Update! October 2012

Welcome, visitors!  I hope some of you have found your way here via my article in the Momentum magazine.  Due to relocation to Huntsville, Alabama, I am now back as a classroom teacher at a local Catholic school here.  I am still as passionate about children's faith formation, and in fact have been speaking to the youth minister here about my thoughts.  I get a chance, though, every single day now with my sixth graders to reach and teach them in a meaningful way -- and my goal is still the same as always!  I want each of these children to develop a meaningful personal relationship with Christ and to come to it in an engaging and exciting (yes, fun) way.  You can contact me at jenifertruitt@aim.com or at jtruitt@hstigers.org if you'd like to ask any questions or make any comments!  Thanks again for stopping by, and take a look at last year's posts as they interest you!

Happy Trails to you... until we meet again!

Hi friends and followers,

Well, the end of the school year is here... and with it, the end of my time as CRE at St. Oliver's. My husband accepted a job in Huntsville, AL, and so of course I am joining him there. So, my last day as CRE is May 15th, and therefore I am not sure where / when I will be working in this field again. I am planning to leave this blog up as a resource for you who have been following it, and for my replacement... but I won't be adding to it in the forseeable future. If that changes, you will certainly be the first to know!

Thank you for your support and encouragement! Peace be with you!
Jenifer

Keeping it cool during Lent...

Hi again, friends!

As promised in my last post, I am really keeping things low-key during Lent. Each week I remind the children during our group gathering that this is a time for quiet reflection on the sacrifice made for our salvation. Last week, we distributed our Operation Rice Bowl collection boxes and watched a GREAT video for kids about the program and how it works. If your parish isn't currently participating in O.R.B., may I suggest that you do it next year? It is so fun for the children to collect their coins and see what a difference they can make! The web site for information is http://orb.crs.org/ and all of the materials are free! The video that I used with the classes was found on You Tube at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbrwXLLCZxo .

This week, I am using my yearly "Way of the Cross for Children" with each group. I have used this since my first year of teaching in a Catholic School, and it is the same book year after year ... but it isn't dated at all! We use the booklet pictured on the upper right corner of this blog, and it can be ordered at this site and others: http://www.churchsupplywarehouse.com/catalog_product.asp_Q_categoryId_E_65_A_subcategoryId_E_863_A_categoryItemId_E_21679

It is a great experience each year for the children to pray the Stations of the Cross together and reflect in an age-appropriate way.

Next week I will be showing a NEST Video about the Resurrection, since we then are breaking for two weeks of Spring Break. After that, we only have two classes left before our end-of-year awards session! It is unbelievable how quickly this year has gone by! I will update again in April. Peace, and I hope the remainder of your Lenten journey is special!

Lent Begins

Hi everyone,

One great thing about living where I live is that we get almost two weeks off for "Winter Break" in our local school system; therefore, I haven't blogged for a couple of weeks. It was a great break, though!

As we begin Lent, my goal is to 'tone it down' a little bit with our gathering time. I like to keep the music more reflective and the lessons more relevant to Christ's passion and the whole Lenten journey.

To that end, I am dedicating the entire 15 minute group gathering time this week to teaching the sign language motions to our official Lenten reflection song: Jesus Messiah by Christ Tomlin. I use this You Tube video when we sing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwJzTV1uurU

To teach the song, I first located a video of some children doing the sign language for the song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXe0PCa_qMU I used that as my own learning tool, combined with some other internet resources to create a more simplified version of signs. We only sign the chorus; the children sing the verses without the signs.

I used a power point of the words, one phrase at a time, to teach the sign language gestures. It is very simple to create this power point, but if you would like a copy of mine, just email me and I will be happy to send it to you! jtruitt@stolivers.com

After teaching the motions to the chorus/refrain and going over the words of the verses, we put it all together and sang it. BEAUTIFUL!!! I am so excited that we will be doing this weekly during Lent!

Peace be with you all!

Joshua Saves The World (Part 2)

Have you been anxiously waiting part 2? Well, is sure seemed that the kiddos were! Here we go!

Opening song: Same as last week - "This is Why I Worship You". See last posting for link and reasons!

