Safari: Spiritual Crocodiles

For Curtis's lesson he took all of the kids on a safari.   First he told them the story from Elder Packer's talk to the youth called, "Spiritual Crocodiles."   (We also watched the video later in the car which is excellent!)   In his talk Elder Packer referred to his trip to South Africa.  He wondered why animals were so nervous coming upon an elephant track to drink water when there were no lions about.  The guide explained that they were nervous because of the crocodiles.  Elder Packer did not believe him at first.  The guide showed him that crocodiles would hide in the water and mud in order to attack unsuspecting animals who came to the water holes to drink.  Since the guides knew this, they could warn others of the dangers.  In his talk, Elder Packer explains to the youth that there are much greater dangers than crocodiles lurking about that they are not aware of.  But there are others who have gone before them who can be their guides to help them circumvent these dangers and remain safe if they will only listen and heed the warnings given.  You can the full article here:  "Spiritual Crocodiles."

So for the safari Curtis passed out equipment to the kids -- backpacks, binoculars, canteens.  He didn't have crocodiles so he used snakes instead.  He had previously planted several stuffed or rubber snakes on the path.  Then he explained the dangers of each kind of snake.  At the end of the safari he told the kids to go to the picnic table with the blue tarp (this represented heaven but they didn't know it yet).   He had asked the other adults to try and lure the kids away sneakily while they were on their way.  We did this by offering candy or distracting them.  This was easy to do with the younger kids who easily left the path for a piece of licorice.  Curtis sent a few kids at a time to find their way back.  His instructions were quite vague with the first group and many of them got lead away by the "crocodiles."  He gave a warning to the second group that there might be some dangers along the way and to be careful.  They did a little better but some of them were still caught.  He explained to the third group that we were acting as the crocodiles in this situation and they were to avoid us at all costs.  All of this group made it back to "heaven" safely.  Just like the guides in the story, if we listen to our guides who have paved the way before us, we can all make it safely back home to our Father in Heaven.