“Want to come to ballroom danc—?”
“Fancy learning someth—?”
“Be like those Strictly superst—!”
Emily sighed as yet another fellow student walked past her without taking a leaflet. She had been trying to promote her ballroom dancing club, but no one seemed interested. It was time to change her approach.
She moved through the crowd, shoving leaflets into people’s hands, stuffing them into rucksacks and pushing them into pockets. In three minutes she’d given out more leaflets than she had in the previous half hour. Happy with her work, Emily wandered off to eat her lunch.
Further down the corridor, Kwame looked at the leaflet in his hand.
“What’s that?” his friend, Imran, asked.
“Dunno. Some girl gave it to me.” Kwame started reading the leaflet. “Ballroom dancing? Don’t think so.” He threw the leaflet on the floor and off they went to play football.
As he was getting his lunchbox out of his bag, Lewis unexpectedly pulled out a piece of paper. He started to read about the ballroom club and thought about the Saturday nights he had spent watching Strictly Come Dancing with his sister. Maybe he could go along…Before he could think any more about it, the paper was snatched out of his hand.
“What’s that? Ballroom dancing? You’re not going to that, are you?” Jacob mocked, shaking the flyer in front of Lewis’ face. “Who do you think you are, Anton du Beke?”
“Er…no. As if I’d ever go to something like that.”
Later, in maths, Pavel pulled a strange piece of paper out of his pocket. “What’s this?” he thought to himself.
‘Come to ballroom dancing club,’ it read. “Sounds quite good,” he thought. He had always been good on the dancefloor. Then he saw the cost. If he had to pay that much for a term, he wouldn’t be able to get the DJ app he had his eye on.
“Pavel, are you in there?” his teacher asked, breaking into his thoughts.
“Sorry, Miss,” he said, stuffing the flyer back in to his pocket.
The next day, Emily sat in the drama studio waiting to see if anyone would turn up. “Looks like I’ll have to learn the samba on my own,” she figured.
Then, the door creaked open.
“Is this ballroom dancing club?” asked Jayesh, poking his head around the door. “I got the flyer and thought I’d give it a go.”
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Ask the young people these questions:
- What was it that stopped some people attending the club?
- What is it that stops you doing the things you’d like to?
- If this story was about faith, what might it be talking about?
This story is based on Matthew 13:1-9. Read the passage with the group and compare it with this one. Discuss what Jesus might be saying through the story, encouraging the young people to think differently about the parable.
