St Marys RC Ulverston Operation Christmas Child

Today was the first of our Operation Christmas Child assemblies.  Sarah, Lisa Smith and myself went to St Marys RC School in Ulverston.  After saying hello and introducing ourselves we sang God's Love is Bigger than a Burger, then Lisa had her breakfast as she hadn't had time before she came out.  It was a banana, she offered to share the banana with someone else who hadn't had breakfast and one little boy came out so Lisa said I'll have half and you have half - she gave him the skin!  That was an example of sharing -yes but not sharing good things.  We she continued should share good things with those that don't have enough.  This led then to talking about shoe boxes and I did a short presentation to explain what the children can do to share this year.  I showed the journey of a box from picking the box to deciding boy/girl, age, to filling it, to bringing it in, collection, processing packing, warehouse, flight, to receiving it on the ground and giving out to children.  I then told the children just how many boxes this country sent last year and how many we sent from Ulverston.  Then I said on behalf of those children that got a box last year I wanted to say a big THANK YOU.  Sarah then continued and encouraged the children to fill a box again this year.  Sarah also said that in our country times are hard too and the children might not be able to fill a full shoe box so we left an empty one and if they wanted they could bring in a few little things to put in it.  We closed the assembly with a prayer.

BX OT2 Vicarage Park

This afternoon it was the second lesson of Bible Explorer at Vicarage Park.  I was welcomed into the class room by some very excited year 6 girls who couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen in today's lesson.  I as unpacked the props box and lifted out the costumes lots of questions followed about which story I was going to tell, and could they be in the story - I was really pleased that they demonstrated such interest and excitement.  The lesson today was Moses and the story of the people coming out of Egypt and developing into a nation.  I completed the lesson and gave a little insight into next weeks lesson before running through all the hand signs from the beginning.

Vicarage Park Kendal

This morning Sarah and I went over to Kendal to visit Vicarage Park School.  It was only our second visit to the school for an assembly, the children did however remember us from our first visit before the summer holidays.  After singing Inright Outright Sarah told a story base on Matthew 21:12-16 which included two priests in the temple talking about Jesus and about what he had and was doing.  Frequently the word Respect came up in the story and how in the priest eye people were not showing Respect in the temple.  After the story I read the bible passage from Matthew.  Sarah then asked the children who in the story had shown Respect, the answer was Jesus, the children who had been singing as well as the people Jesus had healed, it was the priests that didn't and hadn't shown any Respect.  I then displayed the 10 commandments and focused in on just 7 that show and teach us how we should show Respect to God and also to man.  We finished the assembly by singing So Many Ways before Sarah said a final prayer.

BX OT2 at Low Furness School

This afternoon I was once again at Low Furness school.  It was the second lesson of Bible Explorer and in this lesson we heard about the story of Moses and the Israelites leaving Egypt and starting the journey into the promised land.  The hand signs include the various aspects of the story which help the children to remember the order of the events.  By the end of the lesson today we have covered 5 books of the Old Testament.  Next week we focus in on the people taking over the land and the rule of the Judges.

Leven Valley School

Following our assembly at Our Lady's Sarah and I went along to Leven Valley School to repeat the assembly for the children there.  It was lovely to see all the children and staff again however I would ask that you pray for this school as over the summer they lost a staff member and it has hit the school quite hard, so please hold them up in prayer over the coming weeks.

Our Lady's Dalton

This morning Sarah and I went to Our Lady's in Dalton for the first assembly of the new school year.  As we are nearly at the end of the first month back at school we decided not to do our New Beginnings assembly like we have done in other schools instead we did the assembly on Respect in the Bible.  So after singing Inright Outright Sarah told the story of two priests in the Temple Courts talking about Jesus, this is a story from the bible - Matthew 21:12-16 however a bit of dramatic licence has been used to draw out the points.  After the story I read the actually passage from the bible.  Sarah than asked which of the characters in the story showed the most respect it was of course everyone except the priests.  This led on to me talking about other bible passages that have respect in them - like the 10 commandments.  I displayed them on the screen then went through just 7 of them that show respect that the children would understand.  Following this we sang So Many Ways to Praise the Lord.  Sarah then closed with a prayer.

St Peters

This morning Sarah and I went over to St Peters for the assembly.  We decided to sing Inright Outright to start the assembly off, then Sarah told a story which was a conversation between two priests following Jesus' clearing out of the Temple.  It was a made up story but had elements of what the real bible story tells us.  The basic and bottom line was based on respect.  After the story I read the bible passage to the children as it appears in Matthew 21:12-16 and then Sarah asked the children a few questions about it like who showed the most respect, who showed the least respect.  I then explained that in the bible there are lots of places where respect is mentioned, talked about or implied.  I used the example of the 10 commandments given to Moses.  I displayed them on  the screen for a few minutes then explained what 7 of them meant -  Do not worship any other gods, Do not misuse the name of God, Keep the Sabbath holy, Honour your father and mother, Do not murder, Do not steal and Do not lie.  I explained that three of them show respect to God and the other four respect for other people.  Following this we sang So Many Ways to Praise the Lord - as the children in the story had done just that in the Temple Courts.  Sarah closed the assembly with a prayer followed by the Lord's Prayer.