WOW wk3, 12/19/2010 - G4/G5 Class

Howdy,

It's that time of the year - 'Tis the season - Christmas festivity!

Topic: Jesus – Is Born!
Verses: Luke 2: 1 to 20

we would like to give kids a sense of celebration of Jesus’s birth by enjoying a bit of candy/snack during the Sunday class.

We started out by going through the theme verses, Luke/路加福音 2: 1 to 20,
where it records an account of “news breaking” event of Jesus Birth,
which involves angel of the Lord appearing to shepherds about this
"good news of great joy that will be for all the people.".
(大喜的信息、是關乎萬民的．)

A 2-minutes video clip (narrative of Luke chapter 2) was shown to the class, while we survey the verses (Luke 2:1 - 20).

We pause abit on the account to ponder on several Q-n-A.
(A) Birth place/伯利恆: 大衛的城裡 (with a world map aid to show that the 伯利恆 is located at the center of the World Map! )
Imagine that the gospel then begins to spread across the land, from Jerusalem to all the nations. (從耶路撒冷起直傳到萬邦)

Along the subject of Jesus's birth, we also touched upon the year designations of AD vs BC;

BC means “before Christ.” AD means anno Domini, or “year of our Lord.”

What a significant meaning !

(B) How the News breaking comes about:
there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
(在伯利恆之野地裡有牧羊的人、夜間按著更次看守羊群。) - A side note: 牧羊人 is faithful to follow what was told, that is, 我們往伯利恆去、看看所成的事、就是主所指示我們的。
and ... we ask ourselves a question for spiritual life application - Are we trust-worthy as 牧羊人?

Next, we have a "Name the Tune/Hymn" contest for the Boys and Girls teams;
the idea is to introduce a few Christmas hymns that portraits the meaning of Christmas and being a Christian when we respond to the gospel.

OK, here is the list of hymns we played:

1) Amazing Grace (奇異恩典)

URL: 奇異恩典 at wiki

To respond to the "good news", Jesus birth, is to bring his people out of SIN, and we are to recognize the "grace" so amazing!!

2) Joy to the World (普世歡騰)

3) O Come, O Come, Immanuel

Teacher carefully chose the versions of the songs to have a different artistic rendering in the beginning of the songs so that it's NOT that obvious to recognize. :)

Some lyric and hymn URL links:
(1)
奇異恩典，何等甘甜，
我罪已得赦免；
前我失喪，今被尋回，
瞎眼今得看見。

(2)
Joy to the World at Youtube

And we serve snacks, juice pack, and goodies - THANKS to some parents who cheerfully offer the preparation of food - potato chips, juice pack, etc.

And here is the song/hymn: O Come, O Come, Immanuel

As the Israelite has been longing for the Messiah, the lyric denotes..." !Until the Son of God appear. "

On the lyric:
Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!

Final score:
Girls: 2
Boys: 1

We have Pizza for lunch - yeh!!! (all the kids shouted for joy, I guess)

Memory Verse: John 14:6
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me".


Wish'ing you'all a very MERRY Christmas holiday!

KLUP!
-Sam
PS: More video clips are to be posted later.
Special thanks to brother Shih-Tsang for lending projector: 投影機 (works great)