Spring Godly Play Club 2015

So viele Kinder hatten Lust bei der OsterAG zu sein, dass wir eine Warteliste machen mussten - ein tolles Problem zu haben!  Daraus ist die FrühlingsAG entstanden.  So many children signed up for the Easter Club this year that we had to make a waiting list. What an awesome problem to have! As a result, we decided to offer a Spring Godly Play Club, which kicked off this week. 

Unsere erste Geschichte ging um das Gleichnis vom Senfsamen in dem Lukasevangelium. Our first story was the Parable of the Mustard Seed found in the Gospel of Luke.

Die Gleichnisse regen unsere Kreativität an und geben neue Perspektiven. Es macht mir viel Spass die Gleichnisse mit Kindern zu erzählen, weil Kinder so frische Einblicke darauf haben. Parables help our creativity to flow and God can use them to help us question our everyday situations and gain new perspective. I love telling the parables to children, because they have such fresh thoughts and insight into the metaphorical meanings.

Diese Gruppe von Kindern war besonders verbal, sodass unser Ergründungsgespräch nachher ziemlich spannend war. This was a very verbal group of children, so our Wondering conversation after the story was quite lively.

Nach der Geschichte und Ergründungsgespräch kommt die Kreativphase, die von der Montessori-Pädagogik inspiriert ist. Die Kinder dürfen Aktivitäten aussuchen, die ihnen helfen die Geschichte weiter zu entdecken. Sie dürfen sich auch zwischen den Angeboten frei bewegen. After the story comes a free Response Time inspired by the Montessori Method. During this time, the children can choose activities to help them explore the story further or perhaps explore some other topic on their hearts and minds.

Diese Kinder malen mit Öl- und Pastelkreiden. 

This group of children worked with oil and chalk pastels.

Andere Kinder gestalteten Vögel und Nester aus Ton. Nächste Woche werden wir die Vögel anmalen. Another group chose to make birds and bird nests out of clay. We'll paint the birds next week after the clay has dried.

Ein weiteres Angebot ging um "Nähcollagen" aus Filz und Jutestoff. At another station, the children could sew collages out of burlap and felt.

Auch konnten die Kinder eine eigene Geschichte ausdenken. And finally, the children could also make up their own story to tell.

Letztens feierten wir ein kleines Fest mit "Blondies" (Brownies mit hellem Teig), Paprika, und ein Gebet der Dankbarkeit für die schöne Zeit zusammen! Our time ended with a prayer of thankfulness and our "feast".  This week we had "blondies" and red pepper. 

Bis nächste Woche! 

See you next week!

Some further wondering . . .

One of the things you learn and experience through Godly Play is that children are not a "problem" in your church to be solved, but rather co-learners and even co-teachers. Before I started doing Godly Play, I was always worried about getting burn-out as a children's worker. But in Godly Play, the adult "teacher" is really a facilitator and co-learner with the children. The Holy Spirit has plenty of room to be the teacher and this is achieved, because everyone in the room learns from and teaches one other, even the children who don't utter a verbal word.

In my last post, I wrote about sharing the Parable of the Mustard Seed in our church service in the forest. I wanted to go into more detail about what I learned through wondering with the kids and preparing the lesson. The question, "I wonder what did the person did while the tree was growing?" stayed with me before and after the story. With the kids, we talked about how the person probably took care of the tree, but then went about his/her other daily activities. What I realized afterwards was that no mentioned that the person might be nervous or worried over whether the tree would grow or not. No one said that the sower was angry at the tree for not growing fast enough. The sower was faithful to do his/her part and the tree just grew.


I, on the other hand, often get nervous, worried or angry if the things that God has planted in my life don't grow fast enough or don't appear to be growing at all. I waste emotional energy instead of letting the ways of God take their course. Sure, I have a role to play and have to be faithful to do my part just like the sower, but God is the one who makes things grow. My fretting and getting frustrated - though normal human reactions - do not help the situation or make things grow faster. 


This wondering and considering helps me to let go of some things that I need to let go of and determine to joyfully accept the process of growth. 


Such is the kingdom of God.

Into the Woods! / Waldausflug!

