- Obtain a cardboard box preferably about 18 inches on every side. Place the cleanest largest side toward you with the flaps (closed) on the top and bottom. This clean side will become the computer screen.
- Take one BOTTOM flap and open it toward you. This will become the keyboard.
- On the top of the box there should be two INSIDE flaps on your left and right. These should be pushed down so they are resting against the inside of the box.
- The two OUTER flaps front and back will become a sort of printer. With the back flap staying in its regular position, depress the front flap just a bit so that a sheet of paper can be pushed up through the gap between the two flaps like a printer would do.
As
the excited kids were gathering up their tools and scraps the teacher
was putting little sticky labels on the back of each one of the Darla
boxes. It said, “Build a Darla Desktop Computer. Bring a box and
friend.” The label then gave the church address and phone number.
Just
before the children left the leaders told them to bring their Darla
Computers back next week to finish it up. They also needed to bring
with them a small flat rock so they could add their Rock ‘n Roll
Darla Mouse.
As
Dewey was asking if he could bring a couple of his fishing buddies to
help with the Darlas, Pastor Tony saw Larado looking up just a bit at
the children. Tony almost missed seeing one little girl come up to
Larado and hug his leg as strong as she could.
Healing
is often done with medicine, doctors, and hospitals. But some of the
best healing is achieved by a little one in Patton leather shoes and
a powder blue ribbon in her curly hair.
In
the following weeks the boys and girls learned how to mix flour and
water to make paste. The paste got used to stick pictures of things
on the Darla Computer box one of the most important was the picture
of a computer keyboard. The keyboard showed the alphabet in its
proper sequence across the rows from left to right, rather than like
the typewriter arrangement. The numbers were all in sequence too. The
arrangement was perfect for teaching young ones their ABCs and
counting too.
Pictures
colored on paper could be stuck to Darla’s front side (screen area)
above the keyboard. The picture might be of a missionary that a
pretend email is being typed for. Or it could be a picture of
themselves and typing in what they’d like to do for Jesus with
their Darla computer.
