Tuesday 27 April 2010

Saturday - Millom

We are both very busy this week not only with our every day things and assemblies etc and other church activities but on Saturday we have the first of our many Fun Days. We (I) have lots of new material to work through, tricks in particular. So I am looking forward to Thursday my day off when I can sit down and plan, practise and perfect my acts. I am trying to put together two different acts for the children each one with a slight gospel message to it then a final act with a more powerful message to it. As well as the magic we are also going to be telling a few stories with a bit of a twist to them. I am looking forward to it. We would ask though that you would pray for us. It always or nearly always happens that whenever we put ourselves out there for God, Satan starts to destroy it, either by illness, or stops the wheelchair from working. So please pray for protection over us and our children this week and on Saturday so that God's Glory may be seen.

Low Furness School

Shine, Shine, Shine
Today we introduced the pupils of Low Furness School to Shine. A new song that we pick up from the all age worship at Spring Harvest. I feel that it is going to be one of those songs that never goes away. The children loved it. For the story today we told the Lost Coin Story from one of the children's bibles. But before Sarah read the story we had someone looking round the room for a lost coin. During the telling of the story Sarah had me acting out parts of it, complete with pink (Stephanie) wig. Then as the children had enjoyed it so much we sang Shine again. At the end one of the teachers told a real life story about losing her purse on Monday - thankfully two men found it and returned it to her so she said they Shone out by doing a good thing. It fitted in well. It just goes to show that God has all things planned.

Wednesday 21 April 2010

Croftlands School Assemlies

NO! NO! NO!
This was the theme for the assemblies at both schools this week. Saying NO! However it was not based on a negative, it was based around Daniel and his friends who said NO! to the Kings special food. We tried to teach the children that it is sometimes bad to say NO! and it is sometimes good to say NO! We also told them that they should let their lights shine for Jesus and we demonstrated this by singing with them a new song (for us) that we picked up at Spring Harvest called Shine. The children really enjoyed it. So much so that on Monday afternoon our friend came round for tea with her two children both of which go to the Infant school and they were singing it.
God is really working in those schools and we pray that he will continue to do so and that he will show us what else we can do to further develop the work within the schools. The response we get as we are getting out of the car, setting up and during the assembly is great. We have children asking us for certain songs. We have seen children outside school who have recited words of songs back to us. We consider ourselves privileged to be able to work with them.

Mark

Monday 12 April 2010

Spring Harvest 2010 - Skegness

Well what can I say about Spring Harvest - It was rubbish...when we had to leave to come home. We could have stayed longer and soaked up the atmosphere. Sarah and the girls had a ball, and as for me I had a great time. It was good to listen to some powerful God inspired teaching in the Big Top and be involved in the worship with thousands of others. One can only imagine what Heaven will be like with millions of people worshipping God. We have come back refilled, refreshed, recharged and re-challenged to take God's word out to the people. The theme for the week was Seeing the World Through Different Eyes ... God's Eyes. Each day part of the story of Esther was brought to us and in particular the verse that says ...for such a time as this... When we look at the world with different eyes we can see all the - for such a time as this - parts of if. It made us realise that loosing my job last year was one such thing. And now facing that same situation again both Sarah and I and both say the same thing - for such a time as this. And we can face tomorrow knowing that we are firmly in God's plan and His story is part of our story and our story is part of His story. We can say that when we see the world through different eyes.