On Sharing Bible Stories with Children

The Beje, Haarlem, Netherlands 

Not only is The Hiding Place one of my favorite books, but several of Corrie ten Boom’s other books have deeply impacted me as well. Perhaps my favorite is In My Father’s House, which casts a wonderful vision for cultivating a home and life focused on loving the Lord. Corrie writes lovingly of her family and home, nicknamed the Beje, where she lived most of her life. In 1944, at 53 years old, she and her entire family were arrested there by the Nazi’s. We had the great privilege of visiting the Beje last year in her beloved town of Haarlem. The house is now a museum and it’s hard to put into words how special it was to be there.

One of Corrie’s primary focuses before WWII was ministering to teen girls in Haarlem. She and her sister, Betsie, started youth groups all over town that provided fun, recreation, and a faith focus. They also fostered children in their home and taught Sunday School classes for years. they felt strongly about engaging the youth, many who were not Christians, with stories from the Bible in a way that would capture their attention. They would practice together and with the other leaders in order to make sure they were prepared to sharing with meaning and truth.

In The Christmas Collection, I share a few excerpts from In My Father’s House where Corrie describes this more in detail. Corrie shares here about capturing the imagination of younger children in her Sunday School class:

“I used the technique of describing one picture after another, leading my little class through the art gallery of the Bible. When I told the story of the feeding of the five thousand again, we pictured Jesus with all the people sitting on the grass around Him. We would look at these people individually, imagining where they lived, what sort of problems they had, and what they might be thinking about this Man with the divine love in His eyes. The next picture is of Jesus and His followers, the disciples, talking about how the tired, hungry people were going to be fed. There was no bakery or fish market within sight, but there was an obvious need for food. The blue waters of Galilee reflected the surrounding green and brown hills; and the luxuriant grass where the people sat to listen to Jesus was flattened by the crowd.”

“Then I would carry my listeners with me to the climax, as Jesus took the five loaves and two fish offered Him by a boy who had gone shopping for his mother, and ‘looked up to heaven, and blessed, and [broke] the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. And they did all eat, and were filled’ (Mark 6: 41,42).”

“‘What a feast we have when we believe Jesus Christ!” I would end. I had no idea how valuable this lesson was going to be in later life.’”

On training leaders in Haarlem to share Bible stories with the teens, Corrie says:

“When we had our weekly meetings with our leaders, we took turns telling a story from the Bible while the rest of us criticized. The types of questions we asked were:

Was the Gospel clear?

How was her first sentence, did it attract attention?

Was there humor?

What help was there for the club girls this week?

What importance did the story have for eternity?

Did she describe colors, movements?

Did she draw clear pictures with good illustrations?

Was it an inspiration for action, for faith, for endurance?”

What beautiful considerations as we aim to capture our children’s imaginations through Bible stories.

My pastel painting of the Beje is included as a printable download in The Christmas Collection this year! Find it here.

Art Demo, Amazing Grace

(Click on the video above for a snapshot of this week’s art project!)

I’m struck by the beauty of time and how we can give to each other through God-given gifts like words and songs. I picture John Newton 300 years ago, sitting by candlelight, writing the words to Amazing Grace, and then how those words traveled over seas and land to touch so many. This week it was heard by our little class on women hundreds of miles and years away. Creating is such a gift. 

Perhaps you might like to take a few minutes and create something similar this week.

Art for Joy : Folk Art to help us reject perfectionism

A peek at one version of basic Folk Art I’m using in Art Class this week!

I love using American Folk Art in my art class because, historically, it was often created by untrained artists who just used what they had to create the beauty or pain they saw around them. It’s a great way for my students, often without art experience and always walking through trauma, to see that we can just put our hand to the page and CREATE. It doesn’t have to be perfect. And in fact, sometimes the less formal training the art reflects, the more character the artist brings to it!

This week we are studying some epic women from Folk Art history who used whatever scraps and old paint they could find to capture the hardships and victories they experienced through their imperfectly beautiful art. What’s the imperfect beauty you can bring to the world even if it feels like scraps?

Amazingly, God uses our “imperfect” to shine His light even still.

Go search for some examples of American Folk Art and I’m sure you will be delighted with the variety of styles. (You can peek at my Pinterest Board here.) I’ll be back to share some more on this genre soon.