Submitted by
S. Daly
with an additional idea submitted by F. Macnaughton, see below.

Age Group
7-11

Aim
To appreciate God's gift of water
To share the harvest with others

Faith Group
Christian

Resources
A display of food donated by children and parents for distribution to local people, including dried foods
A large wall scene painted by the children showing the uses of water
Water - clean and dirty
A transparent litre container of water
A large sheet of paper with the prayer response written on it

Time of Year
Autumn
Harvest

Other Details
This assembly is long enough to be a full Harvest Festival performed before parents.

Additional Idea
F. Macnaughton
Resources needed:
wet weather clothes, large sheet, rope, clothes pegs.

We recently did your water harvest assembly theme, with Primary 3 leading the whole school. We made up some actions to the two poems which meant the whole class was included, and some children enacted the joys and problems of the rain, splashing in puddles, and trying to take in the washing. In a multi-age assembly the variety and visual action caught the attention of the Primary 1 class while the details of water in the environment interested the Primary 7 group. A meaningful time was had by all.

Script
LEADER: Welcome to our Harvest Festival - and thank you for your very generous harvest gifts. They will be given to people in our locality.
We have decided to use water as the theme for our Harvest Festival.

CHILD 1: At harvest time, we remember to thank God for food, but we sometimes forget to thank him for water.
We can live for a month without food, but for only a week without water - so it is very important to us.
We use water to drink.
We use water to grow food.
Then we use it to cook the food, for example vegetables - and especially dried foods, like: rice, spaghetti, tea, coffee, soup, Oxo and so on. (Point to selection of harvest foods.)
We use water to wash and clean.
We use it to make electricity - and we swim in and sail on it.
Our Art display shows you these things.
Without water, there would be no harvest.
Everyone in the world needs water.
Today, we are going to thank God for our food harvest, by sharing it with others. We are also going to thank him for his gift of water, which makes the food harvest possible.

CHILD 2: Dear God, in our world, some people have plenty to eat and drink,
while others go hungry and thirsty. Help us today to TAKE a little less, so we can GIVE more to those who need it.
All around us are the colours, the smells, the tastes and pictures of your harvest gifts to us. May we be generous enough to share these gifts with others. We are the ones who have plenty. We are the ones who should share. Amen.

CHILD 3: Harvest Festivals always take place in autumn, which is some peoples' favourite season. There is a lot of water around in autumn, in the form of rain, mist and fog. After a long, hot summer, like the one we had this year, most people welcome the rain. Here is a poem which mentions autumn rain.

Autumn, I think, is a funny time of year,
With winter coming in,
It rains a lot, and cars whizz by
And soak you to the skin.
The sky turns from blue to grey.
The hours pass almost silently away
And very soon the day is done.

We are now going to sing an autumn hymn. It is about the things people like in autumn, including food and rain.

HYMN: Autumn Days by Estelle White (Celebration Hymnal for Everyone number 61)

CHILD 4: In that hymn, rain and rainbows were mentioned. In the Bible story about Noah's Ark, God washed away the evil in the world by making it rain for forty days. Then he sent a rainbow as a beautiful sign that he would never flood the earth again. Part of the beauty of rain is the fact that you can have great fun with it.

CHILD 5: When it's raining, we look out of the window - and some people look sad because it's raining!
But - look at the drops of rain falling in the puddles.
Look at the patterns they make - rings and then more rings.
We put on our boots and jump into the puddles.
We watch the splashes we make.
Then we watch the water dripping from the gutters.
We listen to it gurgling down the drains.
Thank you, God, for the fun we have when it rains.

CHILD 6: So, we can play when it rains, but the rain sometimes plays games with us, like when we are trying to hang the washing out to dry.

The sun is shining. The washing's on the line. Children are at play.
Suddenly - drops of rain, then more - a shower!
Children shriek!
Clothes pegs fly!
Sheets are gathered in a heap.
Then - a smiling sun peeps around the cloud, waiting to play the game again!
Sun-rays mingle with the rain - and a rainbow arches high in the sky.
This is God's multi-coloured promise of love.
We praise and thank you, Creator God, for sun and shower and rainbow.

