Clueless Clay

Just a quick browse at the children bible stories in the library, I see some challenges in authoring bible stories.

1. Tailoring to the Right Age – Preschoolers and older children have different language skill levels. I decided to focus on the preschooler age because one of the objectives of my bible stories is to teach elementary Chinese with Pinyin. Since the Chinese must match the English in any bilingual book, it follows that the English has to be elementary too. Moreover, in serving church ministry that involves storytelling, the focus is not on the language but rather on the animation and simplicity.

2. Lack of Illustration – With no immediate plan to do my own illustration or engage a third party, I have to choose bible stories which can be accompanied by any bible storybook my reader may have at home. However, this brings about the biblical dilemma.

3. Leaving out parts of the bible – As mentioned earlier, Deuteronomy 4:2 state that “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you”. By leaving out parts of the bible which do not fall under ‘story –tell-able’ content or those which my reader is unlikely to have the illustration in their bible storybook at home, am I guilty of subtracting from the bible at my own discretion? This, I have to pray as I go along.

4. Adding animated conversation – From the quick browse, I noted that different authors include conversations to animate the bible in varying degrees. Should I do the same and will I then be guilty of adding to the bible at my own discretion? This, I have to pray but I intend to minimize the animated conversations.

5. Subtracting the controversial – I noted that Rahab was cited as a woman in some bible stories while as a prostitute in others. I believe that the bible specifically mentioned her as a prostitute for a reason and it would not be right for me to change it. Moreover, in the case of my church ministry, there is no issue in mentioning prostitute to the elderly. However, I understand that it may be difficult for parents to explain to their children the meaning of prostitute. This, I will find a solution.

So much for the challenges, got to take a breather before further update. Pray for me.