CHILDREN’S SERMON 1: Water
Supplies
Pictures from this year’s Week of Compassion offering posters of a water tap in a field, a young girl drinking from a cup, and a smiling man carrying grain over his shoulder.
Outline
• Ask the children to describe water. What does it feel like? What does it taste like?
• What are your favorite things to do with water? (jump in puddles, go swimming, take a bath, go fishing or boating, splash a friend or sibling, drink it, make watercolors for painting, run through the rain or a sprinkler, etc.)
• What does your family use water for? (irrigating crops, washing vehicles, watering the lawn, water for pet fish or other animals, flushing toilets, washing dishes and clothes, cooking, etc.)
• Water is so important and necessary to life that Jesus described relationship with God as “living water”! The church uses water in baptism, as a sign of that person’s becoming a Christian.
• Show the picture of the water tap in a field. Some places in the world have very little water, or the water they do have is polluted and cannot be used. How would your life be different if you didn’t have water?
• Explain that the Week of Compassion offering will help people get clean, good water — by digging wells, providing containers for hauling and storing water, and distributing water purification tablets.
• Show the picture of the girl drinking from a cup and the man smiling broadly while carrying
a bundle of grain. Explain that their villages got water because of money given to Week of Compassion. By giving to the offering, we can share God’s love with people and concern about them and help them get the water they need.
• Close with prayer: Thank you, God, for water and for being the “living water” that gives us life. May people in need know how much we love you and how concerned we are about them as the offering we give to Week of Compassion brings them water and the other basics of life that they don’t have. Amen.
CHILDREN’S SERMON 2: Acts of Kindness
Supplies
Bible passage and Aesop’s fable (see below), coin, Week of Compassion Coin Box
Outline
• Welcome the children and read Hebrews 13:16a — “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have.”
• Ask the children what the Bible verse means to them. Do they think they’re too small to make someone else’s life better by doing kind things and sharing what they have?
• Read the Aesop’s fable, The Lion and the Mouse (adapted) — Once upon a time, a Lion was sleeping when a little Mouse began running up and down all over him. The Lion soon woke up, reached out his huge paw, and grabbed the Mouse. Just as the Lion opened his big jaws to swallow him, the Mouse cried out, “Pardon me, powerful one! Please forgive me for disturbing you. If you will be kind to me, I will never forget it. And one day, I may be able to do something for you.”
The Lion was so tickled at the idea of the Mouse being able to help him that he opened up his paw and let the Mouse go. A few weeks later, the Lion was caught in a trap. The hunters who had caught him wanted to take him alive to the King, so they had tied the Lion to a tree while they went to look for a wagon. Just then, the little Mouse happened to pass by, and seeing the Lion’s sad situation, went up to the ropes and soon gnawed right through them, freeing the King of the Beasts. “I was right,” said the little Mouse. “No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.”
• Show the children a coin, and talk about how “little” the coin is. Then explain how putting a little coin in the Coin Box (which they should have received in Sunday School) each day can add up to lots of “little” acts of sharing and kindness. And when everyone’s gifts are combined and given to Week of Compassion, we can make a big difference in the world.
• Describe some of the brief stories of the ways Week of Compassion helps people. (Visit www.weekofcompassion.org if you need more ideas, stories, and photos.)
• Close with a prayer, thanking God for our little hands that can make a big difference in the world through small acts of sharing and kindness.
Other Story Options
God’s Incredible Creatures: The Gift of Sharing, Heather Soleim
Sammy the squirrel has found the largest acorn ever, and he doesn’t want to share it. On his quest to hide the acorn, he meets a few of God’s incredible creatures. Each one seems to have a special gift and soon Sammy learns that he, too, has gifts and discovers the gift of sharing.
The Kindness Quilt, Nancy Elizabeth Wallace
Minna (a young rabbit) and her class read Aesop’s The Lion and the Mouse in class. The teacher asks the class to perform an act of kindness, then draw a picture of it to share with the class. Because she performs many acts of kindness, Minna cannot decide which to illustrate — so she creates a quilt of pictures. Her classmates add their pictures to the quilt, and soon the whole school gets involved and the quilt moves into the hallway, where it covers a wall with many acts of kindness.
