Preparation: You’ll need Bibles, snacks hidden around your meeting room, several different foreign-language tapes (check your local library for these), and a cassette player for each tape. (If necessary, have kids bring cassette players from home to the meeting.) If you can’t find foreign-language tapes, record five-minute segments of foreign-language cable TV channels.
On a separate cassette, record a five-minute message in English, greeting many of your kids personally and telling them how to find the hidden snacks.
Experience:
After kids arrive, loudly play all the tapes (including the English tape) at the same time but don’t explain why. After about five minutes, gather the group together and ask how many of them paid attention to the tapes.
Play the tapes again, only this time tell kids to listen closely and follow the instructions they hear. After they’ve listened to the tapes (and found the hidden snacks), form trios for discussion. Ask: Even though there were several different languages playing at the same time, how were you able to pick out what was being said on the English tape?
Response:
Have a volunteer from each trio read aloud Acts 2:5-13. Then have trios discuss these questions one at a time, pausing every two minutes or so to report their answers to the large group before moving on to the next question:
- How is the way you were able to pick out your language from all those being played like the way the people heard the good news in their own languages?
- Why was it important for people to hear in their own languages the great things God has done?
- What does this say about how we should talk to those around us concerning Christ?
Closing:
Have kids communicate messages of encouragement to their trio partners. Tell kids to create messages that describe why their partners can confidently communicate God’s love to others. For example, someone might say, “I know you can tell others about Christ because you’re so easy to talk to” or “Because you’re a caring person, others will listen to what you say about your faith.”