European Puppet Festival - Derby

Sarah and I have had a great time this weekend sharing with old friends like the team from One Way UK as well as seeing Bob Hartman again.  We have both come back full of new ideas and concepts and also some new props and things too.  We have seen some really great ministry ideas from puppet teams as well.  Sarah has been to different workshops to the ones I went to so we are able to share ideas around with each other.  We had a great journey down on Friday and a fab journey back tonight.  We have both felt lifted up in prayer too.

Leven Valley School

We made our first visit of the year to Leven Valley school on Thursday (yes I know this post is a little late) So as it was the first visit of the new school year and it was nearly half term there was no point in doing the assembly about working together that we have done in nearly every school in September so we went right into the Lord's Prayer assembly.  So Sarah read the usual version while I read the Street Bible version - Man.... then following this we did the crossword.  We ended the assembly by singing Wonderful Lord which included a prayer in the middle.

OCC Assembly at Croftlands Juniors

This morning I went along to Croftlands Junior school to take an assembly and introduce Operation Christmas Child to the children.  I didn't start with a song but talked a little about shoe boxes before I showed the video.  I reduced the sound down and spoke over the top of it as the film clip moved from black and white to colour and smiles appear on the little faces of the children.  I told the children that this year they can help to bring out smiles just like these by getting a shoe box packing with small gifts filling it with love and sending it to a child in another country via Operation Christmas Child - Samaritans Purse.  I then explained how to do it and about the leaflet and when we would be back to collect them.  Then we sang a song and at the children's request we sang the Chicken Dance.  I then said a prayer to close.

Broughton School

This morning we went over to Broughton for the assembly.  We did the Lord's Prayer assembly that we have done in a few schools now.  To start we didn't sing a song but went straight into talking about prayer.  Sarah explained about the Lord's Prayer and how the disciples of Jesus had asked how to pray.  She also explained that when she read a line from the traditional Lord's Prayer I was going to read it from the street bible - get it man - Following the Lord's Prayer Sarah introduced a crossword puzzle all about prayer, it had 10 clues and as she read the questions the children responded with answers.  Once it was all filled in she again explained the answers before we all said the Lord's Prayer together.  Then I led them in Wonderful Lord and during the instrumental part prayed for them.

1st Duddon Cub group

This evening I have been over to the 1st Duddon Cub group to - do what we do.  I started with a song Great Big God and then taught them Giants of Faith.  I then told the story of Joesph complete with costumes.  The children joined in and had a great time with it.  I think they particularly like the dressing up parts.  After the story we did a craft which was to stick and glue onto a cut of of Joseph's coat.  Following this we played a few relay games and even managed to teach them a new game as well.  I ended the evening with Wonderful Lord and a short prayer.

Our Lady's Dalton

This morning I went along to Our Lady's in Dalton for the assembly.  To start with we sang Great Big God then I started to talk about who or what wakes people up in the morning, one said a bird another a clock and when said an alarm clock - which was the answer I was looking for.  I started to talk about time and how when our parents say 5 minutes to bedtime it always seems only seconds and we are off to bed.  I then played the 1 minute game and when the children thought 1 minute had gone by they had to stand up.  A number of children stood up at 1 minute.  I looked at an apple and asked if any of them had an apple tree in the garden and if they did what came before the apple - it is of course the bud then the flower.  But i asked who or what tells the tree to grow the bud.  A number of answers came out but one little boy said God.  I then showed the apple cycle from seed to plant to tree to bud to flower to apple to seed etc  I asked 3 year 5/6 children out to read a verse each from the Bible they were Genesis 1:11, 8:22 Ecclesiastes 3:1-2.  The verses talk about creation and how God put the seed into the fruit and how there is a time for everything and as long as the earth continues there will always be summer and winter, day and night etc.  I finished with Creator God followed by a prayer.

OCC assembly at Croftlands Infants

This afternoon I took the assembly at Croftlands Infants School.  I took the video projector and the 2 metre screen so I could show the Operation Christmas Child video to them.  We started with singing Inright Outright then I showed the children the video with the song in the background and as the video played I talked about what they were seeing and about how they could help make a child smile this year.  There were times when the children laughed and times when they were quite,  At the end I explained how they could help and showed them the leaflet that they would take home this week.  When I had finished we sang Great Big God and I said a prayer.  Then the headteacher spoke up about the shoe boxes and asked the children to put up their hands if they thought they could fill a box and lots of hands went up.

