Hunger: All Age Worship with Prayer Stations

Story:

The story of Elijah up to where Elijah returns to speak with Ahab the king. The story included Elijah being fed by ravens and meeting the widow in Zarephath.

Bible reading:

1 Kings 17 verses 7 -16 Elijah and the widow at Zarephath

Adult reflection:

We used the personal story of a woman trying to feed her family in Africa.

Station 1: Hunger in the Bible

Words:

The woman at Zarephath had given up hope and expected that she and her son would die.

But she was still willing to share all she had with Elijah.

The words also included the Bible reading from 1 Kings.

Prayer Activity:

You may like to write or draw a prayer for those suffering hunger and poverty and place it in the basket.

It will be prayed during the week.

Station 2: Hunger Facts

Words:

The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed and one-third is starving.

One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5.

These and other facts about hunger from the World Health Organisation were displayed on the board.

In front was a bowl of rice, a typical meal for those living at subsistence level.

Activity:

What can we do to stop world hunger: As a country? As a church? As individuals? People were invited to write or draw their ideas on post it notes and add them to the board.

Station 3: Feeding the hungry

Words:

Recipes for Nshima - the staple dish of Zambia which is based on cornmeal - and for Rep (or Rape) which is a green leaf dish to accompany Nshima were displayed alongside the dishes themselves. Everyone was invited to sample the food.

I adapted the recipes from here: Nshima and here: Rep

Activity:

One basket held pictures of a variety of foods, while the other held pictures just of rice and vegetables. The children were invited to stick them on to make two contrasting paper plates – one for the well fed and one for the hungry.

Station 4: Rose's story

I brought along my laptop which had on it a power point showing the story of Rose, a Rwandan orphan and the difference a cow has made to her family.

It was taken from the Send a Cow website.

How well did it work?

This was our second all age service with prayer stations and in contrast to our first one where we had no children, this time we had ten.

Apart from the 2 year old they were very reluctant to try the cornmeal dish, the Nshima – though the vegetable dish had more takers.

We had expected the younger children to do the sticking craft activity and the older ones to use the computer – but the reverse was true: the 5 year olds went straight to the computer, while the 11 year olds got stuck into sticking food pictures onto the paper plates!

Following the reflection, the adults had an impromptu discussion about world hunger.