Summer: Ruth

I told the story of Ruth this past Sunday, and I am absolutely pleased with how it was received.

Almost everyone ended up doing artwork related to the text or made something to give to someone else, as we wondered about showing kindness to family and strangers. I love observing this spontaneous response.

I had no source for this story originally, and I didn't want to purchase a script blindly. I did find a very nicely told story of Ruth in this video by Alvan Kaunfer, a Jewish storyteller using the same method, and I made a transcript of his presentation verbatim (minus the Hebrew, of course). I thought it was that good. 

You can easily see the pieces necessary to tell the story. Instead of skittle people, we combined figure patterns from all of the books I own. They turned out beautifully. 

We had a bit of trouble finding something to use for "barley"  that would hold up to repeated handling by curious hands, but eventually we got some rubber-plastic wheat filler at Michael's. The bits I cut off are very small in comparison to what I bought but I plan to use other parts of it for a couple of the parables. Real grain would have been fun, but this is also less messy; always a plus.

The wondering questions were something I had to give some thought to. Our time of wondering wasn't as free flowing as it was last week with Moses, but everyone had interesting insights. It did take some time for a few of the children to think about how they had been kind or how God had been kind to them, but it was worth the wait.

The script with all the wondering questions is below. Our scripture reading was Ruth 2:8-12.

script: The Story of Ruth

This is such a beautiful story. I hope you enjoy telling it and watching the response unfold.

Summer Plans

So...over the last year we basically just covered all the stories we have done from YCW the first time I worked through it. This is somewhat like reading through the Bible again after you finish. There is always something new to learn.

Some of the re-tellings were well-received, some less so. But hey, I figure that's what it's like with the Bible in real life. We read not to get our ears tickled, but because "man lives... by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). 

This summer, I was looking to spend our weeks covering some of the famous narratives that aren't in the curriculum. Godly Play does have these narratives, but I feel that they are less appropriately presented for my group, and with some, like Daniel, I'd like to spend more time "playing" with them.

We are planning to tell the following Old Testament stories over the course of the summer:

• Joseph
• Baby Moses
• Moses and the Burning Bush
• Ruth
• Esther
• Three Brave Friends (a.k.a. Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego)
• Daniel in the Lion's Den
• Jonah

I hope to be putting up what I have for these as the summer progresses. My heart is full of excitement and anticipation of what God is going to do with the little hearts in my care through His Word about these amazing people of God from Old Testament times.