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The Y.A.K. Problem

Album: 33: Virtual Realities

Episode: 429

Lesson/Theme: Don’t worry about the unknown

Bible Verse: Matthew 6:25-34

Characters: Harlow, Mandy, Eugene, Whit

Writer: Marshal Younger

Sound Designer:

Original Air Date: November 6, 1999

Last Air Date: September 11, 2009

Description:
The end of another school day in Odyssey brings the an announcement by the that there will be an all school assembly the next Thursday afternoon in the cafeteria with city council person Julianne Walker. Immediately Sarah and Nathaniel start jumping to conclusions and decide that Julianne Walker is going to clamp down on the student body and take all the fun things away from them. As their imaginations run wild, they come up with all sorts of scenarios that they predict will happen. When they stop at Whit's End, they accidentally stumble on a huge stash of ice cream. They ask Whit what he's stocking up for, but he shies away from giving them a clear answer. That makes them all the more sure that Julianne Walker is planning to close Whit's End, and they decide she is probably going to ban candy, comic books, video games, and maybe even TV. Sarah remembered hearing her dad talking on the phone about something called the Y.A.K. program, and Nathaniel quickly decided it must be the Year of Anti-Kids Program. Harlow Doyle comes along, and assures them he will die before he lets this town by overrun by yaks. The kids decide to eat all the candy they can eat while they still can, and soon they begin to get sick. Finally the time for the assembly comes and Julianne Walker announces that the school had designed a new program called the Yearly Advancement of Knowledge Program, or the Y.A.K. program. She then announces that the school had collected enough money to build a new science wing, and to thank the students for all their work, there was a surprise for them. When Whit comes out with a 50-foot banana split, the kids realize that they were certainly wrong, and that everything had turned out way better than they expected. Whit tells the kids that faith in God is a lot harder when all your friends are putting their faith somewhere else; but if they do it anyway, God can use them in great ways.

Questions:
What did the kids think "Y. A. K." meant? What did it actually mean? Was it all right for the kids to prepare? Why or why not? Whit told Mandy that God is ultimately in control. Can you think of any events that you need to let God have control over?