Imagine this...
Two "Easy-Up" tents on a concrete slab, one for the adults Bible study and one for the simultaneous childrens ministry. (An Easy Up tent is the kind of canopy covering that I've often seen at outdoor craft shows, usually blue nylon tops, about 10'x10'). Part way through the ministry time it starts to rain pretty hard. The people sitting near the edges of the tent are getting wet. The adults don't miss a beat, they just move off their plastic stools so that they can huddle close together in the center and Manuel continues with his teaching. The rain starts falling even harder than before. What are you going to do? There's nowhere to go. People come to our program on foot; they're certainly not going to walk in the pouring rain to return to their homes which may not be too close. I don't think many of the folks own a rain jacket or umbrella. So, it was decided to move the tent under a nearby tree which offered some protection from the rain. But how exactly does one move a tent with about 20 women under it? Four of our leaders each took a corner leg and slowly walked the tent to under the tree while the scrunched up ladies in the center took itsy-bitsy quick steps to shuffle along as the tent moved. Don't know why this struck me as a little funny....but it did. Then, under the protection of the tree, most were able to again settle on their wet stools and quickly refocus on the teaching, which never really stopped. I may be wrong, but I think in the USA we would've probably gotten in our cars and gone home as soon as the rain started....or we wouldn't have even gone to the study in the first place if we thought it might rain and we might get wet.
And what about the kids? The kids got off the concrete and they also huddled tight together under the center of the tent. Their tent was originally set up so that it was at least partially under a tree. But how in the world are they going to finish their Bible story or do their craft?
Simple, Ruth was huddled with the kids, and she simply raised the Bible story book high enough so that they could all see the pictures as she read. Then, at craft time, the kids aligned themselves so that they were all looking at the next person's back and then used that person's back as the surface for coloring their Bible story picture. No problem :)
How about that!
Two "Easy-Up" tents on a concrete slab, one for the adults Bible study and one for the simultaneous childrens ministry. (An Easy Up tent is the kind of canopy covering that I've often seen at outdoor craft shows, usually blue nylon tops, about 10'x10'). Part way through the ministry time it starts to rain pretty hard. The people sitting near the edges of the tent are getting wet. The adults don't miss a beat, they just move off their plastic stools so that they can huddle close together in the center and Manuel continues with his teaching. The rain starts falling even harder than before. What are you going to do? There's nowhere to go. People come to our program on foot; they're certainly not going to walk in the pouring rain to return to their homes which may not be too close. I don't think many of the folks own a rain jacket or umbrella. So, it was decided to move the tent under a nearby tree which offered some protection from the rain. But how exactly does one move a tent with about 20 women under it? Four of our leaders each took a corner leg and slowly walked the tent to under the tree while the scrunched up ladies in the center took itsy-bitsy quick steps to shuffle along as the tent moved. Don't know why this struck me as a little funny....but it did. Then, under the protection of the tree, most were able to again settle on their wet stools and quickly refocus on the teaching, which never really stopped. I may be wrong, but I think in the USA we would've probably gotten in our cars and gone home as soon as the rain started....or we wouldn't have even gone to the study in the first place if we thought it might rain and we might get wet.
And what about the kids? The kids got off the concrete and they also huddled tight together under the center of the tent. Their tent was originally set up so that it was at least partially under a tree. But how in the world are they going to finish their Bible story or do their craft?
Simple, Ruth was huddled with the kids, and she simply raised the Bible story book high enough so that they could all see the pictures as she read. Then, at craft time, the kids aligned themselves so that they were all looking at the next person's back and then used that person's back as the surface for coloring their Bible story picture. No problem :)How about that!
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