Assembly idea: being there for one another. (help, working together, community)

This assembly idea is based on working together, community and asking for the advice and help of other people.  It uses two ropes in a kind of rope trick.

Many thanks to Andy Shaw of Blackpool for this idea that he uses in schools.

You will need:

Two long (5 foot) pieces of rope. This is particularly effective if they are of different colours – red and blue is great – but not essential.

You can use skipping rope from the school, but many schools are now moving over to speed skipping ‘ropes’ which are plastic with handles, so it’s best to check before assuming anything!  Otherwise you can obtain rope from a magic shop, such as Tricks For Truth (take a look round while you are there.  And if you want any magic tricks for your spare rope let me know and I will send you some ideas!).  At a push you can go down the local DIY store, but you will pay much more for it than if you had bought soft magicians rope, which is actually better anyway.

Follow the illustrations on the left for an explanation.

1) On each end of the ropes tie a loop which is just big enough to fit over a child’s hand.  Do that by folding over the end (about a foots worth at each end) and then tying both the end and the main bit of rope into a simple overhand knot.  That will give you a loop that isn’t a slip knot.  You should now have two ropes, and four loops.

In the assembly, choose two volunteers.  Have them face each other and one person puts the two loops of one rope over each of their wrists, the rope now hangs loosely between that person’s wrists.  We will call them ‘A’

2) The other volunteer (B) steps forwards. Put a loop of the second rope on B’s wrist, then pass the remainder of the rope behind A’s rope.  Finally, B put the loop of rope over their other wrist.  You should end up with something like the picture below, with A and B facing each other, joined by the fact that the ropes are linked.

The challenge is for them to unhook themselves without actually taking the rope loops off their wrists.

Let them struggle for a moment or so, and then ask them if there are any teachers that they would like to have a go.

3) The trick to this, if it can be called trick, because it isn’t magic or conjouring, but rather a puzzle, is to take the centre of one of the ropes, and push it backwards through the loop over one of the wrists and then the hand of the other person.  Again, the illustration will help (I’ve drawn the blue rope a bit bigger for clarity!).

You can make the point from this that we all need help from other people that know the answer. That we can just guess, but sometimes we need to ask for help.

There are a variety of ways of using the Bible with this one, here are some ideas.

• Asking Jesus in prayer – Luke 11.9
• Jesus promise to send the Holy Spirit – John 14.26
• Pentecoste – Acts 2
  The church as the body of Christ – 1 Corinthians 12

And the themes are

• Building up one another

Helping one another
Trust
Community

To name but a few!

Andy suggests that you get a nice cloth bag to present the ropes in so that you can ham it up a bit with the presentation.

Shortlink : http://wp.me/pDlJe-5p

p.s. if you would like an illustration drawing for you then please contact me at andyg@onegraydot.co.uk !  I will have to fit it round my regular schools work though…