LET S START OUR JOURNEY STEP

Transcription

1 01: LET S START OUR JOURNEY STEP

2 TODAY S STEP: Our journey begins with meeting our host family, then following Momma Nancy to the market. TODAY S BIG IDEA: Experience how God gives us enough to enjoy and enough to share by stepping into our host family s shoes and following in Jesus footsteps. Before you begin: Cover your table with burlap, a tarp or garbage bags. Go to stepintomyshoes/resources to print out one Child Card for each child participating, one Job Card for one adult, and the Market Cards. Put water into a bucket or pitcher and make it dirty. Cook rice and beans. Take out the Journey Map from the Toolkit or print a map of Uganda from the Internet. If short on time, do just the video, discussion guide and Soccer Ball Activity. Optional: Make African prayer bands you can buy strips of African fabric, each 24"x1.5". This is great for doing with another family or small group. So is Step 7. (Remember: For ideas to adapt this to kids younger than five or older than 12, start at stepintomyshoes.org/resources)

3 01: KICKOFF EVENT Say: In this experience, we are headed to Africa. Some of the children here don t have shoes, so let s join them by taking off our shoes. We will learn how to see the world in a whole new way, without leaving home. We ll do this by learning from a family who lives very simply and then by seeing how Jesus takes care of people. We re starting in the African nation of Uganda where we ll follow the story of Pastor Tom, his wife Nancy and their children. We ll hunt for water, have a sleepover and find ideas for other games, crafts and recipes in a magazine that s about kids from far away. At the end, we ll look for things in our own house that could help children near us or far away. Let s meet Tom and Nancy s family now: STEP 1: PART A WATCH WELCOME/MEET THE FAMILY Say: The last boy you met in the video is Isaac and he s 10 years old. While Isaac has enough of what he needs, that s not the case for everyone in his village. We want you to get to know what life might be like for a child who has to spend the day just finding ways to survive. Pick a card about one child who lives near Tom and Nancy who you will be for the next half hour. Go ahead and read their story out loud. TALK ABOUT IT PARENTS, take a Job Card, but do not read it yet. Help your children choose a Child Card, one per child. As you read the questions, wait for the kids to answer. You have now gone off to work, so your kids will be the ones who decide for the family how to survive today. What are some of the things you d need to survive? One of the most important things you d need is water. We can only live a few days without water. What would you do right now if you had to get water for your family? Another important thing you d need is food. What would you do if you had to find food? Say: Around the world there are places where children don t have enough clean water or food. Let s see what that can look like.

4 STEP 1: PART B WATCH FIND WATER AND FOOD Say: So now it s our turn to get water and food. PARENTS, you are home from work now. Read your Job Card aloud and share how much your family can spend. Say: Kids, you will gather enough food and water for today. At the market, every item costs 50 cents. Once you have made your choices for the family, we ll talk about it. If your family can afford the Market Cards for clean water, beans and rice, serve them. If not, have the kids bring empty plates and glasses of dirty water to your table. TALK ABOUT IT As you look at what you have in front of you, do you have enough? How does your water look? Would you drink it? What about the food? How do you feel right now? If you were this child, and most days were like today, what would you dream of being someday?

5 Say: Even though kids do need water and food to survive, these are not enough. Children in poverty often feel like no one cares about them. For them, feeling rejected doesn t stop at the end of this activity. It s their real everyday life. Having enough food and water helps, but children also need something else to get out of poverty. They need hope. But some do find hope, just like Pastor Tom s family has. They have seen God provide hope and care for them, and they take joy in helping others in their village. So how does hope start? The first step of our journey is seeing how God gives us hope when we belong to him and to his family. TALK ABOUT IT What are some ways our family enjoys being together? Say: Let s see how two of Pastor Tom s sons, Isaac and Joshua, make a soccer ball. STEP 1: PART C WATCH MAKE A SOCCER BALL

6 ACTIVITY Learn to make your own soccer balls in Explorer, page 10, or at stepintomyshoes.org/resources. To learn about how kids live very simply, see Explorer pages 4-6 and 15. Say: Soon, we ll be leaving Uganda and putting our own shoes back on. Before we do, let s pray for our journey. (Tie the African prayer bands on your wrists or someplace you will see them. Let them remind you to ask Jesus to guide you on this journey.) On several steps in this journey, we are going to pray the Lord s Prayer. This is a prayer that Christians have prayed together since Jesus first taught it to us. In it, Jesus invites us to ask God, Let your kingdom come, let your will be done on earth. When we pray that, we are asking God to show us how to bring enough hope in Jesus, as well as food and water, for everyone including people who live very hard lives because of poverty. We re also praying for the day when Jesus will make all things new. THE LORD S PRAYER Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Matthew 6:9 13 NIV

7 MEMORIZE On this journey, we ll learn four Bible passages that help us follow in Jesus footsteps. Try putting each memorize card on your refrigerator and helping each other learn: Matthew 6:9 13 NIV (Steps 1 & 2) Matthew 22:37 39 NIV (Steps 3 & 4) John 6:9 11 NIV (Steps 5 & 6) Mark 2:3 5 NIV (Step 7)