Surprised

Last night was the second session of a Bible Study I'm leading on spiritual gifts. The material is designed to engage in Scripture in ways that encourage us to be formed, rather than informed. I was concerned about how some of my people would respond to some of the activities. Last night they divided into small groups to draw the outline of a body and then label different body parts according to the function it represented in the church, which we understand to be the body of Christ.

There were 16 participants, so I told them to divide into groups of 2 or 3 and that husbands and wives had to be in different groups. Each group took a large piece of paper and a marker and went out to find a table where they could work. I was afraid some might consider it dumb and resist participating. I couldn't have been more wrong. We ended up with 5 drawings which we posted in the room. Each group explained their pictures. The group was impressed by both the similarities and differences in the drawings. We saw different perspectives in the different drawings. We also decided that the 5 different pictures combined for a more complete picture than any of the single pictures provided. The enthusiasm behind the task was great. One group was 3 men who had been executives in their work lives. I was concerned about how they would view the project. They went into one of the children's classrooms and sat at the low tables. They got into it, with much laughter coming from the room. They informed us their picture was supposed to look like Elvis.

While I was downstairs leading Bible study, Daughter was hanging out upstairs with Administrative Assistant. AA told Daughter it was good to have her back-- the change in her is amazing. It's like a switch flipped in her brain, and she is back on track. Next week her therapist will start working through a series of videos about dating, relationships, the differences between men and women, etc. Hopefully that will help her deal with male friends more appropriately.