The Story of Hope Goes to Bat in Little League - Then, on to Papua New Guinea
Tim Aagard, an MK (missionary kid) who was born and reared in the Philippines, and now a businessman in San Jose, CA, shares this terrific story:
I met Lawrence and his family through a local fellowship of believers my family was a part of for a few years. He is a Filipino, who moved to Papua New Guinea as a child, and then immigrated to the United States. Lawrence was also his district's Little League director and two of his kids played in the league. Most of the games in this league were on Sunday mornings, and Lawrence had a desire to honor the Lord even during the season. He asked me if I had any ideas. Liking to think out of the box and beyond institutional traditions, I suggested we have church at the field each morning before warmups began. I told him to invite the rest of the team and we would see who wished to participate. We would go through a simple study of the Bible's story using a book called The Story of Hope. I would provide a Bible and a copy of The Story of Hope for each player and parent who joined us. The boys would take part in the study and read the Bible stories. We would have teaching visuals to go with each lesson's main theme. Lawrence thought it was a great idea. He spread the word to parents. The results were amazing.
Week after week, a group of about 20 parents and players arrived early at the different fields to study together.
With the different venues, we kept setup simple. I would set up a clothes line on a fence and clip each teaching visual that we had gone over, to review and see the progression from lesson to lesson of God's working with mankind. Some of our Bible & Baseball times, as we called them, were quite early so we were meeting in the morning fog on damp bleachers. One time it was still dark, and I had to bring flashlights so that we could see to meet. Through all this, the boys were very participative during the lessons. One father shared that his son, on his own initiative, was reading the whole story from the Bible during the week. Lawrence's son acted as our diligent shepherd, herding each boy in, greeting them warmly, and making sure they had a Bible and The Story of Hope in hand. The lesson material was perfect with its focus on the graphical demonstration of the story, and its simple questions and instructions. The Story of Hope leader's guide is very helpful and can be used by anyone for any level of instruction. With this foundation, and the Spirit's working in both the teacher and students, the product is a powerful teaching of God's big redemptive story.
Lawrence learned and was impacted by my example.
His family still had property in Papua New Guinea and he was planning to travel there with his son on business. With the help of his local contacts, he asked to present some of these lessons in the local schools where he would be travelling. I was able to help stock him with Bibles, The Story of Hope books, and teaching visuals. When Lawrence returned, his heart was full of joy for the witness he was able to share with so many teachers and children in his home town, and their hunger for the materials received. Praise God for his truth and love shared on the baseball field and around the world.
The Story of Hope - Kids: Discovering the Provision in God's Plan,
with new plastic coil binding, is a full color adaptation of the adult-level book. It is visually designed and language level adapted for kids, ages 8-12. The Story of Hope Kids contains the same core content as the adult-level version: 40 key event-lessons for teaching and learning the Bible's big redemptive story and the Chronological Bridge to Life (ChronoBridge). A full page is dedicated to each of the 40 Bible event-lessons, allowing space for kids to write down the answers to the questions. Learn more...
The Bible's BIG Story Teaching Visuals - Set of 105
Set of 100 (plus 5) laminated teaching visuals (double-sided 13.5" x 10.75") for presenting the Bible's redemptive story with visual impact! Used for teaching The Story of Hope or The Roots of Faith Bible studies and several other Good Soil E & D resources. Learn more...
Good Soil E&D is for Ministry with Children as well as many other kinds of ministries.
"I grew up going to Sunday school, AWANA, children's church, and Christian day school - but I never learned that there was one BIG Story of the Bible that connected all of the other stories. Good Soil resources have helped me understand how the Bible fits together!" —A young lady in the USA
