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TRADING UP
Shuffle the pack of cards and deal all of them out. Give out the sweets equally among the group (at least five each). At the end of the game, whatever sweets each person has left can be eaten. The aim is to collect cards by trading and dealing cards and sweets within a time limit of five minutes. Each card is scored by its face value; jacks, queens and kings are worth ten points and aces are worth 15. If you get a run of three cards in the same suit, you double their face value. The person with the highest points at the end wins and gets the big chocolate bar.
WHAT’S IT WORTH?
Get pictures of various items, for example: a celebrity house in Hollywood, a diamond ring, a topend smartphone, a watch, a bunch of flowers, a daily newspaper, a pint of milk. Don’t tell anyone what price they were bought for, but play ‘higher-or-lower’ with the group. You select the first number and each individual must decide if they think the item is worth more (higher), less (lower) or is the correct amount (stick). If they get the answer wrong, they are out and you repeat the process for the same item by changing the number until one person is left and they get that picture. Repeat this for all the items with everyone back in play; the person with the most pictures is the winner.
INTRODUCTION
Be aware of the age and sensibilities of your group. Say: we live in a world where between 20 and 30 million people, children, women and men are caught in modern-day slavery. This is an injustice. Human beings should not be traded and sold. No one should be allowed to put a price on a person. People living in poverty are tricked, taken, lured and exploited into clothing factories, cannabis farms and the sex industry (to name just a few areas). These are people with mums and dads, brothers, sisters and friends; people like you and me. But their lives look radically different to ours. One of the terrible consequences of extreme poverty is that people are trafficked. People are often fed false hope about a better income or life and duped into dangerous situations. Some children are sold because families can’t afford to live. One child is trafficked every 30 seconds. That’s 3,300 children a day, 1.2 million children a year. Trafficking isn’t something we can understand personally, but it is an issue we can do something about.
VIDEO AND DISCUSSION
Show the ‘No child taken’ video from the links section of the website (www.youthwork.co.uk) then ask the group to discuss what they saw in the video that they didn’t know about before, and how Nang’s story made them feel.
KEY POINT
The issue of trafficking is full of horrendous stories and overwhelming statistics. It is a worldwide problem; girls like Nang are trafficked across the Thai border yet people are also trafficked to our own cities. They might be trafficked to work for companies that make our food and clothing. This is shocking, but we have the ability to do something about it and make a stand. We can choose to live a lifestyle that is slave-free. We can buy slave-free, fairly traded chocolate, we can shop in charity shops or make do and mend in order to wear slave-free clothes. If we do what we can, we can reduce demand for items made by people who have been trafficked and exploited in this way.
READ AND DISCUSS
Read John 10:10, Galatians 3:28 and Matthew 22:37-40 as a group. Then divide the room into three groups and give each group one of the verses above. Ask each group to discuss the following questions and write their thoughts on the flip chart paper, in big speech bubbles: what does this verse say to us today? What do you think Jesus would say about the issue of trafficking? How does this verse help you think about your lifestyle in light of the statistics about children trafficked in the world today? Feedback all of the speech bubbles to the wider group.
RESPONSES
Response One Your group can act now to protect children like Nang by giving generously. You may need to prepare the group and their parents to bring cash with them to the session (or they can give it the following week). For £9, children like Nang can attend workshops and classes that help make her aware of the dangers of trafficking and provide her with opportunities to learn skills she needs to stay safe. Help Tearfund support more children like Nang by making a collection and donating it to Tearfund’s work at tearfund.org/ywmag. You’ll find more ways to give or ideas of how your church or group can continue to support this work on the website.
Response Two There are lots of small habits we can invest in to cultivate a rhythm of justice in our lives. We can shop in a way that is not reliant on people who have been trafficked, we can pray to the God who is able to do immeasurably more, and we can speak up to governments who are able to change global systems and structures that keep people living in poverty and at risk of trafficking. Why not get involved with the Stand campaign asking the UK government for transparency in production links for companies wanting to trade in the UK. This empowers the consumer to make choices and find out if their purchases are slave-free. Sign the petition at www.soulaction.org/stand/sign-it-2/
PRAYER
Read the passage from the introduction to the session, then pray: Lord, make us people who respond to your world in whatever way we can. Help us to remember the millions of people who are trafficked and forced into work against their will. Would we be people who make daily choices to live in a way that is slave-free and demonstrates a better way of life – a Jesus way of life. Amen.
RHYTHMS ACTION
This week do the ‘No Child Taken’ rhythm on the Rhythms website or app. Find out more at www.rhythms.org/rhythm/no-child-taken
