This week, travel with us to India where we’ll meet a man named Barnabas. As a young boy, Barnabas lived away from home at the Manipur Adventist Boarding School. It was hard for him, he had to live away from home, but his father wanted Barnabas to dedicate his life to God and knew he would grow close to God at the school.

Because of the education he received, Barnabas eventually became a pastor and years later returned to the area as the president of the Adventist Church in the state of Manipur. When he saw the condition of his old school, he was saddened. It was crumbling. It was so bad some students were starting to leave the school. Yet, Barnabas felt helpless, because there was no money to fix the problem.

See what Barnabas did next and how Maranatha helped his former school.

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Pre-video Discussion Questions
- Have you ever visited a place, only to return some time later and see that everything looked very different, maybe even worse, than you remembered? How did it feel?

VIDEO
In today’s video, a former student returns to his old school to find it crumbling, without any money to fix the problem.

Post-video Discussion Questions
- How would you feel if you came back to your house, school, or church, where you have had a lot of fun, and found it crumbling?
- What did Barnabas do when he saw the bad shape his old school was in? (He prayed) Why do you think he did that?
- In the Bible, Hannah promised to dedicate her son to God if she was able to have a baby. When her son, Samuel, was born, she eventually sent him to live at the temple to learn how to be a priest, just like Barnabas went away from home to learn at school. When Samuel became Israel’s high priest as an adult, he could see that his country was not in good shape. The king, Saul, was not obeying God. So Samuel turned to God in prayer, just as Barnabas did. God showed him that King Saul would not be the king forever, and that Samuel should look for a new king. He eventually found David, who would be one of Israel’s most famous kings. Have you ever been in a situation where you knew things weren’t the way they should be, so you prayed like Samuel? What happened?
- Is there something going on in your school, church, or home that isn’t the way it should be? What can you do to make it better?

Prayer Points
- For any situations where we need God’s help.
- Ask kids what they would add to the prayer list.

Did You Know?
- Manipur means “Land of Gems”