Penny Bridge Academy

This morning Sarah and I went down to Penny Bridge Academy for the assembly.  It was our first visit of 2017 so was great to see all the children again after the Christmas Break.  We started the assembly by showing a picture of an acorn, then an oak tree only after we had asked what acorns grow into.  We then displayed a picture that had an oak tree on it with the words mighty oaks come from little acorns.  We explained what this phrase means and said that in the assembly hall today there could be a future prime minister of England, or a top scientist or a movie star.  Sarah then read the story of David as I displayed pictures on the screen.  After the story I encouraged the children by talking about how God might have big plans for them and although now they don't think they will be able to do those things, with God's help they can.  I asked the children if they thought David was afraid when he was anointed as king because he was such a small boy - yes! But God used him to be the greatest king of Israel.  Sarah introduced the song God can do Anything, after which she closed the assembly with a prayer.

Coniston School

This morning Sarah and I went over to Coniston School for an assembly. It was great to see all the children again as it has been several weeks since our last visit.  We started by singing Creator God as this linked into what we wanted to talk about.  Sarah asked what the first book of the Bible was and then who the first people were.  I then told the Adam and Eve story and talked about how they got tricked, blamed each other and lost their place in the garden of Eden.  Sarah picked up this idea and talked about honesty and telling the truth particularly when we do things wrong.  She encouraged the children to think about that at the start of this new year so they might Shine from the inside out - cue for a song.  After the song I closed the assembly with a prayer.

St Mary's RC School

This morning Sarah and I went to St Marys RC School for the assembly.  This is our first school assembly of 2017 so we decided to do it on honesty.  We started the assembly with Creator God then Sarah asked the children who the first people in the bible were - Adam and Eve, I then told their story ending with Adam blaming Eve and Eve blaming the snake.  Sarah then went on to talk about them not being truthful and honest with God when he asked them who was to blame.  Adam and Eve face being thrown out of the special garden in Eden that God had made for them to live in.  Sarah talked about how great our world would be if more people were honest with each other and when we are honest we are shining out God's love.  So to close the assembly we sang Shine and afterwards I did a short prayer.

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.

Broughton School

This morning I went over to Broughton School for the last assembly of the year with them.  To start off I asked the children which song they would like to sing and someone picked God's Love is Bigger than a Burger (good one)  I then explained that this time of year is Christmas time - yes - but we call it Advent which is the time that leads up to Christmas.  I told them that they know the Christmas story already and what it is all about so instead of me doing the talking I showed them a video which was a poem set to some pictures - all about Christmas.  In the clip there was a repeating line which said "...turn sad into glad..."  So I asked them what is it that makes our world sad - I got a number of very good answers from all kinds of fight and war to people not respecting the world around them.  I reminded them that Christmas is all about God sending Jesus into the world to show us how we should be.  Jesus showed love and compassion to everyone he met and through his teachings he told us how we should live our lives.  The school had a display up which said Jesus is the reason for the season so I pointed it out to them as I was talking to them.  I encouraged them to say thank you to God for sending Jesus to us like on Christmas morning when they were opening their presents, I also encouraged them to stop and consider Jesus amid the rushing about that leads up to Christmas day.  To finish we sang Rejoice with Us before I closed the assembly with a prayer.

St Peters School

This morning Sarah and I made our last visit of the year to St Peters School.  It was great to see all the children again, they were well and truly in the festive mood and looking forward to Christmas.  We started the assembly by asking what song they would like to sing first they picked Shine.  After the song we did a recap of the assembly we did two weeks ago before showing them a short video clip which tells the Christmas story with lovely pictures and a rather catchy poem.  After the clip I spoke to the children about it, there was a repeating phrase that came out several times which was "...turn what was bad in to glad once again..." I asked what is it that makes our world bad, I got several really good answers from fighting and war to people not respecting nature.  I explained that Jesus came to show us the way we can turn things around and change what is bad into glad.  By his love, kindness, compassion, humbleness he showed us how we should live our lives in the way God wants us to.  Sarah then introduced the final song which was our Christmas song Rejoice with Us.  After the song she closed the assembly with a prayer.

Crosthwaite School

This afternoon Sarah and I made our last visit for the year to Crosthwaite School.  We decided to do our Christmas assembly but to start with we sang My Lighthouse because last time we were at the school someone asked us about singing it.  We then showed the Christmas story video/poem which tells the story of the birth of Jesus and has a repeating line that says he turned sad into glad.  After the video I made a few remarks about this phrase and asked what makes our world bad - the children responded very well with things like war/fighting - falling out - destroying the woodlands - people who flea because of war - the lack of food.  I then explained that Jesus came into the world to help change that, he lived his life in a perfect way showing love and kindness to everyone he met even washing the feet of his disciples!  This is how he started to turn bad to glad.  It is why we celebrate at Christmas with such joy because it is the birth of Jesus.  I explained that without Jesus there would be now Christmas.  Sarah then introduced our Christmas song Rejoice with US.  After the song she closed the assembly with a prayer.