Natural Disasters - 27th Jan 2013

The theme for this week's Pioneers session was chosen by them some time ago and was on the subject of natural disasters.

To remind our selves of some of the natural disasters that happen, we watch the effects of an earthquake, tsunami, land slide and valcano.  These provoked responses from the young people, including the comment that one school describes them as “natural evils”!  It was interesting to that some of the friends of the young people saw humour when watching humans affected by natural disasters, something that the film industry may be responsible for in films such as “The Day After Tomorrow”. 

 

They all felt that, if faced in these situations, that they would first scream, panic and then try to run away.  This reflects human nature unless trained like the school children of San Francisco.

The thought that a natural disaster is God’s way of telling us to care for his creation was mentioned, which has a degree of possibility.  However, the four Bible passages clearly told us that it is God’s earth.  The fact that the earth is still changing, tells us that creation was not a “one off event”.

We concluded with the idea that a natural disaster is a way for us to show God’s love in the way we respond.  Activities like praying and financial support were agreed upon.

The craft for ths week was to make a small glode either to reflect the world as it is or to reflect the types of events that contine to shape the world today.  Below are some pictures of the craft activity: -

Sunday 6th Jan 2013

For our first meeting in 2013, we took the opprotunity to enter the competion to submit a prayer or picture based on "hope" for the 2013 / 2014 Prayer Handbook.

First we tried to image how much hope we would have if we were ship wrecked, alone, on an island.  We then answered the following: -

Hope is: - 1) A feeling it might happen, 2) believing in something and 3) something that you want.

Having hope makes you feel: -     1) Less desperate, 2) expectant and 3) excited.

My big hopes are: - 1) Passing college exams, 2) Mum having a healthy baby and it being a sister and 3) getting a new DS3 charger (and a new sister!).

We then looked at whether Jesus "as light" offers hope the Christians and the world.  This was followed by the chance to write a prayer to thank God for the hope he gives or to draw a picture to express the hope we had.  Here are the pictures drawn: -

This picture has two possible views.  The first is hope for sunny weather for the summer of 2013 or hope for being rescued from the first activity.

This picture is based on Pandora’s Box and has the text “Don’t let hope be trapped inside you, let it be free”.

This picture starts on the left with a bridge over water that leads to a better place.

Maureen, who was the adult helper, picture is base around hope for new life at Easter