This PowerPoint presentation, ‘God’s heart for the widow’, provides the prayers, stories and images to be used for a Partner Church update. For ‘Claire’s prayer’, please visit and download from allwecan.org.uk/heart

The Bible Reading (NIV) The Widow’s Olive Oil The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.” 2 Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.” 3 Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbours for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. 4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.” 5 She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.” But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing. 7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

Activity Children activity: What you need: 10 olives for each child Pestle and mortar (or something that will function in that way) for each child A litre bottle of olive oil Method: Invite children to help make oil from olives. Give them one minute to press as many olives as they can to produce as much olive oil as possible. When the minute ends assess who has produced the most oil. Show the congregation a litre bottle of olive oil and invite them to guess how many olives are needed to produce it. Share: Generally it takes over 1,000 olives, weighing between 4 and 8 kilograms to make one litre of extra virgin olive oil. This helps us understand why oil has been considered to be precious over the centuries, because it takes hard work to get it and certain oils are rare.

Here are some points that you can incorporate into your reflection / talk: The widow’s situation: In this story, like many widows across the world, the widow has found herself in a challenging situation. She needs to pay off the debts of her late husband, but she does not have the money to do so. In those days, people could become the property of others – a slave. If the widow did not produce the money, her children, who were her current and future means of support, would be taken from her and sold as slaves to repay the debt. Not only would she be grieving the loss of her husband but also the loss of her sons. She would be alone, without close family, making her even more vulnerable. The widow’s faith: The widow acted in faith by going to Elisha, who was known by her as a man of God. She was right to suppose that a man of God would be concerned with the same things as God. The Bible tells us that God is concerned with those who are vulnerable, especially the widows and the fatherless (Deuteronomy 10:18, 24:21). With such knowledge, the widow in this story could be confident that God would be concerned for her. She demonstrated more faith by gathering jars expecting God to fill them. She did not limit God’s work by gathering only a few, but kept on going until there were no jars left. Do we look to God in times of trouble? Are we aware of his concern for us? God’s heart: The widow through this miracle experienced God’s personal act of love and care towards her. What is also astonishing is that God did not just show his care for her by providing the right amount of oil to cover the debt, but he gave extra. As followers of God, we too should reflect his heart in our love, care and generosity for vulnerable people, including widows, across the world.

[Share Tendai’s story] There is perhaps little harder to cope with in life, than losing a loved one. But in a place like Zimbabwe, it can be even harder if you are left as a single woman. Women in Zimbabwe are unlikely to have had the same education progression as the men, so when they lose their husband, they can also lose the knowledge and influence that he had. In traditional communities, property rights for widows are not always upheld and widows often suffer much stigma. Junior, a project worker for MeDRA explains, “Culturally, being a single woman who is widowed, they are seen as not really fit for the community because of the gender stereotypes, women are expected to be married.”

Last year, Tendai’s husband died, leaving her at the age of 43, to be the sole provider of their two children. Here she is with her daughter Chido, holding up photos of her late husband. After his death, no longer was the workload shared between them, or was the family able to benefit from the skills and efforts of both parents, it fell solely to her. Tendai not only suffered the heartache of losing her life-long companion, but also the challenges of tackling the issues of poverty alone. Tendai says, “My husband passed away. I am trying to look after the children and maintain the cattle without him.” In reality, Tendai and her husband had been struggling. Their harvests were failing, not giving them enough to feed their children or to make an income from selling produce at the market. Even when Tendai had her husband’s support, they struggled to pay the school fees and to clothe their family. Life without him had the potential to be a lot harder.

But help came when she needed it most But help came when she needed it most. Tendai was selected to join the Sungano group (meaning ‘being together’), a group that started a chicken business which we have been journeying with as an All We Can Partner Church. Tendai says, “The group has given me comfort, they supported me when I was grieving my husband. I feel that I am not lonely because I have the group.”

It didn’t take long for Tendai and her family to start feeling the benefits of working hard on the chicken business. She explains, “With the first round of money… I paid for school fees for the children, food for the children and two bags of cement for the floor in my kitchen. With the second round of money… I bought groceries for the family and 10kg maize crop to plaint in the field for the next harvest. We now have a variety of food and we are enjoying our meals.”   As an All We Can Partner Church, our support helps to meet the physical needs of families like Tendai’s, such as with food. And also people’s social needs, the need to belong and to relate to others.