From Christian scripture, John 6:1-19, New Revised Standard Version (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1990). A large crowd kept following [Jesus], because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples....

A retelling of a story from Cherokee tradition. When the earth was first made, it was very dark, and the animals were afraid. One day Bear said, “I have seen light on the other side of the world, but the people will not share. Perhaps we could steal some for ourselves.” The others thought this...

Compiled from a variety of West African and South African folk tales. Once upon a time two cousins lived side by side in a village. They worked together in the fields each day and returned home each night to share a meal and some fun in the evening. The young woman cousin's name was Nosa....

Genesis 1: 1-31; 2:1-4 (New Revised Standard Version) In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was...

Holding up an apple (or other fruit) as you begin telling this story provides a focus. If no one responds to your questions, or if the group is too big, you can give your own answers. If appropriate, slice the fruit and hand out pieces to students. Have you ever eaten an apple?...

In a time not so long ago and in a place not so far away, there lived a boy named Arthur Lismer. Arthur always had a pencil in his pocket, because Arthur loved to draw. He drew clouds. He drew birds. He drew flowers. He drew many beautiful things. And he drew pictures of stones....

In the land of Australia, where koalas climb high in eucalyptus trees and kangaroos bound across grassy plains on great big feet, a baby bird pecked his way out of his shell. His mother called him Kejaro, and she brought him good fruit to eat. Every day, for dessert, she brought him bugs. His...

Noah's Wife: The Story of Naamah (C) Text 1996 Sandy Eisenberg Sasso. Permission granted by Jewish Lights Publishing, Woodstock, VT, www.jewishlights.com.

Kylie groaned on the sofa. Her best friend Georgia was sick. It was Saturday, and the girls had planned to ride their bikes to Sundale Preserve that morning. But Georgia had a sore throat. Kylie had been looking forward to the trip all week. Sundale was her favorite place to go on weekends....

By Janeen K. Grohsmeyer. In the month of July in 1969, a gigantic rocket was launched into space. It sailed through the darkness away from the Earth, and it carried three people to the moon, a quarter of a million miles away. Two people got out of the spaceship and walked on the moon. It was...

Searle-White, Joshua. "… Side Mary" in M… Wanda's Travel Emporium: Tales of Love, Hate and Things in Between. Boston: Skinner House, 2006. Used with permission. In a medium-sized town not far from here, there was a middle school. It was just like any other middle school, except for two things.

Long ago, it is said, there was a mighty flood, and the People left their world, the Fourth World, the Underworld, and came up into the Fifth World, the world we live in today. They found themselves on the shore of a great ocean. The People broke into groups by clan and went out to find new homes.

A contemporary painter named Debora Jones-Buck has what many consider an unusual approach to her work. She prepares a canvas and then paints a picture on it. Then, when the paint has dried, she paints an entirely different image on top of it. And then another, and another. Eventually she puts the...

Pablo Casals, born in Vendrell, Spain to a Puerto Rican mother, is thought by many to be the greatest cellist who ever lived. His recordings of the Bach Cello Suites, made between 1936 and 1939, are considered unsurpassed to this day.

The Tenderloin district of San Francisco can be intimidating because of its high concentration of homeless people, poverty, prostitution, and drug and alcohol abuse. Tourists are cautioned to avoid the area. But where some people saw danger, two women from different faiths saw an opportunity for...

Adapted from "The Real Heroes and Sheroes of New Orleans" by Lorrie Beth Slonsky and Larry Bradshaw. Original story appeared in the Socialist Worker. The sixth strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast region in August, 2005....

Sarah Foster is a lifelong Unitarian Universalist who wanted to make the world a better place while doing something that she loved. What she loved was performing and making others laugh, so she became a clown. As a professional clown with Clowns Without Borders, Sarah has traveled to Haiti,...

We say the young have much to learn, but I find they know and do things unfamiliar to me, so I am pleased to learn from them when I can. Example: Two young college men asked me for a ride, because they were late to work. Their summer construction job was near my office, so I was glad to oblige....

Based on a tale told in the 1700s by the Jewish teacher, Jacob ben Wolf Kranz, Maggid of Dubno....