Girl Scout Retreat

Heart to Heart 2002

5^th-6^th Grade Small Group Material:

Teach Love

* Sit in a circle so that everyone can be seen.

* Have everyone go around and say their first name and favorite breakfast cereal.

* Now have everyone stand up and line up in order of the first letter of their first name, A to Z.

* Now have everyone line up tallest to shortest.

* Then try other ways to line up, in rainbow order of t-shirt colors, first letter of last name, birth month, etc.

Do you guys remember what we did earlier?

What part did you guys like the best?

Can you remember what the YARPs were fighting about?

Could you see what was dividing our group?

Did we think about each other's feelings?

How could we have been nicer about the situation?

How did it make you feel when they were angry with one another?

Do you think they set a good example when they were yelling?

What would be a better way to solve problems, rather than yelling and calling names?

A Game With a Point: Hidden Leader

* Return to the circle formation, but everyone can sit down.

* Ask for a volunteer to sit in the middle.

* Explain that the volunteer will close their eyes while the leader points to one person, who is designated as the "sign starter." This sign starter will choose a hand motion (silent motions work better than clapping or snapping) that everyone else will follow. Explain that the object is to get the rest of the group to follow so quickly that the sign starter won't know who began the sign. The sign starter may change the sign at any time, but the object is that they do not want to be detected. The volunteer will get three tries to guess who is starting the motions.

* Ask the volunteer in the middle to close their eyes while the leader selects the sign starter.

* Change volunteers and sign starters a few times and end the game while the girls are enjoying it!

Was it frustrating to be in the middle? Were you left out?

Was it hard to "follow the leader?" Was it easy to catch on?

Tell the girls, "Notice how quickly everyone caught on. It was fun to follow the leader. Our actions are like this—people notice what we do and follow our lead. If we develop good habits and show love to others, think how far-reaching the effects might be!"

"Now we are going to read a story about a man named Jesus, who is our best example of showing love to others."

Explain that there will be actions or motions to go along with some of the key words in the passage.

Samaria/ Samaritan (a person from Samaria): "Ew! Bleah!"

Well: "Gurgle, gurgle."

Noon: pant and wipe sweat off of brow

Woman: sign language for beautiful—sweep hand in front of face

Water: "Ah!"

Drink: "Glug, glug."

Jesus: sign language sign for Jesus, pointing to nail marks in hands (explain why nail marks are significant in simple language)

Jew: praying hands

Adapted from John 4: 4-42, The Message:

"Jesus was leaving the Judean countryside and was on his way to Galilee when he had to pass through Samaria. He came into Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was still there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon.

A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, "Would you give me a drink of water?"

The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, "How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" (Jews in those days wouldn't be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)

Jesus answered, "If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water."

The woman said, "Sir, you don't even have a bucket to draw water with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this 'living water'? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and his livestock, and passed it down to us?"

Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring from within, gushing fountains of endless life."

The woman said, "Sir, give me this water so I won't ever get thirsty, won't ever have to come back to this well again!"

He said, "Go call your husband and come back."

"I have no husband," she said.

"That's nicely put: 'I have no husband.' You've had five husbands, and the man you're living with now isn't even your husband. You spoke the truth there sure enough," Jesus said.

Just then, Jesus' disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn't believe he was talking to that kind of a woman. No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it.

The woman took the hint and left. In her confusion, she left her water pot. Back in the village, she told the people, "Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out!" Jesus stayed a few more days in their town, and many people came to believe in Jesus as a result of the woman's witness."

Did you notice how Jesus talked to a woman he wasn't supposed to talk to?

Why was it weird for Jesus to talk to the woman? (You may have to explain that Jews didn't speak to Samaritans, and also the woman had a checkered past, which is what brought her to the well at noon, so that she could avoid seeing the other women who talked badly about her.)

Do you think he was nervous that someone might think bad about him?

Did you notice anyone who did think bad about him? (the disciples)

Why do you think Jesus did it anyway?

What can we learn from Jesus' example? (to be kind to people, to look past cultural/racial/social boundaries, to tell people about Jesus)

Ask, "What do lights do for us?" (show us the way, the right/safe/good way to go)

Explain that when a person does something that is good, we call that person a light, because by their actions, we can see what is good. One way for us to share love is to be a reflector of light.

* Give every girl a mirror.

* Turn off lights in the room and turn on the lamp in the center of the room. Point it so that it gives out the most light possible.

* Tell the girls that there are red stickers hidden around the room and the object of this activity is for them to use their mirror to reflect the light from the lamp to find as many of these red stickers as possible. They must direct the light from the lamp onto the red sticker in order to consider it "found." Tell them to keep count in their heads of how many stickers they find.

* Come back together after a few minutes or when everyone seems to have found as many stickers as they want to find. Know how many stickers there were to be found. See who found the most. Now read the story.

"Dr. Papaderos, what is the meaning of life?"

The usual laughter followed, and people stirred to go.

Papaderos held up his hand and stilled the room and looked at me for a long time, asking with his eyes if I was serious and seeing from my eyes that I was.

"I will answer your question."

Taking his wallet out of his hip pocket, he fished into a leather billfold and brought out a very small round mirror, about the size of a quarter.

And what he said went like this:

"When I was a small child, during the war, we were very poor and we lived in a remote village. One day, on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place.

"I tried to find all the pieces and put them together, but it was not possible, so I kept the largest piece. This one. By scratching it on a stone, I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine—in deep holes and crevices and dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find.

"I kept the little mirror, and, as I went about my growing up, I would take it out in idle moments and continue the challenge of the game. As I became a man, I grew to understand that this was not just a child's game but a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of light. But light—truth, understanding, knowledge—is there, and it will shine in many dark places only if I reflect it.

"I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this world—into the black places in the hearts of people—and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of my life."

—Robert Fulghum, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul

How does that story relate to what we just did?

What did the man in the story learn from that same activity that we did?

What does it mean to shine a light?

How can we shine our lights to others?

Stained Glass Windows

See Louise for details!

Explain that Saturday morning is time for all the groups to display what they've learned in their small groups. Your group could choose to create an original play with an original theme, or they could act out the Bible story or the mirror story. They could opt to display their craft for the group, or even sing a song. Encourage creativity!