Pennington Gala Day - Pennington School

This afternoon I have had a great time at Pennington School sharing in their Gala Day.  I managed to do show different shows during the afternoon and entertained around 20 children and adults each time.  The tricks I did started with selcular ones building up to gospel ones.  My second show only had a couple of tricks the rest were gospel illustions.  During the day I played two CD's of Listen to Him the righteous pop music that I got from Oneway UK.  Even that was a witness to some as they knew the tune but then the words are different and have a gospel message.  The weather was kind to us as well and it kept off rain for the afternoon and even the wind was tame.  So all Priase to God for today and for the opportunity to be out and about spreading His word.

Pennington Brownies

Thursday evening Sarah and I had been asked to go to the Brownies in Pennington to tell them a little about what we do and help them to get started on their faith badge.  As most of the children know us from the schools that we currently go into there was no real need to introduce ourselves.  I did say a little about the work we do such as school fun days, Bible Explorer, holiday clubs etc.  Then we sang a few songs.  We started with Giatnts of Faith as we were going to talk about faith anyway.  Plus one of the people in the song is Elijah and that was who our story was about.  Following a few more songs we showed the girls part of the Elijah story from the Lion Story Teller Bible and a power point slide show went with it.  For teh second part of the story I decided to invite a couple of girls out to help me.  I told the story while the girls did actions, the story had two magic tricks in it to emphasis part of the story when the jar of oil and the flour didn't run out.  The point was that Elijah had to put all is trust and faith in God to feef him, then Elijah and the widow needed to both put the trust and faith in God.  Following the stories we got the girls to make a craft which was a picture of a jar with the middle cut out and behind it we put a piece of yellow card and had it so that it could slide up and down.  This was to remind the girls that the jar of oil didn't run out.  The bible verse was also printed on the card to the girls could read the story for themselves if they wanted to.  After the craft time we played a few games.  The games time built up the girls towards the final game and for this I put out lots of objects and asked for a girl from each team who would be blindfolded and a second one who would guide the girl through the game and round the objects.  I then said to the rest of the girls that they needed to be quiet because the blindfolded girl needed to listen to instructions.  However they need to be quiet because we then moved all the objects leaving a clear space and pretended to go through the objects.  At the end the blindfolds came off and the girls looked back to see that they had simply walked a striaght clear line.  I then pointed out that the blindfolded girls needed to put their trust and faith in the person who guided them just as Elijah and the window had done with God.  We concluded the evening by singing a few more songs and a prayer.

Bible Explorer Lesson 3 Pennington

This afternoon I have taught the 3rd BX lesson to the year 5 children at Pennington School.  I set a fast pace with them covering 500 or so years of history in just 1 hour!  Sounds a lot but we cover the book of Judges which lasts about 400 years.  We don't cover all the Judges just 3 of them Deborah, Gideon and Samson.  We also cover the book of Joshua as well as Ruth.  I needed lots of helpers today with the story and the children willingly put their hands up and want to be a part of the story which I think is great.  Next week we look at Samual, Saul, David and Soloman as we lead up to the exile.  The children always want more whenever the lesson finishes and I say 'I'll tell you next time'  I feel it is a great privaledge to be able to tell these stories and that schools are open to it.  We should continue to pray that they will remain open.

St Peters

We had a very wet journey over to St Peters today.  Following the first song which wass Giants of Faith we told the story of Saul and his encounter with Jesus.  I used the Lion Storyteller Bible but added a bit of drama to it as well.  It can be a little difficult for the children to understand what really happened to Saul but following the story I tried to explain that Jesus changed him from a bad person who didn't like Jesus and his followers to someone who took great delight in telling people all about Jesus and encouraged lots of people to follow him.  I also told of how Paul - now his name was changed travelled to all sorts of new places telling people about Jesus and how he wrote letters back to them as well.  Paul himself was put in prison and even ship wrecked at one point too but still he told people about Jesus.  I trued to get the point across that once we meet Jesus he can change us completly.  I said that one time while in prison Paul bound in chains sang songs and praised God.  Which led onto our second song So Many Ways to Praise the Lord.  Following the song Sarah said a short prayer and one of the children reminded us to say The Lords Prayer as well.

Low Furness School

This morning I went off to Low Furness School to take the assembly.  We had been given the theme of change and the story of Saul/Paul.  So after singing Giants of Faith as the children requested I started to tell the story from the Lion Storyteller Bible.  However I did add a few extra bits in myself just to have a bit of drama in.  At the end of the story I talked a bit about how Saul's life really did change so much so he could have been listed in the story Giants of Faith.  I told how he was punished for being a follower of Jesus and was put into prison and beaten up and even ship wrecked.  However I never stopped telling people about Jesus even from prison.  I told the children about the letters he wrote which encouraged people then and now.  I also said that because of his work for Jesus we got to hear about it too.  To finish with we sang So Many Ways to Praise the Lord as Paul did frequently whenever he faced difficult times.

Broughton School

We went over to Broughton School this morning for our second visit and we took Scruff the Dog with us.  Part of the school was out so it left the top juniors and the reception class.  Scruff came out as he does and was surprised to see the children.  He commented on how he hadn't been to this school before.  He was excited to be at the school but a bit sad as he had lost something.  I did ask him if he had looked everywhere for it and I told me he had but then I went and found it in his bag.  It was a badge that said I'm Special.  I asked him where he had got it from thinking he had won a dog show or a competition.  He said no he was given it because he was special.  Oh I said surprised is it only you that is special and he nodded his head.  So I asked the boys and girls if they thought they were special too and they all put their hands up.  So now I said to Scruff because the children are special I could give his badge to one of them.  Now Scruff became really sad.  I thought then that I would ask some of the children why they were special and they told me lots of things.  I told them that they were special to God and that God loves us so much and he knows all about us including the number of hairs on our heads.  Scruff laughed at that and said that in my case there was so little hair it wouldn't be too difficult.  So I replied that in his case you would have to count the fleas too.  Scruff was feeling a little better now and was impressed that we are all special and that God loves us and has loved us since before we were born.  Scruff asked if there was a song about being special and Sarah said yes Touch a finger.  We sang the song Sarah finished the assembly with a prayer.

Messy Church

Had a great time yesterday down at the Methodist Church sharing in their Messy Church.  It was an Olympian theme with the story of the lost coin coming out via some spoon puppets.  It was great to see familiar face's again as we had a great time together.