sometimes have second thoughts.

That’s when the cheering comes in.

You should have seen these children cheering for each other! Cheering no matter what, no matter if it was an easy jump or if there were a few tears or a handful- or if their little bodies were frozen stiff with fear. They’d call each other’s names and give advice, if they thought it might help. They’d say “YOU’VE GOT THIS!” and “I’M GONNA BUY YOU AN ICE CREAM AT THE NIBBLE NOOK WHEN YOU COME DOWN CAUSE YOU’RE DOING SO GREAT!” They’d tell each other TAKE A DEEP BREATH. That they didn’t have to rush. “WE HAVE TIME!” they’d say, even if it was eight minutes until worship started and they were next in line after waiting a half hour.

And if someone on the ground decided that climbing a twenty foot pole just wasn’t her flavor of Nibble Nook Slushie, they’d cheer that decision too. “Some people like this stuff and some people don’t,” I heard a child say to another who’d come along just to watch. “It’s brave to do what you want, either way.”

AMEN, child.

That kind of cheerleading makes a difference. With kids and adults too.

“I didn’t think I could do it,” Jayne said that night at devotions in the girls’ cabin. “I stood up there so high and I thought it was too hard. But then I heard everyone cheering for me, calling my name, saying I could do it. It really helped me not be so scared.”

YES! That’s what the best of cheerleading does. It’s what the best of friends do. It’s what CHURCH IS SUPPOSED TO DO! We stand beside each other and cheer each other on as we try to do hard things! As we all try to follow the way of Christ, we stand beside each other, calling each other’s names, reminding each other that we are all children of God, beautiful in God’s sight just as we are.

We tell each other to take deep breaths. YOU’VE GOT THIS! We say. And “WE HAVE TIME FOR YOU!” and then we give each other time and grace. We give each other ideas and we go to God together for God’s direction and wisdom. And then… we encourage each other to LEAP!

We can leap because we know Who holds us close. We know that even when it looks scary and completely undoable and ridiculous, that we will not be alone. We have a God who will not give up on us. And we have people who will stand with us too until the end. And cheer. And maybe even buy us ice cream.

Blessed are the cheerleaders, indeed.

 

Many thanks to Garry Knight for the flickr photo through Creative Commons 2.0.

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

Welcome to our lesson for July 22, the Parable of the Mustard Seed, found in Matthew 13:31-32, Mark 4:30-32, and Luke 13:18-19.

The children love this parable, and if you help them process it through the wondering questions, they’re sure to come up with some profound thoughts and ideas.

The wondering questions are in the book. I’ll have them printed out for you. Thank you for documenting the children’s responses. They’re so interesting for the parents-and for the rest of us!

Now, for some ideas to spark their imaginations as they do their work, making a gift to God…

1. How big do they imagine the mustard seed growing? Why not lay out butcher paper on the floor and let the children draw the tree? I’ve seen a class of fours do this, so I know all of ours can do it to. One team of kids could draw and fill in the tree, another do the leaves, another do the birds and birds’ nests, and another do the sower.

Our fourth grade class did this once and it turned out great!

 

2. Children could individually glue a seed to a paper and draw what the tree will grow to be.

3. Kids could make a mustard tree out of pipe cleaners. They could even add birds!

 4. You could plant a seed, if you haven’t done that lately. It might be fun to plant grass seeds and draw a face on the pot/cup so as it sprouts it looks like hair.

5. The kids could make their own parable box for this one. There’s felt in the resource room for the different parts, and they could also make a person out of a clothespin, birds and nests out of clay.

6. Make a mustard seed necklace as shown here

7. Sample different kids of mustard with pretzels or crackers as a snack.

Check out my Pinterest page here for more ideas.

Enjoy!

Becky

The Little Wise Person I Met on Vacation

Have you been listening to the news much lately?

Sometimes when I take in the world with all its pain and division, with its screaming voices and tears, it’s just too much.

I start to wonder if it will ever get better- or if this is just the way it is now…if this is the way we are now.

Last week it bothered me so much that I decided to run away from home.

Well, I ran away with my sweetheart and my youngest son. We went to the mountains for the cool air and the trails. And for the food I didn’t have to cook and the house I didn’t need to tend to. But mostly we left for the cool air and the trails.

While I was walking on one of those trails, I met someone who told me something I needed to hear. Maybe you might enjoy his wisdom too.

