Easter story

One day I was walking down the street in Jerusalem, when suddenly I felt people pushing me around in a crowd. I heard a lot of shouting, the people were saying, “Make way for the glorious One!” and “Hosanna!”. I slowly made my way to the front of the crowd. And then I saw a man with a white robe riding on a donkey. I wonder who this man is. (John 12:12-19)

When I was heading home, I saw the Man, Jesus. He was sitting with His friends eating dinner. He had just finished washing their feet. His actions confused me since Jesus was the Lord and Teacher, and He washed the feet of His disciples just like a servant did. When I went closer to listen, Jesus said,” He who shares my bread has betrayed me.” I saw the disciples talking to each other and wanted to know who Jesus was talking about. Jesus answered that, “It is the one whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” And then I waited nervously, and saw Jesus giving the bread to Judas Iscariot. It was getting dark so I ran home. I felt a very strong wind which made my hat fly away.(John 13)

I’ve spent my day in a garden relaxing and I fell asleep. Then suddenly I woke up because I heard Jesus praying. I saw His disciples asleep. I went closer to hear what Jesus was saying. I heard Jesus glorifying the Father in heaven. He also prayed for the protection of the disciples since He will be leaving them soon. While Jesus prayed for all believers, I felt the cold, hard wind on my face, so I wrapped myself with the blanket and went back to my spot near a big rock. Then I fell asleep again.(John 17)

I woke up because I heard that Jesus was arrested. I saw the soldiers put a thorny crown on His head and struck Him in the face. They were leading Him to the place of the Skull to be crucified. Jesus was carrying His own cross. I knew that was heavy and wanted to help Him but I was only a small boy. I felt sad when they crucified Him and took His clothes. I saw Jesus’ mother at the foot of cross and some of His friends, they were all weeping. And then Jesus died, and I couldn’t stop the tears rolling down my face. I felt angry at the soldiers and the people because of their cruelty. I thought Jesus didn’t deserve this.(John 19)

After three days I went to Jesus’ tomb. Then suddenly I felt the earth shaking. “What was that?” I said. I saw the huge stone covering Jesus’ tomb rolled away. I peered to see what has happened. I went inside and saw that Jesus wasn’t there! Then I heard footsteps. So I hid behind a nearby bush. I saw Mary Magdalene weeping outside the tomb. I followed her inside and saw a figure in white talking to her. And then she cried out, “Teacher”, and I realized that it was the risen Lord. Jesus said, “Go to my disciples and tell them I am risen.” I was overjoyed that He had risen from death. I ran out of the tomb wanting to tell everyone the good news. (John 20:1-18)

(by Sam 5th grade p.1 Art & Writing)

Detectives in TOGAS

Rufus

by Sam

My character in Detectives in Togas is Rufus. The book was written by Henry Winterfeld and the story happened in ancient Rome. It is about the adventures of seven boys who went to Xanthos School together: Mucius, Cauis, Rufus, Publius, Julius, Flavius, and Antonius. All these young boys were a pupil of Xanthos.

My name is Rufus and the story began in class one day when I wrote “Caius is a Dumbbell” on one of my writing tablets. I then hang the sign behind my teacher’s desk for the whole class to see. I was angry at Caius for distracting me while I was studying. When Caius saw the tablet, he was furious and called me a son of a coward. I adore my father, Marcus Praetonius, who was a famous general at that time. My father had just lost an important battle, and so I was deeply humiliated with Caius’ words. We started to fight in the middle of the class. Xanthos whose nickname was Xantippus was very angry at us for fighting.

A few days after the fight with Cauis, I discovered that Tellus was pretending to be a soothsayer like Lukos. Lukos was a famous astrologist and seer who lived in front of our school. Tellus did not want to be arrested so he engraved “Caius is a Dumbbell” in the Temple of Minerva which was dedicated to the Emperor. He wanted me to be arrested instead. When two guards saw this, they immediately told it to the senator. Cauis blamed me for writing in the Temple of Minerva because of what happened in school.

The next day all the other boys went to school and noticed that I was missing along with our teacher, and Cauis. Mucius, Antonius, Julius, Flavius, and Publius kept on hearing a groan in the nearby apartment where Xanthos lived, and which was next to our classroom. Finally they looked around and found that the groan came from within a closet in the room. When they opened the closet they found our teacher in it. Xanthos told them that he was robbed and locked in the closet. After they heard our teacher’s story, my friends started their investigation.

I was actually in prison the entire the time my friends were wondering where I was. One day I wanted to send a message to my friends at school. So I told a servant to tell my friends to “tear the sheep’s clothing off a red wolf”. I was able to tell the servant before the guards started beating me. Back at Xanthos School, the servant hastily told everyone my message but no one could figure out what it meant.

My friends’ investigation led to Tellus whom they saw one day going into a bakery. Mucius and the others dashed through the back door where they saw two buildings: on the left building was the Baths of Diana while on the right was Lukos’ house. They saw Tellus waiting inside the house but when they entered the house they saw Lukos counting money. Lukos saw them and shut all the doors so they couldn’t go out.

All my friends jumped at Lukos but finally, Cauis punched him and knocked him out. Mucius then said that Lukos actually meant wolf and that the sign outside was in the color red. Lukos also had hair that was like sheep’s wool. When Lukos awoke he told everything that he wrote and that he pretended to be a soothsayer.

They discovered that Tellus wrote “Caius is a Dumbbell” and released me to my friends. Tellus was not arrested though, but killed because he was trying to escape. He fell into the Baths of Diana where there was no water in neither of the pools.

The End