|
STORY ACTIVITIES
VBS Day-2 Skit Video - ELCA World Hunger
Story Day 2 - Zimbabwe BIBLE STORY & JOURNAL TIME When we pray, “Your will be done, on earth as in heaven,” we are praying in hope that the world will be the way God plans for it to be. God’s “will” is sort of like God’s plan. In this prayer, we are asking God to make the world the way God wants it to be — and to help us be part of God’s plan too! In today’s Bible story, we will hear about how Jesus healed someone whose friends brought them to Jesus. Opening Activity For the opening activity today, read together the Lord’s Prayer (use the translation on the Lord’s Prayer cards or the translation preferred by your family or congregation). As you read the prayer together, ask children to think about what God’s plan for the world might be. Read the Lord’s Prayer and talk about the questions below. Questions for Conversation (younger children): • What do you think God wants the world to be like? • What are some things that you think God wants for everyone in the world? Questions for Conversation (older children): • What are some things that you think are part of God’s will for the world? (Examples: health, happiness, good, peace) • What are some ways God can use you to do some of the things that are part of God’s will? Journal Activity: Wishing Tree In this activity, invite children to think about their wishes for themselves and the world. As they respond, remind them that God wants what is best for them too — health, happiness, friendship and more! If hosting children online, give each child a turn to share a wish. If using a journal at home, write “Our Wishes for the World” at the top, and write or draw wishes on the pages. Bible Reading As you read the story today, think about what the four people wanted for their friend. How did Jesus help that person? Read together Luke 5:17-39. (For younger children, use an accessible translation, such as the Sparkhouse Spark Bible.) Questions for Conversation (all ages): • Why couldn’t the people get their friend to Jesus? What did they do to solve the problem? • How have friends or family helped you solve a problem? • What are some ways you might help someone who is hurt or sick? Prayer Dear God, thank you for your will for the world and for all the people you created to do your will. Help us be open today to seeing the ways that you are using us to bring healing and hope to each other and the world. Amen. |
CRAFT
Craft Connection:
Staying healthy by keeping mosquitoes away, as we learned in the story for today, is part of the path to a just world where all are fed. These candles use oil of lemon eucalyptus, which is an effective mosquito repellent. By adding a picture of a Sustainable Development Goal, you can make your candle a reminder of the work we do together. HOMEMADE CANDLES Materials needed: • Saucepan and a glass bowl to make a double boiler • Water • Cans or small galvanized buckets or mason jars • Markers or crayons • Sustainable Development Goal images • Globe image for each child • 1 pound wax (beeswax or other vegetable-based wax; will yield three pint-sized candles) • 1 cup palm or coconut oil • Wax-covered wicks • Oil of lemon eucalyptus (You will need 1 ounce per pound of wax. Note: This is not lemon oil and eucalyptus mixed together but oil from a particular type of eucalyptus plant.) • Hot glue gun or wick stickers to help hold the wick in place at the bottom of the container Materials: Here’s some information about the materials. Beeswax and some vegetable-based waxes burn at higher temperatures. So, you will need to add an additional oil to them to lower the temperature of the burn. A lower-temperature burn will help prevent glass containers from breaking. It will also help prevent the candle from cracking down the middle or pulling away from the side of the container. Both palm oil and fractionated coconut oil are great for this. As a general rule of thumb, the slower the wax burns, the wider the wick needs to be; the larger the container, the more wicks you will need. Directions: 1) Preheat the oven to its lowest setting. Meanwhile, in a double boiler, melt the wax. This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to one hour, depending on the type of wax you use. When the wax has melted, turn the oven off. 2) While the wax is melting, invite the children to pick a Sustainable Development Goal that they would like to pray about and learn more about later. Next, invite the children to color the image of the globe. If the children finish coloring early and the wax is still melting, this might be a good time to learn more about the SDG they picked. You can find child-friendly information about the goals here: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/student-resources/ Older children can be great helpers for the next two steps. For safety, younger children may need to watch. All ages will enjoy seeing the wax melt and cool. 3) After the wax has melted completely, add the palm or coconut oil and allow it to melt into the wax. Let the wax cool slightly, then add the oil of lemon eucalyptus and other optional oils. Stir well. 4) Place one wick in the bottom of a container and carefully add a couple tablespoons of wax. Gently push the wick toward the bottom of the container so that the cooling wax secures the wick. As the wax cools, it will go from clear to cloudy. 5) Place your containers on a cookie sheet and carefully fill them. After the containers have been filled, place them in the warm oven. Allow the candle(s) to cool in the warm oven for several hours, preferably overnight. This slow cooling process helps to prevent cracking as your candle cools. 6) Move the candle to a cool place for 48 hours to cure completely. Trim the wick to 1/4 to 1/2 inch. Attach the SDG image and the globe image to the candle. Next time you light your candle, invite those around you to say a prayer related to the SDG on your candle. To clean bowls that have been used to melt wax, reheat the bowls with a double boiler. Once the wax starts to melt, wipe the bowl clean with a paper towel. |
GAMES
The games here can easily be played with a small family or group. You can also use this time for other board games, outdoor activities or puzzles that can reinforce the theme:
