HELLO AND WELCOME TO FUNSHORTS 

We have lots of fun stories for you to enjoy and some very silly characters to see so come on jump in and see what you can discover !

(Click here to read the stories in Polish)

The Sycamore Leaves

A long time ago there was a very nice sycamore tree living in a little town in the middle of the desert.

There were lots of leaves growing on the branches. Two were called Jacob and Rachel.

One day something seemed to be going on in the town. Jacob and Rachel leaned over to see what all the excitement was about. Lots of people were lining up as if a king or someone was coming to visit. I wonder who it is thought the two leaves.

Suddenly the leaves saw a small man dressed in red, stood behind the crowd. He was a thief and no one in the town liked him. He did not have one single friend. The leaves were cross and gave him an angry look. 

"What does that Zacchaeus think he is doing?" asked Jacob,
"he should stay in his house. He has no friends in this town." Rachel nodded her head in agreement. "Yes he is a bad man," she answered angrily.

All at once a man appeared walking towards the crowd. He had a kind face and was smiling at everyone. 
"Jesus !Jesus !" the people shouted loudly. The man called Jesus waved at the crowd and stopped to talk to some of them. His friends who were called disciples followed behind him.

The two little leaves wondered who this Jesus was? He seemed very special and important. Everyone loved him. Zacchaeus who was quite small could not see Jesus behind all the crowds and was very sad. He didn't know what to do when suddenly he had an idea. He would climb up the sycamore tree !

When Jesus saw Zacchaeus sitting in the tree he walked under the branches and said to him " Zacchaeus come down. I want to visit your house and talk with you." Everyone was so surprised and angry at this. Especially the two little leaves.

"Why is Jesus going to his house?" asked Jacob, "He is a bad man !" 
"He steals!" said Rachel.
All the people were frowning and cross that Jesus wanted to be friends with Zacchaeus.

The leaves and the people peeped into the house of Zacchaeus and watched as he began to cry and say "I am sorry for all my stealing and I will pay everyone back four times what I took from them".Jesus gave the little man a big hug and said "Today salvation is come to this house. You were lost Zacchaeus and now you are found."

"I don't understand? Why is Zacchaeus sorry?" said Jacob.
"And why is going to give back the money he stole ?" asked Rachel.
Then a brown sparrow joined them and started to laugh at them.
 "Why don't you know who Jesus is ?" he asked.
They both shook their heads.
"He is the Son of God and he loves everyone. It was his love that melted Zacchaeus' heart and made him sorry for stealing !"
"That's amazing !" both the little leaves shouted and it was.

(Based on the story from Luke19:1-10)

THE TWO LITTLE CATERPILLARS

Amy and Liam were two gentle caterpillars and they lived in a beautiful tree. They loved to climb and climb along the branches of the tree and then stop and munch the big, green, juicy leaves. They had a sweet and simple life and couldn’t imagine anything ever being different.

Until one day when they woke up in the morning and the sky was not blue but grey and the sun did not shine but Instead was covered with black clouds. “I don’t like this,” said Amy looking up with scared eyes at the darkness.

“Me, neither,” said Liam.

“What shall we do?” asked Amy.

“I don’t know. Let’s ask someone,” he answered.

“Excuse me,” Liam said to a passing bee, “what’s happening?”

The bee looked surprised at the question and stopped his buzzing for a moment to speak.

“Don’t you know? Don’t you know?” he repeated over and over again. “Very bad, very bad; a flood is coming; very soon; very soon. Fly away, fly away.”

“But we can’t fly!” Amy cried after the frightened little bee but he had already zoomed off.

The two caterpillars looked at each other. “We must try to go to the mountain,” said Liam “we may be safe there." 

"Yes," agreed Amy. "Perhaps the water will not come up so high. It will be hard though because the mountain is many days away.”

Together they began to crawl from branch to branch. It was very tiring though and they had to keep resting and eating. Eventually it was time to stop and they found a quiet little hole in the tree where they fell asleep.

That night the moon was high up in the sky and shone bright with all the stars twinkling around it. Amy had been fast asleep when suddenly she woke up. She thought she heard a voice speaking to her.

“Go to the ark,” she thought she heard the voice whisper.

She woke Liam up.

“There’s a voice speaking. I think it’s saying go to the ark,” she told him.

“Oh it’s just the wind,” said Liam.

Amy agreed it must have been the wind and went back to sleep.

The poor little caterpillars worked really hard every day. They would march along the tree branches; then munch a big, green leaf and finally have a tiny rest before marching once more.

At last both of them needed to stop. They were so sleepy.

“Shall we just have one more rest,” said Amy, her eyes almost closed.

“Good idea,” agreed Liam, “I am tired as well.”

They slept for a long, long time when a most amazing, wondrous, beautiful miracle happened to the two little creatures. They began to change. A thick blanket like a cocoon began to spin around their bodies whilst they stayed all cosy and warm inside. They lay inside the cocoon many days, quiet and still. When suddenly both the cocoons began to break open and Amy and Liam pushed their way out into the fresh air.

Oh they were bright, colourful butterflies.

“Look at me!” cried Amy as she flew around and around in circles.

“I can’t believe it,” shouted Liam as he soared up high into the air.

Then they heard it; both together this time. The voice saying the same thing over and over again:

“Go to the ark. Go to the ark. Go to the ark.”

“I heard it that time,” said Liam.

“But where is the ark?” said Amy, then smiling she continued, “We must fly up high and perhaps we will see it!” 

