CHILDRENS MAGAZINE

TAMARIKI A ATUA Kids & Teens Magazine of Maori Postal Aotearoa Issue 1, Dec 2017

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Over 2000 years ago when King Herod ruled Judea (now part of Israel), God sent the angel Gabriel to visit a young woman named Mere (Mary) who lived in the northern town of Nazareth. Mere was engaged to marry Hohepa (Joseph).

Gabriel said to Mere “Peace be with you! God has blessed you and is pleased with you.” Mere was very surprised and wondered what the angel meant. Gabriel said “Don’t be afraid. God has been very kind to you. You will soon become pregnant by the Holy Spirit and give birth to a baby boy, and you are to name him Jesus. He is God’s son and his kingdom will never end.” Mere was very afraid but she trusted God, “Let it happen as God chooses” she replied to Gabriel.

Hohepa was worried when he found out Mere was expecting a baby before they had been married. He was thinking about not marrying Mere at all, when an angel appeared to Hohepa in a dream and said “Don’t be afraid to take Mere as your wife.” The angel explained to Hohepa that Mere had been chosen by God to be the mother of his Son, and that the baby boy would be named Jesus which means “Saviour” because he would save people from their sins. When Hohepa woke up, he did what the angel told him and married Mere.

The land where Mere and Hohepa lived was part of the Roman Empire. The Roman Emperor, Augustus, wanted a list of all the people living in the empire to make sure they were paying their taxes. He ordered that everyone return to the town where their whanau came from, and enter their names on a register (or census). Mere and Hohepa had to travel about 70 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem, as that is where Hohepa’s whanau came from. Most people walked but some people had a donkey to help carry their goods. Hohepa and Mere travelled very slowly because Mere’s baby was due to be born soon.

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When they made it to Bethlehem, they had trouble finding somewhere to stay. So many people had come to register their names that every whare was full. The only place they could find to stay was in a stable where the animals slept.

When Mere gave birth to Jesus, she wrapped him in some cloths and laid him in a manger – this is where animals ate their hay.

In the hills and fields outside Bethlehem, shepherds looked after their sheep during the night. An angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds and told them “Do not be afraid for I have good news – tonight in the town of Bethlehem, the Saviour of the world has been born. You will find him lying in a manger.” A host of heavenly beings appeared with the angel and began singing praises to God. When the angels had gone, the shepherds said to each other “Let us go to Bethlehem and see the Christ child”, so the shepherds hurried to the village and found Mere, Hohepa and the baby. They shared with everyone what the angel had said about the newborn Messiah, then they went on their way praising God for sending his Son. Also at the time Jesus was born, a brand new whetu (star) appeared in the sky. Some Wise Men in a far away country saw the whetu and knew what it meant as they had read in old writings that a new whetu would appear when Te Kingi of the Jews was born, so they set out to find Te Kingi and take him gifts.

When they arrived in Jerusalem they asked the Jewish rulers “where is the child who was born to be Te Kingi of the Jews?” When King Herod heard this, it made him very angry to think that someone might take his place as King, so he asked to meet with the Wise Men. He told them to keep following the whetu and when they found the baby king, to let him know so that he too could go and worship him.

However, King Herod really had a plan to kill the baby once he knew where he was.

The Wise Men followed the whetu until it stopped and shone directly on the place where Jesus was. They bowed down and worshipped him, and gave Mere and Hohepa gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. The Wise Men were warned by God in a dream to not go back to King Herod, so they returned to their homeland a different way.

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Wise Men Worship Jesus Complete the addition problems inside the gifts. The missing numbers correspond to a letter. Use those letters to complete the sentences.

The wise men started their search for Jesus because of a __________.

3, 5, 4, 8 The wise men asked ___________ for information about the new king.

2, 9, 1, 7, 6 Finding Jesus and worshipping him brought the wise men great _______.

12, 10, 0 -4-

Make all the words fit into this crossword.

Each word is used only once.

JOY LORD MARY JESUS KINGS GLORY PEACE JOSEPH ANGELS CHRIST MANGER SAVIOUR SHEPHERDS BETHLEHEM

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BullyIng & the BIble

Bullying : negative verbal or physical behaviour that is done (a) directly to a person or person’s property, (b) with the conscious intention of either upsetting the person or manipulating the person’s behaviour, (c) which God would not approve of.

Most bullying starts at home with older sisters and brothers picking on a younger one. Today’s world sees a lot of divorce and remarriage with children involved. Because of blended families and some of the insecure emotions feeding in from step-siblings and half-siblings, rivalries can flair up easily.

With the early descendants of Father Abraham in the Old Testament of the Bible, blended family strife was due to one man having several wives. Don’t think these half-siblings couldn’t be just as jealous and inspired to bully as some of today’s kids. In fact, the older brothers of Joseph get the “Bad Guy Bullying Award” of history!

Here’s something that may surprise you – bullies generally do not view their behaviour as bullying. Often, like Joseph’s siblings, they think they are “evening out the score” or “seizing back power that they rightfully deserve”. Bullies may be able to see and even admit to some bad behaviour on their own part, but if jealousy is at the root then bullying will feel strangely like justice. This is a very deceiving feeling that we can learn to recognize and therefore, not give in to.

Let’s look at Joseph’s story in the Bible.

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Genesis 37 …..

The Message Version

…The story continues with Joseph, seventeen years old at the time, helping out his brothers in herding the flocks. These were his half brothers actually, the sons of his father’s wives – Bilhah and Zilpah.

And Joseph brought his father bad reports on them. 3-4 Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he was the child of his old age. And he made him an elaborately embroidered coat.

