Additional Resources

Number of players needed: Anywhere from 2 to 12. You can adapt the parts of Player 1 and Player 2 however you wish, based on the number of people participating. The parts aren't gendered or age-specific, so you have a lot of leeway.

Props needed: a shoebox wrapped with 10 layers of wrap. (It's great if every layer is different, because the contrast will catch people's eyes. As far as paper, the brighter the better. It might be interesting to use newspaper, brown grocery bags, or something similar for some of your layers, signifying that our gifts don't necessarily have to be fancily-wrapped to be useful.)

(Variation: You could also substitute 10 boxes for the 10 layers of wrap for a grander visual statement - if you've got the resources and the room for all those boxes in your performance space!)

Scripture References (NRSV): In order: Psalm 68:6a; Psalm 119:130a; Isaiah 54:10; Psalm 23:4a; Exodus 15:26b; 1 Peter 4:10b.

Player 1 and Player 2 enter the performance space, where the gift is waiting on a chair. Player 1 and Player 2 stand on either side of the chair, regarding the gift for a moment. Each, in turn, picks up the gift for a moment, examines it, and sets it back down. They continue to regard the gift. After the scene is "set," Player 1 picks up the gift and unwraps the first layer.

Player 1 (after unwrapping the first layer, then examining the gift closely): In Bosnia, 1 million people were displaced because of war between 1992 and 1995.

(Player 1 sets the gift back on the chair. After a moment, Player 2 picks up the gift. This pattern continues throughout the piece. **Note: If you decide to use more players, you may alter stage directions as befits your idea. One possibility could be to have the players standing in a single line, passing the gift from one player to the next.)

Player 2 (after unwrapping the 2nd layer): God gives the desolate a home to
live in.

Player 1 (after unwrapping the 3rd layer): 52% of adults in Haiti cannot read.

Player 2 (after unwrapping the 4th layer): The unfolding of your words gives light.

Player 1 (after unwrapping the 5th layer): In India and El Salvador, earthquakes killed thousands and left thousands more homeless in 2001.

Player 2 (after unwrapping the 6th layer): The mountains may depart and the hills may be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed.

Player 1 (after unwrapping the 7th layer): 1 in 4 children in Mozambique dies from curable infectious diseases before the age of 5.

Player 2 (after unwrapping the 8th layer): I am the Lord who heals you.

Player 1 (after unwrapping the 9th layer): There are 8 million people in Cambodia. There are 8 million land mines in Cambodia.

Player 2 (after unwrapping the 10th layer): Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

Player 1 and 2 look at the box, then pick it up and look inside together. (Note: A shoebox with an attached top might work better than one with an unattached top.)

Player 1: Serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.

Player 2: Week of Compassion. Please Give Generously.

(elementary age [but can be adapted for use with older groups]; best if done in a group of at least 10 people)

Materials: One ball of yarn

A net is an interesting device. It has holes in it, yet its purpose is to be filled. Can you think of something that can fill up a net?

When a net is empty, it doesn't mean very much. But when a net is filled with fish, it means that people have work (fishermen/women), food (fish to eat), and trade (selling/bartering fish at the market or in the neighborhood).

There are lots of other empty things that mean more when they're filled:

. . . a cup. How can you fill it?
. . . a bowl. How can you fill it?
. . . a stomach. How can you fill it?
. . . a hand. How can you fill it?
. . . a heart. How can you fill it?

Can you think of others? (Allow the children to brainstorm as long as they'd like.)

Who needs filling? (Everybody does!)

Who does the filling? (God, through God's grace; and we do the work of God when we help fill others or when we receive from those who would give to us.)

The Bible says, "Serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received." What's something you have that you could give to "fill" someone else?

Let's make our very own net to be filled.

Stand in a circle. Group facilitator will have the ball of yarn.

We're in a circle, just like the world is a big circle. We're going to make a net big enough to cover the whole world and all the beautiful people in it! Our net will have holes, but it will be full of whatever you choose to give to your friends around the world. And you can imagine them standing in a circle, giving back to you.

How to Do It: The Group Facilitator holds the end of the yarn with one hand. She or he names one thing she or he could give to a friend in need.

After that, the facilitator will say the name of a person in the circle and throw that person the yarn - making sure to keep holding the end of the yarn with the non-throwing hand. This process is repeated until the last person has gone, with each person receiving the yarn ball one time only. The ball of yarn is then thrown back to the facilitator.

