Loaded Down!

Props

Several heavy or bulky items e.g. a large empty box, a pile of books, a bag of flour or sugar. Whatever other items you include, make sure there is a full jug of water.

Click here for a powerpoint which can be used with the worship

Gathering

Leeader: We gather together in Jesus' Name

All: Help us to explore, discover and learn together

Engaging

How many goats can you get on a motorbike? Do you think this is a real question or that the answer is going to be a joke? (Take a survey of the assembly!) I'm afraid you're going to have to wait until later in the assembly to find out..but I promise to tell you the answer!

If you are going shopping with your family, how do you carry what you have bought?

bags and baskets
supermarket trolleys
cars or perhaps you even do your shopping on the internet and it comes in a delivery lorry or in the postman's sack

What is the biggest and heaviest thing you have carried by yourself? How far did you have to carry it? (Ask a couple of pupils for answers.)

Ask for some volunteers to come and hold the items you have selected (see "Props"). Tell them that you are going to carry on talking for the moment, but they can put the item down if they feel tired, without having to ask permission. Have another member of staff prepared to unobtrusively note down how long each child manages to hold their item.

In India you will see people carrying much larger loads than these children; in the countryside a lot of people have to collect their water from a pump or a well - they will have a huge plastic waterpot which will be at least six times as heavy as the jug ***** is holding, and they may have to carry it for as much as six kilometres. (You could ask your water jug holder how they would feel to carry their jug that distance.) People find they can carry bigger loads if they balance them on their heads -so you will see lots more people balancing loads on their heads than there will be carrying shopping bags. Sometimes these loads are so big that you cannot see that there is a person underneath - they might look like a walking haystack with just the legs sticking out at the bottom! Can you imagine how heavy such a big load must be, and how much your back, neck and arms must ache with all the work?

Not many people have cars in Vellore, but many men have bicycles and motorbikes. I expect you can guess that they use these to carry really big loads as well. Sometimes they load so many things or people on their bikes and motorbikes that it looks really dangerous. In England you would only expect to see one or two people on a motorbike: in India there could be three, four, or even five people - and probably none of them would be wearing crash helmets! And what would you think if you saw a motorbike driver with eight huge trays of fresh eggs on the back of the bike, with the trays sticking out a couple of feet either side of the motorbike? Probably you would want to stay right out of his way in case you ended up covered in eggs!

Has all this given you a clue as to whether my first question about the number of goats on a motorbike was a joke or a real question? Of course it was a real question - but what do you think the answer might be? Well, first you need two men on the motorbike - one to drive, and one to sit at the back to stop the goats falling off. Then you stack the goats up in-between them, one on top of the other like a huge sandwich! If you do this carefully you can manage a total of five goats, but no more, or the bottom goat could get crushed. Then you hope that the goats are going to enjoy the ride and not wriggle too much!

We have been talking in this assembly about big loads and burdens that you can see and feel, but people have other kinds of burdens in their life too which you can't see. These are things like feeling very unhappy or lonely, or being bullied, which make you feel awful, as if you are carrying a really heavy load inside you. Some people even say their stomach or heart actually feels heavy when they are unhappy. I expect some of you know just what that feels like.

In the Bible there is a letter from Paul which tells us we should help other people carry their heavy loads. He doesn't mean that we should offer to carry people's shopping, or carry one of the goats (although that could be a helpful thing to do). He means that we should try to help people who have problems or who are unhappy and are carrying heavy loads inside.

(Check it out: Galatians chp 6 vs 2)

Responding

How are our burden bearers managing? Have any of them put their loads down? Ask your monitoring adult what happened. Ask the two children who gave up first or lasted the longest how their arms felt. Depending on their answers, ask the assembly to remember how lucky they are in not having to do so much heavy lifting and carrying as country workers in India, but also to realise that burdens inside can feel even worse and heavier than the feelings the children have described. The important thing to do if you have a heavy burden inside is to share it with someone, so that they can help you put it down - just as these burdens can now be put down.

Prayer

Pray for those people who need help carrying their burdens - of whatever kind.

Note: On average, women in the Third World have to carry water for their families six kilometres (i.e. a round trip of twelve kilometres). Full waterpots weigh between ten and fifteen kilograms. This causes permanent damage to the neck and spine, and may also create child-bearing problems.

Sending

Leader: Go in peace to discover God's world and your place in it.

All: We go in Jesus' name.

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