Today we were back in our old venue, just for a day. We pushed back the cafe tables, something I'd never really had the guts to do before, and I brought a blanket so we could sit on the floor. (Fortunately it has warmed up a lot recently, and the floor was not too cold.) We had a fairly minimalist set-up: the focal shelf plus one story: "Jesus the King" from Young Children and Worship.
I also had a more compact art supply center than usual: paper, clay (plus tools), colored pencils, and crayons:
But in other ways today was far from minimalist. The service began outside with adults and children together for the Liturgy of the Palms and a procession - led by our 13-year-old member carrying the processional cross!
Moreover, for the first time ever we tried Junior Church bilingually today. Two pastors (both of whom had studied translation as well as theology) helped me translate the YCW story from English to Finnish. I told the English story by heart, and after every paragraph or so I read the corresponding Finnish text from paper. One Mom came to interpret some of my introductory explanations about how Junior Church and our classroom work, and seethroughfaith interpreted a lot of my other instructions, as well as looking after the younger of the two non-English speaking children when she began to need more help figuring out what to do next during the Response Time. Thank you to everyone who helped to make today work out as well as it did!
He laittoivat vaatteitaan ja palmunoksia tielle,
jotta Jeesuksen olisi hyvä kulkea, ja huusivat:
”Hoosianna korkeuksissa!
Siunattu olkoon hän, joka tulee Herran nimessä!”
"Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
Sorry. That should have been "helped me BY TRANSLATING" (I had nothing whatsoever to do with the task, apart from sending them the English text I wanted put into Finnish).
ReplyDeleteA bilingual service is no easy feat. So glad that it went well and that you had a lot of helpers in the language department. How was the children's concentration during the translated parts?
ReplyDeleteI think it was fine, Sheila. The odd thing about not making eye contact and just concentrating on the story & the materials is that the storyteller is not really aware of what the children are doing unless they really cause a disturbance. No disturbances, so I guess their attention was held. (Plus, the novelty of this bilingual method may have also captured their attention this time. We'll see what happens in the future.)
ReplyDeleteI think it WAS harder for the non-Finnish speakers to translate ... especially when you chose to do one part in Finnish first and then English (i.e. reversed the order)
ReplyDeleteI think the response time went really well. Everyone was happy and busy and it was absolutely fantastic to see the oldest junior church member lead the procession as cross bearer and the kids and helpers and parents follow. Meant we did the walk at a reasonable enough pace to sing too. Well done everyone a FABULOUS palm Sunday!
Check out the extra photos here: http://easterkind.blogspot.com/2011/04/wordless-wednesday.html
ReplyDeleteGood point stf about me reversing the order. I wanted to associate the actions with the Finnish once instead of always with the English, but you are probably right that it confused more than it helped.