Lesson:
I started by asking the children if anyone could summarize last week's story for me. I reminded them that a summary is just a short re-telling of the main events of the story without a lot of the little details. I targeted a fifth grader to do this, and he did a great job, hitting on the basics. I then told the children that I would now, as promised, reveal the 'secret code message' in the story.

To do this, I used a power point that I created. https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AcXPFwPkrCrJZHN3MjkzOF8xMDdjOTVzcGZx That link should allow you to see the power point. Basically, I simply used the power point to make all of the connections for the children between the 'pretend' story of last week and the real story.

When the lightbulb went off, it was GREAT! The kids couldn't wait to try and guess the next correlation. After the very last slide, I had each teacher had the children a special invitation - a party invitation - that I had prepared in advance. The invitation included the following:

It's a CELEBRATION! You're Invited!
When: This Sunday! (And every Sunday)
Where: St. Oliver's (Or any Catholic Church)
Why: To celebrate the sacrifice made by Jesus, who gave his own life so that YOU could have eternal life!

Please Come! Please Come! Please Come!

I had the kids read the invitation aloud with me, and we chanted the last three phrases really, really loudly - like a pep rally. I then asked for a show of hands of who in the room had a drivers' license. Obviously, there were a lot of giggles. I reminded them that they don't drive, so to please share the invitation with the driver in the family, and that I would see them at church this weekend!

It was a fun way to wrap up the lesson with a pretty serious message: Go To Mass!

We ended with a totally urelated Minute to Win It game that was a hoot: Chocolate Unicorn! You can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQrsJv3mLOQ

As always, I welcome your comments or questions!
Peace!

Joshua Saves the World! (Part One)

Opening Song: This Is Why


I love using this song when we are hearing the Gospels of Jesus starting his public ministry. The song covers many of the same miracles that the children hear about in the coming weeks, so I like to use this song during the same time period. They love the motions, too, but I did modify them from those used on the video. If you want to see how we do it, please just email me and I will video my daughters doing it and will send it to you! Check it out at the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=temJ4002wfM





On to the lesson...





As always, we continue to have an issue with children coming to PSR classes but not to Mass. It is not a problem unique to my church, I know. And it is not the fault of the children, who cannot drive themselves. However, many of them don't "get it" about why we go to Mass, so I decided to touch on it again this year in a slightly different way. I started with the introduction to Matthew Kelly's book Rediscovering Catholicism. If you haven't seen that book, find it! It's a GREAT read! What I did was re-write the story that he tells in the introduction to the book so that it would be appropriate for children. I am doing this lesson in two parts. The first week will be telling the story of Joshua, and next week I will be drawing the parallels for the children between this fictional story and Jesus/Mass. Stay tuned for that next week! Anyway, here is the story as I re-wrote it:

Once there was a boy named Joshua who lived with his Mom and Dad and baby sister Mary in a small town in Nebraska. They lived just like most of you do, with Mom and Dad going to work every day, Joshua going to school (he was a 5th grader), and baby Mary going to the babysitter’s house.

One Winter afternoon, Mom had just picked up Joshua from school and they both went into the babysitter’s house together to get Mary. The babysitter had the television news on, and seemed to be glued to watching what was on the screen.

“What’s going on?” asked Mom.

“It’s kind of scary,” answered Mrs. Norton, the babysitter. “It seems that there is a very weird and new virus that is spreading in Europe and Asia, and it is spreading quickly. What’s worse, though, is that everyone who comes down with the virus gets so sick that they die!”

“That is scary! It’s awful!” exclaimed Mom. “What causes the virus?”

“They don’t know,” answered Mrs. Norton. “But they don’t have a cure for it, and can’t seem to stop the spreading. They are looking like crazy to find a vaccine, but aren’t having much luck! Let’s just hope it doesn’t spread across to the United States!”

Two weeks later, that is exactly what happened. Travelers from Europe had unknowingly brought the virus with them as they traveled to countries all over the rest of the world, and now it was spreading literally everywhere. Schools were all closed. People were afraid to even go to the grocery store! When they came down with the disease, they didn’t even go to the doctor because there was nothing the doctor could do.

