Monday, May 16, 2016

Pentecost Nature Tables

It's still Pentecost here in Germany! We get Pentecost Sunday and Pentecost Monday as well. I slept in, went for a long jog, and now we have the rest of the day to hang out together and read books. A perfect day - gotta love public holidays in Germany!

I found an old draft of our interactive Pentecost nature table from 2015 that for some reason I never posted. So I thought I'd share it with you now. It focuses on the Great Commission part of the Ascension and Pentecost stories.


Some of you will recognize the apostles' shields and end scene from the Godly Play Pentecost story where the apostles are filled with the Holy Spirit and go out everywhere to spread the good news of God's love. To make the table interactive, I place the shields and pictures of the 7 continents in in a basket, and encouraged my family to place the shields and continents where they wanted and say a prayer for the people on that continent. (Okay, I know there are no people on Antarctica, but my kids are concerned about penguins and their well-being!)




This year, I just did something simple. Again, I used Godly Play materials, this time from the Good Shepherd and World Communion story, to remind us how God's Spirit fills us with strength and love to do his work throughout the earth. I also placed a blood-red peony (called a Pfingstrose - "Pentecost Rose" in German) and a jar of cool shells and rocks on either side of the communion figures. 



2 comments:

  1. When I was still single back in the 60s, I was about to join the British Antarctic Survey... ¡and count penguins as well as surveying the terrain! Instead, I got married and ended up in Spain as a missionary. I'm sure that other people are taking care of the penguins! ☺

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  2. You were quite the adventurer, weren't you? I'm really glad that you chose your wife and warmer weather over the penguins!

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