When his brothers realized that their father loved him more than them, they grew to hate him – they wouldn’t even speak to him.

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5-7 Joseph

had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said “Listen to this dream I had. We were all out in the field gathering bundles of wheat. All of a sudden my bundle stood straight up and your bundles circled around it and bowed down to mine.” 8 His brothers said, “So! You’re going to rule us? You’re going to boss us around?” And they hated him more than ever because of his dreams and the way he talked.

He had another dream and told this one to his brothers also: “I dreamed another dream – the sun and moon and eleven stars bowed down to me!” 10-11 When he told it to his father and brothers, his father reprimanded him: “What’s with all this dreaming? Am I and your mother and your brothers supposed to bow down to you?”

[Grab your all reader’s Now his brothers were really jealous; but his father brooded over the attention with a great quote whole business. from the document or use this space to emphasize a 12-13 His brothers had gone off to Shechem where they were pasturing key point. To place this text their father’s flocks. Jacob said to Joseph “Your brothers are with the box anywhere on the page, flocks in Shechem. Come, I want to send you there.” Joseph said, just drag it.]

“I’m ready.”

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He said “Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are doing, and bring me back a report.” He sent him off from the valley of Hebron to Shechem.

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A man met him as he was wandering through the fields and asked him “What are you looking for?” 16 “I’m trying to find my brothers.

Do you have any idea where they are grazing their flocks?” 17 The man said, “They’ve left here, but I overheard them say ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph took off, tracked his brothers down, and found them in Dothan.

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18-20 They

spotted him off in the distance. By the time he got to them they had cooked up a plot to kill him. The brothers were saying “Here comes that dreamer. Let’s kill him and throw him into one of these old wells; we can say that a vicious animal ate him up. We’ll see what his dreams amount to.” 21-22 Reuben heard the brothers talking and intervened to save him “We’re not going to kill him. No murder. Go ahead and throw him in this well out here in the wild, but don’t hurt him.” Reuben planned to go back later and get him out, and take him back to his father.

23-24 When

Joseph reached his brothers, they ripped off the fancy coat he was wearing, grabbed him and threw him into a well. The well was dry; there wasn’t any water in it. 25-27 Then they sat down to eat their supper. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites on their way from Gilead, their camels loaded with spices, ointments and perfumes to sell in Egypt. Judah said “Brothers, what are we going to get out of killing our brother and concealing the evidence?

Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let’s not kill him – he is, after all, our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.

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By that time the Midianite traders were passing by. His brothers pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites who took Joseph with them down to Egypt.

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29-30 Later

Reuben came back and went to the well – no Joseph! He ripped his clothes in despair. Beside himself, he went to his brothers. “The boy’s gone! What am I going to do?”

31-32 They

took Joseph’s coat, butchered a goat and dipped the coat in the blood. They took the fancy coat back to their father and said, “We found this. Look it over – do you think this is your son’s coat?”

33 He recognized it at once. “My son’s coat – a wild animal has eaten him. Joseph torn limb from limb!”

34-35 Jacob

tore his clothes in grief, dressed in rough burlap and mourned his son a long, long time. His sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused their comfort. “I’ll go to the grave mourning my son.” Oh how his father wept for him.

In Egypt the Midianites sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of Pharoah’s officials, manager of his household affairs.

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BullyIng & the BIble

You might think what happened to Joseph could not happen today because people were such “barbarians” back then or something. Actually, the family was extremely wealthy and the sons were well educated for that era (look at how quickly they recognized symbolism in verses 7-8 and 10).

We’ve all felt jealousy at times. Like Joseph’s brothers, we may have even wished a sibling/step-sibling/half-sibling had never been born or lived somewhere else! You may not have siblings or ever experienced sibling rivalry, but I’m sure you can think of a friend or cousin that has had feelings like these.

There may even come a time in your life when people you know think they are better than you. There could be people who are mean to you for no reason. Or there may be people you know who get bullied.

There are different types of bullying too. It can be physical, where the bully physically pushes, hits, or hurts you in some way. Or it can be verbal, where the bully says mean things to you over and over. Or maybe the bully spreads a rumour about you that isn’t true.

Joseph had faith God was in control and would protect him. It is scary and hard when we are being bullied, and you may have asked God to protect and look after you, but the bullying still persists. In this case it is really important to talk to your parents, a teacher or someone you trust about the situation. There are times when adults need to step into the situation to help out.

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Plucky little Judah is confused. For some reason, the spotless, white-as-snow lamb believes he's a lion.

He even "roars" to prove his prowess.

His shepherds are not convinced, of course. They don't even notice. But while they make a pit stop in Bethlehem on their way to delivering him to a buyer in Jerusalem, Judah makes quite an impression on a rat, a motherly cow, a clueless rooster, a fearful and fainting horse, and an ill-mannered but wellmeaning pig with a snout for trouble.

Then, when Drake (the rooster) accidentally lands in Judah's travel crate and is taken away with him as the shepherds continue their trek, the other animals scramble to the rescue. While following the men and their precious cargo, they meet Jack, an embittered donkey colt who reluctantly joins them.

Once in Jerusalem, the barnyard buddies search for their lost friends and, gradually, learn the lamb's fate - he's to be sacrificed in order to set people free from their sins.

Judah doesn't know this at first, even though his mother hinted at it when he was taken away from her.

When he realises that dying’s involved in fulfilling his purpose, the terrified lamb struggles to escape as fast as his new friends hurry to rescue him.

Simultaneously, Jesus is enduring his period of Passion. And the animals' story is mingled with Christ's at key moments.

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John 29:1 … “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

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