Low Furness School

The theme for this morning was Our Family so to start the assembly we sang So Many Ways to Praise the Lord.  Then I showed the children some pictures of my family like my grandparents, mum and dad, my family and the extended family of cousins of Grace and Martha.  Then I used the idea from Ian Jones' book on using Dog in a Bag.  So out came Scruff and as usual he had something in his bag which was a photo of his family and so we talked about families and what they are like and how we know that people belong to your family.  Scruff said that they share fleas!  I then asked the children what family they belong to, a number of children responded with God's family or Jesus' family and someone said Low Furness family as well.  This was one of the answers I was looking for.  I then explained that we are part of a number of families like the people we live with and our extended family as well as also being part of the school family and also part of God's wider family and then I brought in the bible verse and explained it to the children.  I also asked the question 'Do we always get on with our family?' and a small number of hands went up so I said that there are times when we don't always get on but when we make up and sort out our differences we are very often stronger because of it and that should make us be happy - which was a clue to the next song which was Be Happy.  Following the song I said a short prayer focusing on our families, the school family and being part of God's family.

BX Lesson 5 Low Furness

This afternoon it was the last lesson of Bible Explorer at Low Furness School.  As I arrived the children were waiting for me, it was a beautiful day outside but some of the girls waited to see if I needed a hand setting up for the lesson others kept popping in and out...  The lesson started and we recapped the previous lessons as well as some important points from other lessons.  We then went through the hand signs from creation to the end of lesson 4.  I then explained again about the split of the country and went on to talk about the job and role of the prophets.  This led us nicely into the start of the hand signs for this week.  Then we had the Assyrian's scattering the Israelite nation followed by a slow motion battle between the king of Babylon and the king of Assyria.  On we went through the story of Daniel followed by yet another slow mo battle this time between the Persian king and the king of Babylon and on it to the story of Esther.  We ended with the quick stories of the Jews return first Zerubbabel who re-built the temple, then Ezra who built up the people finally Nehemiah who re-built the city walls.  The final hand signs are a time one of 400 years followed by silence Christ.  At the end of the lesson the school has a praise assembly and during the assembly 6 girls from the class these are the ones that kept popping in and out presented me with 3 thank you cards.

BX Lesson 5 Broughton

This afternoon it was the last lesson of Bible Explorer at Broughton.  I was telling the stories of Daniel and Esther but with all the rain we are having it perhaps should have been Noah!!  The children as always responded very well and were enthusiastic when in came to putting on costumes etc.  They also all joined in with the hand signs too.  I recalled the previous weeks and referred to some of the other stories as I delivered the last part of the Old Testament.  In today's world it is hard to imagine what exile would have been like or even being scattered about and other people coming to live in your towns and cities etc.  The best way I describe it is by asking or sometimes leading by the hand two people from opposite ends of the room and getting them to change place.  So we went through the Daniel story and the loins den and on into the Esther story before briefly talking about the return of the Jews to Jerusalem and then the 400 years of silence as the Old Testament closes and the new starts with Christ.

BX Lesson 5 Crosthwaite

Had a great afternoon with the children over at Crosthwaite School.  It was lesson 5 of Bible Explorer which has one of my favourite Bible stories in the story of Esther.  To start the lesson off I recalled the books we have covered so far in the previous weeks then went over the hand signs.  I also asked if the children knew how many hand signs they thought we still had to do.  So as the hand signs for week 4 came to an end with the North - South, Israel - Judah, 19 - 20, 0-8 I reminded the children what that meant.  I went back to my model Bible to show the children some of the other books like the books of the prophets and explained what a prophet was.  So at the start of this weeks hand signs we have 'Prophets Speak' and we move into the scattering of the nation of Israel and the exile of the nation of Judah.  This week we also cover the story of Daniel as well as the Esther story.  Then as we move through the return of the exiles and the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem and the temple and the walls we close the Old Testament with 400 years of silence as we await the coming of Christ.  There was the biggest awe from the class as I announced that the lessons had now finished.  The class had one final task to do and that was all the hand signs from start to finish.  I gave them all their certificates to mark them finishing Bible Explorer.

