Funny Money

Last Friday night we thought about something all people love to have lots of … money. We started of the night with a game of hockey, which was won by the boys team with 2-0.

When we were all exhausted from the hockey, we sat down and watched some of the leaders act out a play called: The rich man and Lazarus. It goes as follows:

“There was a rich man. There was also a poor, sick beggar named Lazarus, who laid next to the front door of the rich man. Lazarus would love to eat just some crumbs which fell off the table of the rich man, but he did not get anything. Some dogs would come around and lick his sores, which relieved the pain a bit for Lazarus. After a while, Lazarus died. A short time later, the rich man died as well.”

Still thinking how unfair the rich man was toward that poor Lazarus, we played a game in which we had the opportunity to help others. Two blind people want to cross a busy road with their arms full of groceries; who will help them? In this relay, the youth has to watch out for the cars (skateboards) which drive up and down the road.

Then there was time for some surprises. Richard brought in some nice looking Christmas presents and gave everybody some cards. We all sat in a circle around the presents and Richard started calling out the cards one by one. You could then grab either a present from the middle or take it from someone who had a present already. A big surprise came for the person with the largest and heaviest present that when that was unwrapped, it contained a little chocolate bar and lots of rocks!

This night we learned about how easily greed gets hold of us. It is easy to say that the rich man was selfish, but with the surprises game it was clear that we all would love to have the largest present for ourselves. We read the story that Jesus told from the Bible: The rich man and Lazarus. It was important to know that after Lazarus died, he went to heaven, but the rich man went to hell. This teaches us that we can have everything we wish for in life, but if we are missing a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, we will have nothing after we die, because we cannot take anything with us when we die other than our soul.