Sunday School Guide to Light in the Darkness

The attached guide was created by Church World Service's Immigration and Refugee Program. 

Suggested Sunday School activities, questions, and readings to accompany Not In Our Town’s Light in the Darkness DVD.

• Read and discuss the following: Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 25:34-40,
• Do you have neighbors who are different than you?
• How can we become friends with them?
• How would Jesus want you to treat your neighbors and classmates?
• What do we learn from Matthew 25:34-40?
• Use the following video clips: “Embracing our differences” and “Healing and understanding”
• Activity idea: have children trace and cutout their hands on construction paper and organize them around a globe or map.
• Activity idea: have children draw pictures of how they can love their neighbors
• Activity idea: teach the children a dance from Latin America or another part of the world
• Activity idea: discuss how we are all neighbors while children put together a puzzle depicting the world or children of other cultures
• Activity idea: have a snack from a different culture. A popular snack in Ecuador (where Marcelo Lucero was from) are Coco cookies, you can probably find these or something similar at a Latin grocer.

• Read the following scriptures and discuss: Deuteronomy 10:17-19, Matthew 25:34-46, Leviticus 19:33-34, 1 John 3:15-17
• How do you feel knowing a high school student killed a man? (clip “Introduction”)
• What do you think of these high school boy’s sport of beating Hispanics? (clip “The killing of Marcelo Lucero”)
• What did you like about the reaction from the rest of the school? (“A town in the dark” 8:20)
• Two students in particular talked about being treated as the exception. Why do you think that is? (link with reference to Leviticus 19:33-34)
• How can we improve our neighborhoods?
• How can we include our neighbors?
• How can you love your neighbor?
• One girl started a fundraiser to help out Marcelo’s family. What can we do in times of crisis? What can we do on a daily basis?
• Is there a lot of diversity in our community/high school? How can we celebrate diversity? (watch clip “Embracing our differences”)
• What do we learn from Matthew 25:34-46? How do you see these concepts being demonstrated in “Light in the Darkness”?
• Activity idea: have teenagers list what they can do at school and at home to demonstrate love for their neighbors.

• Watch “Introduction” of “Light in the Darkness”
• Read the following scriptures and discuss: Deuteronomy 10:17-19, Matthew 25:34-46, Leviticus 19:33-34, 1 John 3:15-17
• How do you feel knowing a high school student killed a man?
• What do you think of these high school boy’s sport of beating Hispanics?
• The city council passed a resolution to change the way they talked about immigrants. Are there phrases or opinions we need to clean up from our conversations? (clip “Healing and Understanding”)
• How does changing our language about immigrants change the message we send to our kids? Deuteronomy 24:16
• Do you agree with the actions of the mayor? (clip “Embracing our differences”)
• Many community members showed distrust for the police, consequently a lot of crime was going unreported. Are there crimes that you are aware of that have gone unnoticed? How can we make our neighborhoods safer? (clip “The killing of Marcelo Lucero” and “A town in the dark”)
• How can we actively prevent hate crimes?
• The mayor speaks of feeling like he doesn’t recognize his town anymore when he learns of all the violence. What can we do to get to know our community better?
• What can we do to strengthen our community? Our children and their relationships?(reference 1 Corinthians 12:12-13)
• How can we show Christ’s love to our neighbors, even those of different backgrounds? Colossians 3:13-15
• Is there a lot of diversity in our community? How can we celebrate diversity? How can we teach our children to celebrate diversity? (clip “Embracing our differences”)