A Widow Gives; Luke 21:1-4

Here is another story with suggested activities centered around four words from the story. 

This can be used as a mini-preschool, with one word per day, or with a Bible club for children. (Illustration by Richard Gunther, Lamb Songs.)

Watch/see

·       Play “I spy with my little eye” also known as “I see something” or “20 Questions”(Ik zie ik zie wat jij niet ziet). One person sees something. Everyone else tries to guess what they see. The person who “sees” something can only answer “yes” or “no”.

·       Leader leads the group in “seeing” by asking questions like:

• What do you see that is ___________ (a certain color, such as green; red; etc.).
• What do you see that is  _________ (a certain shape, such as round, square).
• What do you see that is __________ (living. Answers might include a tree; a bug).
• Can be made into a team game. The two teams take turns answering the questions & naming what they see. The team that “sees” the most (has the most answers) wins.

·       Scavenger hunt. (Being aware of your environment; watching) See Davar Start Game: Spot the Shapes.

• Let’s find something that is a circle . . .
• Let’s go find something that is . . . heavy
• Can you find something that is . . . smooth

·       Any game from Davar Start Games: Visual Skills.

·       Play Red Light/Green Light or similar game.  Players have to watch to see if someone is moving. The game is also about self-control, because players practice controlling their own bodies.
One person is the caller or “traffic cop”. They stand at the end goal. Everyone else stands behind the starting line. The goal is to get past the caller.
The caller stands with their back to the rest of the group. When the caller says “Green light,” everyone can run towards the goal.
When the caller says, “Red light,” everyone freezes. The caller immediately turns around. If they see anyone moving, that person has to go back to the start line.
Children do not need to be familiar with traffic lights to play this game, as long as the words for moving & for freezing in place are explained to them.

Give

·       Make something & give it to someone else (put a plant in a pot; bake something; make a card; make flowers . . .). Doesn’t have to be physical things. Could also be helping to pick up for other people. (Davar Letter Games: E3 and E5)

·       Discussion:  what can we give? See what kids come up with. Time, possessions, praise (songs, to God), being nice, pat on the back . . ..
Giving, not keeping for yourself.
Also discuss: How do you give? How did the widow give? What was good about how she gave?

·       Give compliments. Discuss what a compliment is. Model giving compliments. Then have the group practice this. Go around the circle and take turns giving the person next to you a compliment. Or turn to the person next to you and exchange compliments. Model this.

·       Find a Coloring page of woman giving the coins. Everyone colors the picture, then gives it to someone. Reinforces that the children are doing the same thing that the woman in the story did. (Many fun coloring sheets available on Lamb Songs, www.lambsongs.co.nz.)

·       Affirmation. You can give a handshake or a pat on the back. Might do this as a group with each other.

Coins

·       Davar FUNdament Thick, Thin, Thickest: 6.7 

·       Learn the names of coins in local currency. Show kids different local coins & teach them the names for them.
Or find worksheet online which teaches local currency.
OR Practice counting with the coins.
Might demonstrate that 5 of this coin = 1 of that coin, etc.

·       Stacking coins—see how high we can get them without tipping them over. (Could be done in teams.) Shows that the more coins you have, the better material standard of living you have.

·       Playing store. Set up small store with, among other things, healthy treats (apples, etc.) which the children can ‘buy’. Each child has same number of “coins.”
Have some items cost 2 coins. That’s what the woman gave—she gave all that she had to live on.
With the coins you can get something—food, what you need to live.
(For an older group, you might make a sample budget.)

Extra/all

·       Dramatize the story (“Jesus”, “widow”, 1 or 2 “rich people”; everyone else “disciples”). First give a visual of all vs extra. Give the person playing the widow 2 “coins” (blocks, nuts, buttons, play coins); give the rich person a lot more coins. Have the group count the coins that each person is given.

Then have the group watch and count as each person gives into the treasury (a box or something). The rich person gives a lot, but not all of their coins.
Which person gave all?
Which person just gave extra? (if give 50% of what you have)
Compare & contrast the idea of all and extra. Everybody gave—but who gave all and who gave extra (had extra for themselves)? How much does the rich person have left? (Count as a group.)

·       Discuss a team game the group is familiar with that only has a certain number on the team (football, baseball, cricket). If we play this game, can everyone play? Can all the people in the group play this game? Or do we need some to sit out as extras?
Which games can everyone (all) play? (example—Red Light, Green Light).

·       Dress up. Have a set of oversized clothes so that the children can easily put these on over their own clothing; make sure to have one extra of something that there should only be two of. Have a volunteer put on all the clothes. Maybe have 3 shoes instead of 2. That would be an extra. You can’t put on 3 shoes (if you put on all the shoes, you’d have to put them on your hands).

