Today I helped teach Sunday school. Our lesson was based on Genesis 37, Joseph and the coat of many colors.
Our lesson was a theatrical performance featuring live action, puppets, and flannel-graph. I played the part of Jacob, wearing a wig, beard, and robe. My 12 “sons” were puppets, engineered and voiced by Olya. Yulia was story-teller and flannel-graph engineer.
So I came in, pretended I was a visitor from a far-off land, and told about my sons. I told about my son Joseph’s dreams with the help of the flannel-graph. After that it got tricky. We switched to a scene with the brothers and I went behind the curtain and helped to make sheep noises. Olya and I got a little confused about which puppet was which. Then I went back out again to play Jacob. The brothers came to deliver the sad news, and the puppets then threw a “bloody cloth” towards me. This was problematic in two ways: 1) the blood consisted of magenta colored paint. 2) The cloth didn’t make it to me but sort of dangled on the edge of the puppet-show curtain. I laughed out loud and had to try to turn it into grief. Then as I “grieved,” the kids giggled. Yulia told them not to laugh because my “son” was dead. One of the older girls yelled, “I know what happens later! He’s not really dead!” Finally I stumbled out of the room saying goodbye.
I changed out of my Jacob outfit and was standing in the hallway trying to decide when to go back in. Suddenly I heard one of the little girls ask to go to the bathroom, and I rushed further down the hallway to hide. But she came right up to me. I thought she was going to say something about the costume, but she said, “Leeza, what’s ‘perfect’?” Like the great teacher that I am, I said, “Ummm, didn’t Yulia tell you?” I didn’t know what point they were at in the lesson anyway. I went back into the room and Yulia was trying to explain to the kids about God’s perfect love. I think they got it. Then we closed in prayer and did a craft.
Maybe it wasn’t the “perfect” Sunday school lesson. But it was memorable!
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