The Creation Story with Seniors

On Friday, my daughter and I made our way to the Senior Center after I picked her up from school to share a Godly Play story with some of the residents. Many of you know that I have recently told Godly Play stories to these seniors as a part of a larger worship service. This marked my first time to share a story in a smaller group without enlarging the materials. I prepared the Creation story, because I thought it went well with the season here in Berlin transitioning to Berlin. I also thought the Seniors would be able to easily see the wooden boards with each day of creation on them.

I have wanted to try the smaller group setting from the beginning, but the staff at the Senior Center felt it better to try the stories out first as part of a worship service, because the Lutheran liturgy is familiar to them. The liturgy gave them a point of reference to try something new.

In the meantime, I've been blessed to correspond with Lois Howard, a Godly Play trainer in the States, who has worked with Alzheimer's patients for 25 years. Following her advice, I did something that is usually a no-no for GP storytellers: I looked the five ladies in the eye as I told the story. This made all the difference in the world! Lois explained that she learned this after having told a story and looking up to find everyone asleep.: )  The ladies were so engaged this time and really participated in the Wondering like never before.

The Creation story begins with the question, "What is the best gift that you have ever received?" I was struck that not one of the women mentioned "things". Instead, two of the women answered, "My children," right away. I realized that one of the gifts that Seniors give us is to gently remind us of the things that are most important in life. 

During the Wondering, the questions about which day you like the best or which one is the most important brought up some long forgotten memories. One woman said that the board with the animals reminded her of the turtles that her sons kept as pets when they were little. She proceeded to tell us about how turtles are faster than one would think and how they escaped and ran away one day. 

One lady was not able to speak very clearly, so I could not understand her German at all. The ergotherapist was fortunately there to help "translate" her words, so I could understand. She liked the day with the sun, moon and stars the best and added that human life would not be possible without the sun. 

The whole session lasted for over an hour until it was time for the residents to go to their evening meal. I had never seem them chat this long or this lively before, so I was excited. It also added a lovely dynamic having my 8-year-old there. There was both the wisdom of the very young and the very aged. A veritable feast of the mind and heart.

Godly Play with Alzheimer's Patients

I recently became aware of Lois Howard's work with Alzheimer's patients and Godly Play in Lexington, Kentucky. In a fascinating article on the Key Resources website, Lois tells about her experiences and offers advice to those who wish to work with seniors. Lois has been a Godly Play storyteller for 25 years, and you can tell this by the wisdom and love that radiates from her writing. 

Here Lois tells the Parable of the Good Shepherd using
3-D figures to make it easier for her audience to see.
(All photos used with permission from Lois Howard.)

Part 1 of the article describes the path that led Lois to working with Alzheimer's patients after years of working with children. Be sure to read Part 2 of the article (which I missed the first time!), because it is a treasure chest of information on how to actually start working with seniors:

• a list of the Godly Play stories that she tells annually and that seem particularly effective
• adaptations to the stories
• advice for getting started
• ideas for Response Time

Bingo is a beloved activity for Response Time.

I find some of the adaptations that Lois makes particularly helpful. If you are familiar with Godly Play, you know that one of the hallmarks of the methodology is for the storyteller to keep his/her eyes on the story materials rather than making eye contact with the listeners. Lois wrote me, however, that she intentionally makes eye contact with her seniors, and started doing so after telling a story and looking up to find that all of her listeners had fallen asleep!

She also uses three-dimensional figures for the parables (rather than the traditional flat wooden figures) to make it easier for the seniors to see them. Also, she suggests using colored figures for the desert stories, so that there is a contrast with the sand. 

Response Time can also be rather untraditional with seniors. Because of difficulties with fine motor skills and taking into account the interest of the seniors themselves, Lois often sings or plays bingo with them. I have not yet had the opportunity to have a Response Time with my seniors, so this gives me some ideas.  

The most important part of any Godly Play ministry, connecting with others and sharing God's love. 

My favorite part of the article is when Lois lists the reasons and motivation for ministry with Alzheimer's patients, which can be applicable to all seniors living in care facilities, whether they suffer from dementia or not. At the top of the list is "to be a loving, accepting presence to people who are often forgotten".  Sounds a lot like Jesus to me. 

