What is taught must be in accordance with the locally agreed syllabus; (If your school is outside of Cambridgeshire: the S.C.A.A Model 2 syllabus has been included to help in matching this lesson plan with your local Agreed Syllabus).
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Cambs Agreed Syllabus: PE People Enable pupils to: find out about Christians, women and men, now and in the past, whose actions affect or have affected others e.g. people who have helped others, saints and martyrs, people of faith, courage and commitment (including some with a local connection). Pupils should consider this: What influences / affects the actions & behaviour of others & why? |
S.C.A.A. Model syllabuses: KEY TEACHINGS / FOCUS: CHRISTIAN WAYS OF LIFE Considering attitudes to personal, social & global issues... AT1 Listen to a Christian talking about what being a Christian means to them. AT2 Share ideas about what the role that commitment plays in their own lives & experiences. |
RESOURCES:
Something to measure 120 cms. Optional: Let the children look up 2 web sites that talk about Jackie Pullinger:
www.ststephenssociety.org/index.htm www.rejesus.co.uk/the_story/saint/saint5/
Optional: There is a book which shows the story of Jackie pullinger with many photograph's
& the stories of many ex drug addicts: Crack In The Wall (Life & Death in Kowloon
Walled City) by Jackie Pullinger Hodder & Stoughton ISBN 0-
STARTER:
Q. What do you want to do with your life when you get older? Discuss.
....get married & have a family ....have a house of your own ....have a good job ....
go to Spain for your holidays ....play sport at the weekends .... big flash car ....
(Teachers note: Ask the children who have given the most definite answers to this question:)
Q. So what would you do if you were asked to give all of that up, & to move to the poorest, dirtiest place in the world?
Would you leave the comfort & security of your home & job?
Q. What things would be the hardest to lose?
....clean running water ....chocolate & sweets ....money ....clean house ....
safety (no danger of being killed) ....expensive car ....
We are going to look at the life of a young women who gave up so many things in 1966, to work in one of the poorest, filthiest, most dangerous places in the world.
At the time of writing this, (2003), she is still working out there, 37 years later.
This is her story:
MAIN TEACHING:
When Jackie Pullinger was 22 years old she had a dream.
She saw a desperate woman holding her arms out to her & then she saw some words:
"What can you give us?"
Jackie is a Christian & she believed that God was telling her to leave home & go to Hong Kong!
So she applied to lots of churches & missionary organizations to see if they had any opportunities in there, but she was told that she was too young, & too inexperienced, & that she had the wrong qualifications!
In spite of this, her local vicar encouraged her to go anyway. (Not because he didn’t like her!)
So in 1966, Jackie Pullinger got together all her money, which was only enough to
pay for a one-
Q. How brave or foolish was that?
When she was there she managed to find a job as a music teacher in the primary school of the Walled City.
This area was so lawless that the Hong Kong police had no real control over it all.
They avoided going into it because it was so dangerous!
The authorities couldn't even enforce any planning & building regulations, so the houses were built next to each other with no gardens.
These houses were regularly added to, going higher & higher, & also further outwards, so they ended up being not very safe.
There were no proper toilets.
There were just two on the ground floor level of the Walled City for thirty thousand people, & we wouldn't call them "toilets" because they were just two holes over an open sewer!
The main street was more like a small dark tunnel about 120 cms wide!
Q. How wide is 120 cms?
(Teachers note: Move some desks to 120 cms apart)
This is how wide the street was. Imagine ......................... (your local town) having the High Street this narrow!
But worse than that, right through the middle there was an open sewer!
It was almost dark inside this street, because loads of rubbish had got caught up in all the overhead, illegal electrical wires & pipes.
This formed a smelly, rotting 'roof'. Rats ran on this roof & they also ran along the street.
Dead people were often lying in the street, because they had died from taking too many drugs.
So let's take a walk on this street & imagine how awful it must have been.
(Teachers note: Get the children to walk along the 'street', -
This place was the home for thousands of criminals, prostitutes, drug addicts & gangsters, where twelve or thirteen year old girls were sold into slavery.
There were about 50 loosely connected gangs with an estimated total of about 100,000 members. They were violent, they blackmailed people & ruled by terrifying anybody who was not in their gang.
So Jackie Pullinger made this her neighbourhood.
At first, the people there didn't trust her, they thought that she would get fed up & go back to a comfortable home in Britain.
Even though she was fearful for her own safety, everyday she would try to chat with people who lived in these desperate conditions.
But after six months she felt as if not much had happened, & she began to ask God why she was there.
Then she realized that she should give food, & provide shelter & give medical care.
She also visited the prisons, & tried to help the prisoners.
Eventually, she gained the trust of the gang members.
They saw that she was going to stay, & that she really did care about them.
These hardened boys started to become Christians!
Many of them were in a very bad state, their bodies & minds had suffered years of drug abuse.
She began to see many miracles with these boys breaking free from the terrible grip of heroin & opium addiction.
Normally, when someone stops taking these drugs they experience terrible pain & nightmares, but many of the boys prayed for Jesus' help & they came straight off it without these problems.
They put it down to the power of God.
Their eyes would change from a look of total hopelessness and desperation to a look of peacefulness, & their whole body would change shape from one of twisted pain to standing straight with a smile!
Jackie opened a home for anybody who wanted to break free from the drugs.
Soon there were so many people that she opened a second house, & then a third.
Early on, Jackie had started up a small youth club, & some of the gang members went to it.
But one night the youth club was destroyed by vandals, so a gang leader sent some guards to watch the building so that it wouldn't happen again!
This gang leader said later, that he didn't want his gang members to be addicts any more than she did.
She had succeeded where he had failed and therefore he would support her to free his boys off drugs.
Q. Why do you think he wanted his gang members to be not addicted to drugs?
Because they would work better, & they would be able to get on with their criminal activities!
Q. Would Jackie Pullinger have been pleased with that?
What do you think she said to him? (Bearing in mind her life could have been in danger if she went against the wishes of the gang).
She said that she wouldn't help the boys escape their addictions so that they would become gangsters again.
She said that if they were to be followers of Jesus, they had to leave the gangs altogether!
To her amazement, the gang leader still wanted to guard the youth club, & he would allow any boys to become Christians.
This was amazing because to be a gang member in Hong Kong was for as long as they lived.
It had a total claim on their life.
Jackie and her friends have carried on this work & they have formed the St.Stephen's society, which has become one of the most successful drug rehabilitation programmes in the world, rescuing hundreds of young people from a life of misery on the streets of Hong Kong.
The Walled City has now been demolished but the gangs & the drug abuse still go on.
Jackie Pullinger & the St. Steven's society still help people in Hong Kong, but they
also now do their work in the Philippines and Thailand.
PLENARY:
Q. How committed is Jackie Pullinger to what she does?
Q. What caused her to be so 'successful' with those drug addicts & gang members?
It was commitment, but it was more than that.
She was willing to put herself in the dirtiest & most dangerous place, because she wanted to help other people.
She put other people second & herself third!
Q. So who came first in her life?
God was the most important person in her life.
Q. So does that make her a super hero who is wonderfully good?
To answer that here is something that Jackie Pullinger once said:
"Jesus is everything. If it weren't for Him, I'd have no goodness at all."
Q. Has this true story given you something to think about?
Either take a short time to discuss this question, or leave it with them.
Look up: www.ststephenssociety.org/index.htm and: www.rejesus.co.uk/the_story/saint/saint5/ on the web.
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