Hearth & Home Engagement sheets for The Abundant Life Garden Project® offered by Episcopal Relief & Development WEEK ONE Water to Water Understanding the Gift of Abundant Life Through Water Welcome to the first week of home exploration based on theAbundant Life Garden Project® offered by Episcopal Relief & Development. This week’s interactive, Scripture-based module focuses on water. Our lesson this week explored the essential nature of water, both for human life– no one can live without water–and as a central element of our faith. In this lesson your children were introduced to the continuing need for clean water among many people on earth and the use of water to grow crops, raise livestock, prevent disease and even transport crops and other goods to market. Children also were reminded of the many images of water in Scripture and our sacraments of baptism and Holy Eucharist. Scripture indeed is full of water images–from the waters of creation and the crossing of the Red Sea and the River Jordan by the ancient Israelites in the Old Testament to the changing of water to wine and the water of Jesus’ baptism in the New Testament to the presence of water in baptism and Holy Eucharist. All these images are related to new life, and often to new life in Community. Even in situations where water takes on a forceful and destruction role - by way of hurricanes, floods, or tsunamis - water ultimately brings to us new life and new possibilities. It is this hope that we want to share with children: Even when times seem dark, we have faith that sorrowful situations will, in Christ, be redeemed and restored. As children explore these images of water and the Baptismal Covenant to seek and serve Christ in others, we urge you to explore with them and within yourself this concept of new life in community through the gift of water. This gift is life-changing, By providing the gift of clean water for those in need and in sharing the gift of spiritual growth through this program with the children you lead and teach, you can alter the lives of others and join with us in healing a hurting world. Cynthia Coe Purpose The purpose of this sheet is to help you and your child connect the dots between the experiences of water in your home, the significance of water in your faith, and the work Episcopal Relief & Development is doing to bring clean water to developing areas around the world. Bible Connection For children age 6 and older: Jesus met a Samaritan woman at a city well, and told her about Living Water. The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” (John 4:7-15) For children age 5 and under: The bible tells us that Jesus gives us living water! Water Bottle Bank Carefully, near the top of the bottle, SUPPLIES cut a 1” x 1/4” slit with your craft knife. Empty bottle of water, craft Together with your child, color the label knife, scissors, markers or below using markers or crayons. crayons, tape Finally, cut out the label and wrap it around the water bottle, securing it to the bottle with tape. Use your new Water Bank to collect loose change to bring to you churches collection for Water provisions. QUESTIONS to ponder as you work: • How do we use water in church? (Baptism, mixing water with the wine during Eucharist, the washing of the Celebrant’s hands) • What does water symbolize? (Birth or new life) • Do we have easy access to water? • What things might it be hard for us to do if we didn’t have water in our home? • How do families in other parts of the world get water into their home? • What can we do to help the work being done by Episcopal Relief and Development to bring clean water to those with less access? (Collecting change in your bank is a good start!) Once you have finished creating your bank and Prayer added the first few We thank you, Lord, for the gift of water. Through this gift of water, you coins, say this prayer of quench our thirst, feed our hunger, help us to be clean and healthy, and give intention together: us the ability to live, to grow, and to serve and be served by others. Give all people in this world, we pray, the gift of clean water, and help us to do our part in serving others through this gift. In Christ’s name, Amen. Hearth & Home Engagement sheets for The Abundant Life Garden Project® offered by Episcopal Relief & Development WEEK TWO Good Dirt Understanding the Gift of Abundant Life Through Soil Welcome to the second week of home exploration based on the Abundant Life Garden Project® offered by Episcopal Relief & Development. This weeks interactive, Scripture- based module focuses on soil. The land we tread produces our food, serves as a reservoir for our water and provides a habitat for a vast diversity of organisms– ourselves included. Our use of soil determines whether our crops flourish, whether erosion washes away vital nutrients into our water sources, whether we live in polluted or clean environments and whether we have enough food, clean water and lumber to sustain our lives and those of other creatures on this earth. While seemingly a mundane topic, soil actually masks mysteries of life on earth. Ordinary soil contains a vast array of microbes we cannot see. Seeds, as part of their life cycle, germinate and grow underneath the ground–a mystery of life taking place out of sight–until the plants flourish with new growth. Soil is always changing, always subject to the elements of wind and rain and often subject to being picked up and moved somewhere else. These images might speak to our own spiritual lives as we are moved, inspired and even transplanted by the work of the Holy Spirit, working quietly like soft breezes and gentle rains, or in thunderstorms or flash floods. We might see the mystery of darkness in our lives, where growth and new life may be occurring unacknowledged or even unbeknownst to us. Like the Water module preceding it, this teaching unit addressed its topic on both literal and symbolic levels. In many parts of the world served by Episcopal Relief & Development, farmers experience wide shifts between plentiful rains and drought, famine and relative prosperity. The erosion of soil and the subsequent loss of nutrients in it often are a challenge, as is the lack of effective tools to work the land. Plots of land owned by individual farmers may be small and only effective in producing food for sustenance Soil is indeed a gift from God. Those who live on land cultivated for crops are mindful of this gift and dependent on God for their livelihood each day. For those of us who do not live and work as farmers, we hope this teaching module will guide children and their leaders in thinking about the labor, tools, knowledge and gifts of nature required to till the soil successfully and produce crops we all need to survive. We also hope you and your children will think about how, in your own lives, you might “till” their environments to best allow the work of the Holy Spirit to sustain and maintain you lives as part of the body of Christ. We hope the Soil unit will be enjoyable and enriching for your entire household. Cynthia Coe Purpose The purpose of this sheet is to help you and your child dig deeper into the work Episcopal Relief & Development is doing to bring healthy soil practices around the world. Bible Verse For children age 6 and older: “When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: ‘A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.’ As he said this, he called out, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” (Luke 8:4-8) For children age 5 and under: May our hearts be like good soil where God’s love can grow! Dirt Dough Directions: INGREDIENTS 2 cups All-purpose cups flour In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients thoroughly. 1 cup salt Next, add in wet ingredients one at a time. 1/2 cup of coffee grounds Stir until well blended. 1/4 tsp Brown Food Coloring Engage in imaginary play with your dirt dough by making 2 teaspoons Cream of Tartar garden beds (you can use dried beans and rice grains as 1 cup hot water your seeds), rocks, and mountains.