Penny Bridge School

This afternoon we went to Penny Bridge School for the first time. We did the Good Samaritan story but we did it in a modern day way. We took costumes and dressed the children up to act out the various parts. As it was our first time we had needed to show the children the actions to the song 'Shine' however the children really got the hang of it and so did the staff. We really enjoyed our time there.

Pennington School

We paid another visit today to Pennington School. We told the story of the Good Samaritan but with a modern take. The man was on a train and took ill and a policeman, nurse and celeb went past before a Hoodie came to help. Now I know that there was only three in the story Jesus told (but we balance the boys and girls for the story) We sang Inright Outright which the new Reception Children really enjoyed then we sang Shine.

St. Peters Ireleth

This morning I went to St. Peters for the second time. Sarah was unable to come along with me due to another commitment. So I introduced the children to 'Inright Outright' and did the modern version of the Good Samaritan. The children loved the dressing up parts and had a great time listening to the story. The rest of the school all joined in with the train noise chant of 'London to Birmingham'. To finish we sang 'Shine'. It is a great pleasure to be able to share these great bible stories with children and to show how they can be applied to their lives, despite the stories being near 2000 years old.

Croftlands Schools

Today we went to both Croftlands Schools, the Juniors this morning and the Infants this afternoon. We told the story of the Good Samaritan - but with a bit of a modern twist to it. Instead of using the Priest, Levite and Samaritan of the parable we had a Policeman, Nurse, a Celeb Pop star and a hoodie. I know there was one extra in my story, it also took place on a train and the man was taken ill and not beaten up by thugs (too much beating up in the world today). The children chanted a response which kind of made the train sound as we told the story. At the end we encouraged the children to do something similar - perhaps helping someone who falls over in the playground. The story to the infants was the same but I told it in a much more simple way. We had a great time and I hope the children did too.

1st Duddon Cubs

We once again paid a visit to the cubs. We had a great time and I hope the boys did too. We had been asked to sing some of our songs and the cubs had made a list of the ones they liked the best. We didn't quite manage to sing them all but we sang most of them. Following the songs we told the story of Jesus calling Peter and Andrew. We have done this story several times in the past few weeks within school assemblies, but tonight we had taken some dress-up costumes for the cubs to act out some of the parts. Sarah read the story while I selected the actors for the various parts. We added a bit of humour to it in that Sarah said that in the boat there was Peter, Andrew and they were working with 'A net' so I chose 3 boys one for Peter, one for Andrew and one which I put a pink wig on and called them Annett! Much to Sarah's surprise when she looked up to see three in the boat so I explained - which then brought the laugh from the boys - you did need to be there but it was funny and it is one way that perhaps the boys might remember the story. It all finished normally and I concluded that we are all different and that Jesus' calls us no matter what we look like, sound like, smell like etc.

Following this we sang Touch a finger then went on to make some finger puppets so the boys could then retell the story. We encouraged them to make them as different as they could.

We then played some games with them before we finished with Shine and Wonderful Lord, during which the boys read out some prayers they had produced last week.

Well that is just a small flavour of what we did. It is great to be able to share God's good news with children and we Praise God every day that we are able to do so. May God Bless the boys and leaders of the cubs today.

Our Lady's Dalton

We have just done our very first assembly with the children of Our Lady's in Dalton. It must have been a little strange for the children to see two adults in their school that they had never seen before but the children soon warmed to us as we introduced ourselves to them as Sarah and Mark. I then asked them did they know which was which? this brought a laugh - We started the assembly with 'Our God is a Great Big God' and as it was the first time we had to teach them the actions. The children soon picked them up and joined in. The story Sarah did with the tomato puree - emptying it out onto a plate then watching the two children as they try to put it back in again. I then explained that our mouth and tongue can be a bit like that because we say things and once they are said we can not take them back again. I picked on a member of staff that we knew and shouted at her to demonstrate this to the children. I then read from James 3:5 which talks about the tongue. The assembly finished with 'Shine' and a prayer at the end.

Following the assembly they made bookings with us for November and December.

A Great start in another school Praise the Lord.

Low Furness School

Today we paid a visit to Low Furness School and told the story of how Jesus called his disciples. We explained to the children that it does not matter at all what we look like, sound like, smell like or what clothes we wear - we are all special in Jesus' eyes. We sang 'So many ways' and after the talk we sang 'Touch a finger'. It is great to see the children all joining in and singing the songs.