Finally, after another week of this, the most important doctors in the world came on TV and announced the following in every language:

“We think we know how to stop this terrible virus. If we can find the right person with the right blood type who does not have the disease, we can use that blood and make a vaccine that will prevent anyone else from getting the disease and will cure anyone who still comes down with it before getting the vaccine! We need every person who has not gotten sick to please visit your local hospital to have your blood tested. Because it will take a week or so to test the blood, we need you there as soon as possible. This is an emergency, and your help is needed immediately!”

Joshua’s Dad looked at his family and said, “Well, we are all virus-free, so we need to go right away to have our blood tested! Maybe a cure and vaccine is around the corner and this awful thing will stop!” So, they all piled into the family car, drove to the hospital, and got in the line to have their blood tested. It wasn’t hard at all: one tiny pin-prick on the finger was all that was needed, and the family was on their way home.
It was a week later, and Joshua’s family watched the news every single night to see if the person with the right blood type had been found. After seven days of no answer, they were starting to think it might not work. Suddenly, just before dinner, the family’s phone rang. Mom went to answer it.

“Hello? Yes? Mmmm hmmm… (gasp) WHAT? Joshua?” There was a long silence, then, as Mom listened, before finally saying in a voice almost a whisper, “Thank you. We will let you know.”

“What is it, Mom? Who was it? Why were you talking about me? What’s going on?”

“It was the hospital. They have found only one person in the entire world who has the right blood for this vaccine… and it’s you, Joshua.” Mom answered. “They’re not sure why, or how, but it seems that you have a super-power blood, and your blood can save the entire world! You’re the one, Joshua!!”

“Super power blood??!! AWESOMEEEE!!!” Joshua yelled! “So, I’m kinda like the Super Man against this really scary virus? That rocks! Let’s go! Let’s go give my blood!”

Mom and Dad looked at each other. Even little Mary stopped playing with her toys, sensing that something big was going on. Finally Dad said, “Joshua, you know that this is more than just a finger prick. This time you have to have lots of tubes of blood taken from your arm, and you’ll be in the hospital for a while. That means you’ll miss school, miss your Christmas parties, and it’s even possible that things could go wrong leaving you permanently sick, or even… well, Joshua, there is a small chance you might not even survive this!”

After a long pause, Joshua spoke up. “Mom, Dad… we have to take the chance. If I have some kind of super power that can save you guys and Mary, Grandma and Grandpa, all the kids in school, and everyone in the entire world, I have to try it!” Joshua’s parents didn’t agree with him right away. They didn’t want to take a chance with their only son, who they loved as much as life itself. What if something went wrong?

After a lot of discussion and a lot of praying about it, Joshua’s parents realized that he was right. It was the only option. He had to give his blood.

The next morning they called the hospital, and brought Joshua in. The doctors solemnly took Joshua back to his room, and the procedure began. While his parents watched by his side and waited, the doctors continued their work. It was a long, long day, and it got a little tense a few times … Joshua even fainted twice! But finally the doctors got what they needed, and they sent the super- blood samples to the world’s leading doctors and scientists, and within a short time, the vaccine and cure was created.

The word got out, and newspeople all over the world reported what Joshua and his family had done, the big chance they had taken for the good of the entire world. People from every country were praising this action, thanking Joshua’s parents by email, phone call, video, newspaper… you name it and people were celebrating! Joshua had saved their lives!

By the time Joshua was recovered and out of the hospital, people all around the world were able to go to their local doctor to get a shot to prevent the virus or to get a shot to cure the virus if it had started. Not one more person died, thanks to the very brave and wonderful thing that Joshua did.

After about a month, nobody was in danger anymore. Joshua’s bravery and his super blood had indeed saved everyone on the planet. Joshua’s father decided that he would like to throw a party in honor of what his son had done, so he planned a huge celebration. After all, so many people had been saved, EVERYONE would want to thank this young man and honor him!

Dad rented a huge party hall, sent out the word that the celebration of Joshua’s sacrifice would be held, made arrangements for food, balloons, music, everything!

Finally, the big day arrived. Joshua and his family got up bright and early to head to the party hall and wait to meet what was sure to be tons and tons of people. But the hour for the party celebrating Joshua’s bravery and generosity arrived, and here is what happened.

