Hot topic of the week

Well here is the deal, me and my boyfriend discussed a little about christianity and how it started well we got to the fact that god wanted us to follow him and read the the bible well my boyfriend had me a little puzzled when he said that christianity started from the jews? is that possible...plz help im searching for answers

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First Prize, 1999 Student Short Story

"I Just Wanna Be a Sheep"

Christina Dotson

I stood at the head of the long table, staring helplessly at the five young boys in my class. They were busy fighting over chairs, exchanging bops on the head, and trying to balance crayons on the tips of their noses.

"Hey, scoot over. I'm sitting there."

"Are not. I was here first."

"Both of you move. That's my seat."

"I don't see your name on it."

"Toss me that crayon."

"This is the song that doesn't end . . . "

"Aw, man! Tyler, no one likes that song!"

"I got a pet snake at home. He eats mice. Swallows 'em whole!"

"My dog eats grass and barfs on the carpet."

"And they will keep on singing it forever, just because."

"Hey, what are you guys doing in my chair?"

"It's my chair!"

"Is not."

"Is too!"

"Hey, you . . . teacher person . . . girl in charge! Tell them to get out of my seat!"

It was only the first 10 minutes of the first day of Vacation Bible School (VBS), and already I felt like I'd completely lost control. Of course, that would have required me to have control in the first place . . .

I glanced over at Jaimi, my friend and fellow primary class "teacher person, girl in charge." She raised her eyebrows and looked at me as if to say, "How did we get ourselves into this?"

I turned back to our table full of boys, who were now in the middle of a giggling fit.

"All right, Brian," I said, reading the name tag he'd so elegantly stuck on his forehead. "I think we've had enough."

"I haven't!" a kid named Jordan piped up.

"Everyone take a seat," I commanded. "Wait a second-not in the same chair! Come on, there's plenty of room for everyone."

"But I was there first!"

"You were not!"

"Was too!"

"Were not!"

"Was too!"

When Jaimi and I finally managed to get the class settled down-or at least as settled as a group of 7- to 9-year-old boys can get-I opened up my trusty VBS teacher's guide to find out what we were supposed to do first.

"OK," I said cheerfully. "Now we're going to play a game where we all get to know each other."

My idea was received with hefty moans and groans.

"That's baby stuff," said Brian.

"We're not babies," said Jordan.

"Yeah, that junk's for the kindergarten class."

"Kindergarten baby, stick your head in gravy!"

I took a deep breath and sighed. This was going to be a long week.

More adventure

The issue of whether an activity was too "babyish" came up often over the next few days.

It can't be easy, I realized, to be stuck in the middle like these kids are. They're too young to do some of the cool stuff the older kids are doing, but they're too old to be entertained with puppet shows and sing-alongs.

It didn't take me long to figure out that if I wanted to keep these boys interested, I needed to learn to improvise.

"This story's boring," Brian announced one day during lesson study.

The other boys nodded their heads and spoke up in agreement.

"We already know all about Noah's ark."

"I have that book at home. I've seen all the pictures a million times."

"It's a baby story. I want to hear about Samson again, and how they gouged out his eyeballs!"

"Yeah, are there any more stories where they gouge out people's eyeballs?"

"No eyeball gouging!" I exclaimed. "Come on, you guys. Today's story is about Noah."

"Boring!" Brian proclaimed.

I thought fast. "OK," I said. "I'm sure you guys know this story inside and out, so why don't you tell it to us?"

I could see another "boring" about to explode from Brian's lips, so I quickly added, "How about you guys acting it out? You can pretend to be Noah and his sons and all the animals-"

"Cool! I want to be a pig!"

"What if I want to be a pig?"

"You can be the girl pig."

"Hey, look, I'm a dog! Woof, woof, woof!"

"I'm a lion! Roar!"

"Hey," Jordan breathed in almost a whisper, "can I be God?"

It was probably the most original reenactment of Noah's ark that had ever been performed, yet we managed to get through it just like we got through everything else-with tons of smiles and plenty of laughter.

Kick back

By the middle of the week I'd learned an important principle about dealing with kids that age: you need to be able to kick back and be a kid yourself sometimes.

So every day Jaimi and I would take the boys outside and play tag or hide-and-seek with them for a half hour. We always had a lot of fun, and it was a great way to work off energy.