Together they fluttered quickly up to the tops of the trees. It was so easy now. On and on they went until at last right in front of them, they saw an amazing ship. It was the biggest ship in the world and there were lots of animals and they were all going inside.

As the two butterflies watched an old man called Noah came out of the ark. He looked up at the sky. It was getting blacker and blacker. He told the animals to hurry up and come into the ark.

Suddenly there was a huge, booming noise. Everyone including Amy and Liam jumped. They had never heard such a sound before. Then great drops of water began to fall from the sky. It had never thundered or rained before and the animals did not know what was happening. Amy and Liam fluttered down towards the ark and Noah.

“Amy and Liam?” asked Noah.

The two butterflies nodded and sighed as Noah stretched out his hand for them to climb on.

"Is this the ark?" asked Amy

"It certainly is," replied Noah, "we have been waiting for you! God wouldn't let us go without you. Now come and get warm and I will get you something to eat."

So Amy and Liam curled up in Noah's hand and went inside the ark, safe and warm from the flood outside.

(Based on the story of Noah's Flood in the book of Genesis)

The Praising Stone

Esther was a stone who liked to sing praises to God or so she thought; but she really couldn’t sing. In fact she sounded like a croaking frog or a screeching raven! It didn’t stop her though. She praised in the morning; she praised at lunchtime; she praised in the afternoon; she praised in the evening and she praised at bedtime. Her family did not like it.

“You need to give it a rest daughter” complained father.

“You’re giving me a headache,” scolded mother.

“You can’t even sing,” mumbled baby brother through his dummy.

Esther knew she wasn’t the greatest singer in the world but nothing could stop her. She had a friend who also liked to sing. His name was Joab and he was worse than her but together they screeched with all their hearts.

One day the family were by the walls of Jerusalem and there were lots of people running along the road. Everyone was cheering and clapping and singing ‘Blessed is the king that comes in the name of the Lord’ they said.

A man on a donkey came riding along towards the stones. Suddenly he stopped as some men began to shout at him.

"Tell your friends to stop praising you!"

The man looked at them and then pointed towards the stones.

"If my friends do not praise me then these stones will cry out!" he answered.

Esther's heart jumped for joy. She knew who the man was. He was Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. At once she began to praise him and then Joab joined in.

The rest of the family were amazed. 

"Stones CAN praise God!" said father with delight.

"My daughter praising the Messiah, I can't believe it!" sighed mother.

"Are you famous now?" asked baby brother as he finally shot his dummy out of his mouth.

"No I don't think so," laughed Esther, "but Joab and I will never stop praising God now!"

And they never did.

(Based on the story from Luke 19:29-40)

Ezra The Little Fish

Ezra was a little, little fish; tiny if truth be told. He was the smallest one in his family. He had hoped to grow bigger for many years but he never did. He pretended not to care but in his heart he was ashamed. He didn’t feel important and wondered why God had created him so very small. He compared himself all the time to every other fish he saw. 

“My how long and curved those fins are,” he said of a smart looking fish as it passed by. 
“I wish I could swim like that,” he thought as a long, slim fish darted above him. 
“How beautiful!” he sighed as a bright, colourful fish danced between the rocks next to him. 
“I wonder if I will ever do anything that matters?” Ezra said over and over to himself. 

Then one day something strange happened. Ezra met a little sardine. He was even smaller than Ezra but he didn’t think like Ezra. 
“You alright mate?” asked the Sardine confidently, who by the way was called Boaz. 
“Yes, how are you?” replied Ezra who was a bit surprised at the cockiness of the little chap.
“I couldn’t be better. I chased off a few fishermen. Tried to catch me in their nets they did, but I was too quick for them,” he answered cheekily.
“You’re very sure of yourself aren’t you?” spoke Ezra. 
“Yes why not? That’s the way God made me. Small but fast!” laughed Boaz.
“I wish I was fast,” answered Ezra sadly. 
“Well mate God made all of us for a purpose. You just haven’t found out what yours is yet!” said Boaz with a smile.

This really made Ezra think. God has a purpose for him. Unimportant little Ezra. All that week he couldn't get it out of his mind. What could God possibly have in store for him? It was actually because he was thinking so much and not looking where he was going that the accident happened. He was swimming between some rocks when something shiny and hard landed on his head. Ezra gulped in surprise and the next moment the shiny thing slid down his nose, into his mouth and plopped into his belly. He felt it rattling around inside of him. He really should have been quite upset at this but for some reason Ezra felt very excited. The feeling stayed with him all day and the next day. In fact it stayed with him all week.

Then one morning Ezra woke up from a deep, deep sleep. He had been dreaming. In his dream he had met a king. The king was thanking him but he didn’t know why. Ezra felt happy for the first time in his little life. “I think I’ll go for a swim,” he said. He never noticed the fishing line dangling in the water above, all he saw was the juicy bait in front of him. He opened his mouth wide and snap he was caught. Up, up through the water he sped like a torpedo. Then he felt his jaws being opened wide and a hand reaching in to take out the shiny thing. It was a silver coin.He looked into the eyes of the fisherman who was holding him and the next instant he was thrown back into the water.

Ezra swam around and around in circles for a very long time. He didn’t understand everything that had happened because he was only a little fish but he knew somehow he had helped someone. Maybe that someone was a king and after that he never did compare himself again with other fish. He felt special and no one could ever take that away from him. And we know how special he was don’t we?

(Based on the story from Matthew 17:24-27)