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Illustrating the Bible

Friday, 20 February, 2004

I'm sure you've all seen The Brick Testament by now. I'd heard of it but never really looked at it 'til this afternoon. Most of the latest additions seem to be from Deuteronomy, including this one on “What Not to Eat” which cracked me up. I admire all the work and dedication that went into constructing all that; I don't know what it is about Lego but it just looks fun I remember Ben used to have a Lego house on his bookshelf and, when he was bored or procrastinating, he used to rebuild it. I had a go a few times myself when I happened to be over at his place and came up with some pretty weird creations. I think my mother liked Lego because it had so much potential and one could be creative with it. She always hated colouring-in books because there was little potential for creativity. All these thoughts are somehow related to my thinking about Sunday school. This year I'm leading the lessons a lot more (every other week) and part of that lesson includes telling a story from the Bible (we've been doing Samson and the next section is on Ruth; prudently, the book that we're using skips over the chapter about the Levite and his concubine). It's hard telling stories to kids when you're just reading things out loud (though apparently in the boys' group they all shut up when the leader is reading from the Bible). I've been trying to make it more interesting for them by illustrating the stories on landscape sheets of A5 paper. Last week when I was doing Judges 16 (the prostitute at Gaza [except I didn't call her a prostitute because my girls don't know what prostitutes are and I'm not about to educate them on that subject], Samson and Delilah and the feast of Dagon). I drew about 45 panels just to tell that whole story! It was exhausting work but worth the effort because they were hanging on my every word, even though the story went for a good 20 minutes. The way our lessons usually work is that we have a common time with the boys (in which we play a game, learn a memory verse/sing a song, and learn and pray about another country [currently Slovenia]) and then break up into girls' and boys' groups. In the girls' group we have the story and then some sort of activity for them to do. Last week I tried to get them to do a drama (didn't work heaps well and I didn't give them enough time). Usually they get worksheets. With the books we're using, a fair amount of time involves colouring in which, like my mother, I regard as boring and mindless with little creative potential. I want to get away from that somehow (even though it is the easy option) but I realise that not every girl in my class is artistically creative (which means that asking them to draw things isn't a good option) or good with her hands (which means that doing craft [which I'm not good at anyway] is not always great). But perhaps I can introduce more craft-type stuff somehow. Recently I stumbled upon this site which is about making things out of paper plates without using scissors. They looked really cool and beautiful but may not be very relevant to the lesson since the craft/worksheet/colouring in activity is really used to reinforce the lesson for the day. I fear I'm rambling again. Apologies.
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paper plates might be a bit hard. Kids love to paint soa group picture to paint is good. Or cooking craft smile Today we made soaps and that went down great. smile There’s alos clay, so they can mold stuff uhhh cna’t hink o ff antyhigne lse atm. brain dead.

Posted by Fuzzi on 20 February, 2004 10:15 PM

45 picutes. is heaps. how long did that take u

Posted by Fuzzi on 20 February, 2004 10:15 PM

Can I steal your link to the Brick Testament please?

Yes of course, Deb.

45 pictures ... took me a whole evening, from memory. I got really good at drawing people.

Lego is fun. We did Jesus’ life in Lego for Christmas Carols 2002 (now on DVD!). The Brick Testament wins, especially the one where Judas falls over and splits open.

Yeah, I have problems thinking of illustrations for kids, too…especially OT. Sounds like you’ve thought about it more than I usually do, though…!

Wow, 45 pictures.  It is great to read about your enthusiasm for making the gospel interesting and fun for your young group.  I never grew up in a church so the whole concept of ‘Childrens Church’ or ‘Sunday School’ is unfamiliar to me.  Something that I am looking forward to for my children (when I am blessed with them).  Today was my first visit to your site & I really enjoyed your posts, I’ll be back again for sure…God Bless.



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