DIY Scroll

I wonder if Andrew Clements ever dreamed that there would be so many new words in the English language when he wrote the children's book, Frindle published in 1996. It was a book about how a new word gets acknowledged as a new word. Today we have words and terms that my computer's dictionary doesn't even recognize. Terms like DIY and words like repurpose. I looked it up, and repurpose really is a word. According to the online etymolgy dictionary, it became a word in 1983, long before google became a word.

 

But I digress. This is about repurposing that packing paper that comes in all the online stuff we order today. (I wonder when online became a word.) I left file drawers full of this paper at our old church. The first time I unwrapped something wrapped in yards of it, I thought, "This can surely be useful for something." I smoothed out the 10 foot length of it and rolled it up. Sure enough, I found uses for it. 

 

It works great for making a scroll because it is already wrinkled when you get it. All I had to do was cut it in half to make my scroll the height I wanted. You could add dowels at each end, but I didn't bother for this lesson. We just rolled it up from each end, and viola!...a scroll. 

 

I let the children write the Bible verse on the scroll for this particular lesson. It was when Jesus unrolled the scroll and read from Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth. Letting them write it themselves, copying it from a Bible, helped them to connect with the story. When we acted it out and "Jesus" read from the scroll, they knew what he was reading had come from the book of Isaiah because they had copied it themselves.

You can check out the whole lesson on rejection at Nazareth here.

 

I have also used this packing paper to make a cave. Full instructions for that are here.

I could have even made this tree from that packing paper, but I repurposed this black paper from a road we made for a VBS. You can search this blog with the word repupose to see what else we have repurposed. And by the way, in the book Frindle, frindle becomes a word for pen.

By the way, if you are still reading this, instead of getting a new church building, we repurposed these walls for about $500. So instead of a tree today, you will find these themed walls in our kidmin place. Here's what it looks like now:

You can read about our remodel project in several posts I wrote. Click here for one of them.

Letting God Open the Well - Isaac

Genesis 26 is about stopping and unstopping wells among other things. This is a fairly simple story with some good applications. I include a drama and flash cards at the end. In the post, "Tube People for Acting Out Bible Stories," there are instructions for making the wells for the drama and also some other visuals you can make with your children. I show you how to tell the story using "tube people" in the post, "Tube People Starring in Isaac & the King." You can teach this lesson yourself at home using the flash cards I prepared and linked at the end of this post.

Wells supplied water, an essential resource to life.

In Genesis 26, Isaac confronts stopped up and stolen wells with patience and gentleness. Wells were the source of water, an essential resource to life. Stopping up a well usually meant war. According to the notes on Genesis 26:17,18 in the Life Application Bible, filling in someone's well with dirt was one of the most serious crimes in the land. Isaac had every right to fight back when the Philistines stopped up his wells (vs. 15). But he chose not to.

Stopped up wells.

First the Philistines stopped up all of Isaac's wells that his father had dug, because they were jealous that God was blessing Isaac. He moves (actually he is "kicked out" of where he is by King Abimelech) to the Gerar Valley and his servants dig and discover a well of fresh water. The Philistines from Gerar come and claim the spring for their own after Isaac's servants did all the work.

Isaac, his sheep and shepherds move to the Gerar Valley

No problem, Isaac's men just dig another well, but again the other shepherds come and dispute over it. Isaac abandons that well too and his servants dig a third time. They strike water again, and this time there is no dispute. Isaac breaths a sigh of relief and names the place Rehoboth which means "room." The idea was that God had made room for him in the land.

Digging new wells.

Things get even better though. God appears again to Isaac reaffirming his promise to bless him and increase his offspring. Finally, the King himself seeks out Isaac, and wonder of wonders, he apologizes to him and makes a covenant with him that they will not harm each other.

Lessons to be learned from this story?

1. When Isaac encountered trouble, he did not "run" and go to Egypt where he could have lived because God commanded him not to (vs. 2). He stayed in the land and trusted God.
2. Isaac did not demand his rights to the wells. He simply moved on and found more water. He was leaving matters in God's hands. God had told him to live in that land and he would give it to his descendants.
3. Isaac was gentle rather than demanding. He simply moved on and dug another well.
4. Isaac was patient. He had to dig wells three times until the disputes stopped.
5. Isaac persevered. He did not give up, but kept digging new wells.

We need to:

1. Obey God (do as he instructs us)
2. Obey God even when it is difficult
3. Trust God instead of demanding things. Be gentle, not demanding. Proverbs says that a "soft answer" turns away, or diffuses someone's anger.
4. Don't give up. Isaac kept digging wells until God made room for him in the land. Galatians 6:9 teaches this principle, "Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we don't give up." Likewise, 1 Corinthians 15:58 encapsulates this principle.

You can download flashcards for telling this story here ane here.

The DRAMA can be downloaded here.

If you want to print the signs for the wells, you can access them here.

How to Showcase Your Children's Ministry

Sunday School 2016 by Julia from Joan Eppehimer on Vimeo.

We made this video last year to show in church as a way to keep the children's ministry before the congregation. As many of you know, you never know how many children you will have on any given Sunday. This was a great way to let people see the whole picture.