Teacher, Year 6

I would like everyone to meet Rye-An Pita Barnes (flour pun #1)! About a month ago, along with 40 other babies, Rye-An found himself in the care of Year 5 and 6 students and their teachers. The babies were created as part of the Stage 3 health unit. The aim was to give all students an opportunity to practice responsibility, compassion, care and selflessness. Every student in Year 5 and 6 (and their teachers) was required to have their flour baby with them at all times; all weekend, in class, at the shops, during lunch and at the dinner table.

The students quickly discovered that these babies were not self raising (flour pun #2) and there was a significant amount of effort in caring for something that relied completely on them. The students rose (flour pun #3) to the challenge and were able to be responsible, compassionate, careful and selfless.

We were able to draw parallels between the way God cares for us and the way that we cared for our flour babies. We are completely dependent on God. We need Him. He is fundamental to our existence, just like the flour babies were dependent on us. There were times that students wanted to have a break from their babies and do their own thing. This gave me the opportunity to pose the question ‘imagine if God got tired of us’? How marvelous it is that God cares for us endlessly, despite our sin, indifference and ingratitude? We must never take for granted the continual responsibility, compassion, care and selflessness that God shows towards us. Here are some reflections from the students themselves:

“It helped us to understand, even though it was just a bag of flour, that we still needed to put effort into caring for the babies in the project.”

“It was funny to watch what people were doing with their babies.”

“I enjoyed the project because it was fun and challenging.”

“The first few days were good and then it got harder as the week went on.”