Todd and Sam and I had just hiked down to see this beautiful waterfall when it happened. I had just stood beside the water and listened to the rush and felt the mist. It made me think of all the world’s tears cascading down the rock face of earth, falling and falling down to its shoulders. There wasn’t an end. The water just kept coming and coming.

Enough, already, I thought. Maybe I should take a few minutes on a happy mini-vacation to be a normal person who doesn’t brood over the world going to hell, so I decided to be peppy for a minute. “Let’s take a selfie,” I said, so we crowded together and let the sun shine our faces and the mist wet our backs and we took a photo of us smiling.

Then we headed back up the trail.

We could hear a family with little kids on their way down. It was a narrow path, so we stopped walking to let them pass, but they seemed to have stopped as well.

As I walked toward them, I saw that there was a dad and two kids, maybe a three year old and a four year old.

“Hi there,” I said. “It’s a great day for a walk.”

The dad nodded.

“It’s gorgeous below,” I added. “Definitely worth the hike.”

“YEAH YOU BETCHA,” said the three year old. “CAUSE LOOK WHAT WE FOUND! WE FOUND IT! WE ALMOST MISSED IT BUT WE FOUND IT!!!”

I looked.

I didn’t see anything but a big rock by his little black shoes. And dirt. And some falling apart leaves.

“DO YOU SEE IT?”

“ISN’T IT COOL?”

“I’m afraid I don’t. Can you show it to me?”

“IT’S RIGHT THERE! SEE? A LITTLE CATERPILLAR! WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED IT BUT WE DIDN’T BECAUSE I’VE GOT SHARP EYES AND I SAW IT! AND IT MIGHT TURN INTO A BUTTERFLY BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT CATERPILLARS DO. I’VE GOT A BOOK ABOUT IT SO I KNOW.”

I looked and there I saw it, in the miniature world beside a stepping stone, on a small trail in the Blue Ridge Parkway, there was a tiny creature that this little boy noticed. I’m not sure it was even a caterpillar- it could have been some kind of millipede- but he saw it. He saw it and was thrilled that it existed. He  hoped it might turn into the beautiful butterfly that maybe it was meant to be.

Or maybe it’ll stay a beautiful millipede that maybe it was meant to be. Either is good.

Today I’m thankful for that little boy in the black tennis shoes. He showed me that when the vastness of the world’s hurt starts turning rushing waterfalls into tears, I’ll do what little things I can to make a change, to stand up for what I believe in. But after that, I’m going to look right under my own feet for the world of goodness God has to show me. And if I can’t find it, I’ll go hang out with kids. They always know where to look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Parable of the Leaven

Welcome to our lesson for July 15, the Parable of the Leaven, found in Matthew 13:33 and Luke 13:20-21.

 It will be interesting to see what the children make of this parable. As Godly Play often encourages us, it’s good to remember that the children may find meanings that we haven’t even thought of- meanings we can learn from- so it’s important not to steer them too much towards our own understanding.

It’s also good to share how much three measures of flour is. I’ve read that it’s enough to make a dozen loaves of bread- enough bread to feed 100 people!

Be sure to use the wondering questions to help them tease out their own thoughts from their heads.  I’d love to be able to share them with the parents in the newsletter, without names attached, of course.

Idea Sparkers for the Make a Gift to God time

1. It might be fun to depict the parable by drawing out exactly how much bread this tiny bit of leaven can make rise. The children could make a mural showing the title of the parable, a drawing of a small amount of yeast, the dozen loaves of bread, and the baker woman. They could write out the short parable at the bottom, and we could put it on one of our big bulletin boards. Drawing out the dozen loaves would bring home how much bread the parable is talking about.

2. Eat bread!

You could also compare unleavened bread with leavened bread by sampling each.

3. The older children could work on the question of how do you show your leavening–or what kind of leaven are you? How do we participate in the kingdom of God? What things do we do to “make the bread of the kingdom rise?” To further the God’s kingdom- to make the world like God wants it to be? This could be done in drawings, with a collage, a poster that the class works on together or separately.

4. Experiment with yeast, testing what happens to warm sugar water with yeast in it. We may have yeast packets in the resource room.

Thanks, y’all!

Enjoy

The Parable of the Sower

Welcome to our lesson for July 8, the Parable of the Sower, from Matthew 13.

