Mustaches and Salmon: Getting to know the Disciples

Today was probably the most popular Sunday School session in recent memory- partial credit goes to Lucy, for being my planning helper.

Our memory verse activity was light related, of course- we split up into two teams and took turns tagging each other with a flashlight beam, saying "______, you are light for the world. Let your light shine." Then that person would tag the next person, etc. Sort of a humbling way to find out that some of these children still do not know my name. :)

Many of the disciples depicted on the story card were pretty mustache-heavy; luckily I brought a selection of fuzzy black stick-on mustaches for everyone to wear.

Both in the New Testament and today, Jesus needed followers to walk the path with him and to help with the work. So we sang "We are walking in the light of God", updated our timeline and checked out our map, and then settled down to the Bible story about the gathering of the twelve disciples. Each child had a couple "disciple" cards, and raised them high when their guy's name got mentioned. Many of the disciples depicted on the story card were pretty mustache-heavy; luckily I brought a selection of fuzzy black stick-on mustaches for everyone to wear. We had to make two separate trips to the bathrooms to look at ourselves in the mirror. :) Then the children made disciple cards with their own names on them, and we taped all the disciple names, both new and old, to a big sheet with a picture of a path on it. Following the path of Jesus, you see.

Snack was an unexpected hit- I brought Ritz crackers and canned pink salmon, 'cause lots of the original disciples were fishermen. I was expecting some push back, but that salmon was GONE. Like, instantly. Sophisticated Portland children. :)

The grand finale was one of the improv games from Lucy's acting class called "What are you doing?" This is a game where someone comes along and asks you what you're doing- you tell them you're doing something completely different than you actually are (say, "riding an ostrich" when you're actually miming death-by-quicksand) and then the someone mimes riding an ostrich til someone asks THEM, etc. You have to really think about what you're doing, and then stop doing it to do something else.

Kind of like becoming a disciple.

This week- Play "What are you doing?" with your child. Do it. Trust me.

Next week- When we do good works, we give glory to God and provide "salt" to the world. Painting with salt! Eating snacks with salt!