Working on the last new story of the year...

Can you guess what it is?

Yes! Stone Soup!

In the Spirit Play training materials, I remember the suggestion that a congregation discern carefully and joyfully together which stories were important for it to tell its children. I was so daunted by this--I don't know that many stories! The new RE committee is very unsure about the whole idea of Spirit Play! The congregation upstairs just wants me to do what I think is best and get on with it! Ack!

Well, I found out it takes a little time. This year, I read a lot of stories. But I did it over a year. And at the end of this year, we have a few of the core stories, we have a few stories that seemed fun and seasonal and appropriate to the whole-church theme at the time, and we have a few Very Important stories to tell at this particular congregation. Stone Soup, I think, is going to be one of the latter., with its themes of welcoming the stranger and coming together to share even a small bounty with love and gratitude.

I learned a lot about putting story baskets together, too. I so enjoyed experimenting with different materials, establishing consistent "feels" and "looks" to the elements of any particular story, and trying to think hard about what exactly I was hoping each piece would do in the story, as well as how children might interact with them. I am happy about the little collection we now have. It feels good to have a year's worth of work sitting on the shelves, waiting for the next batch of kids.

Alas, I am not sure of the future of this method at this congregation. More parents than not--including two of the most active RE parents--did not care for the method, and their children said as much, too. The RE committee doesn't love it. The teachers enjoy it, but feel a little unsure in their delivery. I think part of that is because there was a giant conflict in our program at the beginning of this year, and the entire RE program fell apart for a little while. That meant that I didn't have the resources to support the Spirit Play teachers in the ways I had wanted to, namely with frequent meetings-of-the-minds and mini-training sessions and regular combing through the supplies and stories and work choices to improve and maintain. We haven't quite rebounded yet in terms of volunteerism, and I don't have the hours to--and even question the wisdom of--trying to carry it forward alone. So, as a classroom offering, its near future is unknown. I'm mourning that some. I had hoped others here would catch the bug as I did, and really want to run with the possibilities. But that didn't quite happen, at least not this year.

Still, I've gotten a great response using it upstairs in multigenerational services. And it's working really, really well for me in Children's Chapel. Plus--and any teacher-parent can tell you this--my own kids like it a lot, which is very motivating for me. I have found myself integrating it into our homeschooling, and that's been a lot of fun.

My employment ends mid-May for the summer, and there is no one willing or able to take on what I think would be the most delightful task of organizing and tidying up our Spirit Play shelves and classroom, making labels for all the baskets, writing up a budget and plan for new or improved work choices, etc. Likely, I'll chip away at these tasks myself when I return in August, or see if I can delegate small, well-defined pieces of this job.

Either way, I'm looking forward to a summer spent with more stories, more woodworking, and of course, more baskets!