Flookburgh School

This morning I went to do the assembly at Flookburgh School it was the last assembly of 2016.  I gave the children the choice of which song to start with and they picked - God's Love is Bigger than a Burger (great choice).  After the song I asked the children what time of year we were in - first hand up little boy said Advent, I did have a second question in case no one got it first time round - which was did you have chocolate before breakfast, that usually gets them thinking.  I explained that Advent is the time of year when we start to get ready and think about Christmas, it is a time of waiting.  I also said that I wasn't going to tell them the Christmas story as they know already but what I did show them was a video which was produced by the Bible Society which tells the story as a poem which has been set to some pictures.  The poem in the video has a repeating line which says "...turn sad into glad again..."  After the video is over I asked the children about the line to see if they picked up on it.  I then asked what makes our world sad - I got a number of answers mainly centred around war and fighting and falling out - I added one of my own about making a mess of the beautiful world God gave us to live in.  I then explained that God sent Jesus into the world to show us how to turn sad into glad again, in the way he lived his life showing love, kindness, compassion and being humble too.  Jesus showed us how to live our lives.  I also mentioned that without Jesus we won't celebrate Christmas which was a bit of a shock for some of the little ones at the front.  I encouraged them this Christmas time to spend a moment thinking about what Christmas is really all about amid the busy rushing around we all do as the day draws near, and also on Christmas morning as they open gifts and presents and say thank you to pause a moment an thank God for Jesus.  To close we sang our Christmas song Rejoice with Us.  After the song I closed with a prayer.