CHILD 7: When God created the earth, he made it a watery world. 70% of the earth's surface is covered by water. Some of this evaporates and comes back down as rain. This rain fills up the seas, the rivers and lakes.
However, although there is a lot of water on earth, only 1% is suitable for humans to drink. 97% of our water is salty seawater and 2% is ice.
We have to be very careful with the 1% of water which we can drink. We must not pollute it.
We should be grateful that we only have to turn a tap and we can drink. We should help provide pumps and wells in countries where people have to walk
up to 20 miles every day to collect water.
This is a watery world, but we are responsible for making sure that everyone has enough water for their needs.

CHILD 8: We now have a poem for you, called "Watery World".

INTRO: If you look this way from a distant galaxy,
With a powerful telescope you might see
A tiny blue planet near a bright yellow star,
And you'd know it was alive because blue means water.

CHORUS: Please join in with the chorus...
Where would we be without a watery world?
We wouldn't be living here at all.
Because water gives life, it helps us all to grow
And it makes our planet bloom.

VERSE 1: You can ...
Drink it, gargle it, squirt it or blow bubbles in it.
Splash it, wash in it, take a bath or shower in it.
Cook your soup or porridge in it.
Have a swim or paddle in it.
Make a boat and float upon it.
Can't do much without it - without water.

CHORUS ...

VERSE 2: There are ...
Tadpoles, little frogs, newts and lilies living in it,
Salmon, rainbow trout, lots of fishes swimming in it,
Otters play and frolic in it,
In the sea the dolphins love it,
Giant whales spout upon it.
They couldn't live without it - without water.

CHORUS ...

VERSE 3: You can..
Get wet in the rain, it's pouring cats and dogs again,
Squilch, squelch in the mud, get washed away in a raging flood,
Make a snowman in the winter,
Skate on ice across a river,
Go out surfing in Australia.
There'd be no fun without it - without water.

CHORUS ...

CHILD 9: Here are some facts about water.
All living things need water.
Many living things are made mostly of water: a tomato is 95% water, a potato is 80% water, (hold up food), an elephant is 70% water, and we are 66% water.

CHILD 10: This is what a litre of water looks like. (Show.) It weighs a kilogram.
Everyone in this room uses about 150 litres of water a day.
In poor countries, each person only uses about 12 litres of water a day.

CHILD 11: In this country, each person uses about 5 litres of water for cooking and drinking, every day.
Having a bath uses 300 litres of water.
Cleaning teeth and washing uses 30 litres.
Washing-up uses 10 litres.
Each toilet flush uses 13 litres.

CHILD 12: It takes 10 litres of water to cook 1 kilogram of rice.
It takes 45 litres of water to make 1 litre of beer.

CHILD 13: Every year in India alone, 20 000 babies die because they drink
dirty water.
Every day in poor countries, 30 000 adults die because they drink dirty water.
Over half the people in the world do not have enough water.

CHILD 14: God does send enough water for everybody - but we waste a lot of it and make it dirty. In future, we should think twice before we waste even one drop of water. Someone else needs that water - and remember, when we give someone a drink we are also giving it to Jesus, as he said,

JESUS: I was thirsty and you gave me a drink.

HYMN: Whatsoever you do by W. Jabusch (Celebration Hymnal for Everyone number 799) verses 1-3

CHILD 15: Water is used many times in the Bible as a symbol of life.
In the Old Testament, God promised his people good harvests. He promised to send rain to make the food grow.

CHILD 16: He said,

GOD: If you obey my rules and do what I ask you to do, then I will send you all the rain you need, just at the right time to make things grow. All the crops will grow beautifully in the soil and the trees will be covered with fruit. You will be able to harvest your food all the year round and eat as much as you want. (Lev. 26: 3-5)

CHILD 17: God knows that water is very important to farmers and gardeners.
After all, he created the fields and flowers and wants us to look after them.
God said that looking after the world and its people was like a gardener
looking after his garden.
He said,

GOD: I am a gardener - and I look after my garden all day and all night. I keep watering all my plants, because I don't want them to dry up or their leaves will fall off. Then the whole of my garden will be filled with flowers.
(Is. 27)

CHILD 18: Early men knew that they could not live without the water God sent to them. David wrote a song praising God for the gift of water.