Week 2: “Your will be done, on earth as in heaven.” o Game Theme: good health HUNGRY MOSQUITO Materials needed: • Cones or other materials to make a “safe zone” Directions: This simple version of tag can be used to introduce the topic of malaria, one of the most common and preventable illnesses that affect our neighbors around the world. Use the cones or other materials to create a “safe zone” at one end of your space. The players will start the game inside this zone. Choose one player to be the “hungry mosquito” who will tag the other players. To begin the game, the hungry mosquito can start anywhere it likes outside the “safe zone.” Start by having the players ask the hungry mosquito, “What time is it, hungry mosquito?” Whatever time the hungry mosquito says, the children will take that number of steps toward the hungry mosquito, leaving the safe zone. For example, if the mosquito says it is 11, the players must take 11 steps outside the safe zone. The players continue asking the question and moving until the “hungry mosquito” answers, “It’s lunchtime!” Once the “hungry mosquito” says it is lunchtime, the players must race back to the safe zone before being tagged. If they are tagged by the mosquito, they become “hungry mosquitoes” and tag others. (You can add an element of freeze tag here, too, by having the new “mosquitoes” freeze in place and tag only children they can reach.) The game ends when there is only one player left who has not been tagged. That child becomes the next “hungry mosquito.” Debrief: Trying to dodge the “hungry mosquito” was fun, but in many communities, avoiding mosquitoes is no game. Mosquitoes can carry a parasite called malaria that can make people feel as if they have a fever. Malaria can be very dangerous for young children and infants. Our church is working with other churches to help people stay safe and healthy. What kinds of things do you think can stop people from getting bitten by mosquitoes? [Affirm all answers but especially listen for things such as spraying to kill mosquitoes or using bug spray.] Churches help by giving people bed nets so that mosquitoes can’t bite them at night, spraying homes and villages to kill mosquitoes and making sure that if people do get sick, there are clinics nearby with medicine to help them recover. God wants us to be healthy, and churches around the world are doing their part. |
SERVICE PROJECT
• Talk with your church about ministries related to good health, from healing services to hospital visits. Consider volunteering as a family to write cards for members who are in care facilities or participating in a healing service for members of the community in need of prayer and support.
• Write cards or create a yard sign to show support for health care providers, including doctors, nurses and first responders. • Talk with a local food pantry or shelter about the need for hygiene kits. If there is a need among their clients, consider preparing hygiene kits that include soap, individually wrapped toothbrushes, a washcloth, sanitary napkins or other items that the pantry staff suggest. • Lutheran World Relief also sends Personal Care Kits all over the world. Learn more about creating these kits to send through LWR. You can even track where your kits travel in the world! |
|
SNACK TIME CONVERSATION STARTERS
Name one food for each color of the rainbow (fun to do as a round!). Where did the food for your snack come from? (Farm, processing plant, store, garden, etc.) Why is it important to have healthy food? |
More about Zimbabwe |
|
Mosquitoes can be pretty annoying when their bites make us itch. But did you know that in some areas of the world mosquitoes can also make people sick? In some countries, mosquitoes can carry a disease called malaria. Malaria can feel a bit like the flu. People with malaria can have
fevers and feel pretty sick. In the country of Zimbabwe, malaria is a big problem, especially for young children and older adults. In some cases, people can die from malaria. For people in Zimbabwe and other countries where malaria is a problem, being sick means you can’t work or go to school. If you are a parent or caregiver and your child is sick, you also might have to pay a lot of money to make sure your child can get healthy. That is why malaria can make it harder for people to feed themselves and their families. If they have malaria, adults can’t work to grow food on their farms or to make money to buy food. And if their children are sick, they might have to pay for treatment and the children might miss out on time in school or time with their friends. But there is some good news. Malaria can be prevented, and if someone has malaria, it can be treated with medicine. That way, the person can be healthy and have a better chance of not going hungry. Our church is working with churches in countries such as Zimbabwe to stop malaria and help people get the treatment they need to be healthy. 
In the village of Burure [buh-ROO-ray], the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe supports a health clinic where people can be treated for malaria, and the church is helping train people to be health workers to help people learn how to stop malaria. Jairos [HIGH-ros] is one of the health workers in the village. He teaches people in Burure and the villages nearby how to prevent malaria. In places such as Zimbabwe, workers might spray around homes to get rid of mosquitoes. Or people might put nets over their beds so that mosquitoes can’t sting them while they are sleeping. These are important ways to stop the spread of malaria and keep people healthy. But Jairos knows that being healthy means more than just spraying for mosquitoes and having bed nets. One of the ways that people can stay healthy is by earning money through work so that they can afford good food that helps bodies fight sickness, improvements to their houses that can keep bugs out, bed nets to stop mosquitoes at night and medical care if someone in the family does get sick. So one of the other things the church in Zimbabwe is doing is working with people to help them earn money. Working together, some of the women join groups where they put all of their money together and use the money to make more money. They plant vegetable gardens, they harvest honey from beehives and they sell the honey and the things they grow to make money that they share with everyone in the group. Then they can use this money to buy bed nets, pay school fees for their children and buy animals like goats and hens that can provide extra food for their families. They can also use the money to make improvements to their homes or to pay for medical care. |