St Peters Ireleth

This morning I went over to St Peters Ireleth.  After singing Inright Outright to warm everyone up I started to talk a bit about time, like what wakes them up in a morning, and how short 5 minutes seems to be at bedtime.  I had an old clock with me and I moved the hands to different times during the day like the start of school and lunch time etc.  I told the children that I have an alarm clock that wakes me up in a morning and in fact two alarms go off.  We then played a little game, I asked the children to imagine 1 minute or 60 seconds and when they thought 1 minute had passed they should stand up.  Most of the children stood up at around 50 seconds with 4 children standing at 56 seconds which was great.  I then picked up an apple and asked if anyone had an apple tree in their garden - hands went up, so then I asked the children what appeared on the tree before the apple.  I did get a number of interesting tree related answers like seeds, twigs, leaves and branches the answer I was looking for was flowers or buds which someone gave me in the end.  Now I asked the question who or what tells the tree to produce the flower so that the fruit can grow?  I asked if they thought that a tree had an alarm clock inside it that told it to start making the fruit.  I told them the name given to it and showed a picture of the apple cycle from seed to plant to tree to bud to flower to apple and back to seed.  I asked 3 children to come out and read some verses from the bible two from Genesis about how God produced the fruit with the seed in it and that as long as the earth continues there will be cold and hot, summer and winter, day and night.  The other verse was from Ecclesiastes which tells us that there is a time for everything.  I then asked the children to think about this time of year as it is harvest time when we thank God for all the wonderful things we have in creation which led me nicely into Creator God.  Following this I said a prayer followed by the Lord's Prayer which I pointed out has the words Give us this day our daily bread.

Operation Christmas Child - Pennington Guides

This evening Sarah, myself and the children went round to see the girls of Pennington Guides.  We did a brief introduction as to who we are - Jester for Jesus Ministries and what we do - assemblies in 15 local schools and other things.  Then told them that this year we are proud to be involved in Operation Christmas Child - Samaritans Purse shoe box appeal.  To explain it a little better we showed them the video.  I turned the volume down a little so that the music was just in the background and I spoke over it, pointing out the conditions that some children live in but also repeating again and again how we/they can help put a smile on a child's face with a shoe box packed with gifts and filled with love.  At the end of the video Sarah explained about the leaflet as I showed a power point about how to go about filling a shoe box.  At the end some of the girls were asking if they could help with the Guides box but also do their own too and one of the leaders took a leaflet and a poster for her work.  So we pray that the guides will have been touched by what they have seen and take a shoe box pack it with gifts and fill it with love.

Ulverston Infants Church Walk

This morning we were at Ulverston Infants Church Walk.  As our theme we decided to do something about harvest.  After singing Inright Outright I asked the children who or what woke them up in a morning, one person said the sun and someone else said an alarm clock.  Alarm clock was the answer I was looking for, I showed the children my mobile phone and said it was also my alarm and that it was woke us up in the morning.  I asked the children about time and talked about how quick 5 minutes goes when it is 'bedtime' it only seems to be seconds!!  Then we did a little test and I asked the children to try to imagine how long a minute was and to stand up when they thought 1 minute had passed by.  To make it slightly harder I put some paper over the school clock.  One little girl was 2 seconds off the minute.  I then showed the children an apple and asked if anyone had an apple tree in their garden lots of hands went up.  I continued by asking if they knew what came before the apple and again a little girl said a flower but what tells the tree I asked?  Does it have a clock inside it?  No! But God created it that way but what is even more amazing is what is inside the apple and a little boy said seeds.  I cut open an apple to show the seeds then I invited 3 year 2 children out to read some verses from the bible Genesis 1:11; 8:22 and Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 which talk about God creating fruit with seeds inside and also there being a time for everything.  I then showed a picture of the apple seed/tree cycle.  To finish we sang Creator God and Sarah prayed a short prayer about harvest time.

Penny Bridge School

This afternoon we went down to Penny Bridge school.  After singing Shine we introduced the children to the Lord's Prayer.  Sarah read the more traditional version of it and after every line I read the Street Bible version.  Sarah then went on to talk about prayer with the children and we did a crossword puzzle were the children answered the clues.  It was all about prayer and what prayer can do.  We followed this with Wonderful Lord and during the instrumental break I said a short prayer.

OCC Assembly at Pennington

This morning we went to Pennington School and talked to the children about Operation Christmas Child. Sarah open up the assembly by asking the children if they like to get presents and about how they feel when they get gifts.  The children responded very well one little boy said at Christmas time his head exploded with excitement.  We then showed the 2012 video with a backing track and during the video I spoke about what the children were seeing and how they too can put a smile onto the face of a child by filling a shoe box with gifts and love.  Following this Sarah and I continued to talk about how the children can be involved and we asked if they knew how many boxes get sent out each year - it is over 1 million.  We said that this year the children could Shine out which was a hint to the song we were going to sing.  After the song I said a prayer.