"The Great Pearl" with Seniors Part 2

On Sunday, I co-led a worship service at one of our local retirement centers that we visit with Serve the City and our after-school clubs. As the "sermon" I told the Godly Play story, the "Parable of the Great Pearl". About 25 seniors were in attendance. 

This was my second time to lead a worship service with these seniors, and it went much smoother this time. For one thing, the seniors knew a wee bit more of what to expect. And we learned some things from our last experience that helped us this time around.

When working with a larger group of seniors, poor eyesight and hearing are often an issue. To help with the former problem, we enlarged the materials to make them better seen. (You can read about how I made the materials for the story here.) Last time, we told the story on a table of normal height rather than on the floor. However, this also proved too difficult for the seniors to see well. This time, we stacked two layers of folded tables on top of one another to make an in-between height, which you can see in the picture below. 

This made a huge difference, and the seniors were much more engaged during the story than lat time around.

To help with impaired hearing, I use a microphone to tell the stories. Last time, I had a wireless lapel mic. However, when I packed it this time to take with me to the retirement home, I neglected to check and make sure a battery was in the lapel set. With no battery and no way to get one on a Sunday morning, I ended up using a handheld mic and putting it down when I needed to move the figures. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because it slowed down the action even more for the seniors, so that they could follow along even more. 

Another interesting situation arose beforehand, when a staff member and I realized that the pearls would not be seen against a white tablecloth. The same staff member had the idea to cut out some circles out of brown felt to put underneath the pearls to make them stand out. Problem solved. 

At least two of the seniors participated in the Wondering at the beginning of the parable when I asked what the brown felt pieces (that represent the houses) could be. One lady said, "A picture frame," and another said, "An open door."

This time around, to give the seniors a chance to gather their thoughts, we had the pianist play an instrumental piece between the Parable and the Wondering. The ergotherapist and I had agreed beforehand to allow more time between the questions to see if it helped the residents to thin more about the story. This, however, seemed to irritate and confuse the residents. One elderly lady graciously suggested that I should give them something to read so that she could give an expected answer. I gently told her that there was no expectation for anyone to answer out loud and that the questions were simply meant to help us ponder the story more and grower closer to God. After that, the others seemed to relax more. 

Afterwards, the ergotherapist and I decided to start trying the Godly Play stories with a smaller group once a month. Making the enlarged materials for the worship services is quite a lot of work and I realistically can't do it more than 4 times a year. But with a smaller group, we could sit around a table and I could use the smaller materials. 

We'll definitely give it a try, and I'll bring my daughter along as well! 

"The Pearl" with Seniors

On Sunday, I'll once again be leading a worship service at a local retirement home along with one of the facility's staff members. My "sermon" will be the Godly Play version of the Parable of the Great Pearl, also known as the Pearl of Great Price. 

You may recall that I told the Parable of the Good Shepherd to the same group in November. One of the challenges of telling the stories with Seniors is that many of them have poor eyesight. As a result we have to make the materials much larger so that they can easily be seen.

So, today I've been finishing up my figures for the story. I photocopied the wooden figures and enlarged them by 160%. Then, I "upcycled" some Amazon packaging from Christmas by attaching the figures to the cardboard to make them more sturdy.

Here you can see the difference in the size of the wooden figures and the new cardboard ones.

I will not be telling the story on the floor, since that might also prove difficult for the Seniors to see. Instead I'll be kneeling and the figures will be on two large tables stacked on top of each other. Hence the tablecloth. We are opting not to use a white felt circle as the underlay and will be using a white tablecloth instead.

Below you can see my set-up to practice on my kitchen table. The felt houses seem enormous as do the styrofoam pearls. 

It will a bit of an adventure telling the story, since I can't really practice it at the right height beforehand. I'll just have to be spontaneous when the time comes.: ) 

Godly Play with Seniors Part 2

Last week I shared with you that I was invited to do a Godly Play church service at a local Senior Center and posted some pictures of the special materials that I was making for it. The actual service was today and went well. I told the Parable of the Good Shepherd. 

