Broken Dreams

Materials
Obtain a cheap dinner plate. Bring a tube of quick-setting glue: a hammer; a tray; a newspaper

Activity
1. Gather in a circle and pass around the plate. Ask each person to explain why the plate is beautiful or unique. Have the youth imagine the history of the plate. What kinds of suppers were served on it? What might families have discussed during the meal hour? Keep the plate circulating as the discussion continues.

2. Pass the plate around again and ask each person to look into the reflections in the plate and tell you what they see. What reflections are there? (Of course they will see themselves.) Why are they beautiful or unique? What dreams and future do their lives reflect?

3. Place newspaper in the center of the circle and place the plate on top. Tell the children that the plate represent people. Place another newspaper on top of the plate. Carefully break the dish with a hammer. (Try not to shatter it. YOU want to end up with several pieces, not a thousand fragments.)

4. Carefully pass around the pieces. Ask each person to describe the feelings that are evoked because this symbol of a person's life has been broken. How is this situation a bit like their own lives? How is like Daniel's life?

5. Reread todays text. Explain that often people are shattered by broken dreams, fears or anxieties.

6. Glue the pieces back together. Place the reconstructed plate on the tray and pass it around the circle. Ask the students to compare God's act of healing to the glue. How does God heal the broken parts of our lives?

Application
Daniel was captured and carried away to an unknown land. he was a slave even though he lived in the king's palace. Daniel's first test dealt with the food placed on his plate. He could eat the king's food which was sacrificed to idols or he could simply eat vegetables. Then the king had a bad dream and he was going to kill all his advisors unless they could tell him what he saw. It may have seemed like there was no hope. But God revealed what the king saw and what it meant. As a result Daniel was raised from a slave to a ruler. God took a bad situation and made it something good. We need to trust God with bad situations because we know he can peice them back together and make something good out of them.