Burlington School

This morning Sarah and I went over to Burlington School for the assembly.  It was great to see the children again after what seems such a long time.  Sarah open the assembly up by asking if the children had had a good Christmas and New Year and asking if anyone had been to a party during the Christmas holidays - hands went up - this was to link in with our story today.  We started by singing Be Happy before I told the story of the Wild Son who Returned Home - or the Lost Son.  I used various pictures to help me as I told the story and explained that when all the young sons money was gone so did his friends.  I linked it back to Christmas or whenever we have a party there is great excitement and you are on a real high but once it is finish we can sometimes sink down low.  As the story goes on the son started to feed some pigs and even considered eating their food - but he decided to go home.  Meanwhile back at home his dad is waiting for him and the speech the son had prepared didn't matter as his dad forgave him for what he had done.  I reminded the children why Jesus came in the first place - to tell us more about God and Heaven and about how we should live our lives so that we might also go to Heaven one day.  As the dad forgave the son so God forgives us for the wrongs we do, we just need to say sorry but also we need to forgive those who have done wrong to us.  Sarah summed up what I was saying and pointed out the words in the Lords Prayer about forgiveness.  We then sang God Can Do Anything as it says nothing is too big or too small like the things we do wrong being forgiven.  After the song she finished with a prayer followed by the Lords Prayer.