Jesus told this parable to answer the question, “What is the kingdom of heaven (God’s kingdom) like?” The wondering questions this week are really important, because they can help the children understand the meaning of the parable. I hope you’ll let the children struggle with each of so many questions. Sometimes it’s very tempting to give them your answer, but a little mind struggling will allow them to find an answer that they can own-instead of one they don’t really get, but feel you want them to believe. Even if they go down a wayward road, (we can always ask more questions to try to help them find their way) we will have “planted the seed” (how appropriate!) which they may discover later.

As you ask the wondering questions, if children have trouble, try to help them put themselves in the place of the sower. (Particularly helpful for questions 3,6,7,8,13,14)

So the important wondering questions we’ll use this week are:

1. I wonder if the person had a name.

2. I wonder who the person could really be?

3. I wonder if the person was happy when the birds came and ate the seeds.

4. I wonder if the birds were happy then they saw the sower.

5. I wonder who the birds really are.

6. I wonder what the person was doing when the little seeds could not get their roots in among the stones.

7. I wonder what the person was doing when the little seeds were choked by the thorns.

8. I wonder what the person was doing when the little seeds were growing in the good earth.

9. I wonder what the harvest could really be?

10. I wonder what the sower used for seed?

11. I wonder what the sower sold?

12. I wonder what the sower kept for food?

13. I wonder if the sower was surprised at the harvest?

14. I wonder what part surprised the sower most?

Idea Sparkers for our Create a Gift for God time:

This is the perfect time to actually sow some seeds. You could use Styrofoam cups or small terra cotta pots which the kids could decorate, then fill with soil in which to plant a seed. You could also have them write a verse on a Popsicle stick to put in the soil near the seeds they sow. They could choose a verse from the Bible story (a good way to have them look up the story themselves) or use Psalm 119:16b  “I Shall not forget your Word.”

Children could also reproduce the parts of the parable box-the sower, the birds, the pots, the rocky ground, the thorns, the plants. Or, children could illustrate the parable with watercolors or markers or colored pencils.

For more art response ideas, check out my Pinterest page, here.

Enjoy!

How I Wanted to Bop Someone Over the Head at Missions Week and What the Children and Their Minions Taught Me

See these sweet faces? Last Thursday morning while I was supposed to be helping these smart and funny and loving first and second graders be Jesus’ hands and feet in the world, I seriously wanted to bop a couple adults over the head. Or at least give them a good talking to.

Didn’t they know that we had brought our kids to the CDS, (the Center for Developmental Services,) as part of Missions Week? MISSIONS WEEK- you know, where WE DO MISSIONS- where we take the children to a different organization every day to see how the people there serve God and their community in the work they do- and where we do the work alongside them, if we can. Or at least take a walk around and see the place, not sit in a conference room and color a picture AS IF OUR CHILDREN WERE TWO OR THREE YEARS OLD!  I half expected our kids to mutiny when the two ladies started smiling big and passed the crayons out. I expected a couple of our girls to put their hands on their hips and say, “UH EXCUSE ME BUT WE ARE SEVEN OR EIGHT YEARS OLD- NOT TWO OR THREE- AND WE ARE HERE TO DO GOD’S WORK, NOT COLOR!” But no. Some of the coloring sheets had minions on them, which seemed to  thrill every seven or eight year old’s soul except the souls of the children who were given dopey pictures of foxes wearing clothes. I quickly confiscated those and traded them for more minions before any uprising uprose.

Where was Miss Joy? We come here every other year and Miss Joy always leads us on a tour. Miss Joy knows what our kids can do and what we come there for. Miss Joy would make our visit worthwhile. WHERE ARE YOU MISS JOY?

It’s okay, I told myself. Get a hold of yourself. The nice lady told the kids that the CDS helps children with special needs from all over the upstate, that here in this one building, families can get access to developmental screenings, diagnosis, therapy (occupational, physical, speech), audiology, psychology, prosthetics, orthotics, education, bilingual services, outreach, legal aid, care planning, and family support. And she explained all this in child-speak. And I think they heard it and understood.

So she asked them to color pictures to hang on the walls for the little kids to enjoy- well, that was sort of a missions activity, I guess. And she did ask the kids to write something encouraging to the children. So that’s good, I suppose, even though THE LITTLE KIDS THEY’RE HANGING THE PICTURES FOR CAN’T READ. So what’s that about?

