Alternative Advent Story

I've seen pictures of and heard about an alternative version to the Godly Play Advent story in several places on the internet. David Pritchard, a Godly Play trainer in Spain, was kind enough to let me use one of his pictures to show you. 

Peter Privett, who is a trainer of GP trainers in England, has written the text to this story. It can be downloaded on the Godly Play UK page. (Scroll down a bit to the post by Judy on November 28, 2013.)

For those of you who come from non-liturgical backgrounds or countries and traditions that don't use the liturgical colors and Sundays of the Western Church, then this could possibly be an alternative. 

I also love how Bethlehem is in the middle and all of the figures are moving toward it. And, of course, the paths form a cross, which is another wonderful connection between the Infant Jesus and the adult who gave his life on the cross. 

I've love to know what you think of this idea! Also, if you have told this version, please give us some feedback in the comments.

"A Gift for Our City" - Part 2

Diese Woche in der AdventsAG, "Ein Geschenk für unsere Stadt", haben wir die ganze Weihnachtsgeschichte gehört. Und über viele Fragen gewundert. Warum braucht man vier Wochen um sich für Weihnachten zu vorbereiten? Woran denken wir bei jedem Adventssonntag? Warum ist Gott als kleines, hilfloses Baby auf die Erde zu uns gekommen statt als großer, mächtiger König mit Palast und Reichtum.  Und was bedeutet diese ganze unglaubliche Geschichte für uns als Kinder in unserer Stadt? This week in Advent Club, "A Gift for our City", we heard the whole Christmas story and wondered together about several questions.  Why do we need four weeks to prepare ourselves for Christmas? What do we think about on the different Advent Sundays? Why did God come as a small, helpless baby to earth instead of as a powerful king with an army, palace and riches? Und what does this crazy story mean for us as children in our city?

Die Godly Play Geschichte hier erzählt die Weihnachtsgeschichte
und was man im Advent zu bedenken hat.
The Godly Play story of Advent tells the Christmas story
and why we need four weeks of preparation.

Am Ende haben wir die Kindern mit diesen Gedanken gelassen: das Licht von Weihnachten können wir das ganze Jahr mit uns überall mitnehmen. Und wie Jesus mit kleinen Schritten angefangen hat, der Welt Gutes zu tun, so können wir auch.  Und Gott nimmt unsere kleine Schritte und macht etwas Schönes daraus. At the end we left the children with these thoughts: the Light of Christmas is something that we can keep with us the whole year and take with us everywhere we go. Just as Jesus began by taking small steps (that eventually had a great impact!), we can start taking small steps to help the world as well. And God will take our small steps and make something beautiful come out of them.

So . . . wir machen nächste Woche einen kleinen Schritt zusammen und schenken unserer Stadt etwas! Was kann man einer ganzen Stadt schenken? Ich verrate nicht, ihr musst auf die nächste Folge warten!! So. . . next week we will take a small step together and give our city a Christmas present. What can you give a whole city? I'm not going to give it away, so you'll just have to wait until the next post to find out!

In der Kreativphase haben die Kinder wieder einige Angebote gehabt: 1) mit dem Geschichtematerial zu spielen; 2) malen mit Ölkreide; 3) Anhänger aus Bienenwachs anzufertigen; 4) eine Weihnachtskrippe aus Naturzeug zu basteln.  Das letzte war der absolut Hit mit den Kindern! In the creative phase after the story, the children again had several options: 1) play with the story materials; 2) draw with oil pastels; 3) make tree ornaments out of beeswax; 4) make a nature nativity. The last option was the big hit with the kids!

Schaut mal, was für Ideen die Kinder hatten:

Look at the great ideas that the kids had:

ein bisschen Schnee . . . 

a little snow . . . 

einen Weihnachtsstern aus Ton . . . 

make a Christmas star out of clay . . . 

Maria und Joseph hinzufügen . . . 

add Mary and Joseph . . . 

ein Häuschen fürs Christkind . . . 
a hut for Baby Jesus . . . 

ein Turm für die Kerze . . .

a tower for the candle  . . . 

Die letze Folge kommt bald! 

Stay tuned, the last episode is coming soon!

Falls ihr Teil 1 verpasst habt, findet ihr hier.

In case you missed Part 1, click here.

Advent Club this Year

Well, some of you may have wondering why I haven't posted on the annual Advent Club that I do at our local elementary school.  Let's just say that things haven't worked out this year quite like I expected. For reasons beyond my control and that I can't blog about, we haven't been able to start.

Hopefully, I will be able to share some things with you soon. But until then, I wanted to re-post the links from last year's Advent Club.  In the Advent Club, I combine Godly Play and social projects to help children understand the Christian beliefs and practices during the Christmas seasons and re-focus their attention away from the consumerism connected to the holiday.

Last year's theme was "Die Hoffung von Weihnachten: an unsere Mitmenschen denken" ("The Hope of Christmas: Thinking of Others"). Our message to the children was that Jesus came as a helpless baby rather than a powerful king with an army and wealth; yet, he changed the world beginning with small steps. And just like Jesus, with God's help, the children can carry the light of Christmas with them all year long and change the world with small steps. And then we took a couple of small steps ourselves: throwing Christmas parties for children from other parts of Berlin.

Here are the posts:

Advent Club Week 1

Advent Club Week 2

Advent Club Week 3

Advent Club Week 4

The theme I planned for this year is called "A Gift for our City". And, hopefully, I will soon be able to tell you more about it.: )