Only a small group of people showed up! That’s right, maybe 100 people, out of the millions of people whose lives had been saved!! Some people slept through it. Some didn’t bother to come because they had better things to do: soccer games, grocery shopping, playing video games or surfing the web on the internet. A few of the people who came just complained the whole time: this is BORING. Some yawned and closed their eyes to rest. All in all, people just seemed to have forgotten about Joshua and what he did to save their lives.

That’s where I am stopping the story. Today, I would like you to go back to your classes and to spend a few minutes talking about how Joshua and his parents probably felt about what happened at the party. What do you think about what happened? What would you have done if you had heard about the special celebration in honor of Joshua?

Next week, we are going to talk some more about this story, because there is definitely a “lesson” in the story. Maybe you even can guess it… but if you do, I’d like to you keep the lesson to yourself until we meet together next week.

Of course, there was a lot of desire to share right then and there, but I encouraged them to keep it in their small groups! I am excited to make the connection for them next week. Again, email me at jtruitt@stolivers.com if you would like anything!

Fishers of Men

This week I am doing a lesson to help the children understand more deeply the way that Jesus called his apostles and how extraordinary it is that they gave up their livelihoods to follow this unknown man.

I began as follows:

Today, boys and girls, we are going to do things in a little bit different of an order. I know that we usually start with an opening song, then do our lesson. But today, the song that I want to do with you is actually a part of our lesson, so I need to wait a little bit until we've talked about some things before we get to the song. And then, as always, if you are great listeners, we will do our Minute to Win It at the end of the lesson. Is that a deal?

So, what I would like for you to do first today is to think for a moment about what you would like to be when you grow up. If you know what you want to be, raise your hand. (At this point I spend a few minutes getting a few children from all age levels to tell me what they want to be. I ask them some follow-up questions, such as 'what would you have to do for that to happen?' and I get some really cute responses. For example, one little boy told me that he'd have to climb lots and lots of stairs to be an astronaut when he grows up! lol!! After I've called on several individuals, I ask ALL of the children to shout out what they want to be on my count of three...1,2, 3... and this gives them all a chance to feel that they have contributed). Ok, those are some great goals that you've set for yourselves. Now, I want you to pretend that your dream has come true. You are doing that dream job of yours and you are LOVING it. You're making good money, supporting your family, and you really feel comfortable with your life. Can you imagine that? Ok, so now I want you to imagine that your best friend comes along and says to you, 'Hey! I met this really great guy who has a lot of great things to say! I left my job so that I can follow him around and hear what he has to say. I think you should quit your job and come with us!' Boys and girls, think about that! Would you want to leave this job that you have and that you love, a job that pays you good money, leave your family, and go follow this stranger just because your friend says that he has some very good and important ideas? Raise your hand if you think you'd walk away from your job and family like that. (Not one of my students raised a hand!) Well, now I am going to show you a little bit of a movie where some men did exactly that! They were fishermen, and made their living on the sea. I bet you can already guess who the man they were invited to follow is, but let's take a look at this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8iC1HYIT9A (I only showed the first 3:47 of the video, until the scene changes to the well.)
So, that is a great demonstration of what it might have been like for Jesus to gather his 12 apostles. As you saw in the video, Simon Peter was very unbelieving about this man as the Messiah, so Jesus took him out in the boat that he'd been fishing in all night with NO luck, and dropped his net, and BOOM, full of fish. You know that can't happen, right? It was one of Jesus's miracles, and it was enough to convince Simon Peter that Jesus was someone special and worth giving up everything to follow. Did you hear Jesus say, "I will make you fishers of men?" Obviously that doesn't mean he was going to go around throwing nets on people and catching them, does it? Of course not! It meant that they were going to tell people the Good News, and help them become followers. And I guess it worked, since all of us are sitting here today! We're certainly the followers, the 'men' that they were fishing for! If those 12 had not been brave enough to trust and follow Jesus, we wouldn't be here today and wouldn't have the wonderful blessing of knowing Christ!

