Writer: Ness Ma (Communications officer)
‘What is Myanmar?’
In a lively Sunday school classroom, children raised their hands for questions as soon as they saw the word ‘Myanmar’ on the screen. As the Cedar staff switched to the next slide, in which a map of Southeast Asia is shown, she told the children that it takes around 3 hours to go from Hong Kong to Myanmar by plane. The children waited for the next parts of the story while they were fixing their gaze on the map.
The staff members from Cedar were invited to go to Tai Wai Peace Evangelical Centre on 26th June to share the picture book published by Cedar –‘小希的月亮’, which was based on real-life events.
There were around 20 people in total, including the teachers and the Cedar staff, in the classroom. As the warm-up activity, the Cedar staff were teaching the students how to greet in different languages, including Cantonese, English, Japanese, Thai, Korean, as well as Burmese, in which ‘mingalarbar’ means ‘hello’. The classroom became more and more lively as it was soon filled with greetings in different languages while everyone was getting ready to listen to Myanmar girl Nor Too Hei’s story.
Nor Too Hei belongs to the Karan group in Myanmar. As her father was called to serve in the military, she was left with her mother and her younger sister in the family. When Nor Too Hei was approaching her 6th birthday, her home was destroyed by war and her family needed to flee; they even went into the forest during their tough journey. After a sustained period of fleeing, she happened to arrive at the Fullmoon Family Foundation, one of Cedar’s working partners, which is a place that is dedicated to serving young children and adolescents. She spent her early life at the Fullmoon Family Foundation until she was old enough to go back to her village and serve the inhabitants there.
The Cedar staff played some background noise of gunfire and running water, besides drawing pictures, during the storytelling session. All these efforts and effects not only allowed the children to fully immerse themselves in the story but also captured their attention.
After telling the story, the Cedar staff started to introduce the Fullmoon Family Foundation to the children and explained to them that everything in the story was not made up. Through showing and answering them simple things like the material of the floor, the way they cook rice and the structure of the bedrooms, the children began to understand how the kids in the other corner of the world live.
Miss Chow from Tai Wai Peace Evangelical Centre expressed that it was very effective in teaching the children how to love the Lord by loving and serving others, by showing them Nor Too Hei’s story through pictures and storytelling, as well as looking at the recent pictures of Nor Too Hei.
Through the sharing of the picture book – ‘小希的月亮’, Cedar allowed the children at Sunday school to understand the plight of the people living in Myanmar. Through this, the children learn the importance of having a Heart of Love for others in the world. We pray that the Lord will foster the growth of the Heart of Love in every child, so all of them can manifest God’s love through their actions.
If you also want your children to learn how to love the world and understand the needs of the people in other countries through picture story books, please get in contact with us!