If
you haven't time to respond to a tug at your pants leg, your schedule is too
crowded.
~Robert Brault
Family
Closeness
Game:
Tapping hands
Each
person crosses their arms over those of the person next to them and places
their hands on the table. One person starts by tapping once and others follow
in order of hands in one direction. When someone else taps twice, the direction
reverses. If you tap out of turn, the game starts over. How many times can you
go around the table?
Sharing:
Would
you rather…
- How many people from different countries do you know? When might it be difficult to be friendly to someone who is different from you?
- What is the best thing that happened to you this week? What was the worst?
- What unexpected thing happened to you this week?
- What is something new you learnt today or this week?
Story
With your family read Mathew 15.21-28
Questions
for Discussion:
[This
can be a hard or confusing reading to hear. Jesus seems not only to ignore this
woman from a different religion who needs his help but says some seemingly
negative or antagonistic things to her. Is it possible Jesus knew how deep her
faith was, that she would not be discouraged, and desired her to demonstrate
this? In the end Jesus points out how great her faith is and gives her what she
wants. It is interesting that so many of the religious leaders rejected Jesus
but this foreign woman believes.]
- Why do you think Jesus ignored the woman at first?
- What was Jesus saying about why he shouldn’t help her?
- What do you think Jesus thought the woman’s faith was so great?
- When have you shown persistence and perseverance in your faith life?
Prayer
and Celebration
Actions
for a variation of The Lords Prayer
Our Father in heaven, [finger pointing up]
You
are a holy God. [open palm pointed high, head dipped reverently]
Come
and rule our hearts.[open palm brought down to rest over heart]
Do what’s best on earth [finger pointing down]
as in heaven.[rotate arm to point finger
upwards]
Please
keep us alive with food.[hand as bowl, other doing a scooping action to mouth]
keep
us forgiven with you[closed hand warmly rotating over heart]
and
forgiving with others.[same hand, finger pointing to all around in sweeping
action]
Keep us holding your hand[one hand into the
other hand]
and
safe from all wickedness.[two hands up, elbows straight and a firm shielding
action]
You’re in charge![strong action, two hands pointing up]
You can do anything you want! [both palms open out, raised]
You
are God, for ever and ever. [hands get further apart like measuring something
bigger and bigger]
Amen. [closed
fist brought down on an open palm].
Service
Anglican Board of Mission – Australia
One
mission organisation in Australia that does fantastic work is ABM-A. Their
vision is: ABM wants to see people everywhere experience the
wholeness of life God offers in Jesus Christ, and to this end support our
Partners as they participate in God's mission. Their
website is worth checking out and in particular under their resources menu is a
section called “watch” that has videos of some of the work they do. Some of
these videos would be appropriate to show family members around the table.
Bonus
Family Activity
Camp Out Night
If you own a tent, pitch it in the backyard one night and take the
family out there to sleep. Do some fun things like story telling and board
games. Do all the things you would do camping out.
No comments:
Post a Comment