Touching Lives - Spring 2006
Foundation Projects
Grant Kick Starts New Chaplain’s Program
A simple white sheet is laid on the floor, providing the backdrop for Sacred Story Time, led by LRMC Chaplain Rebekah Falk. Children from the Pediatric Unit are individually invited to come and share in a time of story, wonderment and art.
As everyone forms a circle on the floor, a simple gold box is placed in the middle of the group and slowly one at a time, items are pulled from it. The children are invited to talk about the items, touch them, guess what they
might mean.
And slowly a story emerges.
On this Thursday, it was the Good Samaritan. The children talked about what it meant to be a neighbor, how we could be neighbors to each other. Next week the story may be a different parable.
The goal of Godly Play is to teach children the art of using religious language-parable, sacred story, silence, art and liturgical action to help them become more fully aware of God’s presence in their lives. At LRMC this awareness can be crucial for both an ill child and the child’s parents, who may be feeling a heightened awareness of faith issues during a time of crisis.
During her residency at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, Chaplain Falk worked with one of the first Godly Play programs in a clinical setting. Knowing first-hand the benefits of the material, she helped introduce this curriculum to Lakeland Regional.
 She was helped by a generous gift from the Watkins Christian Foundation, which supplied all of the story kits and craft items used in the program.
Chaplain Falk explains, “The material was designed by Jerome Berryman who desired to pay attention to the threats children face. The materials allow children to explore those threats, whether it be the threat of death, the threat of aloneness, the threat of freedom or the basic need for meaning.”
Stories are followed by wondering questions. “I ask them if there is anything we left out of the story or if anything should be added,” says Rebekah. “Depending on the story, kids elaborate on the theme and take the story where they need to in order to work out their anxieties about certain threats.”
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