PUKING PUMPKINS

Last weekend we did this crazy experiment with pumpkins and a foaming mouth in the desert.  It was gross and the perfect illustration for a conversation about the power of the tongue.  We got the idea from Dangerous Devotions for Guys and is only dangerous cuz of nasty chemicals.  There's no fire or explosions this time. This one does say you should measure stuff out all official like with a gram scale and stuff, but we just guessed using the estimated portions they suggested on some stuff and got close with others and it worked perfect.  Here's how:

Have students carve a pumpkin- make sure to give it a big mouth.  Place it on a rock or bucket or something with a glass jar inside.

Add some liquid soap, food coloring, and some 30% hydrogen peroxide- which is essentially pool shock that you buy at a pool cleaning supply place- to the glass jar.  Then you mix some crazy chemical powder  that I bought online at the place the book says to get it.  You dissolve it with water in a separate container and then quickly pour it into the jar of other junk already in the pumpkin, then put the lid on the pumpkin fast... and almost instantly, the foam comes spewing out and it's gross and it makes a big nasty toxic mess.

Which is just exactly what you want it to do when you're talking about the power of our tongue and a lie. What more could you ask for to get students talking about how powerful our words are than a pumpkin spewing powerful foaming chemicals out it's mouth?  Genius I tell you.  Sheer genius.

Add a healthy serving of James 3 and maybe a little John 8:44 and Isaiah 29:13 and maybe finish it off with with Ephesians 4:29 and bammo.  You have yourself a conversation about the power of the tongue and the danger/power in the word's we speak for good or evil.

That my friends, is a great small group study in the bag.