LEARNING TO CARE FOR CREATION THROUGH FUN AND GAMES
During the December holidays, churches in the Diocese of Cape Town run holiday clubs with the support of the Fikelela Aids project. The goal is to keep the kids safe while their parents are at work
The Green Anglicans team visited two churches – St George’s Silvertown (40 kids) and Church of the Reconciliation in Manenberg – a big group of over 150!.
At both churches we had a chance to lead a session on Caring for Creation. Bino lead the session by teaching the kids the song “Be green in the corner” which teaches us to be green and environmentally friendly. An ice-breaker “the tree” showed them how to build a tree and the importance of trees and how they provide for birds and for nest. Rev Mash talked about the importance of trees, which provide shade for us to play, food for birds, hold the soil to stop it being dusty, and can take pollution out of the air and give us oxygen. They also can cool down cities as we get hotter from climate change. She told the children then Bible says “the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations”. The kids were encouraged to give green gifts to their mums, dads and grannies, like a plant or a packet of seeds.
We then played a game where we put stickers on the kids’ heads and they had to guess which animal they were. This was a lot of fun! Rev Mash then asked which animals lived in the oceans, or the rivers or the forests. The kids knew their stuff! She then asked about which ones were endangered and told us about one of the sad stories. Turtles food is the squishy jelly fish. When they see a plastic bag floating they think it is a delicious jelly fish and they eat it. Their tummies become full of plastic and they die of hunger. The same with a cow when the cow eats plastic it can die of hunger as it’s stomach is full.. Plastic pollution in the rivers and oceans was one of the main topics that was dealt with, from the harm it causes aquatic life to ways to safely dispose it.
We then played a fun game – “active Pictionary” where the kids had to draw an object which we find in the rivers which should not be there – a chip packet, a straw, a coke bottle etc, and the other kids had to guess.
We taught the kids that plastic kills fishes and others of God’s creatures. They can encourage their families and friends to pick up litter and throw plastic in the bin.
We ended with a prayer -asking God to help us to look better after God’s Earth
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