Key Text: Matthew 25:31-46

Prepare: paper and pens; video on Tearfund website downloaded or ready to play.

Feedback from Act of Love:

Go around in a circle and ask anyone who is willing to say a few sentences about what they did in response to last week’s session.

Activity: Longest line

If you can do this outside or in a large room, it is easier.

Steps:

1. Divide people into two groups of roughly equal numbers.
2. Ask each group to form the longest line that they can from an agreed starting point. The only rule is that each person must be connected to the next in some way.
3. Explain that the team that wins is the one that forms the longest line and give them 5 mins from ‘Go!’

Key point: when we use all the resources around us, we can accomplish much more by thinking creatively, making personal sacrifices and working together.

If people do not eventually start using things that they have on them (like belts, scarfs etc) and things around, then you may need to prompt them to do so.

Questions to discuss:

1. What lengths were you prepared to go in order to make the line as long as possible?
2. What can this teach us about using our resources?

Bible study: The Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46)

Pray for God’s Spirit to bring this passage to life and enable us to engage emotionally as we are reading it.

Questions to discuss:

• Who do the sheep and the goats represent in this passage?
• Ask everyone to choose one word that describes an emotion they felt as you read the passage together.  
• What do we learn from this passage about how God views our response to those in need?

Key point: caring for the poor and the vulnerable is not an optional extra, but absolutely essential to having a right relationship with God.

Note: the passage describes the goats as people that know Jesus: they respond to Him by name, have some sort of relationship with him, and are shocked when not allowed into heaven.

Principles in Practice: Malawi

Case study: watch the following video about Eagles’ work (about half way down the page – you can also find it by googling ‘Standing the Test of Time Eagles Tearfund’ or on Eagles’ homepage www.eaglesmalawi.org) https://learn.tearfund.org/en/resources/blog/frontline/2020/03/standing_the_test_of_time/?fbclid=IwAR0KOILRYs93Nhzl02Ylr4sOdoleFCCb-vC6sGyv-M1lkCotiyViAg4mFmQ

What have we learned over the last few weeks about how to help those in need effectively and its implications for the organisations that we support?

What next?

As a group, take some time to pray together about where you go from here. Reflect on the steps that you have already taken and what more you can do individually and together to support your local community and international work.

You may find the following questions helpful when thinking through your response:

Individually

• Where am I currently giving my money?
• To what extent am I aligning my support to the five principles for helping effectively?

Locally (existing initiatives)

• What current organisations exist in our local area that are doing effective work?
• What skills and resources could we contribute to support them?

Locally (new initiatives)

• How can we listen to people in our community to identify a gap that is not currently met?
• How can we partner with a group in our community to find solutions that meet these principles?

Internationally

• What organisations should we continue or begin to raise money for that align to our five principles?
• What other skills and resources could we contribute to support them?