I will let them finish the coloring, I said to myself. And then I will go over and nicely ask that they give us a tour LIKE THEY ALWAYS HAVE DONE SINCE 2012 so that this visit can be meaningful to our group and they can really understand what all this talking has been about. 

I waited a few minutes. And then I headed over to talk to the lady to nicely and politely request the tour I had expected.

But then a child stopped me.

She wanted to show me her minion picture. “What a great job you’ve done coloring!” I said, trying to be as positive as seemed reasonable. But as the words left my mouth, I read the encouraging note she had written to the CDS children at the top of her paper, over the minion’s head.

Oh my heart.

Keep trying.

Never give up.

God will always be cheering you on.

Oh Good Lord. God will always be cheering you on.

How beautiful!

Keep trying. Never give up. God will always be cheering you on.

How we all need to hear this!

How these children need to hear this.

Lucy imagined those children learning to walk, putting one step in front of the other, falling, and getting back up again, and wrote them this message: Keep trying. Never give up. God will always be cheering you on. She heard about the children who are non-verbal, who are learning to move their arms, their legs, children with Down’s syndrome or cerebral palsy or kids with problems hearing or speaking or feeding themselves, and the message was for them, too. Keep trying. Never give up. God will always be cheering you on.

And it wasn’t just Lucy.

As I walked around the tables, I read so many messages that reached right down and grabbed me by the throat and made me so thankful that I get to witness the care and love of children by children! Messages like: Be strong. Be kind. Try your best! You can do it!

What a great missions project!

So I hung my head and asked God to forgive me for thinking I know everything and for being a dolt. It was a perfectly good idea- a great one, even. And it had minions! Which kids love!

And then I asked the ladies humbly and nicely if we could please take a tour. I nodded that yes, there are classes going on but we don’t need to go in and disrupt them. We can just peer in the windows like we usually do with Miss Joy, (who should be told about the coloring and what a great idea it is) and that will be enough and will help our children more deeply understand what goes on at the CDS. And the nice ladies said yes!

So a good time was had by all. Minions were colored, adults were inspired (I know I was,) a tour was made, and our children got to see God in action, through the loving hands and feet of the people of CDS.

I love my job.

Next time I want to bop people over the head, I’ll check with the kids first.

PS. I’m sorry, ladies at the CDS. You are wise. I bow to you. And in my thank you note to Joy, I will share your wisdom and my folly!

PS #2 You should see the video that the kids got to watch. It’s all about the CDS and shows off what an impressive organization it is. Check it out! It’s here!

 

 

 

 

The Parable of the Great Pearl

Welcome to our lesson for July 1, the Parable of the Great Pearl.

In a world like ours which places such importance on having things, this story gives us a chance to explore the greatest treasure one can possess: God’s kingdom and a relationship with God. What does it mean to sell all that we have to obtain this treasure? I bet the kids can help us figure this out.

The wondering questions are in the book. They include:

1. I wonder if the person was happy with the great pearl.

2. I wonder what the merchant is going to do now.

3. I wonder why the seller was willing to give up something so precious.

4. I wonder if the seller has a name.

5. I wonder if the merchant has a name.

6. I wonder what the great pearl could really be?

7. I wonder what could be so precious that a person would exchange everything for it?

8. I wonder if you have ever come close to the great pearl.

9. I wonder where this whole place could really be.

Thank you for having an adult take time to jot down the children’s responses to these questions.

Idea Sparkers for Our Give a Gift to God Time:

1. Make a “pearl” necklace. Hobby shops (Michaels, Hobby Lobby) has fake pearls that you can string. Each student could make themselves a necklace using one pearl and yarn, along with whatever other work they choose to do today.

2. What does the kingdom of God look like? What makes it such a priceless treasure?

Children could draw a mural together or individual pictures. What could they show people doing in the kingdom of God? Is nature in the kingdom of God? How are people treating nature and each other?

3. Children could make their own parable set, so they can retell this parable.

4. Make/buy a “pearl” snack to share. Maybe vanilla wafers to make the oyster shell and then frosting in between with a pearl of a dot of white frosting or a white jelly bean?

See more ideas on my Pinterest page, here.

Thanks, y’all!

Becky

What’s It Like to Be a Child Refugee and Terrified? Charity Knows.