Many things about this Godly Play session were different. First of all, the story and subsequent Wondering were in the context of a Lutheran liturgy and took the place of the "sermon". There was no Response Time, because it would be so foreign to the residents and require a lot more staff than the Center has on hand on Sundays. 

Secondly, we had to make quite a few logistical adjustments for the seniors the themselves. I told the story standing behind a table with larger-than-normal figures to compensate for failing eyesight. Next, a microphone was required, since many of the residents are also hard of hearing.  My husband saved the day there, finding a lapel mic for me to use. Otherwise, I would have had to hold a mic in one hand and somehow move the figures as well!

In a setting where everyone has good eyesight, the storyteller pulls each figure from the box and slowly shows it to the circle from left to right.  But although the residents sat in a semi-circle around the table and the parable figures were larger, the ergotherapist, Dörthe (who co-led the service with me), advised me to actually walk around the circle with each figure in order to give everyone a closer look. As you can imagine, this slowed the pace of the Parable down to give it an even more meditative feel. 

This turned out to be just what the residents needed, since several of them are in the later stages of dementia. Dörthe and the nurse on-duty both told me afterwards told me that everyone seemed attentive and fully there with the story. 

During the Wondering, there were few verbal expressions, but I could tell that there was some silent contemplation going on. However, when I asked if anyone had ever been lost before, one woman spoke of friends and relatives that were lost in World War II. Most of the residents were children during WWII and had their childhood stolen from them due to war. And many ended up in Berlin, because they lived in parts of Germany that were given to Poland and the Czech Republic after the war ended. As a result, their generation often finds it difficult to answer quickly. I will be curious to see if they express themselves more verbally after they have experienced Godly Play a few times. 

One of the enlarged figures.

During a feedback round afterwards with the staff, we realized that the table had been to high for everyone to have a good view. We decided that next time, we will either tell the story with me sitting on the floor or leave the table unfolded and stack two layers of tables on top of one another. This would creating a shelf that is lower than the unfolded table, but higher than the floor.

We are planning another Godly Play service for February and will probably tell the Parable of the Great Pearl. Dörthe thinks that this parable could be especially meaningful to the Seniors, since many of them have given up everything and wonder what they have received in return. 

If you have any thoughts or experiences doing Godly Play with Seniors, please share them in the comments! 

Godly Play with Seniors

My family has developed a relationship with a Senior Citizen's Home in our area through our work with Serve the City. On Sunday, I'll be sharing the Parable of the Good Shepherd with the residents as the "sermon" at their church service.

Although I have told GP stories in many settings, this will be my first experience with seniors. Jerome Berryman, the creator of Godly Play, says that his concept is for children from ages "3 to 99", and there are other storytellers who have used it with seniors on a regular basis.

The opportunity arose when I was talking to the Senior Home's ergotherapist about Susan Dyer's blog, The Moveable Alphabet, and how Susan's Montessori work with seniors in Alaska has fascinated me. I also saw a lot of parallels between the work I do with children and the Senior Home's work with their residents. Then, the ergotherapist asked me if I had ever heard of Godly Play . . . !

In planning out the service together, the ergotherapist helped me realize that I would have to adjust a few things for my audience. For one thing, many of the seniors have failing eyesight and my normal wood figures would be too small. So, I decided to photocopy and enlarge them, and then mount them on cardboard.



You can see the difference in the size of my cardboard figure on the left and the normal-sized wooden figure on the right.

I had to make sure they would still fit in the parable box, though!

Then, of course, I had to buy a giant-sized piece of felt for the underlay and then a larger lake, sheep stall and dangerous places. If you're wondering how I'll fit the giant underlay in the parable box, I won't  be able to. Because of the eyesight issues, I'll also be telling the story at a table. 

Another thing is that I will be wearing a lapel mic, since impaired hearing is also an issue with the residents. I'll have to remember not to breathe heavy during pauses in the story!

I'll be very interested to see what the seniors think and how they react to this unusual "sermon"!