Now it's time to teach you the song that I was talking to you about! It's called 'Fish With Me', and we've sung this in Mass before, so you might already know the motions. I took a moment to teach the children the hand motions that go along with the refrain of the song. This song is available on www.spiritandsong.com for download, but I actually had our children's choir director record it for me so that we could sing it without the bridge. Although I can't figure out how to upload that music into this blog, I have it on email as a music file and would be more than happy to email it to you if you request it from me! Another option is to view the You Tube video of Jesse Manibusan "Come Fish With Me"... he uses it as part of his talks. He teaches the motions in this video.

I also made a power point of the words so that the children could sing along with the verses. It's one of my favorites, and I think it does a great job of reinforcing the message of the lesson!

After the song, I asked a question of the children to select my Minute to Win It player. Today I asked how many followers Jesus initially called and what do we call them. (12 Apostles). The game keeps with our 'fish' theme: Fish Head. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15XdVEGJhvQ

Be sure you use a 'soft' lampshade... they bang their face a bit! :-)
Feel free to contact me at jtruitt@stolivers.com with any questions!
Peace!

Tim Tebow Video for lesson

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Proud to be a Pray-er!

For today's lesson, I decided to use something very current in the media as my starting point: Tim Tebow. The quarterback has had a major presence lately, partly because of his quarterback skills, but more so because of his overt praise and worship of Christ. Since we were going to be talking about following Jesus this week and next, it made sense to me to develop a lesson around Tebow and his following of Jesus.

Opening song: I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrNM-B_gg4A
My students love this song; we call it our "spelling test" song! :-)

After the opening song, I proceeded with the lesson as follows:
I have a question: do I have any FOOTBALL fans in the audience? Anyone watch LSU versus Alabama in the college championship last week? What about last Sunday night the Denver Broncos versus the Pittsburgh Steelers? Well, even though I am a BIG Green Bay Packers fan, I do know a little bit about some of the other teams, and I wonder if you do too. For example, does anyone know who Tim Tebow is?

Tim Tebow is the QB for the Denver Broncos, and he is very famous and has been in the news A LOT lately. Do you know why? Is it because he is a quarterback? No, that's not why. Is it because he won his game? Well, he did, but that's not why either. I've prepared a little video for you about Tim Tebow that will show you why people are REALLY talking about him. Have a look! (See video on this page!)

So, now do you see why Tim Tebow has become so famous lately? He loves Jesus so much, that he makes Jesus a top priority in his live and he thanks Jesus every chance he gets for the many blessings that he has been given. That kneeling gesture he does, like this? (imitate) It's even been given a name! Now people call that "Tebowing"! Do you think that's a little weird? Well, some people have been giving him a hard time about that being weird. In fact, Tim was asked about it on ESPN and he had a really good answer. He said this: "If you're married, and you really love your wife, is it good enough to only say to your wife, 'I love you' on the day you get married? Or should you tell her every single day when you wake up and every opportunity? My relationship with Jesus Christ is the most important thing in my life. So any time I get the opportunity to to tell him I love him or am given an opportunity to give him a shout out on national tv, I'm gonna take that opportunity... I want to give Him the honor and glory any time I have the opportunity." Hmm... that doesn't sound weird to me! That sounds kind of brave and good!

Well, I'm not here today to teach you all about Tim Tebow. But what I would like to talk about is the lesson that we can learn from him. And that lesson is about prayer. I would like for you to think about your praying habits for a moment. Think about if and when you pray to God every day. Don't answer these questions, but just think about them. Do you pray at a special time every day, like before bed? Do you talk to Jesus throughout the day whenever you want to? Is the only prayer you say grace before meals?

Lots of us pray when we want to ask God for things. And that is a good reason to pray! I know that God hears everyone's prayers all the time, and he always will help those who ask for help. But I also know that God doesn't just give winning touchdown passes to players who sit on the couch watching TV and eating bags of potato chips every day of the week instead of training and practicing hard. I am sure God doesn't miraculously make students get a 100 who don't pay attention in class, don't do their homework, and generally aren't working hard t being good students.

