St Pauls

This afternoon Sarah and I went to Barrow to do an assembly at St Pauls Junior School.  Sarah started by talking about new things and listed a few things that she likes that are new and asked if anyone had new school shoes for the start of the new term.  The talk about new things linked in with the story we had decided to do which was the Zacchaeus story.  So as I started I didn't at first tell the children who the man was in the story I simply introduced him as a liar, a thief and a cheat as well as someone who worked for the Romans - I did explain about the Romans in the time of Jesus and that Zacchaeus was a collector of tax's which I said was not a bad thing as it helps to pay for things but Zacchaeus over charged people and pocketed the rest.  So one day Jesus comes in to town and Zacchaeus wants to see him and so does the rest of the town but because of who he was and what he did and the fact that he was a very short man the crowd pushed him away.  So he ran on ahead to climb a tree, saying to himself no-one will see me up here - well he was wrong Jesus did who asked him to get down as he wanted to visit him for some food.  The crowd complained saying why does he want to eat with that man he's a liar, a thief and a cheat.  As the crowd gathered round the house Jesus came out with Zacchaeus who said sorry to them and that he was going to give away half his wealth and return money to people he had cheated.  Jesus said that this day Zacchaeus had decided to start a new.  Sarah concluded by talking about ways we can start a new when we make a mistake no matter how big or small it is.  We finished with So Many Ways to Praise the Lord before Sarah closed with a prayer.