Insights from participating in bibliodrama

As part of the training to lead Bibliodrama, we actively participated in a lot of Bibliodrama. In order to present a picture of the insights into the biblical text and oneself that this provides (as well as to keep a record for myself), I wanted to list some of them here.

To provide a bit of background, we used the following biblical texts over the four days:
- the lame man lowered down into the house where Jesus was preaching;
- the woman caught in adultery (John 8);
- Jesus cleaning out the temple (John 2);
- the parable of the prodigal son (also with the older son);
- the disciples being sent out 2 by 2 (Luke 10);
- Moses and the burning bush.

The following are some of the insights I received during the training:
- that the youngest son was not necessarily repentant
- that the older brother would have suffered from the rumours that came back about his brother
- that my interpretation of the text is not the only possible one
- that I find it difficult to watch when I believe people are using/interpreting the text and/or talking about God wrongly - this, I believe, is related to my desire to be both a teacher and pastor
- that Moses would have most likely been skeptical about the effectiveness of his being sent out by God
- that I would really like to heal others, so much so that I might miss what people themselves actually want;
- that it bothers me that people I have lost touch with people I have cared about and helped in the past (related to the work in the community, I imagine)
- that I have a strong sense of being sent out (thankfully as part of a pair), which is not surprising seeing as we're in the process of moving to America for me to become a pastor.

Incidentally, I also learned a number of new Flemish words. Being surrounded by Belgians speacking Flemish is probably not the most ideal way to get used to speaking Dutch again; at the same time, even if it was exhausting it was also very effective!