Just believing in God doesn't mean you will always get what you want. God does sometimes answer prayers with a "no", just like your parents have to tell you "no sometimes. For example, no matter how much you pray about it, your team is probably not going to win every soccer game you play. But I also think that when god's answer is no, it is because there is a lesson to be learned from it. Many people practice harder after losing a sports game. They study harder after getting a bad grade on a test. Knowing that God wants what's best for us, we should remember that even when things aren't going well, and we can ask God to guide and show us the way that He would have us go.

Now, how about those times when we feel like God is answering with a big Y-E-S to our prayers? Or maybe not even to something we've prayed about, but when we feel God is just blessing us with wonderful things? That is the time we should really be giving God the glory and thanking him so much for those wonderful blessings. And that is what we see Tim Tebow doing. When his hard work, training, and practice pays off and he makes a wonderful play in a football game, the first thing he wants to do is to thank God for His help and support.

Now, it might feel a little embarrassing if you were in the middle of your classroom, and your teacher handed you back a test that you got a 100 on, and you suddenly jumped up and did a Tebow move right there in the classroom! I can tell you right now that I would not be able to do that! But I know that you can take a moment when you get that test and thank God for that good grade! And if you play sports and make a great move for your team, why not send up a little prayer thanking God for giving you the health and the talent to have done that good move? Maybe you play an instrument, and at a concert you do a very good job. You can thank God at the end of the concert for helping you to play your best.

If you learn anything from the example of Tim Tebow, I would like you to remember the importance of loving Jesus, and thanking God for your blessings every single chance you get, in whatever way you choose to thank him, whether that is taking a knee and doing the Tebow move, or simply saying a little prayer in your heart. Can you do that for me??


For our closing Minute to Win It game, I continued with the football theme and used a silly game called Hut, Hut, Hike! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JmLQxFaxhI

I only had one child play, instead of two. It was a lot of fun! :-) If you have any questions or comments about this lesson, please feel free to comment or to email me at jtruitt@stolivers.com! Peace!

Epiphany

Happy New Year! I am sure that, like me, most of you will start back your classes after the celebration of Epiphany. However, this year I have developed a lesson on that special celebration that I really want to share with the children, so we are going to do it a little bit late.

Opening song: God Is Listening http://www.youtube.be/watch?v=6yHMgMKUEfc&feature=related I love to use this song with the children after a break because it really gets them fired up when they can scream and shout! :-) Plus, the motions are super easy, and ease us all back into the action!

Today's lesson is based on a simplified version of a story by Henry Van Dyke called The Other Wise Man. My talk went as follows:

Boys and girls, before we left for our Christmas vacation, I told you a true story about Saint Nicholas, and about how he got his start as a young man. We know this is true, and so we call it "biography". Another source from which I tell you true stories is the New Testament, the stories of Jesus's life and times. Now the stories that Jesus sometimes told, called Parables, were not always true stories, but they were used to teach lessons. Today I am going to tell you a story that is more like a parable because there is an important truth for us to learn from the story. I would like you to be good listeners as I tell this story, and at the end, we will talk about what you think that truth is.

At Mass on Sunday we celebrated the Epiphany, which is the special celebration of the Three Kings. You've all heard of the Three Kings, and we even sang a song about them, didn't we? Do you remember what gifts they brought when they came to visit the baby Jesus? (Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh) Well, today I am going to tell you the story about a FOURTH Wise Man! Yep, according to this legend there was a FOURTH Wise Man who never made it to the baby Jesus, and this story is all about him.


