St Peters Ireleth

This afternoon we got asked to go and take part of the final assembly at St Peters. It was full of parents as well as children. We sang Our God is a Great Big God before Sarah gave out the 12 Resurrection Eggs. I started with number 1 and went through all the eggs asking the children what the object was and how it was part of the Easter story. Some were getting Easter and Christmas a little mixed up though. Some thought the donkey in egg 1 was there because Mary and Joseph rode on one when Jesus was born. Then we had the three silver coins which they thought represented the wise men's gifts instead of the 30 silver pieces Judas was given. As we went though the eggs the children gave us the answers until we got to the last egg which was empty. I did try to trick the girl holding it by asking what she had done with it and then asked Sarah what she had done with it - but by now the children had worked out what was happening and shouted out that it was the empty tomb. I then summarised the points before telling the children why we have Easter eggs.

Windermere Juniors

There was a bit of confusion in the air today at Windermere Juniors. We sang a song and then Sarah went to start the story - but I thought I heard her say she needed some green palms to wave and a goat. Now the palms was very easy to find as I have some green gloves but the goat - the nearest thing I found was a sheep. So the story started and I gave out a green glove to some of the children on the front row and told them to wait for the part of the story when Sarah said to wave them. I then lifted out a costume sheep head and explained that it is like a goat and if you squint a bit could look like one. Here is the confusion bit Sarah didn't want hands/palms to wave but palm leaves! and it wasn't a goat/sheep she wanted but a coat!! Oops I told Sarah that I didn't know of any bible stories where goats and hands were used. Sarah then went on to explain the story of Palm Sunday with me butting in now and again to add something. The story ended with Sarah talking about Jesus on the cross at this point I showed the picture of the cross from Experience Easter then went on to Easter Sunday morning when I showed the empty tomb. I then took over and explained about why Easter is so important and why we have Easter eggs.

Experience Easter

This morning we were at Low Furness School doing the Experience Easter with the Key Stage 2 children. We went into school last night to set up the 6 stations in rooms around the school. Then this morning we gathered to go through the stations with the children. We were help my members of Urswick Church. We had the Palm Sunday station in the entrance hall, here children thought about their hopes and dreams, in the Rainbow room we set up washing station so the children could get a sense of Jesus the Servant King, in the year 3/4 classroom we had the last supper Remember Me station here the children heard about the last supper and took bread and some red juice as a symbol of what Jesus was doing, the music/quiet room was set out as a garden dimly lit to reflect night-time here the children reflected on times they felt Alone and made models with clay, in the year 5/6 classroom we had a cross and at the foot of it were smaller ones made of newspaper that said WAR - HOMELESSNESS - POOR - ILLNESS - MONEY etc here the children were encouraged to write a prayer then they took hold of a red ribbon that was hanging from a nail in the cross the children could if they wanted to say their prayer. Finally the children came into the hall and sat in front of an open tomb here they heard the final part of the story of Easter and could if they wanted to look into the empty tomb. I asked the children questions here about what they had experienced before giving each child a small chocolate egg and reminding them why we have eggs at Easter.

Pennington School

Today we took Gary along to Pennington School. As it is getting close to Easter and the children are thinking about Easter in school as well as going to Experience Easter up at Pennington Parish Church we did Palm Sunday. Gary came along to try and help and so he presented Sarah with a glove - when asked what it was for he said that I had heard it was Palm Sunday when people waved so he thought of hands because hands have palms and hands also wave! He then presented Sarah with another one and Sarah asked why two he replied one for each hand, Gary then got another one out and said do you know what you can do with this one? Sarah said wave it! No Gary replied you could wear it if you get cold while waving the others, Gary got another one out and said do you know what you could use this one for Sarah said wear it or wave it! No Gary said give it to someone else to wear. By this time the children were laughing at Gary. Sarah told Gary that he misunderstood what palm Sunday was all about she said a bit like the people in Jesus' day. Sarah went on to tell the children about Jesus riding on a donkey into Jerusalem on a donkey while the people waved palm leaves - this was the symbol for a king. However by Friday he was dead and on the Sunday he had risen. She said that Jesus is the King of Kings and Gary asked why we had Easter eggs then. So Sarah explained about the eggs mean new life and if we allow Jesus to be King of us then we can have new life.

What a Messy Day

Just sitting down with my feet up - well down really as I wouldn't be able to type. Had a great time at Messy Church at Ulverston Methodists this afternoon. A number of good activities happening around the building and lots of families came as well. I was able to get along side some of the people and do a magic trick or two and lots of high 5's too. At 4pm we all gathered in the chapel and I led some singing before doing the Resurrection Eggs with the children and as they are so small I had photographed them and projected them on the screen. Once the children realised what the object was they knew were it fitted into the Easter story.

We had a really enjoyable time thanks to Mike Little for asking us along to help. Praise God a good day.

St Peters Ireleth

This morning I was at St Peters with Scruff the Dog. I introduced Scruff to the children but when he came up he had a bright green/yellow glove in his mouth. Now because of this he couldn't talk until I removed it. When I asked him why he had a glove he whispered into my ear that he didn't just have one he had loads and brought them out to show the children. I was a little confused now as to why he had so many gloves. Scruff told me that he thought I had said we were going to be talking about Palm Sunday and about waving!! So he thought about hands because they wave and also have palms... Well I told Scruff that he was mistaken so he decided to sulk, which the children found so funny so I decided to tell him the real Palm Sunday story. About how Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey as a king and the people all cheered and waved palm branches - but they had too misunderstood what Jesus was doing because they wanted a mighty king to rule them and throw out the Romans but Jesus came to die on a cross for us and for our sins. Which is something the children shouted out to me during the talk. To finish we sang Inright Outright because it has the line Jesus cares for me because he died on Calvary.

Penny Bridge School

This afternoon we were out at Penny Bridge School taking the assembly. What a joy it is to hear the children calling our names as they see us setting up for the assembly. We sang 'Be Happy' before Sarah told the feeding the 5000 story from the Big Ministries Bible Story Book 2. As you expect it was not a straight forward story - oh no - the children had a actions to do when they heard certain words. The children joined in with great enthusiasm as well as the staff. The story is a great miracle but we wanted to draw out another point as well which was that Jesus was at the time spending quality time with his disciples following the death of John the Baptist. Maybe they had a few questions to ask Jesus the gospel narrative doesn't cover that. But we told the children that Jesus talked to and heal the sick people even though he himself was probably a bit down and very tired he still showed the crowd compassion and then went onto feed them all. I told the children that we too should be like that - willing to go that extra mile to help people out even when we are tired and had a hard day, because by doing that we are doing what Jesus did and would want us to do. This led us nicely into 'Shine' then Sarah closed with a short prayer.