**Make sure the children understand that they need to keep holding onto the yarn, or else the net will collapse.** Facilitator's Note: Encourage the children to think of gifts they could give that go beyond material gifts.

Look at our net. There are holes in it, yet our hands are filled. And all of the threads connect: they depend on one another for the net to have its shape and to do its job. Giving and receiving is like that, too - like a big circle, a wheel that never stops turning.

When we give, how are our hands filled? How are they joyfully emptied?
When we receive, how are our hands filled? How are they joyfully emptied?

HOW MANY PEOPLE . . . ACTUAL WORLD PERCENTAGE
1. . . . live in each world region?
Africa 12%
Asia (including Pacific Islands) 55%
North America 5%
Latin America (including Mexico) 8%
Europe 10%
Middle East 4%
Former USSR 5%

2. . . . have drinking water at home? 30%

3. . . . know how to read? 35%

4. . . . go to bed hungry? 20%

5. . . . use 80% of the world's energy? 7%

6. . . . own 80% of the world's farmland? 4%

7. . . . are under 15 years of age? 33%

8. . . . are over 64 years of age? 6%

9. . . . have a college education? 1%

10. . . . speak English? 8%

Get the group to sit in a big circle.

For the activity, the group facilitator will ask for the number of groupmembers who represent the world percentage to come forward and stand in the middle. (For example, if your group has 40 people and you wanted to find 30%, you would calculate 30% of 40, or 12 people.) When that group gets in the center, the facilitator hands them a card to read. One group member will read aloud what the group represents - i.e. "We are the only people in the world who have drinking water at home."

Facilitation Note: If you want, you can do number 1 first and get lots of people up and moving to gain a sense of the world and its people. Then everyone can sit down and you can go into numbers 2-10.

After you are finished, open up the floor for discussion.

How does the distribution of people all over the world make you feel?

How does the distribution of benefits in the world make you feel? Why do you think some people have more than others?

How can we have a world where 100% of the world's people have 100% of the world's benefits? (If you like, you can have newsprint and markers available for participants to brainstorm, draw, or otherwise envision an equal world.)

What's hard about trying to create such a world?

What can you do, individually, to create such a world? When will you start?
How?

Can the top 10% receive anything from the bottom 90%? Can the bottom 10% give anything to the top 1%? If so, what? And how can this happen?

Facilitator's Note: It may become easy for the group to focus on the "bad" top percentages and the "good" bottom percentages - or the "hard-working" top percentages and the "lazy" bottom percentages - or even the "Western" top percentages and the "Third World" bottom percentages. There may be a tendency for groups to separate the problem into neat, binary compartments. But there aren't any easy answers with this exercise.

Materials: Construction paper, pencils, scissors, crayons, markers
Week of Compassion posters (to reinforce the theme)

What are some jobs our hands can do?

What kinds of jobs are these hands doing in the posters?

What are some things our hands can do or make that will help other people?

Hands are also for receiving. What are some things you would like to receive?

Facilitator's Note: Children may naturally tend toward material items here. Encourage them to think about intangible things they might also give and receive.

We're going to use our hands to make blessings for others.

How to do it: Have everyone trace his/her hand onto a piece of construction paper and cut out. (Small children or older adults with arthritis may need some help here.) Participants can make more than one - the more sharing, the better!

On one side of your hand, write a physical action or deed that you can do that will help someone else. (Examples: "I will bake bread for people to eat." "I will hold the hand of someone who is lonely or scared."

On the other side, write an intangible blessing you would like to offer someone else. (Examples: "I would like to give courage to someone in a war-torn country." "I would like to give understanding to someone who feels misunderstood." You don't have to write the whole phrase--courage or understanding will work just as well.)

On one side of your hand, write a physical action or deed that would benefit you that you would like to receive. (Examples: "I would like someone to teach me how to grow a garden." "I would like someone to read to me.")

On the other side of your hand, write an intangible blessing you would like to receive from someone else. (Examples: "Healing." "Peace.")

Saint Teresa of Avila wrote:

Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion looks out to the world;
Yours are the feet with which he goes about doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he blesses people now.

You may choose to keep your hands as a blessing for yourself or to give them away as a blessing for others. Either is wonderful, because we are all blessed to be givers and receivers within God's abundant grace.

Facilitator's Note: If you want, you might also have a time during the service when folks place their hearts in a basket or bowl in the sanctuary. Anyone who would like a blessing would be welcome to draw one out.