Charity (not her real name) was six when they burned down her village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and murdered the two mothers in her family in the year 2000.  “They destroyed everything, all the animals, all the people, with a spear or a machete. You have to run on your own,” she told me. “You cannot wait to gather the family. It’s not like that. You run as fast as you can and you hope they don’t get you or your brothers, your sisters. You pray you can find them again. They killed as we ran.”

I met Charity at her family’s apartment about an hour’s drive from my house, so that I could hear her story and share it– well, at least parts of it– as part of a missions educations unit designed for children focusing on ways churches can make a difference in the lives of refugees. As I sat with her family at their kitchen table, she shared her story with me.

“You hide in a bush or whatever you find until they are gone. We hid there between one and two months. I do not know exactly. Who keeps time when life is like that? We learned to pick up dirt in fabric, in your shirt. You pick it up and you twist it and squeeze it and water comes out and you drink that water. You do what you do to survive.”

We talked about the year she and her father and siblings stayed in hiding near the border with Uganda, and the eleven years they lived in Ugandan refugee camps. “It was hard, but we could survive. We could live because we were together. They gave us sheets of plastic and we make a house.In Africa we have ten people to share a room this size, the size of our living room. We’d leave all our utensils and things outside so that the people could fit inside. We all sleep in it together.

As we talked, I couldn’t help but think of the children in the news of late, ripped from their parents as they came across our borders escaping gang violence or abuse. What parent wouldn’t run with their children to escape the burning, the killing or raping? What parents wouldn’t hide, wouldn’t try whatever they could to find a safe place for their children? How could this administration make it illegal to seek asylum, here in America, where Lady Liberty says, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me”?

What have we become?

To separate families in this way is to torture children. Are we people who torture children?

It seems that now we are.

It was hard, but we could survive. We could live because we were together.

Near the end of my interview with Charity, she told me about her trip to the States.

“We leave with many refugees, and everyone is scared and quiet. They take us, me, my father and brother Andrew to get on the plane to Chicago. We look at each other and we are terrified. Where are the others? Where is my sister? Where is her son? Where is my other brother? Andrew starts to cry. My father says to me, “What are we going to do?” My father wants me to explain this to him? I say, “Don’t ask me.” I start crying. We arrive in Chicago and they take us to a hotel to our room. I’ve never been in a hotel. I’ve never been in an elevator. I’ve never slept in a room without it being full of my family. They take us to two rooms, one for my father and Andrew and one for me. The whole room, just for me. It is pain I feel there, all alone. I don’t sleep so I just sat on the bed all night, afraid. I’m all alone and my heart is full of worry. My father is sick with worry. I cry and I fear. What if they sell me? What if I never see my family again? I wonder if now we are going to die, so far from what we know.”

Thankfully, Charity and her family reunited and are making a new home here in South Carolina. Her family is still acclimating, learning English and working hard. “God is still with us,” Charity says. “And we have found people who want to help us, people who make us feel comfortable. That everything is going to be okay. And we are together,” she smiles. “Together, we can do it.”

Photo by United Nations Photo on Flickr, thanks to Creative Commons.

 

 

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Welcome to our lesson for June 24, the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

What a wonderful story about what it means to be a neighbor and our responsibilities as followers of The Way to help those around us. If you’re at FBC Greenville, you might want to include time in your morning to go visit the Good Samaritan statue near the remembrance garden.

Here are some wondering questions. Thank you for writing down their responses.

Wondering Questions:

1. I wonder who is the neighbor to the person who was hurt, had everything taken from him, and was left by the side of the road half dead?

2. I wonder what would happen if the person finding the injured traveler were a child?

3. I wonder what it means to be a neighbor.

4. I wonder if you’ve ever had anyone be a neighbor to you like this Samaritan was to the hurt man.

5. I wonder if you’ve ever been the one who was the Good Samaritan?

 Idea Sparkers for our Gift to God Time

Here are some ideas for the parable itself:

1. Make get well cards as a way to help others, like the Good Samaritan in the story

2. Act out the story.

3. Make a collage or drawing on who is our neighbor.

4. Make a collage or drawing on How I Can Be a Good Samaritan.

5. You could also go with the What Would Jesus Do theme. Make a bracelet with WWJD, or a mural of the story, or act out scenes of different conflicts and ask the question, “What would Jesus do?”

6. If you’ve visited the Good Samaritan statue, why not ask the children if they’d like to try to make their own with play dough or quick dry clay?

See more art response ideas at my Pinterest Page, here.

Thanks for all you do!