Es ist manchmal vorteilhaft als Gemeindegründung keine eigene Räumlichkeiten zu haben. Dann hat man die Freiheit Kindergottesdienste in kreativen Orten zu veranstalten. Am ersten Sonntag im Juni haben wir einen Waldausflug-Kindergottesdienst für die Kinder in unseren SchulAGs gemacht. Da im Wald haben wir so viel Spass mit einander gehabt! Ich schreibe öfter in diesem Blog darüber, wie wichtig die Natur ist zur geistlichen Entwicklung von Kindern. Gott hat eine besondere Art mit Kindern in seiner Schöpfung zu sein und Kinder haben da eine besondere Art mit ihm zu sein. One of the great things about being a church plant and not having your own building is that you can have worship services in creative places. On the first Sunday in June, we decided to head to the forest. This was a special children's church that I planned for the kids who attend our after-school clubs and we had a blast together. If you read my blog very often, then you know that I am convinced that being in nature is essential to a child's spiritual development. God has a special way of being with children in his creation and they have a special way of being with him.

Im Grunewald, ein großer Wald mitten in Berlin, sind wir bereits für ein Abenteuer los gegangen. Meine Kollegin, Melinda, und ich haben uns vorher Gedanken über Wanderweg und Spiele gemacht, aber wir haben versucht den Interessen der Kinder zu folgen. Als wir an einen Teil vorbei gelaufen sind, wo viele Stöcke auf dem Boden lagen, wollten die Kinder etwas bauen.  Ein süßes Hüttchen ist daraus geworden. In the Grunewald, a large forest right in the middle of Berlin, we set out on an adventure together. My colleague, Melinda, and I planned the route ahead of time, and had a few games and activities up our sleeves, but we tried to follow the interests of the children. When we passed an area with lots of sticks laying on the ground, the kids wanted to start building, so we all pitched in an made a nice little hut together.

Beginning the story: what's in the box?

Eine Mutter in der Gruppe war Naturführerin und zeigte uns interessante Dinge, z.B. wie die Förster sich um die Tiere und Bäume kümmern. Es gab auch ein Spiel, "Finde etwas", wobei die Kinder Zetteln mit einer Aufgabe zogen. Darauf stand z.B "Finde etwas Weiches" oder "Finde etwas Schleimiges".  (Siehe diese Post für mehr Infos über das Spiel.)  Another adult chaperone was able to act as a nature guide and point out some interesting things to the children. We also played a game called "Find this" in which the children drew slips of paper with instructions to find something "slimy" or "small" or "wet". (Click here for more details about this game.)

Endlich kamen wir zum Ort, wo wir den Kindergottesdienst feiern wollten. Nach dem Mittagessen habe ich den Kindern das Gleichnis von dem Senfkorn erzählt. Da die Geschichte von Jesu um einen klitzelkleinen Samen handelt, der zum großen Baum wird, passte sie sehr gut zum Waldausflug. Ich habe hier erzählt, wie ich das Material für die Geschichte neu gemacht habe, so dass die Unterlage und Baum etwa ein Meter in Durchmesser sind. Die Kinder waren total fasziniert als der Baum vor ihren Augen "gewachsen" ist.Finally, we came to the area where we wanted to have church. After lunch, I told the children the Parable of the Mustard Seed, Jesus' story about a tiny seed that grows into a huge tree. As I mentioned in this post, I completely redid the materials for this story, so that the underlay and tree were about a meter in diameter. Although this story is very short and simple, the children were glued to the story as the mustard seed "grew" into a tree.

In der Kreativphase konnten die Kinder Steine und Baumrinde, die wir auf dem Weg gesammelt haben, anmalen. For our response time, the children painted stones and pieces of birch bark that they had collected along the way.

Der absolute Hit des Tages war aber im Schlamm neben dem kleinen Teich zu spielen. Er was zu frisch um zu baden, aber die Kids hatten Spass daran, den Matsch zwischen den Zehen zu quetschen. Solche taktile Erfahrungen sind neben dem ganzen Spass wichtig zur gesunden Entwicklung von Kindern, und es macht mir eine Freude dies zu unterstützen. The real thrill of the day, though, was playing in the mud on the edge of a small, shallow pond. Though it was too cold to really wade in the water, the kids had fun squishing their toes in the mud. Such experiences of getting dirty and coming into close contact with God's wonderful creation are essential to a child's development, both physical and spiritual,  and I am happy to help provide these experiences for young ones.

Zum Glück fing der Regen erst an als wir uns auf dem Weg nach Hause machten. Es war ein perfekter Tag gewesen! We started home just as it was beginning to rain. It had been a perfect day. 

Linked to The Magic Onions