The fourth wise man was called Artaban, and he lived in ancient Persia, which is now Iran. He was a member community of people called Zoroastrians, or Magi. Zoroastrians
were big on astrology, which is studying the stars. The three wise men and
Artaban had studied the stars and the scriptures for a long time, and they had
determined that a miraculous birth was about to take place: the birth of a savior who was to be king of the Jews. Since they didn’t live in the same town, these four men planned to meet
up at a temple in a certain city and from there they would set out together to
witness the birth and bring gifts to the new king. We all know what the first
three wise men brought: gold,frankincense, and myrrh. Artaban decided
to sell his belongings and purchase three very valuable, expensive, and precious
jewels to set before the new king: a ruby, a sapphire, and an exquisite pearl. He planned the journey very carefully. He knew that it was a ten-day ride, so he set out ten days before the time for the meeting. Across the mountains he rode, and across the plains of Persia until finally on the tenth day he crossed the Tigris river with plenty of time to make it to the temple and meet
his friends. He was riding hard down the final stretch when his little horse came to a dead stop. Artaban looked down and saw a lump, a large lump, in the middle of the road. He got off his horse for a closer look and discovered that the lump was actually a body. With a big sigh
he started to drag the body off to the side of the road where the vultures
could take care of it, but, as he did so, the body let forth a deep moan. The
body was alive! Artaban was not happy. He had an important appointment to keep,
and here was this nearly dead person on his hands. He thought to himself,
“Well, this man is going to die anyway. Maybe I’ll just head on out and let
nature – and the vultures - take its course.” Is that what you would do?
Artaban found that he could not leave the man in the road. He took out his water bottle and gave him some water. He had some medicines in his backpack, and he found some that
helped enough that sick and injured man could sit on the horse. They rode into
a nearby town and Artaban took the man to the local healer (like a doctor)
where they waited around for quite some time. It turned out that the man was a
Jewish named David. When Artaban was pretty sure that David was going to be ok,
he turned to leave. David then said to him, “You have saved my life, and I have nothing to
give you in return. I can, however, tell you this. The child you seek will not be born in
Jerusalem like the other Jewish kings. Look for him in the town of Bethlehem,
for that is where our prophets say that he will be born.” Artaban thanked David
for his advice and rode at top speed to the temple. Alas, when he arrived there, all he found was
a note from the three other wise men that said they had gone ahead without him, but he could meet them there. Artaban was crushed. Here was a great desert between him and the newborn king, and he had nothing but an exhausted horse for transportation. Artaban knew what he
must do in order to reach the newborn king. He found a merchant and he sold the
ruby, which allowed him enough money to buy a new horse and go to the little town
of Bethlehem.

In Bethlehem, the first person he ran into was a mother with a baby in her arms. He asked
her, “Is your baby the king of the Jews?”
She said, “A baby a king? No! The king of the Jews is a full-grown man named Herod, who lives in Jerusalem. He’s a very bad man, and even if I were his mother, I wouldn’t admit it.”
“No, no,” said Artaban. “You have a new king born in Bethlehem. Surely you must know.”
“Oh, “she said, “You’re with those three men that passed through here a few days ago. They came to visit some poor woman from Nazareth who had to give birth in a stable outside of town.”
“Yes, yes. Where is this stable?”
“Just outside of town on the Jerusalem road, but they left here three days ago, all of them, the mom, the dad, the baby, and your three friends. The only thing you’ll find in that stable
is livestock.”

Just then, a man came running up to them and said to the woman, “Wife, get that child indoors right now! Hide him and don’t let him make a peep. Herod’s men are going house to
house putting every boy baby to the sword.” The woman ran into her house while her husband ran on to warn others, and Artaban followed her inside. Just as her husband had said, an Israeli soldier came to the door. Artaban, who was a pretty big man, blocked his path and said, “No one here but me, sergeant.”
“Well”, said the soldier, “If you don’t mind, I’ll just take a look for myself.”

Artaban, thought fast about what he could do to keep the soldier out of the house and away from the little baby boy. Quickly he took out the sapphire he was carrying and held it out to the soldier. “You don’t understand. There really is no one here but me.”
“Oh, riiiiight,” said the soldier as he took the jewel, “There is no one here but youuuuu.”
Artaban was upset about giving away the second of the three valuable stones when the woman slipped out of her hiding place and said to him, “Bless you, bless you! God will bless you a thousand times for saving my baby. I have nothing to give you for your kindness, but I can tell
that the family you’re looking for is headed for Egypt. You may be able to catch up with them if you start now because they had nothing but one donkey to carry them all.”

So, Artaban set out for Egypt, but he never did catch up with the holy family. He wandered Egypt
and the surrounding countries for years, always searching, never finding, but clinging ever to the last of his three gifts, the priceless pearl. An old Hebrew scholar in Egypt told him to look among the poor and the downtrodden for his savior, because the king of the Jews was not destined to live like a regular king. So Artaban lived among the poor and the sick, doing the best he could to
feed and heal them. He even made it his habit to visit the prisons, where he made a good many friends among the prisoners.

