Aim to understand the circumstances surrounding Father’s imprisonment,

Aim
* To understand the circumstances surrounding Father’s imprisonment, especially how rumours can lead to wrong accusations
* To learn from Father’s attitude towards wrong accusations

Materials
* Children’s worksheet
* Visual Aids:
– Father’s trial
– Father’s release from prison
– newspaper headlines

Lesson Outline
1. Introduction
2. Tell the story
3. Questions to Discuss
4. Activities – worksheet, Chinese whispers
5. Review the lesson aims
6. Prayer


1) Introduction
* Review the last story (Ehwa University).
Mr. Eu witnessed to his relative, Mrs. Yang, a music teacher at Ewha University. Because of her, over 100 students joined the church. But parents complained. The university told the students to leave the church or they would be expelled. Most students had no choice and left, but 9 students and 5 teachers refused and were expelled.

* Ask what sacrifice means. What sacrifices did the children’s parents make to join the church?

2) Tell the story
It was a difficult time for members when students were expelled, but things were to become much worse
The persecution got worse. Newspapers spread many rumours and parents wanted Father to be sent to court. He was arrested with six other members and sent to prison for 2 years. 
They were found guilty of evading the army, brainwashing and of being with women! But after 3 months they were found totally innocent and released from prison.

Key points of the story
1) Wild rumours about the church spread quickly through newspaper headlines
– “He’s a dangerous fanatic!”
– “Once you go in you never come out!”
– “Does he torture them?”
– “Are they locked up?”
– “There’s an electrical gadget for brainwashing!”
– “ You go through three doors and must take all your clothes off at the last door!”
2) One woman was determined to find out the truth. She dressed in extra layers of clothing, but nothing strange happened. Later she became a new member
3) On July 4th 1955 Father was taken to the police station for questioning and put in prison for 22 days
4) Later, Won Pil Kim, Mr Eu and four other members were questioned and treated roughly. They also were put in prison
5) On July 29th all 7 men were put on trial. They were found guilty of brainwashing, being with women and of evading the army
6) Father and Mr. Eu were sentenced to 2 years in prison and the others to 1 year for evading the army
7) While they were in prison, more wild stories spread, members left and parents kidnapped their own children
8) After 3 months in prison a new trial found them innocent and they were released on October 4th
9) On October 7th the church moved into a new building and had a big celebration

3) Questions to Discuss
* What is a rumour? – a story or assertion circulating without a firm basis of truth; gossip, hearsay
* What wild rumours did the newspapers spread about Father and the church? – dangerous fanatic, locked up, tortured, brainwashed, clothes taken off
* Were any of them true? – no
* Why did they spread? – newspaper reporters often added details of their own to make their stories more interesting,- fear – gossip – suspicion – ignorance
* Why did Mr. Eu feel bad that he had not stayed with Father at the police station? – He felt he had let Father down, and that he was no better than Peter, who denied that he knew who Jesus was.
* How many members were in prison with Father? – 6
* What happened to the church while Father was in prison? – the members had scraped together some money and, for the first time, they bought their own building
* What were they found guilty of ? – brainwashing, being with women and evading the army
* How long was their prison sentence? – 2 years for Father & Mr. Eu and 1 year for the others
* How long did they stay in prison?- 3 months
* How do you think Father felt when he was put in prison? – depressed? hopeful? worried? sad?
* What did he do? – prayed a lot, trusted God
* What rumours have your parents heard about our church?
* Have you ever been wrongfully accused of something? Explain.
* Who likes to hear gossip? Daily newspapers are full of gossip about famous people. Big shocking headlines make people want to buy the newspaper. Learning secrets about a public person’s private life is very interesting, and bad rumours are more interesting than good rumours.

4) Activities

* Play chinese whispers to demonstrate how easily wrong information can be spread To play, everyone sits in a circle, and someone thinks of a short phrase, and whispers in the ear of the person next to them. Each person passes the message on in this way, and after sucessive mutations, the phrase is announced, often with hilarious results. example.

WHEN THE TIGER COMES, FREEZE.
* Complete the worksheet by answering the questions
– How do you think Father felt when he was put in prison?
– What did he do? 
– Have you ever been wrongfully accused of something?
– How did you feel?
– What did you do about it?

5) Review the lesson aims
* To understand the circumstances surrounding Father’s imprisonment, especially how rumours can lead to wrong accusations
* Some people wanted Father in prison, whether he was innocent or not. Christians especially wanted this, because they believed what Father was teaching was false. 
* Fear, prejudice and ignorance all helped to spread rumours. Like Chinese whispers, as they spread from one person to the next, they may completely change from what was originally said. And these rumours made it very hard for Father to have a fair trial.
* Newspapers love big headlines with shocking stories. The more shocking the better
* To learn from Father’s attitude towards wrong accusations He never showed fear or despair. He prayed a lot and remained calm, even when things around him became hysterical. He trusted in God. He never got angry towards his accusers. 
He always encouraged the members. We can learn to have this attitude if people wrongly accuse us

6) End with a prayer