Thursday 9 May 2019

Flookburgh School

This morning I have been down to Flookburgh School to do the assembly.  It seems like ages since we last saw the children well before Easter, so to start off I asked if they had had a good Easter holiday and Easter weekend. The children had made some Easter gardens and they were still on display in the hall so I commented on them as this formed a link firstly to the song we were going to sing and also to my story.  So after singing Inright Outright I did a quick recap of the events around the first Easter and then told the story of the two men on the road to Emmaus.  When Jesus joined them they didn't realise it was him and to demonstrate this point I had some blurry pictures of celebs - I did explain that Jesus was all burry though.  As the story unfolded Jesus was going to go on but they asked him to stay and eat (still not knowing who he was) then when he broke the bread WOW! they realised it was him so they hot footed it back to Jerusalem to tell the others.  I made the point that it was what Jesus did that showed who he was, so I asked and encouraged the children to tell me what they might do to show Jesus and particularly his love.  After a number of suggestions and a few hints and dropping in the odd 'shine out' I said we were going to sing a song could they guess which one it was - Shine of course.  After the song I finished with a short prayer. 

Wednesday 8 May 2019

St Pauls Junior School

This afternoon I have been to a new school to do an assembly St Pauls Junior School in Barrow, a few months ago I did New Testament Bible Explorer there with the year 5 and 6 classes.  The schools Christian value for this term is Endurance, so after being introduced I pointed out to the children their Christian calendar on the wall was still pointing to Easter so I asked if they had had a good Easter Holiday and a good Easter weekend and if they had had chocolate for breakfast on Easter Sunday - this was because I wanted to link the events of Easter to my first song and continue with what happened after.  The song was Inright Outright and after it I did a very quick recap of the main events and fast forwarded to Pentecost which is 50 days after Easter Sunday and this year is 9th June.  Following Pentecost the followers of Jesus started to tell more and more people about Jesus despite being laughed at, punished, beaten etc.  Then I continued there was one man who had never seen Jesus, heard Jesus speak - he started to travel about telling loads of people about Jesus and I read from one of his letters about the punishments he had endured during his life, he also said that he would push on and finish the race set before him - I then linked to the upcoming Coniston to Barrow and asked who was doing it explaining that you need to look to the finish line and the pie and peas at the end.  I then let slip the name of the man in the bible - Paul, but today we know him as St Paul.  I asked if that name was familiar to the children - it's the name of our school came the reply.  So I continued by saying if it wasn't for Paul's endurance we wouldn't be here today in St Pauls School, up the road from St Pauls Church and we would not know about Jesus at all.  I linked in the song Be Happy as it says I'll run this race and I will never stop, I'll follow Jesus til' the day I drop.  After singing the song I said a short prayer.

Broughton School

This morning I went over to Broughton School to do the assembly.  As is was before Easter when I last visited I asked the children if they had enjoyed the Easter holidays and then the long Easter weekend.  This led me to ask if they had eaten chocolate before breakfast on Easter Sunday.  To remind us what Easter is about and to link with my story we sang Inright Outright to start with, then I did a quick recap of the events of Easter moving towards the afternoon and evening of Easter day.  Two people, followers of Jesus were on their way home I said when they were joined by Jesus except they didn't realise it was him - to explain this I used some blurry images of celebs and asked the children to guess who they were.  Jesus asked why they were sad, they asked him where he'd been all weekend (or something like that) and why he hadn't seen or heard what had happened to their friend Jesus.  I continued by explaining that Jesus explained the events using the scriptures from hundreds of years before he was even born or the Old Testament as we know it.  I told the children they still didn't see Jesus, then as they got near to their house Jesus went on as if to go further but they invited him in for a bite to eat and as he broke the bread in front of them WOW! it's Jesus they shouted.  Then they hot footed it back to Jerusalem to tell the others they had seen Jesus.  The point I wanted to bring out was that when Jesus did something - brake the bread - they saw him.  So I asked what we could do to show Jesus and his love, the children suggested a number of things like getting people involved in a game, sharing things, being kind, helping people by opening doors etc.  I said that when we do these things we Shine from the inside out - cue for a song. after the song I finished with a prayer.