Of course, some of us had a lot more energy than others.

"Brian, get out of the neighbor's flower bed!" I hollered one day when he'd trampled through the daffodils next door for the third time in 20 minutes.

"No, Brian, you cannot hide in other people's cars. I don't care if they are unlocked."

Brian was our troublemaker, all right. But in a way I kind of enjoyed it because he kept me on my toes. The other boys looked up to him and followed his lead, which often led us into some very interesting situations.

One morning after they'd finished that day's craft, the boys were so covered with glue that we had to send them all to the bathroom to wash up.

Because Jaimi and I couldn't go in to supervise, we had no choice but to stand outside the closed boys' bathroom door and listen to the sound of water splashing, the sudden bursts of laugher, and the occasional excited shout of "Hey, nice shot!"

"It doesn't sound good," I told Jaimi.

I knocked on the bathroom door. "Guys, what are you doing in there?"

"We're going to the bathroom!" Brian yelled. "You can't come in."

"How much do you want to bet that's not really what they're up to?" Jaimi whispered.

"I'm sure it's not," I replied. "But I'm not sure enough to risk opening that door."

"The bathroom key, the bathroom key, I need to find the bathroom key!" Tyler's newest song echoed off the walls. "I need to find the bathroom key because I really gotta-"

"Come on, you guys. Come out of there right now!" I hollered. "Jaimi, go find someone who can go in the men's bathroom."

Jaimi left and returned moments later with one of the guys from the junior class. He went into the bathroom and retrieved our five dripping boys.

"It was a wet paper towel fight," Jordan explained. "Doesn't Brian know the coolest games?"

I sighed and started to wonder if I was too young to be getting a migraine.

The bribe

At the end of VBS there was to be a program for all the parents, during which each class would perform a song. To prove to the boys that I didn't think they were babies, I brought in a split-track CD of kids' Christian songs and let them choose for themselves the one they wanted to sing.

"I know a way better song than any of those," Tyler announced after we'd listened to the entire CD. "Check it out: 'I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves! Everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves!'"

"I liked the sheep song," said Brian.

"I Just Wanna Be a Sheep"? I played the song again for everybody to hear.

It was a fun, upbeat song, but it had a lot of verses. I wondered how the boys would ever learn it in time. But that's the song they wanted to do.

So Jaimi and I worked them like little soldiers, making them practice every spare second. But, as with most other activities, they were always much more interested in running around and causing trouble than in doing what they were supposed to.

The morning before the program the boys still hadn't learned the song well enough, and they were thoroughly sick of practicing. In a desperate attempt to lift their spirits, I did what any good teacher would do under such circumstances: I bribed them.

"If you guys sing well tonight, I'll give you a prize, OK? Just try to sing loud enough for people to hear you." I started the music up once more.

"'I just wanna be a sheep, ba ba ba ba!'" The boys sang decently for about half the song, but even the prospect of a surprise didn't encourage them as much as I'd hoped.

As the kids sprawled out across the floor during a break from practicing, I tried to explain to them what it means to be a sheep: how God is our Shepherd and how we should always follow Him.

I'd just about given up all hope of them ever learning, much less understanding, the song when the most amazing thing in the world happened.

Brian, the boy who had from the very first day caused the most trouble, suddenly started singing, by himself, without even any music. And-like a miracle-the other boys joined in.

They sang loud and clear, without messing up or goofing around. They sat right on the floor and sang the entire song, while I held my breath.

When they were finished, I practically exploded. "That was so excellent!" I exclaimed. "If you guys sing half that good tonight, you'll blow everyone away!"

And that's exactly what they did. Those boys sang "I Just Wanna Be a Sheep" with all the energy and enthusiasm they'd shown throughout the week.

As I sat in the church pew listening, I was sure I'd never been more proud of anyone in my entire life. I also felt a little like God must feel toward His sheep.

Sometimes they follow Him; sometimes they don't. Sometimes they get into trouble; sometimes they make Him laugh. But no matter what, He always loves them.

I felt honored to have had the chance to be a sort of shepherd to those boys, even for just one week. And afterward I had a new respect for the difficult job God has all the time.

I know I could never handle it. I'm happy just being one of His sheep.