As the project grew, more volunteers were recruited. Lucy asked if she could come and help out once a month. Lucy especially loved working on the BMX bikes. Then a few months later lots more people came to help – Morgan, James, Kieran, Kelly. They each come for a bit and then get a bit bored. But every week, Jack and Jamie came without fail.
At Christmas, it was suggested that an auction would be a good thing to raise the profile of the project. So, the team fixed up ten bikes and auctioned them off at the Christmas fair. Unexpectedly they raised £500. The group were overwhelmed.
They agreed together that they would give half the profits to a local children’s charity and the other half would be split equally between the group. They counted it out, and everyone got £35. But Jack and Jamie started to grumble: “We did so much more work than the others; Lucy only worked on BMXs, and Kieran only came twice. We should get a bigger share of that £250.”
“This was never about the money,” said the project worker. “You came each week for the love of repairing a clapped-out bike and finding it a new rider.”
Discussion questions
Ask the young people these questions. Try to let the discussion flow as much as possible, without interjecting too many of your own ideas.
- Did Jack and Jamie have a point? Should they have got more of the money?
- How do you think Kieran is feeling?
- How would you share the money out in this situation? What would be fair?
- Did the project worker have a point – was it money that got in the way or something else?
- What is God’s idea of being fair?
- Why is it that sometimes we want to be treated the same as others and sometimes we want to be treated differently?
There are parallels between this story and Matthew 20:1–16. You could read this with the young people and start to draw similarities and differences between the two stories. What do the group make of Jesus’ words?