Tuesday 7 May 2019

Croftlands Infant School

This morning I went along to Croftlands Infant School to do the assembly.  It was our first visit since the Easter holidays and the Easter weekend so I started by asking if the children had had a good Easter and if they had had chocolate for breakfast on Easter Sunday. I said that I knew Easter seem such a long time ago now but I wanted to tell the children what happened next so before I did that we sang Inright Outright to remind us what Jesus did.  I then did a very quick recap of the story of Easter and then talked about the events that happened at 'teatime' on Easter Sunday, when two of Jesus' followers were walking home.  Jesus caught up with them and walked with them except they did realise it was him - I used some pictures of celebs that I had blurred the faces of to further explain my point - not that Jesus' face was blurry or anything...you get the idea.  Anyway as the arrived at the house Jesus was going to continue but they asked him to stay - and it was when He broke the bread that they realised who it was - they made a quick exit and ran back to tell the other followers in Jerusalem.  I made the point that it was what Jesus did that showed them who Jesus was, so I encouraged the children to do things that show Jesus, such as being kind and showing love.  I did ask them for some ideas too which they willingly gave me like watching TV with a friend, sharing toys and sweets, opening a door for someone, etc.  I said that when we do that we Shine from the inside out cue for a song.  After the song I finished off with a prayer.

Saturday 4 May 2019

Millom Community Funday

This afternoon I have been out and about as the Jester for Jesus entertaining the good people of Millom at the Network Centre for the Churches Community Funday.  I did two shows based on trust and faith using gospel illusions to draw out various aspects of trusting in an unseen yet ever present God, Using stories such as Noah, and David and along the way having fun to finally explaining the gospel message of Jesus Christ and how He died to take our sin away.  Had a great time hope everyone else did too. 

Thursday 2 May 2019

Coniston Primary School

This morning we have been up to Coniston Primary School to do the assembly.  To start off Sarah asked if they had had a good Easter holidays and if they had eaten chocolate for breakfast on Easter Sunday - this was to link in with the theme of our assembly. As a reminder of the events from Easter we sang Inright Outright before I did a quick recap of the story.  When I got to the Sunday and the empty tomb I carried on to say what happened later on that day when two of the followers of Jesus were on their way home to Emmaus and Jesus joined them - except they didn't realise it was him - to demonstrate this point I had three pictures of celebs with their faces a bit blurred out and asked if they could tell me who they were. Continuing with the story I told them how Jesus explained why what happened had happened and then later when they arrived at their village they asked Jesus in to eat with them. It was when Jesus broke the break in front of them that they realised it was him, they hot footed back to tell the others in Jerusalem.  I made the point that when Jesus did something they saw him and asked what we could do that would show Jesus. Sarah then took over and drew out some suggestions from the children as to what things they might do to show love, kindness etc. This, Sarah continued is Shinning Jesus out from the inside - cue song.  After the song Sarah finished with a prayer.

Wednesday 1 May 2019

Lindale School

This morning Sarah and I travelled down to Lindale School for the assembly.  It was lovely to see all the children again as it seems likes ages since our last visit.  They still had an Easter display out which was great for us as our assembly was about what happened after Easter.  Sarah started by asking if the children had enjoyed the holidays and enjoyed Easter weekend asking how many of them had chocolate for breakfast on Easter Sunday.  As a reminder of Easter we sang Inright Outright - I then quickly did a recap of the events using the items on display in the school, the bowl to wash the feet, the bread and wine, the money purse of Judas, the cross and finally the words He is Risen.  Continuing the story of the events of the morning when the tomb was found to be open and Jesus' body not there I moved on to the afternoon and the two followers on the road to Emmaus.  As they went home Jesus joined them but they didn't realise it was him.  To demonstrate this I had three blurry images of celebs and the children had to guess who they were.  On with the story - as they moved along the road feeling sad Jesus asked why they were sad so they explained about what had happened - Jesus spoke saying wasn't that all meant to be then using scripture explained it all to them - they still didn't see who it was.  When they got to the house Jesus was going to continue on but as it was late they asked him to stay and eat and it was only when Jesus broke the bread did they see who he was.  The two followers hot footed it back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples they had seen Jesus.  I drew out the idea that they saw Jesus by what he did - in this case break the bread and asked how do people see Jesus in us, what can we do to show Jesus.  Sarah then encouraged the children to suggest ways they could be like Jesus so we had showing kindness, loving, helping people etc.  his linked in to singing Shine.  After the song Sarah related a story about someone who had been having a tough time with someone and they did something for that person which firstly took courage (which is the schools Christian value for this half term) but also shone out Jesus's love to that person.  She then finished with a prayer.