Monday, August 14, 2017

Paying it (The Golden Rule) forward


A couple of months ago, while reversing out of a tight carpark, I backed into a car. The rubber of my turned tyre rubbed his mag wheel. He took photos. Got quotes. The first was over $300 to remove a smudge! Finally, after weeks, I paid $165 to remove the smudge from his wheel.

Just a few minutes ago, I got to remove the smudge from my conscience. In the same carpark, coming around the same bend, I was backed into by a lady in a small car as she reversed out. I saw her coming and came to a stop before she t-boned her boot into my side door. It happened fast, but slow (you know what I mean!)

We both stopped. She was as shocked as I had been two months ago when I backed into a car that wasn't there moments before.

"I am sooo sorry!" she nearly cried as we emerged from our cars to survey the damage. I looked at the smudge on the driver door. I looked into her eyes and remembered the way I had hoped a member of my neighbourhood would have treated me not so long ago. And I was overwhelmed with compassion.

"I've got three teenagers learning to drive," I said. "I'm expecting more just like this one! Don't worry about it."

The lady's face changed from dread to disbelief. "REALLY?!"

"Yup," I said, "Forget about it!"

"Oh my," she said crossing her hands over her heart, "You're a dear!"

How good does it feel to "Pay the GOLDEN RULE forward?"
Do unto others what you WISH would happen to you!

Saturday, August 12, 2017

The BIG Story - Wordless Flipboard Craft Project

This is a storytelling aide for teaching The BIG Story of God's interaction with humankind. From Creation to Redemption and into Eternity!

Show the colored side to the audience while you read the script on the back. The audience only sees a solid color and thinks about the words as you read them aloud. This also allows the teacher flexibility to change the words for the needs of the audience.


Use this craft project to create story flipboards. Your students can use them to tell the Bible's BIG Story from Kingdom to Kingdom. From before Creation until after Redemption - we are living in an epic story - why not tell the whole thing!?!?

Instructions
Colors: Gold, Black, Red, White, Blue, Green
Design: Flipboard. Rings at the top. Pages are turned by flipping front to back, over the top of the rings. This allows the students to only see the front and the teacher to see the back.
Content: On the front (facing the student) of each page is a solid color. On the back (written on the same background color as the student is seeing) are the words the teacher uses as their cues for the story. They can either read it directly or paraphrase what they read to meet the needs of the audience. To tell the entire story, the teacher flips through the book twice. The story begins and ends with the Gold Cover page. This means while every other color has two readings, Gold has three.

Supplies:
Construction Paper: Gold, Black, Red, White, Blue, Green
Cut to size. Hole punch.
Script: Cut to size
Rings: 2 per Flipboard
Print Script: Cut/Paste into Word.
     Font: Calibri
     Font size (body): 18
     Font size (titles): 22
     Print "4 pages per sheet" and entire script fits on one page.


Script:


Gold

God’s Kingdom: Heaven is a perfect place where God lives. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit live in Heaven with the angels. They watch over us because they love us very much. This book is the story of how much God loves us. (flip to the next page)

A Day with the King: On the seventh day of Creation Week, God rested. He called the day of rest Sabbath. God, the King of the universe, promised to visit His people every Sabbath. God asked us to rest from our work on Sabbath and spend the day with Him. Every Sabbath is a reminder that God loves us and created us to live for Him. (flip to the next page)

God’s Eternal Kingdom: All Jesus’ disciples are excited about a promise He made. Before He went to Heaven, Jesus promised to come back. When Jesus comes back, the dead will return to life and all who love Him will meet Jesus in the air! He will be our King forever and ever. Jesus says, after we spend 1000 years in Heaven, He will put a great city here on Earth and will live with us from one Sabbath to the next forever and ever!


Black

Creation: When God decided to create you and me, the Bible says it was very dark on Earth. There was no light! The earth had no form. It was completely empty. But God had a plan! (flip to the next page)

Sin: Unfortunately, Adam and Eve choose to go against God. They left the Creator to live life selfishly. They chose Sin. Because of Sin and selfishness, humans are now born in darkness. God saw this and formed a plan – a perfect plan! (flip to the next page)


Red

God’s Spirit: Even in complete darkness, God was nearby. The Bible says, “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” which covered the dark, formless, empty earth. And God was about to do something wonderful! (flip to the next page)

God’s Gift: Even in our darkest times, God has not forgotten us. He sent His Son Jesus to live with us, to be one of us. Jesus came, lived and died as the perfect gift from God to His special creation – humans; you and me. Even though we were lost in the darkness of sin, God did something wonderful for us! (flip to the next page)


White 

Light: God spoke out of the darkness. “Let there be… LIGHT!” And there was light! And it was Good. God was beginning something new for me and you. He was creating a place for us to live. (flip to the next page)

Forgiveness: When we say yes to Jesus, we open the gift He gave us on the cross. God’s forgiveness washes away all the darkness of sin and we are made new. The Bible says our hearts become as white as snow! This is so wonderful that it causes us to celebrate! (flip to the next page)


Blue

Out of the Water: With light shining on the watery earth, everything was blue. God pulled some of the water up and put it into the sky. The rest He left below to become the lakes, rivers and oceans. (flip to the next page)

Baptism: Every time one of us is baptised, God says, “This is my child whom I love very much!” The way we celebrate God’s perfect love shown in Jesus’ gift on the cross is by being baptised. We show everyone that we are new. We don’t want to live in darkness anymore. We are washed clean! (flip to the next page)


Green

Life: For the rest of Creation Week, God created land, trees, fish, birds, animals and more. Then God created something special. God created Adam and Eve – the first humans. He took special time creating them. When they were ready, God breathed His Spirit into them and they were filled with life! God showed Adam and Eve everything He had created. He told them how much He loved His Creation. Then, God asked His people to take care of His Creation. (flip to the next page)

Growth: Like a baby, we are born again. We grow to become more like our Heavenly Father. We follow the teachings of Jesus in the Bible so we can grow. When our faith is grown-up we teach other people about Jesus and help them to come out of the darkness of sin, into the light of Jesus, be baptised and grow. We become disciple-makers! (flip to the next page)

Dave Edgren ~ Story: Teller, Author, Trainer ~

BOOK DAVE NOW! Dave Edgren is passionate about creating a values-based storytelling culture. In his engaging and often hilarious way,...