OCC assembly at St Marys RC School

This morning Sarah and myself were joined by Lisa and Abbie Smith from ECC and we together talked to the children about Operation Christmas Child.  Lisa did most of the talk about how many boxes have been sent to children who live in developing countries and about how the school children can help this year.  We then showed the 2012 video with a backing track and during the video I spoke about what the children were seeing and how they too can put a smile onto the face of a child by filling a shoe box with gifts and love.  Following this Lisa continued to talk about how the children can Shine out which was a hint to the song we were going to sing.  After the song Eden Lisa's other daughter and a pupil at the school said a prayer.

BX Lesson 4 Low Furness

This afternoon I was at Low Furness School doing the fourth lesson of Bible Explorer.  The children were great and as they came in they asked about what stories they would learn today as well as ask about the bible.  It is good that they are so interested and want to ask questions.  I started the lesson with a recap of last week and the final set of hand signs the everyone did what was right in his own eyes expect Ruth and ????  I also went right back to Creation Fall Flood as I brought the children towards the focus of the lesson today.  It started with a mother who wanted a son and an old priest Eli, the story is of course Samuel.  This led towards the first king of Israel - Saul and flowed through to David and finally Solomon.  The lesson ended with the land being divided up into the North - Israel and the South - Judah with the 19 kings of Israel and none followed God and the 20 kings of Judah with 8 following God during a period of 400 Years.  Next week we will look at the exile of the people and their return.

BX Lesson 4 Broughton

I can't believe it lesson 4 already.  Today went over to the year 5/6 class at Broughton.  They were excited to see me again as always they were asking what the stories were going to be about.  It didn't take long for them to settle in to the recap of last lesson and to run through the hand signs from creation up to Ruth.  Last lesson they had been left on a cliff hanger not knowing who the other person was - it was Samuel of course.  One little girl guessed who it was by looking in my model bible at the next book after Ruth.  So the story went through from Samuel and Eli, on to Saul and then David and finally coming to Solomon the last king of the united kingdom.  I explained that the kingdom split in half well the north was the bigger half and then there was the awe at the end when I said that next week I'll finish the story off.  At the end the headteacher who had stayed in the lesson commented on the awe and on how much the children had enjoyed the lessons she sent them out to play and prepared to go through the work books with them.  A great time.

BX Lesson 4 Crosthwaite

This afternoon I battled the floods to get through to Crosthwaite school.  It was lesson 4 of Bible Explorer.  It is the part of the bible when the people the Israelites demanded to have a king like the other nations around them so they asked Samuel to ask God.  It seems strange that they didn't trust God and follow his ways yet they asked Samuel to ask God??  Anyway we have heard about Saul, David and Solomon today.  Then we heard how the land of Israel was divided up never to really be a full true nation again as the north pulled away from the south calling itself Israel and the south Judah.  Next week the children will hear what happened to the north and then what happened to the south.  Again as always the children happily took part in the dressing up and the actions as I retold the stories.

Low Furness

This morning I went along to Low Furness School to take the assembly.  The theme given to us was Our Earth - thinking on this I thought a harvest theme.  So after singing Creator God I showed the children a clock and moved the hands to various times during the day.  I also had my mobile phone alarm with me and so I asked the children what woke them up in a morning apart from parents.  They responded with - alarm clock.  I went on to say that time is a funny thing and in fact the song we had sung was 2 minutes long.  But how long is a minute so I asked them to time a minute and stand when they got close.  Lots of children stood up right on the minute.  This led to me asking how an apple tree works.  How does it grow?  What tells it when to flower and produce fruit?  I  drew out just how amazing it is that trees bear fruit that we can eat and inside them is the seeds to plant new trees.  Then I invited up three children to read passages from the bible Genesis 1:11; 8:22 and Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 which talk about God putting seeds into fruit and how everything has a time to sow and harvest.  Following on from this we sang Great Big God.

Lindal and Marton School OCC assembly

This morning we made a visit to Lindal and Marton School to introduce the Operation Christmas Child shoe box appeal.  It was our first ever visit to the school and also our first OCC assembly too.  To start us off we sang Great Big God then explained a little about OCC and showed the children a video.  The video had music to it and over the top of that I talked to the children about the conditions that some children live in.  The first minute or so of the video is in black and white but then bursts into colour as shoe boxes are given to the children and the look on their faces says it all.  Following the video I showed a little power point about what to do and told the children where to send the boxes or we could collect them from the school.  We ended with a short prayer.  The head then encouraged the children to get involved which was great.  So Praise God for the work that is going to be done in that school over the next few weeks.