The Big Catch - NCCG.ORG Ning Network Archive 2008-10

THE BIG CATCH
by Jennifer and Linda Sue Pochodzay Edwards

One warm, summer afternoon, Tomika and Naabu started
walking home from the mission school. They wanted to
stay for the afternoon activity class, but they knew
they should go fishing to help provide food for their
families.

Their friend, Kimisha stopped them. "Tomika! Naabu! Why
are you leaving? Can't you stay for the games?"

"We'd like to, but we're going fishing
instead," Tomika answered.

"Okay. I understand. Maybe you could stay tomorrow,"
Kimisha said with a grin.

"We'll see if we can. Would you like to come with us
today?" Naabu asked.

"I'd love to! I'll be right over. Let me get my fishing
spear, too," Kimisha squealed with delight.

They all walked gleefully along the dirt road toward the
fishing pier. It was a long walk, but they enjoyed it,
talking and laughing all the way.

As the three walked along, Tomika started humming one of
his favorite songs. Naabu asked Kimisha, "What is your
favorite thing we did today?"

"You know, I always enjoy the Bible stories the most,"
Kimisha answered.

"Well, I liked the spelling words that came from the
story today," Naabu declared.

"That's the only thing I don't like about school. I like
reading, writing, math, and all the other fun
activities, but I just don't like spelling," Kimisha
stated.

"Why not? It's not as difficult as the grammar rules for
English," Naabu added.

"I just wonder why I have to learn to spell words in a
language that's much more difficult than ours," Kimisha
answered.

"Do you think the missionaries at school thought the
same thing about our language?" Naabu asked.

"I suppose they could have. Why then do you think they
decided to leave their home and come learn a new
language and way of life?" Kimisha asked.

"Well, I can't be sure, but I think it has something to
do with the fact that they want to help us," Naabu
replied. "You know, teaching us things so we can have a
better life."

"You mean do what Yah'shua would have done?" Kimisha
questioned.

"Yes! That's exactly what I mean," Naabu said.

By then, they were almost to the pier, and Tomika spoke
up: "Look how beautiful the water is! There just HAS to
be a lot of fish today!"

And with that, they headed out to the water. They fished
for quite a while, but they didn't catch anything. Then,
when they were running out of hope, Tomika asked the
others, "Do you remember the story about Peter, James
and John in the fishing boat? I feel kind of like them
right now."

Kimisha asked, "You mean helpless and with no food?"

"Yes. That's right," Tomika replied.

"Maybe if we go a little further down the river, we
might catch something," Naabu said.

The three friends waded in the shallow water, splashing
and giggling till one of them saw some little minnows
swimming around their feet. "This is the place to be!"
Kimisha told the others.

Sure enough, they were able to catch enough fish for
each of them to take some home. They had such a good
time fishing together, they didn't mind that they had
missed the after school activities, and they made plans
to do it again the next week.

* * *

When Yah'shua was alive on earth, the disciples spent most
of their time with Him, listening to His teachings,
eating meals with Him, and helping Him with the crowds
of people that came to see Him. Yah'shua was the best
Friend they had ever had.

Of course, they were very sad when He died on the cross.
Then their sadness turned into overwhelming joy, when
they discovered that He had risen from the dead. But now
that Yah'shua wasn't there with them all the time, they
just weren't quite sure what to do.

Peter, who was always quick to voice his opinion, turned
to the other friends, and said, "You can do whatever you
want, but I'm going fishing!" He quickly stood up and
started walking toward the boat dock. The rest of the
group looked at one another and decided that since they
didn't have a better idea, they would go, too.

"Hey, Peter. Wait for us!" they shouted, as they jumped
up to follow him.

* * *

They put their fishing supplies and net into the boat
and lifted the anchor. They raised the sails so the wind
could take them to the deep water where the fish would
be. When they thought they had found just the right
spot, they dropped the anchor and threw the fishing net
into the sea.

They talked . . .

and waited . . .

and drew up the net . . .

but there were no fish.

Again, they threw the fishing net into the sea.

They talked . . .

and waited . . .

and drew up the net . . .

but there were STILL no fish.

The sun had gone down and it was already dark, and the
disciples were hungry and tired. Some of them tried to
convince Peter to give up and go back to shore, but
Peter truly enjoyed fishing and he would not listen.

While the other men were grumbling, Peter threw the net
into the sea AGAIN.

They talked . . .

and waited . . .

and drew up the net . . .

...over and over and over again, but they still never
caught any fish.

Some of the men were so tired that they laid down in the
boat and fell asleep, but Peter continued fishing. The
night sky began turning lighter shades of gray as the
sun began to rise and daylight appeared. They had been
fishing all night long. Peter thought he saw someone off
in the distance, standing on the shore, but he wasn't
quite sure. He began waking his sleeping friends.

Just then he heard a voice calling to him, "Did you
catch any fish?"

"NO!" Peter yelled back.

"Cast your net on the other side of the boat," the
person on shore replied.

* * *

Peter did as he was told. He threw the net on the other
side of the boat. Suddenly, to his surprise and
amazement, the net was full of fish. There were so many
fish, that they couldn't raise the net into the boat.

At that moment, John realized that the person standing
on the shore was their best Friend, Jesus. When Peter
heard that it was Jesus, he was so excited that he
didn't even wait for the boat to reach the shore. He
jumped right into the water and swam to shore to be with
Jesus.

The disciples sailed the boat to shore, dragging the net
full of fish behind them. As soon as they reached land,
they saw that Yah'shua had already built a fire and was
cooking fish for them.

Peter walked over to the boat to help the others bring
in the net full of fish. When they counted them, they
discovered that there were 153 fish in that one big
catch.

When they had taken care of the fish, Yah'shua called them
to come to breakfast. The fish He was cooking over the
fire was ready to eat and He also had bread for them.
Everyone enjoyed the wonderful meal, but they were even
more excited about being with their Friend Jesus.

* * *

REMEMBER: Yahweh can still do miracles!

THINK!

Who wanted to go fishing?
How long did they fish?
Who was standing on the shore?
How many fish did they catch?
Who cooked breakfast?

A VERSE TO LEARN

"All things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23b).

LET'S PRAY

****************************************************
"Dear Yahweh, thank You for loving and caring
for us. Help us to obey You and to believe
that You can do wonderful things for us.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen."

****************************************************

CAN YOU FIND THIS STORY IN THE BIBLE?
John 21:1-14

You can view this Bible story in full color with pictures and
resources to go along with the story at
http://www.childrenschapel.org/biblestories/bigcatch.html

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