·       Play a relay game with oversized clothes.  The teams run to one end of the playing field where the runner has to put on all the clothing (maybe just mittens & a hat? A large t-shirt & a scarf?), then take it all off & run back.

 We look forward to hearing feedback when you use these four words with this story!

Suggestions by Crista Smidt & Mary VanRheenen

Fun at Summer School!

Summer school doesn't necessarily sound fun. But the month-long summer school in this Romany village in Romania will be. 

Last year children who did not normally go to school enjoyed making, listening, and learning through games like this one (Darts Without Darts, Davar Math Game 19). These children also learned that they could successfully learn. For example, by the end of last year's summer school, the younger children succeeded in writing their first names; the oldest children succeeded in writing both their first and last names. (More photos and details on the site of Stichting Aria, the Dutch non-profit which organizes these summer schools.)

Pray with us for this year's summer school. It will begin this coming Monday, July 29. Pray for encouraging results, unity within the team, God-given strength and energy for the leaders. And praise God for each child who comes and learns!

P.S. Leave a comment if you would like to see the outline for last year's summer school. It might stimulate you or someone you know to do the same.

Portrait of a Roma Bible Club Leader: Ivetka Olahova, Slovakia

Education, Christian education, is very important to Ivetka Olahova. “My childhood was not good. I grew up without education,” Ivetka told me. “When I received Christ (at the age of 16 years), I was still single. I said to myself if I have children one day, I want my children’s lives to be better.”

Ivetka succeeded. One of her three children, Jesika, is now involved in education herself. Jesika works as a teaching assistant at the pre-school in Jarovnice, Slovakia. Jesika also translated for us during our telephone interview. Ivetka spoke in her native language (Romani). I spoke in my native language (English). Jesika can understand and speak both.

Ivetka now has 21 years’ experience in children’s ministry. She and her sister started in Sabinov, in a small church with just a few people.

 “We started teaching children about having a relationship with God,” Ivetka said. “If they have a relationship with God, their life will be different. They will have other options, and God will lead them.”

She and her sister taught in their own language right from the beginning. They continue to do so. Her sister is currently a children’s minister in Sabinov.

“Now, after twenty years, we can see many of the children in church. They are grown up. They have education.”

For the last eight years Ivetka and her husband Marek Olah have been ministering in a different village. They are starting a church in Jarovnice, a village less then 10 km southwest of Sabinov. About 5,000-6,000 Roma live there, making Jarovnice the largest Roma village in Slovakia. Ivetka continues working with children there. 

 “The same thing we did in Sabinov we started doing now in Jarovnice,” Ivetka said. She noted that “here the Roma people are a little bit different. Here we need to teach the children about education, about hygiene, about simple things.” Once a week they also provide a good meal for the children.

“We want to let them feel that they are loved and that God loves them,” Ivetka added.

 Note that Ivetka said “we.” She does not do this alone. Sixteen women work together in teams of four. All of the women have been carefully trained. They attended workshops to learn how to use the material and how to work with children.

A children’s worker “needs to help the children, be kind to them, show patience.”

Part of the training is learning how to play. Ivetka noted that adults often don’t know how to act with or teach children. “You can’t be like an adult. You have to be childish.”

The children’s workers put this training into practice. They watched and helped with the children for three months or so. When they felt comfortable in leading the lessons themselves, they were given the responsibility of taking their turn leading the children’s Bible club.

Ivetka has always taught Roma children in their own Romani language. She and her team continue to do so. They now use material called True Way Kids. More and more of this curriculum has been translated into Eastern Slovak Romani. They are available online at https://truewaykids.com/.  Ivetka likes the material very much, and not just because it is in Romani.

 “You have everything there, the lesson, activities, everything.”

Teaching in Romani is a definite advantage for the teachers as well as the children.

 “Because it is in the Roma language, the teachers can understand the lessons very well. We use the Roma Bible.” (Ivetka’s husband Marek working with the author’s husband Keith Holmes to record the New Testament in Eastern Slovak Romani, Sabinov, 2014)

They meet with the children twice a week, on Sunday and on Wednesday. Right now all 40-50 children meet in the same room. This new church does not yet have different spaces for different age groups. A typical lesson starts with prayer, then children’s worship. The children are given a chance to share. Some children read verses from the Bible. Some give testimonies. Then it’s time for the Bible story.

 “First we read it in the Roma language. Then we show them the story with pictures or we call some children in front and make a skit with them,” Ivetka explained. Then they ask if God spoke to them with the story. What did the children understand and how do they put that into practice.

