Mustard seed actions
Suitable for key stage 2, but can be adapted for older or younger children.
(There are also materials which you could pass onto the church leader to be used with the adults in the
service, including a talk, film and action cards).
For the children’s session you’ll need:
For the taste game: Bread cut into small pieces, spreads, mustard, blindfolds, cups of water.
The PowerPoint
Mustard seeds, enough for each child to have one.
Prepared tree poster and Post-it sized pieces of card, coloured pens/pencils, Blu-tack.
For the cress activity: recycled containers to plant in, kitchen roll, cress seeds, hand-out printed off for each
child.
Start with a taste game.
Get some volunteers to be blindfolded (you’ll need to check for any food allergies before doing this). They
then try a small piece of plain bread with different spreads, and have to describe the taste and then guess
what the flavours are.
Spreads could include: Chocolate spread, Marmite, marmalade, butter, jam, mustard(a combination of any of
these or others is possible, mustard is the only must).
Tell the story of Andrew and Grace in Malawi with PowerPoint slides (you may need to explain who
Tearfund is, and that today you’ll be telling them a bit about us and our work, and if appropriate that the
adults are also learning about this in the main service).
Slide 2
This is Andrew and his wife Grace, they are farmers in rural Malawi in Africa.
Their village has been affected by climate change. It was flooded when the nearby river burst its banks,
covering their land in tonnes of sand.
Slide 3
After the floods subsided, their field was covered in over a metre of sand (get someone to stand up and show
how the sand would have come to their head or over their head depending on height), and, despite
strenuous efforts and lots of digging, they were unable to reach enough of the soil beneath to plant the next
year's maize crop. This resulted in Andrew having to leave to work in the city to support his family that year.
Do any of your parents have to go away to work? Do they go away for months at a time? Is that hard for the
family? (If you have forces children in your group you may need to be sensitive about this question, but you
could ask how hard that is etc.)
We believe that the church is God’s plan to bring hope to the world, and that God’s kingdom makes a very
positive difference to people’s lives.
Slide 4
In Malawi, Tearfund’s partner Eagles Relief and Development, works in Fombe, Andrew and Grace’s village.
They were able to help the community to clear the land covered by sand, and now it is fertile again and
Andrew and Grace are able to stay in their village with their field producing a good crop which can support
them. They also planted trees to help protect the village from flooding.
Slide 5
Tearfund was also able to get some DFID (British Government) funding which Eagles used to build a stone
dyke (a strong wall) to protect the village from future floods. Now they can farm without having to worry
about the river flooding their land.
Jesus shared a story about what the kingdom of God is like. By kingdom he meant places where the world is
how God would like it to be, where his ways are ruling. (If the children are old enough you could ask them to
shout out adjectives that would describe a world where God’s rule was evident, maybe give them some
examples to get them started). If the world was exactly as God would like it to be, it would be fair and just,
people would have enough and would share with each other, the earth would be cared for, there would not
be any wars or violence etc.
Slide 6
Jesus said:
’The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the
smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds
come and perch in its branches.’ Matthew 13:31-32
Pass around mustard seeds so that everyone can have one in their hands.
Remember that mustard taste at the beginning and the strong reaction to it... if possible remind the children
how the people tasting the mustard described it. Mustard comes from these seeds, ground up, with some
sugar and salt added, it’s a very strong taste for something so small.
Seeds also grow into plants. Have any of you ever planted any seeds? What have you grown? What do think
this little mustard seed will grow into?
Slide 7
Show them the picture of the mustard tree.
A very small seed can grow into a tree that shelters many birds. Jesus likened this seed to his kingdom. His
kingdom can start with something very small and grow into something beautiful and large, a place that can
shelter many.
The church and Tearfund partner in Malawi started with just small actions, coming together to dig away some
sand from Andrew and Grace’s land, which helped that family immensely. Then they were able to build the
dyke, this action has now helped protect the whole village, to make it a safer place.
I wonder if there are any other small everyday actions that we the church in the UK could do to also help the
kingdom of God grow, and in particular help those people who are affected by climate change in other
countries?
Again you could just get the children to shout things out (and then add to those). Or if you think this may be
beyond them you could have prepared some pieces of card with some ideas written on them. Different
children could pull one out of the hat and read it out to the group. Discuss whether any of them are things you
could do as a group or in their families (or even at school).
Suggested actions:
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Recycle things (ask who does this already)
Pray
Switch lights/other electrical items off when not using them
Walk, cycle or get public transport more. How do they get to church or school?
Food: think about not wasting food, where things come from and how much packaging there is on a product.
Eating less meat also helps reduce carbon emissions, maybe you could try meat free Mondays as a family?
Write to the Prime Minister or their MP about their concerns for those affected by the changing climate. (For
older children you could actually do a joint letter to the Prime Minister, we have an action card which you
could use as basis for the text.)
Give/Raise money for organisations like Tearfund that help people adapt to a changing climate.
Think about whether you really need to buy things before you buy them, can you make do with what you
already have, share/borrow things rather than all having a copy of a book for example?
If you know that anyone has solar panels, or if the local school does, you could include renewable energy in
here.
You may decide as a group on an action that you’d like to try at home and then report back on how it has gone,
but obviously a lot of these actions need parental involvement so that may or may not be possible.
Slide 8
This is the Strickett family. They are a normal family who decided that they wanted to make a difference by
planting small seeds of everyday actions. They started by eating less meat, and this is a photo of them having
one of their regular veggie dinners. They’ve added to that by turning their heating down a bit and putting on
jumpers, walking more rather than driving and they’ve written to their MP... if all around the UK Christians
plant small everyday action seeds like this it will make a difference around the world to those affected by
climate change.
The main thing for people to remember from the session is that their small actions can grow into something
big and can make a difference.
Activities
Show a pre-prepared A3 or bigger poster of a drawing of a tree with the verse in the branches.
’The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. Though it is the smallest of seeds, yet it becomes a tree that
shelters many.’ (Matthew 13:31-32)
If you can leave plenty of room in the earth at the bottom of the poster that would be good.
Give each person a small Post-it sized piece of paper/card on which they can write an action they would like to
do. They can draw something to represent that action or draw a picture of a seed, and their name. These can
then be Blu-tacked to the poster, preferably at the bottom as though they were planting these seed actions in
the soil.
(We’d love to see photos of your trees, please do either tweet them to us @TearfundAct or email them to us
at [email protected] - thanks).
Follow this with some prayers for all those around the world who are planting action-seeds.
Reflection
Ask the children to close their eyes and think of the action they've said they’d like to do (you could remind
them of the actions that people chose like recycling or walking more), of planting it like a seed and seeing it
grow into a big tree sheltering others. What else could they do to see the kingdom of God growing in their
family or school? Could they show kindness to others in their family, be helpful, or care for creation in other
ways?
Dear Father, though each of us is small, and each of our actions seem so tiny, when the world is so big,
please help each of us to plant our actions with faith, knowing that you can make them grow into something
that will help others and will really make a difference in the world. We pray for others around the world
who are planting their mustard-seed actions, and we pray especially for Eagles in Malawi and all that they
are doing to help communities affected by climate change.
Amen
Alternative/extra activity if time
Children can each plant some cress seeds on kitchen roll in a yoghurt pot or other recycled container. Print
off the hand-out sheets for the children. They can colour in the seeds of the actions that they think they
could do with their families and add their own actions too. If possible, have smaller printed off versions of
the Bible verse to stick around the yoghurt pot. Remind them to keep their seeds watered.