After 33 years of searching, Artaban, then an old man, found himself in back in Jerusalem at the time of Passover. It was a time when every Jew who could be there would come to
Jerusalem to celebrate the holiday. Artaban met a group of Jews who were in Jerusalem
for the celebration. One of them said, “Come! Have you heard? We’re going to see the criminals! They are going to be crucifed (hung on the cross) today!” “Who’s being crucified?”
asked Artaban. “Two robbers and a man called Jesus who has been doing a lot of preaching. He told Pontius Pilate that he was king of the Jews, and that was enough to earn him a death sentence.”
“What?” said Artaban, “What did he say he was?”
“King of the Jews;that’s what he said.”
“King of the Jews! At last I have found him. And I have here a pearl worth a king’s ransom, and
that’s what I’m going to use it for. I will pay it to someone who will release Jesus in exchange for this great and valuable pearl!”
“You’d better hurry. He’s already on the cross.”
Grasping the pearl in his hand, he made his way through the throng looking for anyone who would accept it in exchange for Jesus’ life.

As he was looking he saw a small girl running through the crowd with a troop of soldiers chasing
her. She took one look at Artaban, ran to him, grabbed him by the clothes on his back and hung on for dear life. As the soldiers surrounded them, she said, “Please help me. You must!”
“I can’t right now. I’m on a really important mission!”
“Please, please, please. My father just died. Our family is in debt up to its ears, and I’m to
be sold as a slave. I don’t want to be a slave for the rest of my life.”
“I can’t help right now! You must find someone else,” Artaban told her.
“No, no, you have to help me.”
He looked at the child, and at the soldiers about to drag her away, and almost without thinking,
pressed the pearl into her hand. As he turned away, knowing he had failed in his mission and in his attempt to bring a gift to the King of the Jews, something terrible happened. An awful
storm swept through Jerusalem shaking the very foundations of the buildings and sweeping the tiles off the roofs. It was because Jesus was dying on the cross. During this terrible
storm, one of these tiles struck Artaban on his head, and sadly, it was an injury bad enough to kill him. But just before he died, a strange thing happened. A shimmery stranger glowing in
white approached him and said, “You’re Artaban, right? I believe you’ve been looking for me, and I just came by to thank you.” Artaban was confused. “Lord? Is that you? I have been looking for you since you were born, but I never found you! I no longer have any gifts to give you! What are you thanking me for?”
“For feeding me when I was hungry and taking care me when I was sick and giving me comfort in prison.”
“I’m sorry, Lord, but you must have me mixed up with someone else. This is the first time I’ve ever laid eyes on you.”
“No, Artaban, you’re wrong. In all these years, every time that you’ve fed, the poorest of my people, you’ve fed me. Whenever you’ve cared for or comforted the poorest of my people,
you’ve done it for me. We go way back, my friend. What you have done for me all these years is far more valuable than gold, frankinsence and myrrh. It is more valuable than rubies, sapphires and pearls. And what you have given me is what I treasure more than anything.”
With these words, the stranger faded into the mist and Artaban’s life slipped away.

So, boys and girls, that is the story of the fourth wise man. And although he never made it to the baby Jesus, it sounds like Jesus met him in the end. It also sounds like Jesus tells him that his gift was more valuable than anything like gold, or rubies, or pearls. Who can tell me what they think that Artaban's gift was, and also what our lesson is?

I lead a discussion with the children, then, recalling our previous lesson about "whatsoever you do for the least of my people." The lesson to us is that we ALL have the most precious gift that we can give to Jesus any time: the gift of our love. If we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc., that is what Jesus values the most. I close by asking the children to make a New Year's resolution with me that we will try to give Jesus that gift as much as we can this year, not just at Christmas time.

After the story, we wrapped up with a fun Minute to Win It game. I selected my participant by asking who remembers the big, fancy word that means the feast day celebrating the Three Kings (epiphany). The game we played was Hoop de Loop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYbEae3Eu24

I hope you are all off to a great start to the new year! See you next week!