Interesting

I was telling the Godly Play Holy family today at Kids Club we got to the time of wondering

Me: I wonder which of these you could remove and the story still work.
Kid 1: grown up Jesus..
Kid 2: if you remove grown up Jesus then take away baby Jesus too. There would be no need for Him. You need both.




Love the way these young lives question and think...

Godly Play

I've spent today playing... Theres different sides to leading Godly Play. One of the things that I really like is finding and building the stories.

I've always liked arts and crafts so this really leaps out for me.  Theres always a story behind a picture a painting a statue or carving. Each person who comes to look at it contemplate it adds to the story.

That is very true in Godly play each story we ask I wonder, theres no right no wrong as we enter into the story and journey together.  And I mean together in a real tangible way.

The stories are used in two ways, occasionally as part of the sunday morning, and mainly in our monthly Kids Club we all come together leaders and clubbers. As we ask I wonder there is a look that comes over the whole group, as they play through the story in there imagination...

Today's story makes 6 we now have..

Advent

Good Shepherd

Good Samaritan

Mustard Seed

Holy Family

Mystery of Pentecost

And the parable of the sower in a work in progress.

The latest Box ready 

Mystery of Pentecost

Advent 4

So we're almost at the end of the  journey to Bethlehem and so the ADVENTure is almost over but is it theres much more to the story more of the journey to take..  I'll be sad to leave the advent story behind I've enjoyed leading it and enjoyed seeing the different children engage with the different characters. Comments from other leaders about the wondering we did on the very first story of the Holy Family way back in October. Who went home and discussed it with there significant others.

But today we had the wise men bringing there gifts.. Each week there has been that little phrase that makes me smile todays was this 


"The wise men are always late, every year they're late, usually not arriving until January 6th. But we remember them anyway, because like us, they too on our their way to Bethlehem."  :).. 

Advent 3

Our favourite part of the Advent story is the changing of the flame. We don't put out the flame we change it.. I love that.. the words are  

Look. Do you see how the flame is in just one place now? It is right here. When I change the light, it will no longer be in just one place. You can’t see it after it spreads out all over the room, but it is there.

These words remind me of the opening verses of Johns gospel.. words that will be read at 9 lessons and carols around the world over these next few days.
      the Word present to God,
      God present to the Word.
   The Word was God,
      in readiness for God from day one. Everything was created through him;
      nothing—not one thing!—
      came into being without him.
   What came into existence was Life,
      and the Life was Light to live by.
   The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; 
      the darkness couldn't put it out. 
The simpleness of that phrase, unpacks something much deeper and ties together the mystery of Christmas and Easter... 

One of the boys changing the light

At the end of our session we don't pack everything away but instead put it on the bench we use for our focal shelf. Why well this is so that there is opportunity for sharing with the wider body of the church.

Advent 2

The table was put away this week at the back of church the bench remained to become our focal shelf and out came the carpet. its not very big but was big enough for the four of us and the the story.. This was a new way of doing junior church for us. And though we cant do a full Godly play session in the time we have we can tell the story have a quiet wonder time and short very short time for reflection ( they normally want to draw ) before joining back with there adults as we break bread.

What was great this week was the retelling of the story of advent one that one of the children had heard twice now and as I put the tile out recounted what it was about..  So the journey continued from the prophets to Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem.

I think the best bit for all of us was changing the light more on that another time though...

A King Is comming

Maggi Dawn writes 

The first Sunday of Advent is the beginning of the Church year, the liturgical journey that explores not only the story but the meaning of salvation. Creation as the start of everything is a theme that is often highlighted at this time.

It is also the beginning of our preparations for Christmas—and, as Christmas celebrations are creeping further and further back into December, Advent is focused more on Christmas than it ever used to be. The preparation for Christmas, and the stories of the nativity, are a key part of the later weeks of Advent.  (Beginnings and Endings (and What Happens in Between): Daily Bible Readings from         Advent to Epiphany P11)

Today in churches around the world the first candle was lit, a candle of hope of promise a candle for the prophets who proclaimed the wonderful message Of what God was going to do. During our Family Eucharist today our first candle was lit.. And we reflected on Advent   and used the Godly Play material for Advent. Which we used last week for the story time at our monthly Kids club...


The opening words to today I love almost as much as the words from the Holy Family "wonderful in a Easter kinda way.

 A King is coming, but he is not the kind of king that people thought was coming. This King had no army, no great house, and no riches. This King was a baby who was born in a barn.

The King who was coming is still coming. This is full of mystery. You know, a mystery is hard to enter sometimes. That is why this time of Advent is so important. Sometimes people can walk right through a mystery and not even know it is there. This time of year you will see people hurrying in the malls buying things and doing this and that, but they will miss the Mystery. They don’t know how to get ready or maybe they just forgot.

Things were slightly bigger than I'm used too... we had the first tile on the big screen throughout most of the service... which was great to do but I do like sitting in a little circle on the carpet to tell the story.


As part of the service FrM shared this video 

It is so easy to miss the what advent is all about..This time of year you will see people hurrying in the malls buying things and doing this and that, but they will miss the Mystery. They don’t know how to get ready or maybe they just forgot. it's not just those who are rushing about in shops that my miss the mystery.  I wonder when was the last time you stopped and reflected on what Christmas is about. Maybe this advent take up the challenge for just five (5) mins a day to think about what is this mystery to me...


there are plenty for resources for advent like the one mentioned above (link)


shared briefly about letting the kids touching interacting with the materials and take on the story for themselves to often the nativity set is to be looked at but not touched..... 

when we were clearing up last week turning round to see the kids playing with the Holy family and the module of Bethlehem..


During advent each sunday morning the rest of the ADVENTure will unfold...  

easter Kind of way

Last sunday was ASK! our monthly kids club and Introduced the children and leaders to the Holy Family. It was great to see everyone get involved and begin to wonder in wonder time.  as we were getting ready to get out the parachute for the last 5 mins I turned round to see this. one of the leaders listening as one of the youngest children retold the story in her words and the older ones joined in....

Time to play

My friends over see-through- faith and storyteller have been doing Godly play for a while. It was through them that I heard about it and went on a course in June to be a godly play teacher. Yesterday I got to 'play' it's the first time for a long time I have had my paints and craft things out. there was a reason behind this I made my first set of Godly play materials 

Set of advent plaques....just missing the Holy family characters. Normally I'm complaining about christmas being in the shops so early but to think about the plaques as they were being prepaied was to let my mind wonder each piece had to be done slowly and with care sometimes we can lose that and rush through the time of advent and christmas and miss just how much care and wonder that actually went into that first christmas.. 

if your not sure what Godly play is about you can read about  what storyteller has to say about it here 

I got to play in a different way for a few minutes last night as well. It was a first time I've ever got to have a small go at bell ringing  and was a real eye opener   I've only ever heard the wonderful results.  To see just how much work really goes into it, mentally and physically.