{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The KidsMinistry.Blog Podcast","title":"Making Bible Geography Real for Kids","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/2d1a7ecc\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":327,"description":"Kid asked last week where Israel is. Showed on map. He goes \"why we care about some place far away?\"Fair question honestly.Bible geography feels irrelevant to kids eating goldfish in suburban America.Kids think everything in Bible happened same town. Jesus born Bethlehem grew up Nazareth ministered Capernaum died Jerusalem.To them all sounds like same place. Just \"Bible land somewhere.\"Pull up Google Maps. Show actual distances. \"Nazareth to Jerusalem like driving from here to...\" Name place they know.Suddenly clicks. That's far. Jesus walked that. No car no bus. Just walking.Kid's mind blown when realized Paul traveled thousands of miles without car. \"That's crazy.\" Yeah. Kind of is.Make comparisons they get. Red Sea crossing? \"Wider than ten football fields.\"Walls Jericho? \"Taller than our church building.\"Give them reference points from their world.Kid asked how long took walk Egypt to Promised Land. Forty years. His face. \"FORTY YEARS OF WALKING?\" Yeah. That's why complained so much.Pull up Google Earth. Find Israel zoom in show Jerusalem Bethlehem Sea of Galilee.Use street view if available. Let kids see what places look like today.Blows their minds these places still exist. Not just in Bible. Real places right now.Kid ask if can visit there. Yes people visit all time. \"Can we go?\" Not this week kid.Tape on floor marking locations. This corner Jerusalem. That corner Egypt. Far wall Babylon.Act out stories moving between spots. Walk Egypt to Promised Land. March around Jericho.Gets them moving. Shows distance. Makes geography physical.Kid kept running between locations. Told him Paul probably didn't sprint everywhere. He slowed down. Little bit.Desert not what they think. Not sand dunes like cartoons. Rocky hot dangerous.Show pictures. \"This what desert looked like where Israelites wandered.\"Kid asked why Israelites didn't buy water in desert. Because desert. No stores. No nothing. Just sun rocks and death.Call out Bible location. Kids run to that spot in...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/xu8CrUD0jOYW3q-sNtnfx2IPiu3EBLp3zZLXQnYwa-8/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS80M2I1/Y2MzODE4MmIwYmRi/NTNkZmEyZmFiYTQ4/M2JjYi5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}