What is a 'yoo-nak'?

Right now I'm preparing for Sunday School tomorrow, and the verses that I am teaching on tomorrow are Acts 8: 26-40. This is the story of Philip, the Evengelist (not the Apostle. Don't mix them up) and how an angel sent him on a trip to Gaza. Along the way, Philip met an Ethiopian man who was reading portions of scripture but didn't understand it, so Phillip explained it to him and the man believed.

Verse 27 in this chapter says, "So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians." I wasn't sure what an eunuch was, and from the verse I assumed it meant some sort of palace official. But I did checked it out online just to be sure, and got something quite different from what I expected.

An Eunuch, according to Wikipedia, is a man who was castrated, usually in order to perform a specific social function such as religious specialists, government officials, military commanders, and guardians of women or harem servants. Eunuchs were considered more trustworthy to rulers as since they were unable to reproduce, they would have less temptation to try to overthrow the ruler and establish their own dynasty. It is for this very same reason that eunuchs were entrusted to take care of the ruler's harems. Even if they wanted to try something funny with the women, they simply couldn't. :P

Anyway, after reading the long and rather interesting history of eunuchs, I was left thinking... How on earth am I going to explain what an eunuch is to a bunch of 8 to 10 year old boys? I can just imagine...

"Carol jie jie, what is an....a.... yee-ooo-nooch?"

"It's pronounced 'yoo-nak' "

"Oh... what's a 'yoo-nak'? "

"Em... eunuchs were....er... special men that worked for kings and rulers last time and had very important jobs."

"What was so special about 'yoo-naks'?"

"Em... they were... men who were castrated"

".... What is 'cass-tray-ted'?"

"Err....eh....let's sing some Sunday School songs!"

Hmmm.... well, I actually wouldn't mind explaining the meanings of 'yoo-nak' and 'cass-tray-shun' to them, except that I don't want them going off and telling their parents that they learned two interesting new words at Sunday School. And then the following week, I'll have a bunch of parents pulling me aside after church and giving me long lectures. So I shall start preparing my Sunday School songs now....