Assembly idea: deal or no deal, and the widow and son at Zarephath

Have you ever had to give up your last rolo?  This assembly idea is about giving everything to God, and just having to trust him.  It’s Sometimes only when you truly give everything up for God, giving him your last thing, that he is able to bless you.

1 Kings 17 verse 7 to 16.  The widow of Zarephath

Whilst I wouldn’t necessarily put it into an assembly, there are so many links in this passage to the widows mite; Jesus giving up his right to the throne of heaven for our sake; Paul’s statement that he should decrease so that Christ might increase…

For this assembly though I am teaching the children that it is perhaps easy to trust God for the simple things in life.  Its when things are really hard that we tend to hold onto them, to worry about them.  And yet it is then that God asks us to go that one step further and trust him, and it’s then that he blesses us.  He doesn’t want us to trust him for the simple things, he wants us to trust him for everything.  Do not worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need and when you pray always give thanks to Jesus (erm, Doug Horley song ‘do not worry’!)   – but it says somewhere in scripture…

Note:

I used sweets as the prize etc in the description below.  I would have preferred to use something else but couldn’t think of anything. If you have used small cheap ‘prizes’ that are not sweet based I would really appreciate knowing what it is: just add it to the comments box!

You will need:

4 boxes (I used some shoe boxes…I store all kinds of junk.  Just ask a shoe shop, often they will give them away).  You will need lids for them, or at the least something to cover them.

3 items of junk (I used an old plastic milk bottle, a broken pencil, and one of my smelly socks)

1 Tube or packet of sweets (you might need to check with the school about healthy eating)

1 packet of jelly babies/beans.

Put the 3 items of junk into 3 boxes, and into the last the packet of sweets, close the lids and put them clearly at the front of the assembly hall. Use a table, or get three people out.

ITS IMPORTANT THAT YOU PUT THE THINGS IN THE BOXES BEFORE THE KIDS COME IN SO THEY DON’T KNOW WHICH BOX CONTAINS WHICH!  YOU MUST ALSO REMEMBER WHICH BOX THE SWEETS ARE IN.

Put the jelly babies in your pocket or within easy reach.

Choose a someone who actually likes jelly babies.  Tell them that those jelly babies are now theirs to keep, and if they want to they can now go and sit down, you won’t stop them  but if they do that they won’t get to see what is in the boxes.  Once they start playing however, they must play to the end of the game.  Explain the rules of the game as follows.

They will get to choose which box they will open, and will get to open 3.  Whichever box is left at the end is your box, which you will keep.  They can (if they want to) keep the contents from all the boxes that they open.

Final rule. Give them 4  jelly babies and tell them that it is going to ‘cost’ them one jelly baby each time to open one of the boxes.

This is how you make sure that they DO NOT choose the box with the sweets in it: you are going to use a technique which is called a simple force known as the magicians choice.

Ask the volunteer (call him Bob) to POINT to 2 boxes.  If one of those boxes is the sweet-box, then move those boxes to one side and ask him to pick one of the remaining boxes.  Which one doesn’t matter.  That one he can open.

If he DOESN’T choose the box containing the sweets, you say that they are the boxes he has chosen from and you move the sweet box and the other box to one side, and get him to choose between the two boxes.

You see what we did there?  You get them to point, and then you say firmly what you are doing with the boxes.  It’s worth mixing it up a bit, even though it doesn’t really matter sometimes as the sweets aren’t in the box that they have chosen.  Also, play up with some ‘are you sure’ whenever it is easy to do so, and get everyone joining in.  That way you are involving all the kids and you are able to distract everyone fromwhat you are doing.

Say that if they want to see what is in the box they will have to give you one of the jelly babies.  Eat it when they do.

You now have 3 boxes remaining.  Again, point to two of the boxes (note this: it is point, not choose.  Choose implies that is the one that they want to open).  If the sweets are in one of the chosen boxes, move those two away.  If not, say that they are the two boxes he may now decide between.  Pointing again, and asking if they are sure.

Now you are left with 2, point again.  If they choose the sweet box, you say that that is the one they have chosen for you.  If they choose the none sweet box that is the one they have chosen for themselves.

If any of this is confusing, then think of it simply as a case of ‘heads I win, tales you lose’ and you will soon get the drift of what I am suggesting.

Remember to ‘charge’ them one jelly baby for each box they open.  By the end, you will have eaten 3 jelly babies and have in your possession and unopened box containing sweets, and they will have opened three boxes and have one jelly baby in their hand that they can go and sit down with.

So they win basically nothing, but give them a round of applause and get them to sit down.  BUT as the turn to go, with their one jelly baby, explain that you are in fact really hungry having not had much for breakfast and you would really like their last jelly baby.  Persuade them.  If they decide not to you will just have to tweak the last bit when you reveal what was in the box, but the chances are that they will give it to you.

As they sit down, say how wonderful they are…and then invite them back up again.  Say that you were really impressed, and they freely gave you all that they had.  So you will let them have what is in the last box, if they want it.

They are usually rather happy.

Point out that in the following true story, someone gives someone else the last thing that they had.

I tell the story from the point of view of the son, for whom it is a mystery why his mum is looking so upset.  He knows many peole who have died from the famine (explain what that is), including his dad (we don’t know this as it isn’t in scripture, but it fits).  Mum is sad to look in the empty meal pot, but he doesn’t know why.  She says she is going out to collect fire sticks, and he jumps out of bed to follow her.

He sees her talking to a stranger who looks well fed, and we remark on how unusual that was because of the famine etc.

The boy (Abe, or whatever) moves closer, picking up sticks and listening in.  The stranger asks for water.  No one does that these days because there is so little water.  It’s a polite thing to ask and give, but everyone has stopped doing that.  She turns sadly to get it.  Then the stranger asks for food.

At this mum gets really angry.  Abe has never seen her like it before, but isn’t expecting what comes next.  His mum yells at the stranger that she is about to make their last meal and then they are going to die.  Abe can’t believe it.  Then the stranger promises that God will makes sure the food doesn’t run out.

She goes back in the house, Abe is full of mixed emotions.  He watches the stranger.  Now he knows why he is well fed (so he thinks) – he goes round getting food off people who haven’t got any, leaving them to die while he goes on his way.

Some time later, his mum comes out again, and gives the stranger the food.  Abe is really angry now, and rushes into the house, it’s impossible what the man has said.  He reaches the jar down with the meal in it…

And it’s full.  So is the oil.

What the stranger has said was true…and it is true until the famine ends.

Make the point.

It’s easy to trust God when things are going well.  Or when we need to trust him for the small things.   When things go badly, and we are really worried, that’s when we don’t find it easy to trust God.  In the game, (Jake) had to give up the last thing he had, and in return got back so much more.  In the story, the widow had to trust and gave up the last thing she had, and got back so much more. God wants us to trust him for everything: Jesus said that we shouldn’t worry about anything.  What are we worried about today that we can ask God’s help for, and to trust him more?  Christians believe that to follow God we need to give him everything we have, and that it all belongs to him.  Which is why Jesus prayer ends with ‘for yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever”

If you are doing this in church, you could use the words of the Anglican offering prayer: ‘Everything in heaven and on earth is yours, and of your own do we give you.’

Footnote:

I come across alot of people who, for some very good reasons I guess, say that they have ‘done their bit’ when it comes to working with children or contributing to the church family life.  And it really makes me sad.  This story, and others like it in scripture make me think, we have never finished giving truly to God until we have given him everything, since he gave everything of himself to us first.

Shortlink: assembly ideas  the widow at Zarephath : http://wp.me/pDlJe-6J