Nehemiah and the Start of a Story
Welcome to Sensory Bible Stories. My name is Helen, I live in North London where I lead a small group at my church (St James Muswell Hill) which supports children and young people with additional needs to access Bible teaching.
When I first started leading this group in 2018 I found it
very difficult to source teaching materials for the children who were coming
along each week. Children with very limited expressive and receptive language
who were unable to access academic activities or engage in more abstract
thinking. We enjoyed their company and they seemed to enjoy ours but we wanted
to offer something more, an experience of the gospel which was accessible to
them. Although I found lots of practical advice and encouragement from various organisations
(see ‘useful links’ list), my many hours of googling ‘sensory bible stories’
and similar terms produced little fruit. Lots of otherwise great resources
seemed to be outside of the ability level of the children we were seeing.
At the start of advent 2018, we ran the first sensory story
I’d written. We could have started with the kind of Bible story that seems to
lend itself to this kind of format, Noah’s ark perhaps or Daniel in the lions’
den but we went with Nehemiah chapter 12! We went a little obscure but for good
reason. The whole church family were studying the book of Nehemiah at the time.
It seemed fitting to begin this journey of giving these children the same
experience of the gospel that the rest of their church family had by teaching
them the same passage simultaneously. It was a joyous day! The children
exceeded all my expectations, sitting and listening to the story and engaging
with the various props we passed around. We unwrapped items representing God’s
goodness to us, toy food, a favourite toy, and something representing comfort
and warmth. The theme of the story was a celebration of God’s goodness. God’s
people were celebrating all he had done for them in Jerusalem, Nehemiah chapter
12 and it came to life for us tangibly in North London, December 2018,
celebrating these children hearing and engaging with truths about God’s
goodness to them.
Since that first Sunday morning, we’ve experienced the good
news of the gospel through stories from all over the Bible. My experience of
the gospel has been enriched by time spent preparing these stories and sharing
them with the children and young people. They’ve helped me to see reminders of God’s
goodness and grace in the world around me and to use these reminders to centre
my days around God.
You’ll find below a copy of that first sensory story from
Nehemiah. Enjoy celebrating as you remember God’s goodness to his people across
history! Comment below to let us know how you got on. I’d love to hear your
thoughts and experiences.
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