200 schoolchildren discover Bible treasure

Avast ye landlubbers! What a fantastic week we had in the church with the Bible and nearly 200 schoolchildren. The children were mainly from the Junior School who sent a year group over each day for the whole five days plus one year of the Infant School and a small group from the First Steps nursery opposite the Co-op.

A big thank you needs to go out to Captain Joanne all her shipmates from the fellowship who contributed and volunteered to help on one or more of the five days. They dressed up to look scary, tried to talk ‘pirate-speak’ and engaged the children in learning about what an amazing book-of-books the Bible really is. 

For a week or more, the church has been bedecked with displays and resources. A whole host of activities and a movie helped these children to understand that the scriptures are like hidden treasure. The Bible is varied, adventurous, packed with history, informative of the future, and full of wisdom and truth for today.

For the majority of these children, just coming to a church will have been a real novelty. (One child thought the building was just a cafe – which sort of figures in a place where food is so important.) From the feedback received, the children and teachers have enjoyed it and were hugely impressed by it all. They just want to know what we plan to do for Christmas now! 

From the point of view of the church, we have strengthened our links with the schools and shown we can contribute positively to the educational experience of the children in their care. Please pray that this ongoing relationship with schools and nurseries will help promote the gospel in the community we serve.

The week was capped off with a coffee morning for Biblefresh and we raised £80.00 to send as our contribution to raising money to translate the Bible for the Bissa people in Burkina Faso in West Africa. (Burkina, incidentally can be translated as ‘men of integrity’ and Faso means ‘father’s house’... interesting fact for Jeremy.)

The coffee morning was also an opportunity to launch our new Traidcraft stall.

Joanne Fearn says: “It was good to be working with a team from the church that was all-age and varied. The whole fellowship seemed to get behind this by bringing in Bibles, making a ship’s cannon, helping during the week, looking after the children, attending the coffee morning and handling the art competition.”