St Peters Ireleth

This morning Sarah and I went over to St Peters again.  To start we got a lovely welcome from the children as they said good morning to us.  Our first song today was Great Great Brill Brill, we haven't sung it much in recent months but it kind of fitted with what we wanted to talk about in that it says 'He's always there, he always listens when I talk to him...' After the song Sarah read the story of Paul's shipwreck using the Lion Storyteller Bible.  There was a response for the children to say when ever Sarah said ...was Paul worried... the response was... no not at all.  After the story I spoke to the children and explained that the storm that caused the ship to be wrecked had lasted 14 days.  I asked who had been on a boat at sea and asked if they have ever been in a storm.  I told of the time when we were coming back from Ireland when Grace was a baby and the boat ran into a storm, the shop was closed but we could hear all the bottles and jars crashing to the floor and there was people being ill and it was a little frightening.  I also told the children that on the boat there were 276 prisoners which Paul had been told would survive the ship wreck.  It would have been easy to throw them over the side to make the ship a little lighter but instead they throw the cargo, the ships tackle as well as the anchors into the sea and as God had promised to Paul all hands were saved.  I encouraged the children by saying that in life we do go through difficult times and we should do as Paul did and look to God and Jesus to help and protect us if you like through the storms of life.  God is our shield and our protector and he will look after us through whatever we face each day.  This was a cue to a song so I asked who knew what the song was and a hand went up and Wonderful lord was the answer.  During the song I said a prayer.  Then after we closed the assembly.