 “Many times new children come. And they will say that they want to receive Jesus in their heart, so we pray with them.”

Then the lesson is reinforced with games, activities, a craft, and sometimes a memory verse from the Bible. Sometimes they end by giving the children something to eat—physical food as well as spiritual food.

When Ivetka accepted Jesus into her heart at the age of 16, He changed her life for the better. This prompted her to make sure her own children had a better life, physically, educationally, and spiritually. God used this desire to help her change the lives of many, many other children for the better as well. She has spent the last twenty-one years helping children have a better life.

 “We need to invest in them,” she said earnestly. “Serving the kids is difficult, but we need to do it with God and not to give up.”

Ivetka concluded our interview with these words of encouragement for other Roma teachers:

 “Never to give up. Be faithful. And you will see the fruit of this ministry. Because sometimes they will not see the results. But if they will continue, God will bless their ministry.”

 

 

New preschool for Roma children opened in Leskovac, Serbia

26.4.2021 by alfinda herman from /https://romanetworks.org/

Great news from Serbia! A new preschool for Roma children has recently been opened in the town of Leskovac, amidst great joy of celebration. This preschool is an initiative of the Roma Community Church in Leskovac in partnership with two international organisations.

Teacher and students at the preschool

The preschool consists of two groups of eight students each and will be taught by a teacher and an assistant. The teaching will be done in two languages, Romani and Serbian. At the beginning the teaching will be in Romani while students are introduced to Serbian words. Towards the end of the school year, the teaching will be done mostly in Serbian.

Pastor Misha Bakic, who is part of this initiative, says:

“For years education among the Roma people has been one of the greatest issues among our people. One of the things that is blocking Roma children from being successful in school is the fact that we speak our native language at home, which is Romani. So when the kids are starting to go to school, which uses the Serbian language as the official language, the problem is Roma kids won’t understand the Serbian language and naturally will fall behind in comparison to other kids.

“This is why we had on our hearts for many years to start a preschool education for Roma kids in which there will be a teacher who’s going to teach the kids the Serbian language, Bible lessons, hygiene, culture, good behaviour, and is going to help the kids to be able to follow the lessons and be good students.

“This is going to be a place of blessing, a place of education, and a place of the Bible. Lots of joy, lots of toys, and praises be to the Lord!”

FUNDAŢIA ProRroma România / STICHTING ProRomi Nederland

Fundaţia ProRroma din România colaborează strâns cu Stichting (fundaţia) ProRomi, cu sediul în Olanda, în scopul implementării educaţiei creştine pentru copiii romi. ProRroma are în supravegherea sa şcoli, grădiniţe, clase de meditaţii şi proiecte de ajutor umanitar. ProRomi se ocupă cu strângerea de fonduri, rugăciune, publicitate şi suport logistic. Până la ora actuală s-au înfiinţat patru şcoli: în satul de romi Hetea (jud. Covasna); în cartierul de romi din Tinca (jud. Bihor) şi în lagărul de romi Pata Rât din Cluj Napoca (jud. Cluj). După programul de şcoală se oferă gratuit meditaţii. De asemenea s-a înfiinţat un post medical şi s-a dat startul unui curs de alfabetizare. Prima instituţie de învăţământ din Tinca, la ora actuală grădiniţă plus primele clase de şcoală primară, a primit autorizaţie de funcţionare în învăţământ de la Stat, iar scopul principal este de a oferi învăţământ pentru toate cele opt clase ale învăţământului primar. Experienţa demonstrează faptul că elevii din toate aceste şcoli necesită mai mult timp şi atenţie pe parcursul procesului educaţional. Profesorii fundaţiei ProRroma sunt specializaţi în acest lucru. Informaţiile de pe site-ul fundaţiei ProRroma sunt publicate în trei limbi: română, engleză şi olandeză. Informaţiile de pe site-ul fundaţiei Stichting ProRomi sunt în limba olandeză, dar se poate face contact şi în limba engleză ori germană. Ambele website-uri conţin fotografii şi scurte filme documentar. Fundaţia ProRroma Strada Oaşului 347 400645 Cluj-Napoca Cluj, România info@prorroma.org www.prorroma.org Gavril Caba (preşedinte) +40(0)259-310370 Bert Looij (vice-preşedinte) +40(0)740-517425 Sjaak Monster (director) +40(0)724-770704 Stichting ProRomi Nederland (Olanda) Callistolaan 15 3318 JA Dordrecht Nederland / Olanda +31-(0)78-6559237 info@proromi.nl www.proromi.nl Sjaak Monster (director) +31(0)6-27566113