Images and activity to support teaching about suffering

These images are provided courtesy of Samaritan's Purse. They could be used to support a lesson exploring Christian perspectives on suffering.

Activity idea

Show these images in a slideshow, or download them, print them out and place them around the room. (If doing this, place some paper next to each image.) For each image, ask students 'but why?' Let them write an answer, and ask again, 'but why?'. Keep doing this until you reach the bottom line.

For example - a starving child. But why? Because they have no food. But why? Because they cannot afford any. But why? etc, etc.

Teaching point

Christians might say that the 'bottom line' of each of these images will concern human selfishness. People often suffer on account of others being selfish. This act of putting our own desires before anything else - what is right, or fair (the standard for which Christians find in God's words, found in the Bible) - is what Christians call 'sin'. Putting oneself first has the potential to damage relationships with God, with other people and with the natural world around us.