DAVID: You care for the earth. You give it water to make it fruitful. You are the one who sends down the early rain to prepare the soil for the seeds.
You are the one who gathers rain into the rivers to carry water to the crops .
You are the one who gives us gentle showers to soak into the hard-ploughed
fields, to soften the earth and make the plants sprout and grow. (Ps.65)

CHILD 19: In the New Testament, water is still used as a symbol of life.
When John the Baptist baptised Jesus, he used water to show that Jesus was starting a new stage in his life.
When we are baptised, water is used to show that we are being given the power to grow for God.
Indeed, Jesus said we should be baptised with water.
One day, a man called Nicodemus asked Jesus how he could live in God's way.
Jesus said,

JESUS: Believe me. You must begin all over again, if you are to live for God.

NICODEMUS: How can an old man begin all over again. He can't start life as a baby again, can he?

JESUS: No, but let me put it this way. If a man is to live in God's way, two things matter. He must change his ways - and be BAPTISED WITH WATER as a sign that he has changed. He must receive God's power in his heart. Only God's power is strong enough to help a man to live in God's way.
(John 3: 1-6)

CHILD 20: Jesus said that anyone who asked would receive living water and eternal life. He said this at a place called Jacob's Well. We are going to act a short play about this.

____

CHILD 21: One day, Jesus and his friends were travelling from Judea to
Galilee. They had walked all morning and were very tired. They came to a place called Jacob's Well. Jesus sat down by the well for a rest.
His friends went into the town to buy food. It was very hot and Jesus wanted a drink, but the water was right down at the bottom of the deep well.
A woman came along with a jug, to draw water. Jesus asked,

JESUS: Would you give me a drink of water, please?

The woman was surprised because she did not know Jesus, so Jesus asked again, saying,

JESUS: I am asking for a drink of water. If you knew me, you would ask me for the living water.

Again the woman was surprised. She said,

WOMAN: How can you give me water? You do not have a jug.

Jesus replied,

JESUS: I am speaking of a different water. Whoever drinks water from this well will soon be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I can give will never be thirsty again. The water I give shall become a spring inside him, welling up into eternal life.

The woman then realised she was speaking to Christ. She went away feeling refreshed - and left her jug behind, so Jesus and his friends could have a drink. (John 4)

CHILD 22: That woman was changed by her meeting with Jesus. The living water he gave her had refreshed her.

____

HYMN: Seasons Come by Michael Cockett (Celebration Hymnal for Everyone number 629)

CHILD 23: Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation.
For the beauty of water, for water that shines and reflects,
for the gushing sound of a waterfall, for the tapping sound of the rain,
for shining lakes and flowing rivers, for rushing brooks and roaring waves - we thank you, Lord. Amen.

CHILD 24: The response is - We thank you, Lord.
For water which keeps alive people, plants and animals ...
Response ...

For water which keeps us healthy ...
Response ...

For water to nourish our harvest crops ...
Response ...

For water to swim and play in ...
Response...

For water to make electricity ...
Response ...

For water which gives us new life in baptism ...
Response...

CHILD 25: Lord, you are the Saviour of the world. Give us the living water, so that we may never be thirsty. Amen.

CHILD 26: Lord, our farmers are coming to the end of their reaping and gathering. Help us to remember that without your living water nothing would grow. Amen.

BLESSING: with Holy Water, if a priest is present.
PRIEST: God our Father, bless this school. Fill the hearts of your children with goodness.
Bless all who come to our school. May every person who comes in be the better for it.
Bless our harvest gifts. May they be a true sign of our generosity and concern for others.
Bless this room. Bless its four corners. Bless all of us here today.
May the blessing of God be upon us all, in the name of the Father ...

HYMN: Water of Life by Stephen Dean (Celebration Hymnal for Everyone number 401)