School visits

I had a week that included standing in front of three different classes and being asked any question they wanted recently. The kids were Year 4 and Year 6. I tried by best but as you can see, some of the questions can be pretty random. Some of those that I remember are listed below:

• We are doing about weddings at Brownies at the moment. What would your top wedding tip be?


• Why do we say that Jesus was God's son if Mary was his mother?


• If you had a fantasy pet to represent your job, what would it be?


• How often do you use your organ?


• You do a lot of weddings and funerals - how many divorces do you do?


• What about the dinasours?


• When you do a baptism, how long do you hold them under for?


• Who created God?


• What are you favourite parts of the job?


• What are your main beliefs?

I really enjoy these sessions, the hour flies by, I also try to remember that who I am will probably make more of an impression than the answers I give. So I try to be a good ambassador by being friendly and kind and the like and I also try not to be too remote or strange because sadly most of the these kids know nothing of church and are starting from scratch. So friendly and normal are what I aim at. Whether I pull it off is another matter!

Junior School Assembly

Was in the Primary School of my favourite parishioner yesterday to take the assembly. This is something that I do every few weeks and I always enjoy, though trying to talk sensibly to infants and juniors together is quite a large age range. The Head is very supportive and encouraging and she even lets me just go in and tell stories from the Bible rather than have to follow the theme that is being used for the rest of the term, which is fine by me.

I used the wonderful Jesus Storybook Bible with them again, reading them the story of the calming of the storm and projecting some of the beautiful pictures on the screen too. (Example above from the story of Noah's Ark). Then started to teach them "What kind of man is this?" which is a kids song by Dave Godfrey, listing some of the things Jesus did. The first verse is on Christmas, second verse on some of the things Jesus did (included aforesaid storm calming) and then finishing with a verse on Easter. The theory is that kids will remember what they have heard as they sing the song over the next couple of assemblies.

I think it went okay, without being world beating. Did get some good feedback from one of the older boys at the end - a big thumbs up and smile and the words, "Cool trainers, sir!"

Makes it all so worthwhile....